The Tao of Survival, Introduction

The Tao: The Way

Introduction

The scent of free floating fear permeates the zeitgeist like last week’s grease in a fast food joint. We live with economic catastrophe, tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, floods, nuclear plant meltdowns, terrorist attacks, never ending wars, and violent criminals. We know the media seeks out disaster, thereby ratcheting up anxiety and making everyday life feel as dangerous as a tour of Afghanistan. But the media doesn’t create the events – they simply report them.
We live in a mobile, fast moving world, a world where most people travel for business and pleasure and can find themselves in an, ‘Oh my God’ situation far from home; a globalized world where we’re all connected and anyone from any place can show up on your doorstep, a world where almost anything can happen – and often does.
The police bust a sex slave house in a nice suburb, yours, and the bad guys make a run for it – through your living room. You’re driving to work, stop at an intersection and find yourself in the middle of a gangbanger shootout. A big rig flips on the freeway and you’re roused from your commuter coma by ten tons of fast moving machinery coming at your windshield. You’re hot, bored and annoyed, standing in line for a ritual groping before boarding your flight when you hear loud noises and you’re thinking ‘Could those be gunshots,’ and uniformed people with submachine guns run past you yelling, ‘Down, down, down!’ You take that adventure trip, rafting down a river in Costa Rica and your raft capsizes; your guide hits his head on a rock and now you’re on the riverbank with an unconscious guide, most of your gear swept away and no idea what to do next. You’re in a taxi from the airport in Bangkok jetlagged from your twelve-hour flight and you wonder, ‘Why is my driver turning down this alley, and who are these guys with the machetes?’
All of these things are part of everyday life, for someone. Disaster is common. Disaster is normal. Everyday life presents survival situations as real as a heart attack in the shower. Life is, and always has been, dangerous and ultimately fatal. No one gets out of here alive. We’d all like to delay our exit as long as possible; but living in a bunker or in abject fear and constant anxiety isn’t much of a life. The Tao – the way – is to live life to the fullest while being aware of and prepared to deal with its exigencies.
‘Survivor’ television shows proliferate. We know they’re mostly entertainment, but we watch closely for wilderness survival tips. Various survival manuals sell well, as do novels featuring survival themes, and for good reason – we live in tumultuous times. We all know it and many of us are trying to get a handle on how to better take care of ourselves in an all too likely emergency.
The primary focus of The Tao of Survival is real world, core survival skills that can save your life in an emergency situation – anytime, anyplace. Can you keep your head when all others have lost theirs and are running, screaming and trampling each other to get to the exit? Would you like to possess the calm of a Special Forces Operator in a firefight, the focused attention of a fighter pilot coming in for a nighttime landing on an aircraft carrier, the threat evaluation skills of a covert operator in a high threat zone? Do you know what to do if your hotel is on fire and you’re on the twentieth floor and your spouse has been overcome by smoke? Do you know how to spot a potential terrorist or violent criminal?
The skills that you can learn from The Tao of Survival not only improve your chances of survival in an emergency; they empower you in practical ways and enhance your enjoyment of daily life. Become more tuned into your environment and you’ll not only pick up on threats before they go critical, you’ll again see clouds with the eyes of a child, smell flowers you hadn’t before noticed, hear the birds in the park a block away. These skills can also enable you to become more sensitive to your body and head off illness before it gains a foothold, find your ideal body weight and be comfortable with whatever level of physical activity you chose to stay fit.
The Tao of Survival is unlike any other book on survival. Research, real world experience and statistics clearly show that in a life threatening emergency nine out of ten people –men and women – are unable to act effectively to save their lives or the lives of their loved ones –including many who have had standard survival training. Read this book, practice the exercises, acquire the skills and become part of the ten percent.