July 29th

Variation


Never jump out of the same hole twice.

We all yearn for success. Not just the success of money, prestige, or power -- the simple success of having things work. If you have a hobby like gardening, you love to see your flowers respond to your care. If you are in school, you want to master your courses. If you are a scientist, you look for results from your experiments. All of us want to be successful.But once you hit on something that does work, it takes great courage to keep going beyond your limits. This is especially obvious in creative fields such as art, music, and writing. It is hard to reach an appreciative audience; once you find something that works, it is hard to let go of it. You keep doing the same thing, like musicians who make a career of performing the same tune. But no matter what your field of endeavor, you mustn't do that. Don't jump out of the same hole twice. You may not be as materially successful, but you will be more successful on a larger level.
Spirituality is creativity. Only with creativity can you have the power to follow Tao. Only with creativity can you remold your personality into a spiritual vehicle. Only with a great breadth of variation can you follow the constantly changing Tao. Therefore, when following Tao, don't cling to methods and dogma. Be spontaneous.

Personal Interpretation

Success can be difficult to obtain, but when we achieve it after a great deal of effort, it means something special to us. The more difficult thing can be to remain creative. Once we learn "what works," it can be difficult to motivate ourselves to continue to push the envelope and think outside the box. This brand of creativity is precisely what Tao demands of us though. Spontaneity is essential if we are to feel its energy and respond to it in a meaningful way. Popularity is not to be preferred over ingenuity. We must learn to let go of what others think of us and devote ourselves to a life of endless progress. And when one thing fails us, we must learn to try something different. Variety is the spice of life, after all. We will enrich our time on this planet if we embrace variation and creativity in all that we do.