溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
How Do Goods That Are Hard to Obtain Disturb a Person's Conduct?
Does the desire for something rare and precious begin to change a person even before it is ever obtained?
Goods that are hard to obtain make a person's conduct go astray.
This insight — that longing for goods clouds conduct — expanded within Daoism into a broader principle guarding against the senses and desire as a whole. Later commentators such as Wang Bi linked this to the following line, "the sage fills the belly, not the eye," organizing it into a principle distinguishing essential need from ostentatious desire. A similar insight appeared under a different name in the West — Stoic philosophers defined longing for what one does not yet have as a "false judgment," teaching that it is not the object but our evaluation of it that must be corrected.
In an age where limited editions and scarcity are core marketing strategies, this insight — that conduct is disturbed even before possession — is remarkably precise.
Laozi lists how the five colors blind the eye and the five sounds deafen the ear, then concludes that goods hard to obtain make a person's conduct go astray.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Laozi lists how the five colors blind the eye and the five sounds deafen the ear, then concludes that goods hard to obtain make a person's conduct go astray. I do not read this as describing corruption after wealth is obtained. Rather, the very longing to possess something begins to cloud judgment and lead one off the proper path even before it is ever gained. I too examine today how much longing for something I do not yet have has already changed my behavior.
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