Serenity

An excerpt from my Autumn volume of seasons of The Soul…    

Fill your bowl to the brim, and it will spill. 

Keep sharpening your knife, and it will blunt.

Chase money and security, and your heart will never unclench.

Care about other people’s approval, and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.

Lao Tzu

Translated by Stephen Mitchell                                                                                                           Cited in Meditations For a New Age

As I understand this teaching, it appears to be about the virtues of balance, perspective, and sobriety.  It does seem as if we Americans love to do things in excess! “ Go big or do not go at all!”  and the lifestyle we Americans have chosen, or willingly accepted by way of marketing, ads, and the manipulation of our expectations for what constitutes a healthy, normal or successful life, has emphasized the overdoing, consumer gluttony, or the addictive teaching that declares that “[You just cannot get enough of what you really do not need or that is truly harmful to you!]” 

Whether we believe that we have to fill the bowl of our lives to the brim, so that, at times, it is overflowing. (Zen story about being too full to receive any new teachings) Maybe it is overdoing it at the gym; that is followed by extended days of aches and pains etc., we can pay dearly for our need to prove our capacity for enjoyment or pain…

When we are preoccupied, by money, sex, power, or any other enticing goal, we lose our perspective on virtues such as poise, balance, equanimity and a “holy sobriety.” (a term that was given to me that is defined by the art or the virtue of only taking in what we truly need, while being sure that there is enough for others) 

For me, that coercive societal beckoning is the root of our dissatisfaction with our lives, and that as Shakespeare put it, “comparisons are odious.” We have to stop comparing ourselves to neighbors, or to those devious ads and unrealistic images that fill our media on an almost constant basis!

Another reflection on the text… seeking approval… that challenge can have deep psychological roots and contain enduring painful associations… they do for me… Standing on one’s own, being Jung’s individuated person or Emerson’s non-conformist have been valuable aspirations for me… Even so, the claw marks are deep, and I am consoled to know I am far from the only person to wrestle with these feelings throughout our lives…

Rev. Peter Lanzillotta Phd

One-Spirit-Coaching.com