9 Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval
and you will be their prisoner.
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I think Tao 9 is about over-living when living is enough. I’m remembering when my daughter was on the high school swim team. Her body and emotions suffered from extreme effort. She is a competitor and was competing at 100+% She was pushing resistance head-on and forcing forward movement. When the race was over she was “finished” (sometimes winning and sometimes not). We tried an experiment: measure "enough" just below the brim (Tao 9). Consider 80% effort enough thus avoiding collision with physical and mental resistance. Thinking “80%” introduced the power of ease into the regime of race. The water between swimmer and resistance became the cutting edge rather than the force of her body. Stress on progress was removed leaving only progress. Strain on her body's ability was removed leaving only ability. She reached the finish line destination emotionally healthy and physically well (sometimes winning and sometimes not). We consider this swim team challenge a lesson for life.
ReplyDeleteThis lesson is one I wish to carry with me every moment. At the same wondering, why life would have ever been otherwise.
ReplyDeleteDeborah
Thanks, reflibrarian! I got it - when you said overliving when living is enough. I think in Buddhist philosophy we call this effortless efforting.
ReplyDeleteIt shows up in my writing. There are days when I work hard on a project. I edit and re-edit the same paragraph. I wear out the thesaurus replacing words. I'm trying to get it perfect to meet someone else's approval. If I were working on paper instead of laptop I would have worn a hole in the page with my erasures. So I give up and go grocery shopping. Somewhere in the produce aisle, the paragraph composes itself without my help. When I get back to my computer, I write it as easily as taking dictation. No brainpower, no effort. I had to step back.