from Verse Sixty-EightEveryone knows the profit of profit but not the sickness of sickness. Only sages know how sickness can be profitable and profit can be sickening. That is why a tree that fruits doubly will have damaged roots, and a family with much in storage will have bad luck later on. The fact that great profit turns into harm is the Way of Nature.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
Our natural world has a way of bringing itself back into balance whenever one aspect proliferates to the point that it upsets harmony.
If a forest becomes too choked with underbrush, lightening strikes and burns away the excess. If a predator species becomes too numerous, then it affects the prey species by lessening their numbers which causes a die off of the too numerous predators. If a prey species becomes too numerous, the birthrate of predator species increases to the point in which the more numerous predators pare back the number of the prey.
As humans are part of this process as well, we can look at history to see the same dynamics at work. When an empire becomes too far flung, it starts to fall apart. In time, it ceases to exist altogether and is replaced by a new empire. The process begins anew.
People who amass great fortunes have much more to lose than those with little. In time, every great fortune disappears or changes hands.
Those who choose to live a simple life will not lose as much as those who have excess because the simple life doesn't tip the process out of balance in the first place.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
If a forest becomes too choked with underbrush, lightening strikes and burns away the excess. If a predator species becomes too numerous, then it affects the prey species by lessening their numbers which causes a die off of the too numerous predators. If a prey species becomes too numerous, the birthrate of predator species increases to the point in which the more numerous predators pare back the number of the prey.
As humans are part of this process as well, we can look at history to see the same dynamics at work. When an empire becomes too far flung, it starts to fall apart. In time, it ceases to exist altogether and is replaced by a new empire. The process begins anew.
People who amass great fortunes have much more to lose than those with little. In time, every great fortune disappears or changes hands.
Those who choose to live a simple life will not lose as much as those who have excess because the simple life doesn't tip the process out of balance in the first place.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
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