›

The Tao of Stress

CarlCarl
edited October 2007 in 'One Who Knows Does Not Think, Speak Or Write...'
I agree with you completely Carl.

Many translations "Cut too much" by focusing on the physical body and ignoring the psychological and spiritual bodies within the complete meaning of the word "Shen".

Part of the problem is that many translators approach the Tao from a Buddhist or Catholic "physical body hating" perspective.

Comments

  • CarlCarl
    edited December 1969
    Stress is one of life's most intractable personal problems. And stress is linked to one of the greatest difficulties we have in life: remembering what we already know. We forget to [chref=9]stop in time[/chref] and end up repeating the same mistakes again, and again, and again... The Chinese characters reveal an interesting connection between busy, forget, and stress:

    The Chinese word for busy is mang ( 忙 ). That character is composed of two sub-characters, xin( 心 ) heart-mind and to wang( 亡 ) lose, perish, die. This combination implies that when we are busy, we lose our mind-heart. And what is stress, but simply being busy to the max, [chref=9]filling it to the brim[/chref]. Now let's see how busy is linked to forget...

    The Chinese word for forget is also wang ( 忘 ), but spoken with different tone and written with a somewhat different character. But, notice that the character for forget is composed of the same two characters that we saw make up busy. (Note: xin, or heart-mind, is written two ways 心 or å¿„). Lose heart-mind is forgetting and, as we saw above, it is also being busy. And, of all the things to lose, the last I’d want to part with is heart-mind! No wonder stress is hell.

    The benefit of ‘meditative action’ (*) lies in how it reacquaints us with our mind-heart. That is why [chref=16]holding firmly to stillness[/chref] in all daily activity helps keep mind-heart loss to a minimum. I'm able to do this if I don't forget the stakes involved. Personally, when I get too busy, I forget. Now, ironically, the more still and empty I am, the busier I feel, tho I'm actually far less busy. Why? Perhaps increasing stillness allows me to be more sensitive to the mind-heart loss which underlies all action, i.e., life is action. In short, all action is busy to some degree, living is stressful to some degree (or, perhaps I'm just an oddball.)

    Glossary:
    亡 wang = flee; run away; lose; be gone; die; perish;
    心 or 忄 xin = the heart; heart; mind; feeling; intention; center; core.
    å¿™ mang = busy; fully occupied; hurry; hasten; make haste.
    忘 wang = forget; overlook; neglect.

    (*) ‘meditative action’ is just another way of saying ‘wei wu wei’ ( 为无为)
  • ZiggySunshinedustZiggySunshinedust
    edited December 1969
    My life is very stressful right now... well, more so than usual. Reading this has actually made me feel a little bit better. Just the description of the words... It's amazing how you can take the pain and fear out of something by breaking it down to its basic elements.

    It's like watching a scary movie. If you emotionally connect yourself with the characters and let yourself experience what they are experiencing, you'll be entertained of course (that's the point of cinema)... but there's a chance you'll be reeling from it afterwards. You'll feel jumpy the rest of the night and may have nightmares (if the movie's any good :lol: ). But if you watch the movie for the angles, the lighting, the direction, the acting... looking for the basics of film-making and pulling out of that emotional realm, you don't feel that frightened after-effect.

    Breaking down stress, even just the word, helps you to realize what it actually is... it puts it into perspective I guess, and pulls the emotion out of it. It's just a thing.... or possibly even a non-thing. And that's not nearly as scary as it seems.
  • Lynn CornishLynn Cornish
    edited December 1969
    Perhaps increasing stillness allows me to be more sensitive to the mind-heart loss which underlies all action, i.e., life is action. In short, all action is busy to some degree, living is stressful to some degree

    You hit the nail on the head for me with that one, Carl. I feel exactly the same way. I treasure and (I just realized) I guard my time to be still. Everyone is always wanting me to go do stuff...stuff that has no meaning to me. Entertainment stuff; stuff designed to keep busy. Maybe I should become a monk! Or a monkey!

    Thanks for your post, Ziggy. What I have learned about emotions is that being fearful of them and resisting them causes them to amplify. "What you resist persists." If you just allow yourself to look at your feelings (watch how they feel physically inside; watch the thoughts that go along with them), they tend to dissipate. I think of strong emotions as a little kids--they just want your attention and when they get it they calm down. So maybe your reaction to stress...to sense it is scary...is helped by breaking the words down because it allows you to see there is nothing there. You can do that yourself just by watching.

    Emotions seem to me to be energy moving in my body accompanied by thoughts. That's all. Nothin to be scared of.
Sign In or Register to comment.