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Taoism VS Alcohol

Can Taoist drink? Of course! In Taoism, we do not have any rules saying that you cannot drink. In fact, we encourage you to drink with wisdom! We are not joking here but drinking is a way to enjoy life and there is a lot of wisdom and knowledge behind it as well. As long as you are drinking legally and you are drinking for enjoyment that is a good thing. Drinking can relax yourself but you must drink right to not harm yourself. In our lineage, Tin Yat Lineage, we even teach you how to drink in our section on “Tao.Taste”.

Drinking legally is a very important thing. It is because we must perform our actions to cultivate virtues. If we do all kinds of illegal things, we are breaking laws, we are then not respecting our own society, not being truthful, not being trustworthy and not being loyal to our own land. The land have laws and all must follow it for it to run smooth. If you can break the law now, you are not only breaking the law, you are also making the society troublesome and you are also creating more chances of disasters happening as well. If you are too young, it is not good to drink because it is bad for health. If you are too young and you drink, you might get drunk and do silly things which might lead to many problems as well. Even though adults can do more disastrous things when they are drunk, children should not have this happen to them when they are young so that we can limit the chance of them doing it when they grow up. When the child is not taught at young age to learn, they will not learn when they grow up. That’s why it is very important to introduce virtues, ethics and good habits to them when they are young.

When we grow up, we of sure will encounter friends which drinks with us. First it might be a bottle of beer, or even a glass of red wine or simple a warm cup of Japanese sake (rice wine). Why do you drink this and not something else? Why liquor and not just a cup of fruit punch? Does it just looks more “adult” to you and make you feel more mature? What is the reason to drink? If you know, you are already a step ahead. This is the thing, you must know why you are drinking — that’s the wisdom Taoism teach you.

Maybe you have never realized why you like to drink or you just simply say you feel good when you drink. It’s not that simple. Drinking can increase blood circulation, loosen up muscle tension, make your brain flow better or even helps to cure illness. All of these are scientifically proven facts. But why did we first pick up a glass of liquor is the main question. It is mostly because you just feel like to? Or is it just because you want to try it? Drinking in Taoism is about life, and it is about enjoyment. Drinking in Taoism have two main reasons, first is for health, second is for leisure. Drinking properly and with the right method will promote health. Drinking and learning how to drink is a way of enjoying life and gaining wisdom.
Have you ever wonder how a cup of Brandy is supposed to be drank? It is a strong liquor, 40% alochol, can you drink it straight? Yes, I can. Let me share you one lesson I learned from Taoverse Deity about drinking. The first thing we were introduced in Taoism’s drinking is strong liquor such as Whisky, Brandy, etc,. Let’s say we take a shot of Brandy and put it in front of you. How will you start? Starting by sipping is no good, starting by looking is no good, starting by pouring it into your mouth and swallow it is even worst. How will you choose to start now? Here, this is your cup of Brandy.

First, the cup of Brandy is in normal room temperature, and it is in a short shot glass, without ice. We should approach it by holding the shot glass by using a few fingers and hold it up your nose. Inhale and smell it, slowly and gentle. Can you feel the smell of the Brandy is sweet? Maybe not because now your nose is pinched and all the alcoholic smell is burning up your lungs? You got to do it slowly, gently, and do it a few more times. The more you try to smell it, the more you smell the flavor and your lungs feel more wide open now. This is the method to clear your throat and your lungs, having them free from pollutions and preparing them for the Brandy. Now after two minutes of this small appetizer, let’s start with getting a sip of the Brandy into your mouth.

Start by sipping it with your tongue semi-blocking the way, so that the Brandy sipped into your mouth and slide toward both sides of the inner wall of your mouth. Ouch! It burns! Yes, the alcohol in the liquor will burn at first and you should let it do so. The Brandy is very acidic after the first sip and you should hold it in your mouth and let is wash around the mouth for a while so that you will get it to do it’s cleansing job for about one minute. Then, slowly let the drop of Brandy slide down your throat bit by bit and into the stomach. You have just acknowledged your organs that you are about to drink this shot of Brandy. The show have just started. Let’s move on.

Now, try to raise the shot glass again and smell it with the first method. Can you now smell different flavor? Can you smell the sweetness? the fruitiness? the wheat kind of flavor? You might even smell things that are not in the wine such as a lime flavor, or something that you have smell before. This is a very fun exploration process now. The wine can give you many flavor in smell when you can developer the ability here. When you can find the few distinctive smell of flavors, remember them. Now you have just captured some photos of them, let’s now go into the room and find them out!

So it is time to get some actions going. Let’s take the shot glass to your mouth and take a sip again. This time you should also hold the small sip inside your mouth and start to wash it around slowly and you should not feel as acidic anymore. Forget about the acidic tingly sensation, relax your body, try to smell and taste at the same time. Can you find any trace of the flavors that you have smell before? Can you recall anything that seems alike to the smell before? If you do, congratulation! You found what you have captured before! That’s a very good progress you are getting! If you cannot find anything yet, repeat the smelling process again and do this again until you get it.

Finding what you smell and what you taste to match is very fun and it will be an ongoing exploration throughout the shot glass of Brandy. You can go on and on drinking and playing the shot glass of Brandy for about half an hour or longer. If you got a pal or a love one who got into the same interest as you, you are then extremely lucky because you two can then share experience and talk about what you found in the shot glass of Brandy! It could be different, but you two might got similar results as well! It’s not about who is right and who is wrong, this is not a test. It is about exploration of the liquor, exploration of realization, exploration of life. You can go on and on about a shot of Brandy and it can lead you to more things than just the taste. As you go on, it could recall or bring up visualizations of images, video footage or even some memories that playback in your mind. The power of liquor is so powerful that it can lead to unlimited inspiration of things. Some can drink Brandy and get a feeling of being in the wild, riding horses and wind brushing by their sides. Some can drink a shot of Brandy and felt sleeping on their bed, relaxing and feeling like a plain sheet of white paper. Some can drink a shot of Brandy and feel like they are sitting on a beach looking at the wave rolling by. It’s just amazing.

The power of liquor can lead you to many things and open your mind up to many things. In Taoism, we teach you how to taste, how to taste properly with wisdom. If you can drink well, you are getting lots of benefit out of it and so why not do it? Taoism is totally fine with drinking any alcoholic drink. Drinking properly will not make you addicted. Only over drinking or drinking bad liquor will make you addicted. Just like medicine. Medicine can be good if you take the right amount. If you take too much and over dose them, you can get addicted and have many side effects.