Tao Te Ching, Verse 9, Part I

“It is better to leave a thing alone
Than to hold it and keep it full to the brim.
If you sharpen the blade and use it,
It will not remain sharp for long.
When gold and jade fill the temple,
No one can protect them.
When wealth and honor come together with pride
Self-destruction quickly joins them.
After the goal has been achieved
and the objective has been honorably accomplished,
The Tao of heavenIs to retire from everything.”
(Tao Te Ching, Verse 9, Chou-Wing Chohan Translation)

It’s like this verse was written specifically for me – Mr. White builds fly fishing rods from scratch – he turns the wood for the handles, sets all the guides, all of it – not too long ago, he and I were talking about our struggles with perfectionism and he mentioned that when he is finishing the wood or working with epoxy, there is a point (right before it’s completely ruined forever) that it is as good as it can be and at that point, you just have to walk away, because if you don’t, if you do one more thing, you risk ruining it forever – I always want to do the one more thing – always – whether it’s the last word in an argument or one more practice run before I allow my students to do a project on there own – I always want to do the thing that could screw it up forever – it’s taken me a long time to learn to do just enough and then walk away, but I’m much better at it now and it really does lead to peace

I’ll leave you, as always, with Siji Tzu’s commentary:
“As I have said before, a teacup can hold a set amount of water. You can pour in all you like, but it will eventually spill over and much will be lost. At a certain level you can be satisfied. The water in the cup is all you need. That which is still in the pot is desires like fame and fortune. Chase it and your cup will spill.”