How much is enough? How much wealth, fame, reputation and social status is considered enough? Today we live with so much material abundance and despite all our abundance  we don't feel happy. It is like we are living in poverty surrounded by our objects and things.

We have so much more than the generations before us but we are lost in our problems.

We are in pursuit of benefits that don't bring us happiness.

We see wars between two countries that are ignited by the leaders  ambition to possess which leads to poverty of the ordinary person.

 The translation of chapter 9 Tao Te King by Master Gu:

To keep on filling,
is not as good as stopping;
Sharpen a blade too much,
and its edge will soon be lost;
Fill your house with jade and gold,
and it brings insecurity;
Puff yourself with honor and pride,
and no one can save you from a fall;
Retire when the work is done,
this is the way of the heaven.

Interpretation:

To keep on filling,
is not as good as stopping;

If you keep filling the tea cup up to the edge it will spill out. This is the philosophy of moderation.

Sharpen a blade too much,
and its edge will soon be lost;

If you over sharpen the knife you will easily hurt yourself and others. An arrogantly rough person is like the knife that is too sharp who cannot last this strong without hurting others.

Fill your house with jade and gold,
and it brings insecurity;

People keep things filling their room with too many possessions that serve no purpose in their lives but clutter and greediness brings downfall

Puff yourself with honor and pride,
and no one can save you from a fall;

People who are too arrogant will not be loved by the people.

Retire when the work is done,
this is the way of the heaven.

Don't get attached to your role, be light and flow like Qi. Once you have achieved something then retreat to take the most natural path. Your goal is to find the balance between achievement and letting go.

Our goal is to find sustained happiness which is in a balanced rhythm just like the breath.

Inhale / exhale

When you have something always lingering in your mind you will be unhappy. You must understand that there is always an up and a down just like an inhale and and exhale. That is the YinYang of life.

The Chinese character for person is like a mountain. They write it where the left side goes up while the right side goes down:

人

When you go up you feel light and when you go down you feel heavy. We work all our lives and then we retire but also in your every day live you must balance work with rest.

We have advanced materialistically but we have destroyed our environment

We need to find a better rhythm of up and down, advancement and retreat, materialism and protection.

We need to learn to trust our intuition follow the ways of the heavens and not the ways of our rulers.