Chapter 59

Chapter 59

There is nothing better than moderation
for teaching people or serving Heaven.
Those who use moderation
are already on the path to the Tao.

Those who follow the Tao early
will have an abundance of virtue.
When there is an abundance of virtue,
there is nothing that can not be done.
Where there is limitless ability,
then the kingdom is within your grasp.
When you know the Mother of the kingdom,
then you will be long enduring.

This is spoken of as the deep root and the firm trunk,
the Way to a long life and great spiritual vision.

================================================================

Ogangnam explains in the preface of his book on the tao te ching that the “tao” means some metaphysical essence or elemental principle and that the “te” means power that is earned by employing or following the way of the “tao.” Then how can we follow the way of the tao? This chapter provides a clue to the answer. It is “moderation.” Do not force something too much on yourself, and even if you do, you must see and know how it should end. Moderation is a supreme virtue because it allows you room to return. What do I mean by this? Even the most enjoyable activity may get boring if you have enjoyed it in abundance for too long. Suppose you liked pizza and you have had pizza for your meals every day. You must have eventually grown bored with pizza. In this case, unless you have something else, you will not really fully appreciate its taste. In fact, you will appreciate something’s value in its absence. (Also, it is usually when we are hungry that we feel the taste of food more precisely.)

The tao te ching has repeatedly emphasized that “nothing” is the beginning of everything and that it is partial “nothingness” of a wheel – which consists of spokes – and nothingness of an empty room that make them worthy of use. In that sense, I argue that moderation is a virtue because it allows partial emptiness in the efforts to fully satisfy your desire and thereby assures reemergence of the desire in the next turn. However, when something never stops boring you and you continue to enjoy it, this may be a form of addiction. Suppose you like a computer game too much such as the League of Legends (I don’t play this game but know its name because my college friend was seriously in love with this game). However long you play this game, this continues to be fun and you never get bored, for example. You feel like you want to go on vacation and spend two whole days playing LOL without having an hour’s sleep. Or a hardcore mathematician may never get tired of numbers and equations and continue to grapple with them on paper because this geek feels it is some great intellectual fun. In any case, we should exercise moderation and put our addictive tendencies under control.

Let me add a few points further to the issue of “moderation” in regard to our enjoyment of things in lives. Shelly Kagan, the “death” professor at Yale, notes that eternal life would be a bad thing because we will eventually bore of life itself and cannot kill ourselves to escape the pain of boredom. He develops several thought experiments to support this radical view. It is hard to verify whether eternal life is a bad thing because nobody ever lived eternally. However, although I find his thought experiments to be quite convincing, I ultimately reject his view that eternal life would be a curse. Although boredom is a common symptom of contemporary men, nobody wants to kill himself merely because of boredom. To live is better than to die. Regarding an eternal man, Kagan also contends that whether one transforms himself, his character, his identity intentionally or he changes naturally according to the passage of time, this eternally living man would not be the same person that he was tens of thousands of years ago. Kagan’s point is that because there is no lasting self-identity in the man, this indicates eternal life would be a “weird” thing. It is true that a person that will still be alive tens of thousands of years later would not be the same person that he is right now. At that point of time, he may not even remember who he once was. (Actually, all of us have changed quite much from ten years ago, twenty years ago, or thirty years ago. ) Nevertheless, this breach in self-coherency cannot mean that eternal life is a bad thing. One thing to note is that his biological DNA must be the same. Furthermore, concerning the problem of boredom, I believe he can invent a way to overcome it. Even if the boredom is not overcome, that does not mean that it will be so painful that he would rather want to commit suicide. Kagan’s error is that he thought boredom accumulates in the long run to a point that a man living everlasting life would want to kill himself. This is not true because the boredom and non-boredom follows a cyclic pattern – i.e., the man undergoes the two modes alternately whether for a short while or for a long period of time. Boredom never builds big enough to make you want to die. Of course, I am only suggesting someone that lives eternal life in very good conditions and not in a hell.

However, the central point I wanted to make is that boredom is “overcomable” through our efforts to exercise the above version of “moderation.” Just because you are full right now and do not want to have more desserts does not mean that you got bored with having food itself. Your appetite will reemerge as time goes by. Just like sex. Just because you slept with a good-looking partner and tried every sex experiment in bed with her does not mean that you will be free of lust afterwards or got bored with sex itself. Your desire resurfaces soon. What you got bored with may be the partner him/herself and not sex itself. If you feel like you did everything you wanted to do and feel you got bored with life itself, simply opt to retreat in nature. Then return to society. Then you will start to enjoy your hobbies again. I cannot believe that eternal life would be a bad thing. The simple point is that we cannot live eternal life. Not because we do not want to, but because it is biologically impossible. In that sense, it is a curse. It is a curse that we cannot live forever. Isn’t that what harassed Albert Camus and Fred Durst alike (“My so-called life is so good, but why do we die?”)?