Home Ursula K. Le Guin Chapter 26

Ursula K. Le Guin

26

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Heavy is the root of light. Still is the master of moving.

So wise souls make their daily march with the heavy baggage wagon.

Only when safe in a solid, quiet house do they lay care aside.

How can a lord of ten thousand chariots let his own person weigh less in the balance than his land? Lightness will lose him his foundation, movement will lose him his mastery.

Note UKLG: I take heaviness to be the root matters of daily life, the baggage we bodily beings have to carry, such as food, drink, shelter, safety. If you go charging too far ahead of the baggage wagon you may be cut off from it; if you treat your body as unimportant you risk insanity or inanity. The first two lines would make a nice motto for the practice of T’ai Chi.

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