Tao Te Ching: Chapter #12

12

Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart.

The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.

Comment
Too much variety (in colours, sounds, flavours, thoughts and desires) doesn't enhance the experience but overloads our senses and our minds. We are less receptive, more scattered, and we lose the ability to appreciate small, simple things. We live with more anxiety, worries, and loss of clarity. 
The constant cravings for things mine our inner peace, so we are dissatisfied and frustrated, without the ability to make room for satisfaction and genuine connection.

The Master, in his/her wisdom, doesn't retreat from the world; he/she is in the world, aware, but not of it. He/She practices non-attachment, he/she maintains an inner steady state, calm, balanced, and remains unbothered, recognising the impermanent nature of all things. 
A perfect state of peace (and freedom) is like the sky, which could contain bright sunshine, clouds, storms, without being changed by them. 


Prev. chapter - Next Chapter

Click here to go back to the index. 

Commenti

Posta un commento

My reader also like

Two months out, and the air is finally clear

It’s been about two months since I finally walked away from that job. To be honest, I had reached my absolute limit. I was teetering on the edge of burnout, and I knew if I didn't leave, I’d lose more than just my professional drive; I’d lose my mental health. The hardest part wasn't the work itself, but the isolation. It was supposed to be a team environment, but I was constantly left to fend for myself. And then there was my "Senior." When I first started, I was actually excited. He had 25 years of experience; I was the newcomer. I thought, "This is perfect, I can learn everything from him". One of the first things he ever told me was, "I’m not your tutor, and I don't want to be". That set the tone for the next two and a half years. It was a constant cycle of being undermined. If you didn't follow his lead perfectly, even without guidance, he was ready to badmouth you. There was no help, no constructive feedback, just sterile comments and...
Read more »

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Immagine
My reading highlights and comments on this book . The road to riches for those “in the business is to persuade their clients: ‘Don’t stand there. Do something.’ But the road to riches for their clients as a whole is to follow the opposite maxim: ‘Don’t do something. Stand there.’ For that is the only way to avoid playing the loser’s game of trying to beat the market.” For investors as a whole, returns diminish as movement increases. The lower the costs incurred by investors as a group, the greater the benefits they reap. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio measures the number of dollars investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings. “John Maynard Keynes. Here’s what he wrote 81 years ago: It is dangerous . . . to apply to the future inductive arguments based on past experience, unless one can distinguish the general reasons why the past experience was what it was. But if we can distinguish the reasons why the past was what it was, then we can establish reasonable expectations ...
Read more »

Making It Harder Than It Needs to Be

Things aren’t going well for me right now. Work is struggling, I don’t feel fulfilled, and I’m finding it hard to cope with even the smallest tasks. I’m making silly mistakes, my concentration is gone, and the quality of my work has hit a real low. I don't know what I want. I don’t know what my purpose is. I’ve tried different things, made various attempts to change course, yet I always seem to end up back at square one. The only difference is that now I have less time, less energy, fewer resources, and a longer list of failures behind me. My head was exploding thinking about all of this, feeling the pressure to find a way out, a solution, at all costs. I had to get out. Fortunately, the kitchen light had burnt out, so I decided it was time to go buy a new one. Not even the cold winter air seemed to help my mood. But on my way back from the supermarket, I saw a girl. She was walking home listlessly, or so it seemed. I say listless because her backpack was hanging so low on her...
Read more »