Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keeping sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval
and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.
Tao Te Ching
As I informed readers previously, this quotation from the Tao Te Ching can be directly contrasted with the lifestyle of, what Benjamin Hoff describes as, a “Bisy Backson”. In Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh, Rabbit represents the “Bisy Backson”, who feels the need to be constantly active, while in reality is fulfilling nothing. In describing the Bisy Backson, Hoff most broadly describes this busy creature:
“Our Bisy Backson religions, sciences, and business ethics have tried their hardest to convince us that there is a Great Reward waiting for us somewhere, and that we have to do is spend our lives working like lunatics to catch up with it. Whether it’s up in the sky, behind the next molecule, or in the executive suite, it’s somehow always farther along than we are - just down the road, on the other side of the world, past the moon, beyond the stars…”
The Tao of Pooh
Rabbit completely embodies the Bisy Backson by searching for the Uncarved Block and trying to find meaning in existence through keeping himself active and busy. Most likely, when one of the characters from the Hundred-Acre Wood visits Rabbit, they find this on his door:
GONE OUT
BACK SOON
BUSY
BACK SOON
Rabbit feels the need to be busy...to be somewhere where he hasn’t been. He, contrary to the Pooh philosophy, does not appreciate the moment. He does not exchange opinions or appreciate the quiet moments in life. He is not only the Bisy Backson, but you and I.
Lao Tzu refers to the Bisy Backson in his Tao Te Ching. He identifies the single individual Bisy Backson and describes their perpetual search for happiness. “Your bowl” refers to your life. When you “fill it to the brim” is when you add activities and things to do, as you cannot add one more thing. When this occurs, your life “will spill”. In summarizing, one should not add so much to their life that they cannot sustain it. When you keep “sharpening your knife”, you can become dull or “blunt”. This contradicts the Western thought of striving to become as “sharp” as can be to achieve a piercing effect. Lao Tzu informs readers of the counterintuitive nature of working in relationship with the Tao in addressing the power of the “dull knife” and in continuing his portrayal of the importunate continuation of sharpening oneself. When Lao Tzu addresses “people’s approval”, he infers of the immense power of not caring of approval from others. The Master of Taoist philosophy can be completely content in having the approval of only himself. In his last stanza, Lao Tzu reiterates the power in competition of tasks and knowing when to “call it a day”. One must know their own limits, not the limits of others...of society. By learning this, one can be sane.
My previous blog post, I asked viewers to ponder this quotation from the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu. This quotation is a perfect example of what happens to A. A. Milne’s busy-bee character...Rabbit. Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh, introduces readers to Rabbit by a conversation he initiates with Pooh:
“Well, here’s another one, then. It has to do with the opposite of the Pooh Way.
What runs around all day without getting anywhere?”
“A Rabbit?” said Pooh.
Hoff discloses the ineffectiveness of time management of Rabbit and his incessant need to be busy. Rather than being moved by the spontaneity of the Tao, Rabbit personifies the fast-paced and rigid life of the West. To American readers, we understand what this means. We always feel the need to be “doing something” and with the time that we are not “doing something” we feel the need to save time. During this process, we lose time. We lose time we could have been using to talk to friends, take a walk, understand nature, and understand ourselves. To Westerners in general, societal pressures force us into this unending need to succeed, thus forcing us to be “productive”. Are you being productive because you want to? Do you want to save time by worrying about outcomes and living for tomorrow? Are you “doing something” because of societal pressures, or because you have a vested interest in your activity? These are questions all readers should ponder. Personally, I can truthfully say I “do things” to feel “productive”. About 9 times out of 10, I would say I am doing it for the wrong reason. I have succumbed to societal pressures to always be striving for success. But in the end, does “success” lead to happiness?
According to Crisis on Campus: the Untold Story of Student Suicides, the suicide rate among adults in the United States, ages 15-24 has tripled since the 1950s. By this point in the child’s human experience, they have gone through the strict regulations of the Bisy Backson Society and the overbearing influence of honor and responsibility. Condemn who or what you’d like, but this author believes it’s not the parent at fault, nor the child themself. It is the pressures of society. It is the pressures of society that cause parents to believe their children need to succeed. But do they believe that this will make their child’s life happier or any more satisfactory? It is the pressures of society that cause children to believe they are only worth anything unless they “succeed”. By is their “success” regarded as a success for themself, or for their peers and angsty pressure? This pressure of society is more than pressure. It is in the starting gate of conformity where these fawns are bent in submission. They can smell the anxious breath of their jockey as they hear the loud yelps of the rude crowd. How can one blame the jockey?...it was only his duty to the crowd. How can one blame the innocent fawn?...he is too naive to know any different. It is the one mind of the crowd to blame. That collective of assimilated minds that forgets its individuality is to blame. In a way, society is responsible for creating the Bisy Backson.
It is the intensified pressures of our fast-paced world that create this Nervous Nellie Character, along with the loss of the individual and innate spirit of every unique human being. There is a Bisy Backson within all of us. We, as human beings in Western and non-Western communities, must learn to clash with the unified standards. We must have the courage and the simple innate passion to live the lives we are truly meant to live.
Please, learn of the simplicity of the innate being of the Uncarved Block (the Pooh Way) to live lives of authenticity! I do not use “learn” in the academic term, but as in understanding yourself...being wise.
If you enjoyed reading this entry, be on the lookout for my upcoming blog entry on yang and yin, Lao Tzu’s perception of masculinity and femininity, and the art of creating an androgynous mind. Keep this quotation from the Tao Te Ching as a meditation for the upcoming week.
Know the male,
yet keep to the female:
receive the world in your arms.
If you receive the world,
the Tao will never leave you
and you will be like a little child.
Know the white,
yet keep to the black:
be a pattern of the world.
If you are a pattern for the world,
the Tao will be strong inside you
and there will be nothing you can’t do.
