Uselessness has Great Use

Xuefeng

January 7, 2019

Life’s journeys are full of contradictions, struggles, conflicts, fights, troubles, pains, disasters, and a preponderance of anxiety. Something has to be wrong with this, so what is it? The problem is that people are all chasing “useful” things and have no time to consider the “useless” ones.

What are considered life’s “useful” things? Money, power, fame, gain, and carnal pleasure are a few. What are considered life’s “useless” things? Beliefs, ideals, faith, morals, and integrity are some.

If someone is not lacking money for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, but is still in deep trouble and pain, then their problems have doubtlessly been pursuing useful things and completely neglecting useless ones.

“By the existence of things, we profit; by the non-existence of things, we are served”. Useful things are for profit and useless things are for usage; useful things are for survival and useless things are for life. Those who pursue money, power, fame, profit, and carnal pleasure all their lives are only doing it for survival, which will inevitably lead to fighting, killing, depriving, robbing, complaining, envying, suffering, and eventual disasters.

“The rich died violently, the powerful were imprisoned, the famous committed suicide, the owner of land and luxury cars died on the street, and attractive celebrities were betrayed and bullied”. That quote illustrates how the things that are seen as being useful are not really of great use. If those who possess money, power, fame, profit, and carnal pleasure neglect the so called useless things, then their results will be misery and their lives will face tragic ends.

Faith which seems useless can guide lives; with it, you can escape the reef and avoid being drawn into the vortex of tragedy by the power of the secular world. Following the right ideals can make people’s minds bright, reduce nonsensical follies, words, and actions, establish self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-discipline, and avoid the company of troublesome people. If you have faith, you can maintain righteousness under difficult and confusing circumstances and temporary setbacks and tribulations will not cause you to associate with evil influences to commit illegal acts, use drugs or go out whoring, or scam and steal from people; this is actually tantamount to avoiding disaster. People of virtue can calm down and remain at ease with no anxiety for wealth or honor, no worries about poverty or humbleness, to be content with the rules of Tao, and to just enjoy their lives regardless of where they are or what they are doing. People of quality can behave as “Evergreen trees fight severe cold, smiling faces pull through midsummer”, “Born in a valley, do not refuse to bloom because you have no audience; cultivate virtue and morality, do not change integrity for hardship”; in fact, it is analogous to avoiding a lot of troubles, pains, and disasters. It can be seen from this that what seems useless has great use.

Since useless things are of such great use, then why do the overwhelming majority of people seek out only what they perceive as useful ones? The answer is that the vast majority are myopic; they see no farther than the tips of their noses. People only look for their short-term interests and never take the long-term into consideration. They are all afraid of suffering losses, so they want to get their material wealth early. Human society has been this way in the past, is now, and will remain the same in the future. Worries, pains, anxiety, fears, and disasters will always accompany people and nothing will change unless Tao has other plans.

Knowing this, I can only watch with cold eyes.