Have you noticed the ever-present urge to continue to up the ante? Not only that, but isn’t the sky often the limit? We can’t help but aim for the next step up, and when we reach it, that level becomes our new bottom line. Most of us are content for a while, but then we reach for more… repeatedly.
Retracing the evolutionary footsteps that brought us into modern times, I recognize this urge to be an emergent property (p.121), with its origin in our hunter-gather instinct. In the wild, this instinct urges us on in search of the next tasty morsels, the next satisfying thing for the belly, not the eye (#12).
In contrast, endless amounts of foods fill our grocery stores these days. If we have the money, we simply go buy food when we get hungry, and even when we’re not. No longer do we need to hunt and gather everyday as we did in the wild. However, our genome didn’t delete the hunter-gatherer instinct’s DNA when recently (i.e., ~10,000 years ago) we found ways to produce and store massive amounts of food. Those genes still urge us to hunt and gather as though we were living in the wild. The only difference now is that clothes, cars, religion, hobbies, money, gadgets, music, vacations, intoxicants, junk food, and the “cool” things in life, have become the things for the belly, and for the eye. Chapter 12 speaks to the problematic side of this urge playing out in civilized circumstance:
Our urge to fill body and soul never ceases because the hunter-gather instinct within us is not aware that we already have enough! Thus, we are always upping the ante. No matter what we have, we desire more. More just feels better, despite any of our ideals to the contrary. Oh how nature’s hoodwink hooks! (p.100). The Tao Te Ching has more to say on the difficulty we face. Here are some examples…
- Holding a surplus is not in harmony with oneself; #9
- Knowing to stop [he] can be without danger. #32
- Knowing when to stop, never dangerous. #44
Is there any remedy?
Somewhat ironically, any remedy for this imbalance depends on what we truly want out of life. Desire drives us to up the ante, but it can also pull us in the other direction. Chapter 64 puts it bluntly, taking this, the wise person desires non-desire, or as Buddha said in his Fourth Noble Truth (p.604), “There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty”. Which way desire pulls us depends on whether or not we know we are out-of-sync with nature. Such Right Comprehension is where the sacred journey begins. From there, one crawls in action (Right Action) and outlook (Right Thought) toward what ever can offset that innocent primal instinct. Chapter 16 speaks to this returning …
Still, that may only be dreaming on my part, considering my previous views on free will. Then too, life is a learn-by-living process. Why would the remedy for this imbalance turn out to be any different from how we learn to walk as toddlers? The imbalance, stumbles, and falls are the indispensable first steps we take in learning to walk. How much stumbling is necessary before learning occurs? That must depend on what one truly wants of life.
That leaves me with one last question: What determines whether one remains complacent or strives for what is called profound moral character as chapter 10 puts it. Certainly, both complacency (a.k.a, laziness instinct) and striving (a.k.a., survival instinct) are primary forces influencing all living things. The interplay between these instincts and one’s circumstances determines how these forces play out. One thing I know, it isn’t free will!
Something practical
I find Hatha Yoga, executed honestly, helps counterbalance the urge for upping the ante, especially in regards to ever-increasing comfort and security. Rather than reaching for more comfort, yoga invites me to surrender to discomfort… even more so as my body ages. I would expect similar results from anything done over a lifetime that invites deliberate surrender. The Bhagavad Gita, the bible of Yoga, puts the notion of surrender well…
5:2 Both renunciation and holy work are a path to the Supreme; but better than surrender of work is the Yoga of holy work.
12:12 For concentration is better than mere practice, and meditation is better than concentration; but higher than meditation is surrender in love of the fruit of one’s actions, for on surrender follows peace.
“Reaching for more” is the theme of the documentary movie, Queen of Versailles, currently playing at the Nick. It’s the story of a billionaire and his wife who are building the largest house in the country, modeled after the palace at Versailles, complete with golden throne. By the end of the movie, the economy has crashed and they’ve gone from riches to rags (well, not exactly, but construction has stopped and the megamegamegamansion (which was to include a bowling alley, 23 bathrooms, and full-size basketball court) is in foreclosure. It’s really about all of us, and it helps to think of myself as the Queen of Versailles when my wants get in the way of my serenity.