How do we Keep the Mind Calm? We don’t. For a common theme of the 81 chapters of the Dao De Jing is that the path of the sage is NOT to be controlling, but rather to be laid back. And mind, striving to regulate its own activity, is its own controlling tendencies turned inward. What are we to do with our perceptions, emotions, intentions, thoughts, memories, and imaginings? With each exhalation we could go with the flow of our parasympathetic nervous system that supports our p