Your mind and Self-direction
People who wish to take care of themselves is expected to have own self-direction. With own self-direction, people is able to justify the correct direction without the anger or the irritation, thereby make it easier to bear the desire. But if people lack their self-direction, then they act indiscreetly for not being able to control the anger and desire.
- Patience and taking care of yourself -
Whatever the matter would be, if you have pleasant sensation doing something, that sensation could cause the trouble later. It is like having alcohol as you wish to taste the pleasant sensation and feel good momentarily, but it would bring you serious illness later. If you have patience you'd feel good later. It could be tough to consume energy or eat just the right amount to keep you going, but it would make you possible to stay in health and enjoy longer life span. A Chines poet once said that there is the pleasure over the endeavor. What this phrase means is that you would have pleasure after controlling your desire a while.
You will Live out your natural life span by taking good care of yourself
It is the know fact that if you were young and full of energy and born with strong body, you will be dead earlier for not taking good care of yourself. This is not the misfortune but you yourself is the party responsible. We won't say it that this person has lived out the natural life span.
The healthy people usually won't pay attention to their health for being healthy since their birth and often leave this world earlier than the people who were born rather weak.
It is an irony that the people who were born weak, eating less, getting sick often and seemed to have less energy does live longer. Its reason is that they abstain from desire to protect own health. Those things seem to suggest that one's life span does not depend on the strength of one's body, but it depends upon if you would control your desire.
An ancient poet of China, Bo Juyi Po said, "Happiness and misfortune is of your discretion and indiscretion" and I agree with this notation.
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How can you be so thoughtful. Don't you think? Being young and energetic means you have full of fortune. And you have to realize that everyone of us can't be a king. King needs the guard, cook, sweeper and lots of other people to take care of him. What the world could be if there were kings of all kinds and no mere normal person around? Then there's no meaning you being the king, right? Well, I'm afraid that I may not be able to sleep for this problem tonight. . . .
Stop smoking, smoking is the illogical desire and it develops to . . .
There is an archaic word; "A little patience could have prevented the disaster" If you cannot tolerate your desire it may lead to disaster. It is quite possible to suffer from serious illness for not repressing your desire of drink and lust a little while and it may lead to life time unhappiness.
You may get sick for not withholding from a glass of alcohol or a loaf of bread. If you do as your desire pleases you may be hurt seriously. For an example, it is like a glow of a firefly causes the fire of your resident and it further develops to the fire of you town.
There is another archaic word; "It may seem a bit when you commit and you won't see its further development. But the result may easily turn to the serious as immovable big mountain disaster.
This archaic word is logical. You may have seen so many big disaster has come from a little thing. It is ordinary that a little sickenss develops to a disaster. You must bear your desire.
It is recommended to remember those two archaic words and obey their sayings.
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Do I bear? No, I smoke. Being close to 70 years old, I don't see big value of repressing my desire. But to tell you the truth, I worry a lot. My only hope is that I die without any agony. Sometime I imagine the agony of taking breath, the agony of chest pain, the agony of laying down flat on the bed. . . on and on.
It is agony just to think about it. Life is full of unexpected, right? So, a morning my wife find me on the bed not breathing with smiling face, 'cause I had delicious dinner the night before. Isn't it a dream?
Sleep or not to sleep that is the question
Old people has said to control three desires. Three desires are, the appetite, lust and sleep. It is to bear food and drink, bear lust and sleep less. It should be well known to control your appetite and lust but it is not known that it is the way of taking care of yourself to have less sleep.
They reason why it is better to have less sleep is that the inner power shall circulate better and consequently you will have less chance for illness. You have larger chance to get sick if you sleep too much for your inner power will stagnant.
It is good to go to bed late at night. It is utmost hazardous to take nap during daytime. If you go to bed early in the evening your dinner won't be digested enough. It causes the stagnancy of digestion so that your inner power won't circulate well enough.
It is quite understandable that the old people has defined those desires as the three initial desires that had to be controlled. As you acquire the habit of sleeping long duration, it becomes unbearable not to sleep. The control of your sleep is quite identical with controlling other two desires. The hardship to bear sleep is identical to bear other two desire. You cannot bear unless you are accustom to bear.
It becomes natural to sleep less as you making sleeping less to be your habit. If you make effort to stay within less sleep, then it becomes habit to sleep less.
It is important to make it habit to sleep less.
I am objective with this opinion. Because I need nap frequently as I have passed 60. At the age of Ekken, there were not many people over 60. But mind you, he wrote this book of Yojokun at his age of 83. Probably he had get tired of taking sleep for living too long. Well?
The age was of Confucianism. And its doctrine tells that hard-working is the goodness.
By the way Japan is the only country where Confucianism ever prospered. It was not well accepted in China where the doctrine was born.