“Know what is enough, and you’ll be rich.”
— Lao Tzu
The world wants you to want more.
Why? Because the more you desire, the more attached you become to the world. The more attached you become, the easier it is to make you feel unhappy. The unhappier you are, the more you strive to achieve. The more you achieve, the more you desire.
You could easily spend the next 40, 50, or 60 years playing the cyclical game of [desire → attachment → unhappiness → achievement] on repeat. There’s no inner peace here.
You’re striving to fill a void that has no bottom. And this void exists not because you’re “special” or have “traumas”. It exists simply because you are human. Your uniqueness and/or traumas only amplify it in some way.
To be clear, there’s nothing immoral about seeking success.
You live in a success-oriented world. And there are very few places in the world not imbued with the desire for success and achievement. Our modern world makes it obvious and jarring because of the democratization of attaining success.
Where the problem arises is when you can’t find peace, and you begin seeking it through the cyclical game of [desire → attachment → unhappiness → achievement]. This is dangerous territory. And one of the best people to read and learn from on this is Solomon.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon describes how he spent years trying to find lasting peace. As he writes, “And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure.” He did this by expanding his kingdom, building incredible structures, getting musicians and artists to create the best art, and having 700 concubines.
Is Solomon successful in his search for peace and meaning? No. Ecclesiastes opens and closes with “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
The word “vanity” appears 38 times in this book—this accounts for more than half of its appearance in the Old Testament. And translated, the Hebrew word, hevel, means “vapour”. It captures this idea that everything here is fleeting, ephemeral, and elusive.
So after all the lovers, drinking the best wine, eating the most exotic foods, owning the most beautiful arts, and conquering numerous kingdoms, Solomon realizes none of them lead him to peace and meaning.
Hence, he writes “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. And striving after wind.”
If only Solomon had realised the truth from Lao Tzu that only you become rich when you know what is enough, he would have found peace.
You can listen to the episode on Ecclesiastes here:
I leave you with this quote from the Dalai Lama:
“Man! Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
Till next week,
Peace!