Daily Tao / 060 – Celibacy

60 - Celibacy

In winter, animals do not mate.
Preserve your Tao
By preserving your essence.

We follow the Tao of the universe with great effort, but Tao is within us too. It is not something abstract, not something conceptual. Our personal Tao is our very life force. This energy begins with the physical and extends into the spiritual.

The source of this energy is partly chemical : our hormones, nutrition from food, and genetics. Whatever we have that is spiritual arises from these substances. Followers of Tao call this the essence. Preservation of this essence through sexual conservation is crucial. This doesn’t mean suppression of sexuality, for the impulse to make love is natural and irrepressible; it means to harmonize sexuality with spirituality.

The follower of Tao makes love according to the seasons. In winter, it should be less or not at all; in spring, it may be at its most frequent. The young should restrict themselves to about once every three days, while the middle-aged should reduce it once a week, and the elderly even less than that. The secret is not to indulge too much, without killing one’s sexuality altogether. Overindulgence is to waste one’s resources. Suppression kills the body on its most basic level. Find the proper balance, and you will have a happy life and full spirituality.

Thursday Happy Hour

Sazerac Cocktail

It all began for the Sazerac cocktail in the early 1800’s when Antoine Amedee Peychaud mixed Cognac with his Peychaud bitters. In 1859 the drink was the signature drink of the Sazerac Coffee House in New Orleans, where it received its name. The exact reason for the substitution of rye whiskey for the Cognac is unclear, but the whiskey base is used today.
View Video: How to Make a Sazerac

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 3 minutes

Yield: 1 Cocktail

Ingredients:

3 oz rye whiskey
3/4 oz simple syrup
Peychaud bitters to taste
absinthe or absinthe substitute
Lemon twist for garnish
Preparation:

Chill an old-fashioned glass by filling it with ice and letting it sit while preparing the rest of the drink.
In a separate mixing glass, muddle the simple syrup and Peychaud bitters together.
Add the rye whiskey and ice to the bitters mixture and stir.
Discard the ice in the chilled glass and rinse it with absinthe by pouring a small amount into the glass, swirling it around and discarding the liquid.
Strain the whiskey mixture from the mixing glass into the old fashioned glass.
Garnish with a lemon twist. Traditionalists will say that the lemon twist should be squeezed over the drink to release its essences but that the twist should not be dropped into the glass itself.

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Daily Tao / 059 – Source

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Wellspring of energy
Rises in the body’s core
Tap it and be sustained.
Channel it, and it will speak.

The source of all power is within yourself. Although external circumstances may occasionally hamper you, true movement comes solely from within yourself. The source is latent in everyone, but anyone can learn to tap it. When this happens, power rises like a shimmering well through the center of your body.

Physically, it will sustain and nourish you. But it can do many other things as well. It can give you gifts ranging from unusual knowledge to simple tranquility. It all depends on how you choose to direct your energies.

We cannot say that a person will become enlightened solely by virtue of having tapped this source of power; energy is neutral. It requires experience, wisdom, and education to direct it. You may gain power from your meditations, but it is possible for two people with the same valid attainment to use it in two different ways, even to the extremes of good and evil. Finding the source of spiritual power is a great joy; deciding how to direct it is the greatest of responsibilities.