I Can’t Breathe !
All things which have a consciousness
depend on their breath.
If the breath is not ample,
it is not the fault of heaven.
Heaven provides breath day and night
without ceasing but [humankind]
closes up their passages.
The womb encloses an empty space;
but the mind finds delight
in its natural movements.
If the house is not spacious enough,
the wife and mother-in-law argue;
If the mind is not ample enough,
the six faculties of perception
will be in collision.
The great forests, the hills and mountains
draw people because they are inexhaustible
for their spirit.
Zhuangzi trans. Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, Book 26 External Thing
A dao oriented attitude, like a compass needle seeks true north from observation of nature. A bedrock principle: homo sapiens are “of nature.” What we mean by “nature” is the earthly manifestation of the cosmic. The organizing force of the birth and death of stars is nothing less than a presence all around and within us. You are nature. The cosmos is within us.
Breath, inhalation and suspiration is the rhythm of all being. The spaciousness required, the essential for integrity of all being, from rocks to individuals – ought not to be restricted.
How often do I constrict the give and take of a relationship? Perhaps an ill-advised cross word! Or maybe that small but defined gesture of disdain which is nearly a reflex… Whether a calculated expression of social superiority or the eruption of habit, the gesture or word amounts to the same: enclosure of another human being, a strangulation… And such as this takes many forms. A truncation of natural movement can come in the form of military aggression, war. Or perhaps by weaponizing trade, steep tariffs are imposed to weaponize trade to punish a competitor. What about directing an internal police force, banning for exile stigmatized individuals?
Such actions and policies are as if hands are tightening, strangling around someone’s neck,…
Let’s just breathe! Nature breathes.
