[No corresponding line]Moderation has been noted by many as one of the keys to a healthy life. While there are times when leaning to one extreme or the other is needed to deal with certain situations in life, living one's life on the edge all the time is a recipe for stress and tension.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~
Controlling the breath causes strain.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~
Mind overusing energy is said to be aggressive
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~
It's unnatural to impose the mind's will
upon the body.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
Try tiptoeing around your house for more than a few minutes! Even the most coordinated individuals -- this removes me from this example -- will find it hard not to lose their balance. You'll find that, in a no time at all, you're crashing into the furniture. You may fall a few times and incur nasty bumps and scrapes.
From time to time, everybody falls down. It comes with the territory called life. But people who live on the edge -- like a person who tiptoes around their house all day -- are inviting falls and some of these falls can be so hard that they don't get back up.
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When doing qigong routines with a Master in China, he constantly reminded us, more than anything, to relax and go slowly.
ReplyDeleteThere is however an alternative interpretation of this: that "to control the breath with the mind is called strong." (Joseph Hsu) Xunzi says: "Everything must breathe to live; to know how to breathe is to know how to nurture life and endure."
ReplyDeletePlenty of stress relieving practices have to do with focusing on the breath, controlling it in certain ways. (Breathing with the diaphragm, for example.)