Indian stream·Tao Te Ching·Chapter 9 — Knowing When to Stop
Better to stop short than to fill to the brim
A vessel filled overflows; a blade sharpened too keen will not hold. To withdraw when the work is done is the Way of heaven.
Source context
- Theme
- timely withdrawal and restraint as preservation of gain against the danger of excess
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Aristotle — doctrine of the meanAristotle's teaching that virtue consists in the mean between excess and deficiency shows cross-tradition congruence with Chapter 9's counsel to cease before overfilling and to withdraw once work is accomplished.
- Vedanta — doctrine of non-attachment (vairagya)The Vedantic principle of vairagya — dispassionate release from the fruits of action — parallels the Daoist injunction to withdraw after achievement rather than cling to accumulated merit.
- Kabbalah — tzimtzum (divine contraction)The Kabbalistic concept of tzimtzum, the self-contraction of the Infinite to make space for created reality, shows cross-tradition congruence with the Tao Te Ching's teaching that power preserves itself through deliberate withdrawal.
Chapter 9
It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.
When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep them safe. When wealth and honours lead to arrogancy, this brings its evil on itself. When the work is done, and one's name is becoming distinguished, to withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven.