128 - For the Sake of Growth

Constant expansion is not possible. Everything reaches its limits, and the wise always try to identify these limits. In the environment, they do not willfully expand civilization at the expense of natural wilderness. In economics, they do not spend beyond the market. In personal relationships, they do not demand more than others can fairly give. In exercise, they do not strain beyond their capacities. In health, they do not go beyond the limits of their age. With such attitudes, the wise can even exploit what others think to be barriers.

~ from 365 Tao: Daily Meditations, Entry 128 ~

Stay to the center or the middle path -- these are recurrent themes recorded in the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu. It's another way of saying that we should recognize our limits and not to exceed them. When we exceed them, we stumble and fall.

Of course, such ideas run counter to the American ideals of rugged individualism and unbounded ambition. We're taught from an early age that we must ever climb higher, reach farther and be stronger. The person of ambition succeeds; the weak fail.

And so, too many of us are always pushing and straining to be smarter, more attractive, slimmer, younger, wealthier, more powerful and better than before. However we are now is never good enough. We must continue to grow and expand, lest we be left behind.

Edward Abbey is one person who realized the idiocy of such a culture of life. There is so much truth in one of his most famous quotes:

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

In many ways, it comes down to a simple question that each of us must answer: Do we want a life that resembles the cancer cell or Tao?