Tao Te Ching / DaodeJing Chapter 24: A Lesson In Humility

In this track, I go over Chapter 24 from the Tao Te Ching (DaodeJing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi), translated by Bill Porter (Red Pine). This chapter advises the reader on the shortcomings of trying to flaunt or boast oneself. I also share a personal story of a humbling lesson I learned by not following this principle!

Hope you find value and apply the lessons in your own life!

Transcript

This is Ish,

And in today's talk,

I'll be going over a lesson from the Tao Te Ching,

From chapter 24,

Which provides a great lesson in humility.

So I'll be reading you a passage from a translation from Red Pine,

Along with some of the commentaries he's included from various Taoist masters.

And towards the end,

I'll be providing you with an example from my life of what happened when I didn't follow this principle of humility.

So the passage goes as follows.

Those who tiptoe don't stand.

Those who stride don't walk.

Those who consider themselves don't appear.

Those who display themselves don't shine.

Those who flatter themselves achieve nothing.

Those who parade themselves don't lead.

Travelers have a saying,

Too much food and a tiring pace.

Some things are simply bad.

Those who possess the way thus shun them.

And I'll be going over the commentaries which explain what this passage means.

People raise themselves up on tiptoes to see over the heads of others,

But they cannot stand like this for long.

People take longer strides to stay in front of others,

But they cannot walk like this very far.

Neither of these is natural.

To tiptoe is to lift the heels in order to increase one's height.

To stride is to extend the feet in order to increase one's pace.

A person can do this for a while,

But not for long.

Likewise,

Those who consider themselves don't appear for long.

Those who display themselves don't shine for long.

Those who flatter themselves don't succeed for long.

And those who parade themselves don't lead for long.

Anyone can stand or walk,

But if those who are not content with standing tiptoe to extend their height,

Or those who are not content with walking stride to increase their speed,

Their stance and their pace are sure to suffer.

It is the same with those who consider themselves,

Or display themselves,

Or flatter themselves,

Or parade themselves.

It is like eating or drinking.

As soon as you're full,

Stop.

Overeating will make you ill.

Or it's like manual work.

As soon as you're done,

Quit.

Overwork will only exhaust you.

And lastly,

Selfless and free of desire is the mind of the sage.

Conniving and clever is the mind of the common person.

Observing themselves and displaying themselves,

Flattering themselves and parading themselves,

They hasten their end.

Like someone who eats too much.

So from this passage,

You might have got the idea behind this,

In which if you try to tiptoe,

So artificially try to elevate yourself,

Or try to straddle,

You'll find that you're not able to progress or go along your journey very long.

So it might get initial attention,

Or you might stand out initially,

But eventually you'll meet your own end by artificially trying to boost or prop yourself up.

Now this was a lesson that I personally experienced in my life pretty well.

So I can talk about this,

Some of the dangers and consequences of not following this principle.

So for most of my 20s,

I was really bought into the self-development movement.

So something I was very interested in as a teenager,

Reading a lot of books on improvement and growth.

And I took this path very seriously.

And part of the things that self-development teaches you is to make a name for yourself,

To gain recognition,

To promote oneself,

To advertise.

And funny enough,

While on this journey,

I was also following this path of yoga and meditation,

Which actually contradicts this whole self-development path.

But it was very funny because when I was advertising,

I would advertise to gain more followers and students to my yoga classes.

And in fact,

My yoga studios at the time would actually encourage me to post on my story on Instagram or promote more often.

And I was really on this journey of really boosting myself up and putting myself out there for most of my 20s.

And I definitely found,

As time went on and as I started meditating more,

That more of the lessons of Taoism,

Buddhism,

And Eastern spirituality in general,

Started to resonate a bit more.

And I started to realize that the more I started to travel down this path of growth,

The less I actually knew.

And I also found it very hard to maintain this image that I've projected of myself through the path of self-development.

So it was very much like tiptoeing,

In which,

Sure,

You can do it at first,

But it's very hard to keep up.

And I found myself furthering away from a spiritual path,

The more I went down the self-development route.

So I started to engage in different mindsets,

Such as being more competitive,

Or being more ambitious,

And all the different proponents that are sometimes talked about in Western culture a lot.

And I found that life has a very funny way of teaching the lessons.

And another lesson from the Tao Te Ching,

From verse 36,

Is,

What you should weaken,

You must first strengthen.

And the author Red Pine comments that,

Sage Lao Tzu says that,

The weak can conquer the strong by letting the strong do what they want until they become exhausted,

And thus weak.

And this became true in my life,

Because I spent most of my 20s trying to gain in the material world.

And it took a moment of losing it all,

That it was actually became very freeing for me.

And basically what happened was,

I started to become very burnt out from teaching very large classes and studios,

And having this quote unquote high profile reputation to uphold.

And when I wanted to teach meditation at a different studio,

And started to get no students,

And realized how attached I was with those types of things,

And I lost the essentials of life.

And I started to see the trap of ambition.

Because there is a never ending pit,

In which you start to gain more and more attachments to the different things that you hold on to,

Whether it's prestige,

Or money,

Or recognition,

Whatever it is.

And this actually keeps you away from tranquility and peace,

Which is developed through the meditative lifestyle.

Now this doesn't mean that you don't do anything either,

But rather note where your motivation comes from.

Is it to do work for its own sake,

Or perhaps in the spirit of helping others,

Without any outcome attached?

Or is it to further an image or reputation,

Which is a wrong way to go about things according to the Taoist approach?

And I had also found that when I was overly focused with the wrong types of things,

Like improving and increasing the reach I had in my Instagram for example,

I actually found that it became a trap,

Because now I was concerned with how many followers I was gaining and losing,

Which is a bit ridiculous if you think about.

So when I had deleted my Instagram,

Which I had worked on accumulating over the years and accruing thousands of followers,

I found that when I had made a post and asked people,

Hey I'm about to delete my Instagram,

If you'd like to stay in touch,

You can reach out to me,

I found that only a couple handful of people actually reached out.

So it made me think and rethink.

So I had a lot of superficiality,

But no substance to back it up.

So it actually took a great loss from the material gains to learn a valuable lesson of focusing more on the substance of life rather than superficiality.

And things to ponder is to notice what ways do you tiptoe or straddle,

Because lasting success builds up gradually over time incrementally,

And also ponder the benefits of not trying to chase success either,

Rather just having a very low profile,

And notice some of the cons of having a high profile in public view.

Because in the Western culture,

You tend to prize ambition and being in the spotlight and improvement and gaining,

But what are the losses and some of the downsides associated with that?

So that's something that isn't looked for as much in the Western school of thought,

But it's more talked about in Eastern schools of thought,

Such as Taoism and Buddhism.

And it was a very funny thing that I actually became more free and happier,

The less I had in the material world,

And the more focused internally,

Rather than having it all quote unquote,

In the external world.

So don't get distracted by flashy things and stay humble.

Reviews

Great talk

Lovely and thank you for sharing your personal experience and story so candidly.

Loved this talk/meditation. Really opened some wonderful insights and guidance. Thanks 🙏