"He does not show himself; therefore he is luminous.
He does not justify himself; therefore he becomes prominent.
He does not boast of himself; therefore he is given credit.
He does not brag; therefore he can endure for long.
It is precisely because he does not compete that the world cannot compete with him.
Is the ancient saying, “To yield is to be preserved whole.” empty words?
Truly he will be preserved and (prominence, etc.) will come to him." (Tao Te Ching, 22)
As I have observed in my previous education as a highschool level student, Me and my schoolmates were oriented to study and try our best to excel in our studies, like Professor "Virus" in the movie "The Three Idiots" said: as if we are "in a race, if we don't run fast, we will be like a broken anda (egg)". That's why we all rushed ourselves, studied our lessons very well, not primarily to learn and enhance our knowledge, but to be at the top of the class; to be above the others. Although we are always reprimanded that we must not compete with others, but instead we must compete with our own selves, in order to somehow improve and establish good relations among our schoolmates; we still continue such rivalry among us. And there we have it, our top students, who excelled in the field of our academics. They were awarded as if they were really the best students of our school. But sadly, it turns out, they weren't.
When we reached our college, all of us were astonished as the news flew to our very doors. Those who were unrecognized students turned out to become successful in their studies. They became the top of their classes. While those who were considered to be the best and most (*insert definition here) students turned out to become the ones who were miscarried. Some of them became an early-aged parent, while some didn't survived their academics and were totally expelled from their schools. It may be just coincidence, but it may also because since they were complacent and conceited enough not to do study anymore. Some would say they were already tired, because they have already exerted a lot of effort when we were still in highschool. Others would just say that it is because of their showing off it turned out they were ill-lucked and became unfortunate.
But as for the statement above, it is because it is not the way of Tao. A person of Tao does not "show off". He/she doesn't boast nor brag about his/her things or matters. And most especially, he/she is humble enough not to compete with the world. This is for he/she knows that the Tao is the only one who/which is great, and there's no way he/she could surpass such greatness of the Tao. That's why he/she never competes.
As I have observed in my previous education as a highschool level student, Me and my schoolmates were oriented to study and try our best to excel in our studies, like Professor "Virus" in the movie "The Three Idiots" said: as if we are "in a race, if we don't run fast, we will be like a broken anda (egg)". That's why we all rushed ourselves, studied our lessons very well, not primarily to learn and enhance our knowledge, but to be at the top of the class; to be above the others. Although we are always reprimanded that we must not compete with others, but instead we must compete with our own selves, in order to somehow improve and establish good relations among our schoolmates; we still continue such rivalry among us. And there we have it, our top students, who excelled in the field of our academics. They were awarded as if they were really the best students of our school. But sadly, it turns out, they weren't.
When we reached our college, all of us were astonished as the news flew to our very doors. Those who were unrecognized students turned out to become successful in their studies. They became the top of their classes. While those who were considered to be the best and most (*insert definition here) students turned out to become the ones who were miscarried. Some of them became an early-aged parent, while some didn't survived their academics and were totally expelled from their schools. It may be just coincidence, but it may also because since they were complacent and conceited enough not to do study anymore. Some would say they were already tired, because they have already exerted a lot of effort when we were still in highschool. Others would just say that it is because of their showing off it turned out they were ill-lucked and became unfortunate.
But as for the statement above, it is because it is not the way of Tao. A person of Tao does not "show off". He/she doesn't boast nor brag about his/her things or matters. And most especially, he/she is humble enough not to compete with the world. This is for he/she knows that the Tao is the only one who/which is great, and there's no way he/she could surpass such greatness of the Tao. That's why he/she never competes.
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