Our “Fill ‘er to the rim with Brim!” culture stands in stark opposition to the teachings of Lao Tsu. Perhaps this is unfair. It’s clear that Lao Tsu’s China of the 6th Century BCE had a comparable problem. Perhaps there is something in “human nature” (if we can use such a term in a non-trivial sense) that gives us a propensity for surfeit. Enough is rarely enough in American culture. If it was bad in 6th Century BCE China, I think it is much worse in 3rd Millennium CE America, the richest country in the history of human civilization.
Lao Tsu’s words are nothing unique. Many traditions teach the mean as somehow ethically or even spiritually superior to excess. As Daedalus warned Icarus, “Fly the middle course,” so Lao Tsu tells us that excess will lead to ruination. Easier said than done; just ask Icarus (or the flattened pancake on the bottom of the sea, sticky with melted wax, that is what is left of Icarus).
Lao Tsu ends the chapter by writing:
“Retire when the work is done. This is the way of heaven.”
I have made a concerted effort over the last year to make this a principle by which I try to live my life. I think we can look at this principle as a corollary of the principle to live always in the present, to do just what it is one is doing and nothing else. When I come home from work, it is time to be with my family, to leave my work behind and to retire to the comfort of my loving family. It is a disservice to them and myself to be thinking of work when I should be thinking of building things with Legos, or drawing, or reading aloud with the kids. At some point there will be a time when one of my sons asks me, “Dad, will you build Legos with me?” and that will be the last time he ever asks me to play Legos with him. I don’t want that to be a time when I say, “I can’t because I have to work.” Again, this is easier said than done. And we can rationalize excuse after excuse for why we have to work now even when we are at home and want to be with our families. But, in the end, in my experience, the work will still be there when I am ready to go back to it. The same may not be true of my family, especially if I were to rob them of my attention when I am at home. So, the principle, “Retire when the work is done,” has become a principle by which I choose to live my life. As we say in Zen, this is a practice, not just a goal. It is a guide to present action. Implementing that practice is difficult, but of great importance.
