To be moderate

[Aetherous]

Just reflecting on what I heard a teacher say, recently..."It's what you do day in day out that brings the result, not what you do every once in a while."

This was said in regard to self healing...for instance, you can heal with diet and lifestyle done like 90% of the time. It doesn't matter if you have a pizza twice a month or something...the result comes from what's done consistently. What's done once in a while does not sabotage your efforts. But if you consistently eat pizza, then bad results will eventually come.

I felt like sharing this brilliant idea. When thinking of healing, cultivation, spiritual pursuits, I think most of us have this tendency to go all in. Give 110% toward it. Vegans can't even stand to think of eating eggs; it's disgusting. Some Christians could never skip church on Sunday. Etc.

It reminds me of the usual posters that show up at this forum, wondering about male sexuality and celibacy. Those of us who have been around a while know that the hardcore pursuit of this can lead to some damage. It is repressive for most people to try and suddenly become celibate. Not using it, you lose it. The prostate can get a kind of stagnation. Etc.

So, in all things, just apply the rule about consistency, rather than being absolute. Go a few days or a week of doing what you do, and then allow yourself to indulge a bit once. This is in regard to anything...spiritual practice, healthy diet, going to bed on time, exercise, etc.

 

"Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?" - Ecclesiastes 7:16, ESV

Daoists have the policy of only doing something with like 80% effort (I forget the exact percentage, using only 80% of my recollection abilities). To do more than that, we're running ourselves low on energy...our Kidneys take the first hit always. Our life shortens as a result of our hardcoreness.

"The way of nurturing life is to constantly strive for minor exertion but never become greatly fatigued and force what you cannot endure." - Sun Si Miao, Tang dynasty physician and Daoist
 

So, in addition to cultivating consistently rather than constantly, we are to cultivate with less than our full amount of force. Take it easy.

 

I speak from experience - it can be hard to know when enough is enough. It's a learning process to get in tune with the body and listen to its signs, and obey them, when you need to take a break.

To sum this up...it's said that to be moderate is one of the three virtues of Daoism.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Aetherous

[leth]

This is something that my experience has thought me aswell, consitency in the sense of continuation and habits is what makes good practice.

And focus should be to build this consistency and making it a habit, in a Daoist sense this can be intepreted as to make  your naturallness that of practices. Atleast this is one part of naturalness.

[thelerner]

I am very moderate 40% of the time.

Moderately moderate 40%

and only a little moderate the other 40%  livin' large

[liminal_luke]

Moderation is a great idea in theory, but I find it difficult to pull off because it´s not very gratifying to my ego.  My ego prefers hardcore practice or nothing, often nothing.  

 

Take the ever-popular topic of "jing retention."  I´ve read people saying that it´s good to retain in a moderate way, according to a schedule based on age for instance.  Guys in their twenties can ejaculate a few times a week, once a week in your thirties, and so on.  But have we ever had a thread advocating that approach?  Not to my recollection.  If guys are interested in the subject at all they want to go at least a hundred days, or, in one notable instance, ten years.

 

More power to them, I say.  Maybe it´ll be a good thing if they pull it off.  But there ain´t nothing moderate about it.

Edited March 6, 2016 by liminal_luke

[Marblehead]

Yes, "moderation" is one of the Three Treasures.