Chapter 3: Calming Desires to Return to Inner Neutrality

In the previous two chapters, we analyzed the authentic balanced inner nature and the underlying logic of binary opposing cognition respectively. Following the sequence of the ancient manuscript, this chapter continues to interpret the core ideas of the third passage.
Countless scholars have interpreted this text throughout history, and every perspective shaped by personal life experience holds unique reference value. No interpretation stands above the rest, and all deserve careful reflection. The following analysis unfolds based solely on the laws of human cognition and inner balance, offered only for your reference rather than a single definitive answer. You may freely embrace any unique insights you gain from reading.
Core meaning of the ancient text: If society does not artificially elevate a single standard for elite excellence, people will avoid endless competition; if rare luxury goods are not overvalued, people will abandon the urge to steal and plunder; if objects that stir excessive craving are kept out of public sight, human minds will remain free of chaos and restlessness.
Therefore, those with profound insight guide communities by four balanced principles: clearing restless inner obsessions, satisfying basic bodily survival needs, softening competitive and status-chasing ambitions, and fortifying one’s core spiritual foundation. When people stay free from manipulation by artificial social standards and excessive craving over the long term, those who seek private gain through manipulative scheming will dare not act recklessly, and all of society will naturally settle into harmonious and stable order.
Many readers new to this natural philosophy easily misinterpret this chapter as a tool to suppress public thought, fixating only on its superficial meaning of social governance while overlooking its integrated logic for both personal mental regulation and collective peace. We will break down the operating rules of human cognition step by step, supported by classic Western historical stories, to fully clarify the core principle of maintaining inner neutral balance hidden within the text.
Layer 1: Artificial uniform benchmarks breed unbalanced obsessions, and collective desire resonance disturbs inner peace
The three opening lines reveal the root of all social strife, greed and mental unrest: Without glorifying rigid elite standards, people will not compete against one another; without inflating the value of rare possessions, theft will not arise; without displaying temptation-laden objects, human minds will stay untroubled.
All human competition, greed and inner unrest stem from artificial universal judgment benchmarks imposed from the outside world. These standards create mass identical obsessive thought patterns. When countless parallel fixations resonate with each other, they form a mental state obsessed with outward pursuit, stripped of inner balance.
Glorifying a single elite standard spawns widespread competitive friction. When a society enforces one standardized definition of "excellence" as the only path to status, it imposes a single value yardstick on every person. The public’s collective thinking fixates entirely on the label of "elite", and everyone scrambles to chase fame and public approval, engaging in constant comparison, confrontation and exclusion. Conflicts grow endlessly as all minds anchor to one single metric, tilting thought entirely toward outward gain and destroying inner equilibrium.
Ancient Athens launched a single honor promotion system for citizens, framing public speaking skill and city-state merit as the sole criteria for elite status. Only citizens awarded public honors could claim land and priority voting rights. All citizens tied their self-worth to the label of "city-state elite", and many deliberately performed selfless public acts just to win recognition slots. Citizens exposed one another’s selfish motives, fought over public speaking stages, and factional divisions split the city-state, draining its energy through endless debate and conflict. The core issue was not dedication or excellence itself, but the city-state turning elite recognition into the only channel for advancement, creating a universal target of mass pursuit that skewed collective thinking. This perfectly illustrates the principle that glorifying merit sparks competition among the people.
Overvaluing rare luxury goods breeds widespread greed and plunder. If society artificially elevates the status of rare treasures and scarce wealth, it creates a hierarchical system that ranks all things as high or low, precious or worthless. When every person’s mind fixates on rare valuables, possessive and covetous impulses take root, driving theft and robbery in pursuit of these goods. Luxury becomes a universal obsession, mass greed spreads, and stable social order collapses.
In the late Roman Empire, the imperial court hoarded silk, golden tableware and gemstones imported from the East, constructing opulent palaces exclusively to store these treasures. The entire empire accepted rare luxury goods as the ultimate symbol of power and wealth. Ordinary citizens fixated their thoughts on these valuables, leading to surging theft of noble property and highway robbery of merchant treasure caravans; regional warlords also grew rebellious over the crown’s excessive taxation to fund luxury hoarding. In contrast, the upper class of the early Roman Republic upheld strict frugality, refusing to glorify rare jewels and keeping royal furnishings plain, resulting in almost no theft or plunder driven by material greed among common people. These two contrasting social cultures, one indulgent and one restrained, clearly prove that artificially inflating the value of rare goods spawns countless unbalanced greedy obsessions.
Constant display of tempting objects stirs perpetual inner turmoil. Sensory indulgences, titles of fame and extravagant possessions all act as triggers for obsessive desire. When tempting objects are constantly placed on public display, human thought endlessly craves and clings to external pleasures, swinging back and forth between gain and loss, destabilizing the spirit and leaving minds in perpetual chaos.
Historical records document how Nero, after ascending the throne, built the lavish Golden House and hosted endless extravagant feasts, displaying gilded furniture, foreign entertainers and unlimited wine to all residents of Rome. Basic food and clothing could satisfy survival needs, yet Nero’s public showcase of extreme luxury layered escalating desire standards. The emperor’s indulgent example spread across the entire empire; officials and citizens overspent their wealth chasing pleasure, mass indebtedness and class division destabilized Rome’s foundational order. By contrast, the wise Emperor Marcus Aurelius curbed his own appetite for luxury early in his reign, refusing to build ornate palaces and limiting public displays of lavish goods. The culture of reckless indulgence faded drastically across government and civilian life, people’s minds grew calm, and turmoil rooted in greed became rare within the empire.
These three passages connect directly to the core logic of Chapter 2: Artificially ranking things and people as superior or inferior creates divisive, obsessive thought patterns. Mass resonance of these fixations unbalances both individual minds and entire communities. Objects themselves hold no inherent good or evil—human-made ranking systems alone distort universal inner mental stability.
A common question arises: Should outstanding people, precious goods and beautiful things not exist at all? A clear distinction must be drawn: The objects themselves are neutral. The harm originates from artificially glorifying them as universal targets of mass pursuit, which twists collective focus and fuels strife. All things carry equal inherent value; without manufactured objects of public admiration, mass thought will not collectively fixate on a single extreme.
Layer 2: Insightful individuals balance inner cognition, maintaining dual stability of emptiness and substance for mind and body
Once we understand how external benchmarks disrupt mental equilibrium, we can grasp the core method laid out for self-cultivation and public harmony: clear inner obsessions, satisfy basic sustenance, soften competitive ambition, fortify spiritual foundations. These four principles operate simultaneously as mutually balancing logic and cannot be split or interpreted in isolation.

Clearing inner obsessions means purging thoughts of fame, comparison, greed and calculation. When the mind is cluttered with endless desires for external validation, mental space becomes chaotic and thoughts churn nonstop. Clearing inner obsessions means gradually dissolving postnatally formed judgments of good and bad, as well as cravings for external labels, leaving inner spiritual space open and unburdened, free from the chains of fixation.
Satisfying basic sustenance means securing the most fundamental survival supplies required for human life. Only plain, unexcessive food and clothing are necessary to sustain existence, with no pursuit of extravagant or superfluous material comfort. Meeting baseline survival needs curbs the expansion of material desire at its source, reducing the growth of greedy thought patterns.
Softening competitive ambition refers specifically to moderating postnatally formed obsessions to compete, seize control and stand above others, rather than steady, authentic long-term purpose aligned with natural balance. Reducing the urge to compete for status and compare rank pulls thought back from endless outward pursuit into a state of restraint and peace.
Fortifying spiritual foundations means consolidating the core of one’s inner spirit. A stable spiritual core resists sudden shifts of mood triggered by minor external gains, losses or temptations. With a solid inner foundation, the spirit gains a reliable anchor and cannot easily be assimilated or swept away by external cravings.
Combined, these four rules form a complete dual balance system: Clear inner obsessions while tending to physical survival needs; soften competitive outward urges while reinforcing one’s internal spiritual core. One principle empties the mind, another fulfills bodily needs; one restrains outward expansion, the other anchors inner stability. This balance prevents one-sided mental tilt and sustains long-term neutral equilibrium—the core practice for self-regulation and guiding others.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius of Rome embodied this set of emptiness-substance balance principles perfectly. During Rome’s civil wars, rival generals competed fiercely to display military merit and seize imperial power, yet Marcus never deliberately glorified his own achievements or fought aggressively for authority, which represents softening competitive ambition. His daily food and clothing met only basic survival standards, with no hoarding of jewels or luxurious manors for pleasure, fulfilling the rule of satisfying basic sustenance. He held no obsession with military fame or imperial rank, releasing all fixation on power struggles, clearing his inner obsessions. Years of self-reflection and desire restraint solidified his spiritual core; even amid long wars and rebellions, his inner peace never wavered, fortifying his spiritual foundation.
Refusing to indulge outward competitive obsessions and sustaining consistent inner neutrality allowed him to rule a turbulent Roman Empire steadily, fully embodying the balanced path of emptiness, practicality, restraint, and inner grounding.
Layer 3: Sustain neutrality free from obsession, abandon manipulative scheming to achieve lasting stability
The text continues this balancing logic: Maintain a mind long freed from manipulation by artificial standards and excessive craving. When those who rely on manipulative scheming to profit lose space to operate recklessly, all of society will settle into peaceful order.
The phrase "free from obsession and excessive craving" has long been misinterpreted as advocating numb ignorance. Its true meaning, framed through the logic of cognitive balance: "Free from obsession" means releasing rigid man-made rankings of superiority and inferiority, deceptive calculation, and competitive judgment; "free from excessive craving" means letting go of obsessive pursuit of fame, treasure, and titles—not abandoning basic survival necessities for humanity.
Holding fast to an authentic inner state untainted by secular benchmarks eliminates skewed, outward-chasing thought patterns. Individuals gain peace of mind, and the collective spiritual atmosphere of society naturally calms.
The "scheming people" referenced in the text are those who rely on sophistry, plots, and opportunism to seize fame and private profit. Such people carry unbalanced outward-grabbing obsessions in their hearts, and their manipulative tactics disrupt public cognition and breed conflict. When the public no longer celebrates opportunistic trickery, these obsessive thought patterns lose fertile ground for resonance, and cunning schemers dare not plot recklessly for personal gain.
When all people release outward competitive obsessions, cease chasing empty fame, abandon greedy material pursuit, and reject manipulative plotting, they abide by their balanced inner state in harmony with natural order. Every individual’s spirit stabilizes, personal peace prevails, and collective order grows gentle, naturally achieving universal stability.
After Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, he abolished the complex hierarchical rankings and exploitative, opportunistic regulations of local tribes, establishing only simple unified survival guidelines. He did not glorify military exploits, hoard rare luxury goods, or incite citizens to chase fame and status. Freed from the constraints of artificial hierarchical standards, local people shed obsessive thoughts of calculation and competition, returning long-term to a balanced state free from excessive craving and deliberate comparison. Those who profited by exploiting loopholes in rules and manipulating words lost an environment to nurture scheming, and dared not stir up unrest. The people of Gaul remained calm, and social stability was maintained without excessive complex decrees, perfectly verifying the principle that when schemers dare not act recklessly, all things find peace.
Logical Linkage with Prior Chapters
Chapter One discusses releasing the obsessive label of "virtuous character" to preserve authentic inner nature. Chapter Two addresses breaking binary judgments of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, refusing fixation on single-sided evaluation. This chapter extends further: reject artificially constructed public objects of admiration, and dissolve unbalanced thought patterns rooted in competition, greed, and manipulative cunning. The three chapters advance layer by layer, sharing one unified core: strip away postnatally manufactured obsessive thought patterns, and return to the natural neutral, balanced stable state of human cognition.
Chapter Conclusion
Countless scholarly works interpret this ancient text, and every analytical perspective offers valuable inspiration. This chapter breaks down the text’s logic step by step, paired with well-known Western historical stories to assist comprehension. Its sole purpose is to help readers grasp the laws of cognitive balance behind the text for personal inner peace and collective stability, rather than limiting understanding to superficial rhetoric about social governance.
The essence of self-cultivation and interpersonal conduct lies in continuously clearing obsessive outward-chasing thoughts from the mind, refusing to be manipulated by artificial external benchmarks, balancing the mental impulses of pursuit and restraint, and sustaining a neutral, peaceful core mindset long-term. Only then can one’s inner spirit align with the eternal balancing laws of all existence.
This chapter concludes here. We will continue interpreting the ancient manuscript in the next chapter.
I live by writing, seek peace and blessings