Growth


49

Growth.



Here Lao Tzu turns his attention to how we see ourselves and others. How easily the creative person can become isolated and alone, spending time concentrating on the task at hand. To produce anything of worth and beauty takes everything we have.

It is a very short step from such isolation to becoming either boastful or self-centred and depressed. Looking beyond self can so easily become something we seldom do. Many a creative person has sunk to such depths of melancholy that they have contemplated terrible things, including to name but one, the cutting off of an ear. 

In the Tao Te Ching, we read this, "The sage does not spend his day thinking of himself." Such inward looking can only end in negativity. 

For all, whether artistic or not, looking outward towards others and the world with compassion can become a real source of growth and inspiration. From such outward vision, there will come a deeper knowledge of self. Such knowledge builds an inner trust of the self, enabling even greater things. 

 Learning to believe in yourself, even when others do not, does not need to end in a boastful attitude. This growth in self-knowledge brings with it a true sense of being humble, and also brings a sense of childlike wonder.

From this, we can learn much, enabling us to grow as a human being and as a creative person. 

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