Daodejing, Verse 9

Daodejing - Other Voices

non-striving
Our socially-mobile American culture places a high value on ambition and striving. To me, some kinds of ambitions seem worthwhile, such as ambitions to pursue a good education, to follow internal interests or goals, or to build a career that is enjoyable and provides a certain level of material comfort. Hard work to accomplish a personal goal, to perform well in school or at your job, or to contribute something positive to society is admirable.

However, it seems to me that our culture often goes too far in fanning the flames of ambition. In some of us, excessive striving and ambition can lead to preoccupation and chronic worries about getting ahead, or feelings of complete inadequacy and worthlessness if we don’t get ahead in the way, or at the rate, that we had hoped. In other people, there is a restless, unrelenting pushing to get ahead, in a grasping, sharp elbowed way—an attitude of “step on anyone’s toes,” “claw your way to the top.”

An insatiable desire for enormous amounts of money, power over others, status, and prestige is usually quite destructive. John Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard Group, wrote a book entitled “Enough” on this type of excessive greed in the world of finance. In those deficient in integrity or with outright sociopathic tendencies, extreme ambition can lead them to do whatever it takes–lying, cheating, stealing–to “get ahead”…the ultimate example might be Bernard Madoff.

For full disclosure, and so I don’t sound holier-than-thou, I should admit that, from a fairly early age, I have been a striving, ambitious sort of person. I’m not at all the sociopathic variety, but more of the highly conscientious type, who tends to worry about doing well enough. Although my striving was, and still is, driven quite a bit by internal interests, it so happens that the type of career I’ve ended up in is a pressure cooker, filled with other highly ambitious, striving types, who are rushing around all day, with too many commitments and deadlines, with barely a minute to spare.

I have a tendency to get too caught up in the rat race. I often wonder what it is about me that I chose a life like this. I haven’t fully figured that out yet, but I know that I am also very attracted to the Taoist attitude of relinquishing striving, and letting go of these sorts of excessive, ambitious preoccupations that increase stress, disrupt inner quiet, distract you from the internal interests that motivated you in the first place, and that ultimately can be destructive…This conflict in me is reflected, I now realize, in the (unintentional) irony of the title of my blog, “The Aspiring Taoist”…really what I’m aspiring to is to not aspire…striving to not strive…

“Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep 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.”
– Chapter 9, Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell translation

Striving and ambition can feel invigorating at first, but when it becomes excessive, or, ironically, when one achieves what one was striving for, one can feel cut off from real life, deadened in some way, because the striving has been so all consuming, and because, once the goal has been achieved, one can end up in a fairly isolated palace or ivory tower. What particularly fascinates me is the idea of saying “no” to offers that could lead to fulfillment of ambitious desires, saying no because one values one’s real life, as it is.
~from the Aspiring Taoist, original post date: 2/25/10 ~

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.