Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Those who stand on tiptoes
do not stand firmly.
Those who rush ahead
don’t get very far.
Those who try to outshine others
dim their own light.
Those who call themselves righteous
can’t know how wrong they are.
Those who boast of their accomplishments
diminish the things they have done.

Compared to the Tao, these actions are unworthy.
If we are to follow the Tao,
we must not do these things.

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When several Nobel laureates visited POSTECH (one of the top science research institutions in South Korea) and held a seminar, undergraduates asked what they should do to win a Nobel Prize. The eminent professors’ answers were rather old school textbook. Do not care about the Nobel Prize. Do your research for its own sake.

However, it is common knowledge that, even in the purest fields of natural science whose self-proclaimed mission is to dedicate the very best of human intellectual power to the lofty ideal of finding out elemental truths of nature, the majority of the top-tier scientists work so relentlessly primarily out of secular ambition. Even if money was not their primary focus, they would still aspire for fame and legacy. How else to explain some of the frauds/manipulations or works stolen from peer scientists? They want their names to be known. They want to be worshipped through their discoveries and accomplishments. Even if some of them did not like the nuisances of fame and shunned fame, they would certainly make no concession at all regarding making it clear – if they achieved major accomplishments in the fields of science – that they did them.

In other words, their primary desire is to outshine their colleagues. They pursue distinctions. What is a championship for? A gold belt means you are the one and only in your division. That is why Frankie Edgar felt like he lost his arm when he lost the belt to Benson Henderson.

If you do not apparently want to be known and talked about among the others but expect them to know about you, is this not also a tacit form of condescension? A proud/arrogant person can be either talkative or silent. The only difference is whether they like to talk a lot about themselves. Silence and politeness alone do not indicate that you are a humble man.

From a side perspective, would it be possible to say that the urge to refrain from outshining the others is an expression of the wish to do the opposite (in a Freudian sense concerning defense mechanism)?

Therefore, I will daringly tell Lao Tzu: Shut the hell up!