Chapter 9: Avoid Excessiveness

 


It is better to stop pouring than to hold on too long and overfill the cup.

The blade that is forged with too fine a point, can’t be maintained for long.

When gold and jade fill one’s hall, no one can protect it.

Pride and arrogance from wealth and status brings disaster upon oneself.

Retiring once personal contributions are achieved is the Way of Heaven.

This passage returns to the theme of balance and moderation in all things.  It’s about knowing when to stop, when to let go, when enough is enough.  Too often we try to hold on to things for too long.  We stay in positions and relationships long after we stopped growing in and contributing to them.  In our desperate need to fill our cups all the way to the brim, we often overfill, spill, and lose.  Sometimes we let our own successes go to our heads and we let ourselves feel a little entitled, setting ourselves up for a fall.  We’ve all seen it countless times.  The one hit wonders of the music industry.  The meteoric rises and tragic falls in sports.  Promising careers and lives full of potential derailed for one reason or another (I am by no means implying that everyone brings their own doom upon themselves – sometimes, tragically, the best people, through no fault of their own, are taken from us too soon). 

We go too far sometimes.  We wait too long.  We push ourselves and others too far or too hard.  We overthink things, going over them again and again in our minds with a paralytic precision that keeps us frozen and stuck.  We demand perfection from ourselves, create unrealistic expectations, and subject ourselves to the roller coaster of constant comparisons.  We hoard.  We cling.  We grasp.  Sometimes that survival strategy gets us through – it works for a while.  But it isn’t sustainable.  It doesn’t last.  Avoid excessiveness.  Don’t take more than we give.  Give ourselves permission to move on, to move forward, and to try something else.  Just because we have succeeded in certain things in the past does not mean that we must continue to do them now – especially if we have lost interest in them or want to try something else.  We can liberate ourselves from any and all limiting labels.  We don’t need to let even our successes define or confine us.  

A great example of this is Josh Waitzkin.  The inspiration for the film “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” Waitzkin was an eight-time individual and nine-time team national chess champion by the time he was 18.  However, he chose to retire from chess and move in another direction – Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan) – ultimately winning a world championship in 2004.  Josh exemplifies the art of stepping down, of moving on, and of continuing to learn and grow.  This is the Way of Heaven. ~ DCB

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