budo -- momentum couplet

The manner of drinking and spitting is either hard or soft.
A person's unbalance is the same as a weight.

I call these the momentum couplet because they refer to velocity of movement in its power as both cause and effect.

The manner of drinking and spitting is either hard or soft is also translated as "the manner of inhaling and exhaling is either hard or soft." This reminds me of the statement attributed to God, "I wish that you were cold or hot, but because you are lukewarm I will spew you from my mouth." There is decisiveness here, both a request for decisiveness then a strong model of decisiveness.

One interpretation then is Act Decisively! Much more than that is meant. When is one hard and when is one soft? In jujutsu and other martial arts of close encounter, one is "soft" in sensing and moving with until the exact moment of throw when one coalesces into quick "hard" action, and immediately one is "soft" again. In everyday life, the process is the same.

Similarly, in everyday life, one's imbalance is the same as a weight. When we are off balance, we are dragged down. The smallest things in life can throw us.

The maxim also points to our enmeshment in a creative project. When we persist and continue moving with the project, we eventually find its place of imbalance which has been its weight upon us. The place of imbalance is also the creative hub of the project and now we can "throw" it (really a mutual thrownness) into its completion.