Tao Te Ching Ch 9

The Door of all Wonders: 

The Commentary on the Tao Te Ching

by Nirguna CK Lam

Chapter 9

Holding a cup and overfilling it, better to have stopped in time.

Pounding a blade and sharpening it, the sharpness cannot be kept for long.

Gold and jade fill up the house, none can keep them well.

To be arrogant when having wealth and position,

it will bring calamity upon oneself.

To retire when the task is accomplished

is the natural way of the Heaven.

 

 

 

Review

 

This Chapter tells us how to behave to be spiritually benefited which is contrary to what people think in this world. Our world tells us that we should be smart, sharp, clever and always “full” which means to acquire as much as we can to satisfy our desire. Lao Tzu tells us the contrary which saves us from all the calamities of this world. Lao Tzu says:

 

“Holding a cup and overfilling it, better to have stopped in time.”

 

Lao Tzu tells us that we should not keep the cup full when holding it. Too much water pouring inside the cup will overfill it and water will be flowing out. The cup cannot hold too much which beyond its capacity. He further says:

 

“Pounding a blade and sharpening it, the sharpness cannot be kept for long.”

 

The sharpness of a blade can never keep long no matter how hard we sharpen it. It gives us hints that we should never put too much effort to sharpen ourselves outwardly to show off our ability, our brilliance. To show off our merits is not good as told by Lao Tzu in the analogies of a cup and a blade. Showing off means filling the cup too much and it turns to be messy with water flowing out. The blade will be blunt again no matter how hard it has been sharpened as the sharpness cannot last long. The same as our fame and honor recognized by people by showing off or even not showing off, both cannot last long. The real spiritual attainment is achieved by turning our attention inside us not outside us. We should look at ourselves inside, be a witness of how we behave and how we think inside us. If we always put our attention outside us, stress too much on the outward surroundings, care about the outward matters too much, we will be led outwardly by whatever happenings and whoever we contact. Finally, we will lose ourselves inwardly, as we are too much interested in the outward situations.

 

Why do people need to be smart, sharp and clever? Is it the need to deal with the outward situations, to impress people or to please others or to get satisfaction from the winning situations of the outside world? However, can the favourable situations last long? Can our endeavour to be smart and sharp help us close to the Truth that we can return to our purity of eternal being? Having too much outward attention will let us go out and never return to our origin. To return, we need to put our attention inward which is the spiritual teaching of all great masters in different religions.

 

To show off is not good. To be mindful of being smart and clever is also not good for spirituality. Why do people want to be smart and clever? Mostly people want to have worldly success and belongings without knowing the Truth. This desire for worldly success and belongings is an obstacle to our spiritual growth. To desire too much outwardly is harming our pure nature inherent in us. It is how people got polluted by the outward cravings. Lao Tzu further says:

 

“Gold and jade fill up the house, none can keep them well.

To be arrogant when having wealth and position,

it will bring calamity upon oneself.”

 

Most people desire wealth with fame and honor. They want to keep themselves wealthy with a lot of luxurious items or decorations like gold and jade. Luxurious life is harmful for spiritual life. Hankering for luxurious items and precious decorations is no way to the real spiritual attainment. It turns people into troublesome situations dealing with many precious and luxurious items. So Lao Tzu says, “None can keep them well.” People need to beware of robbers and thieves in their houses. They also need to spend much time to maintain well the luxurious items. All our effort will be used for the material affluence which is more than necessary. Then how will we enrich ourselves inside of us by cultivating our soul with calmness, peace, virtues and love for the Truth which cannot be attained outside of us? What a terrible situation that people are very rich materially but very poor spiritually!

 

Nowadays in our contemporary world, material affluence becomes prevalent. More and more people can enjoy wealth and luxurious living and they become a model for those who have not yet got. “To be arrogant when having wealth and position” is common among all people who do not have any spiritual merits. They think they belong to high social class. They think they can be rude to people, and everyone is greedy for their wealth and want to become a slave or beggar before them. Their wrong perception makes their behavior to people very harmful, disgusting and unbearable. They make sin against people and finally they lose themselves inwardly because they have no light to see the Truth. This is the real calamity upon them. Not only people would turn away from them, but the darkness inside them is also the real loss and great calamity.

 

Therefore, Lao Tzu tells us not to be smart and sharp, not to desire for precious belongings. Outwardly even when we have everything good, when we look smart and clever with a lot of worldly achievement and wealth, but if inwardly we do not have spiritual assets, we are poor inside of us; then the outward affluence can become troublesome and even cannot last long. Our material world is always changing. Only our real spiritual stage inside of us is always constant. If we lose our real spiritual contentment, we will have no stability inside of us. We can be easily fluctuated by outward situations.

 

So, the highest spiritual attainment is to renounce from this world, never hankering for the worldly wealth and position without end because it is very harmful for people to get lost easily. The real loss is their real self, their pure nature, hence Lao Tzu in the end says:

 

“To retire when the task is accomplished

is the natural way of the Heaven.”

 

When we have accomplished our task and duty, we should retire in the sense that we should strive hard for our inner attainment. It is to enrich our spiritual life, put much effort inside us, not outside us. This is “the natural way of the Heaven”. Outwardly let other capable people continue the work and develop. We should not occupy any success as our own because it cannot last long. Inwardly we retire from the outside world and strive hard for our inner spiritual life. Then we can attain the Heaven when we leave the world. This is the life planning told by ancient sages in India that people should concentrate on their spiritual life when they are getting old and their duties as a householder have finished. They do not need to bother about their living to nourish their family. They can concentrate on their spiritual growth to prepare for their death. Then they will go to the Heaven instead of going to Hell if they have peace and love inside their soul.

 

Saints choose to retire after their task is accomplished. Prophet Muhammad says, “Never does a Prophet die unless he is shown his place in Paradise (before his death), and then he is given option.” Prophet Muhammad was given option to live on to enjoy worldly life or to return to Allah after he had successfully united the whole Arabic Peninsular to establish Islam as their religion. Once on some occasion, he vaguely foretold his death that he chose to return to Allah instead of enjoying the worldly life as a leader in Islam. At that time, only one of his close companions, Abu-Bakr, understood and cried. After successfully conquering Mecca without war, Prophet Muhammad proclaimed the establishment of Islam as the true faith chosen by Allah to mankind in his last pilgrimage to Mecca from Medina in 632 AD. After returning to Medina for several months, Prophet Muhammad then became seriously ill. On his last day in his last breath, he said, “Oh Allah! In the company of the Highest! In the company of the Highest!” The life of Prophet Muhammad is exactly what Lao Tzu says:

 

“To retire when the task is accomplished

is the natural way of the Heaven.”