Verse Twelve

The five colors blind the eye. The five tones deafen the ear. The five flavors dull the palate. Racing, hunting, and galloping about only disturb the mind. Wasting energy to obtain rare objects only impedes one's growth.

- Buddhist idea of desire causing suffering.
- When one gets all that he wants, all it does is dull the mind and spirit
- The universe belongs to everyone and that should be enough
- Complete possession achieves nothing but a wasting away

Application: This was one of my first realizations in adult life. While at college, I acquired nearly everything on my wish list and it left my feeling good temporarily but then unfulfilled. I asked myself, "Now what?" My purchasing goals in life had been achieved. At that point, I was probably at a low point spiritually. But it started me on the path away from obtaining things (albums that used to be rare). I would consider that to be turning point in my life. That's when I started observing what I bought and what compelled me to buy them. At first it started into a simple consumer market survey on myself but then ended up in this spiritual exploration of self. It's a shame that one has to buy nearly everything one wants before coming to this realization. I wonder how others come to the conclusion without achieving their capitalistic goals.

So the Sage is led by his inner truth and not his outer eye. He holds to what is deep and not what lies on the surface.

- The truth lies within whereas the mirage of truth can be seen
- The inside will reveal the outside
- Find life's direction from within and follow intuition

Application: Throughout most of my life, I usually valued substance over image. This is easy to do where I grew up and went to college. But when I moved to other cultures, I found myself thrusted into situations where image was more important than substance...at first. It's more like image first, then substance. But more people were impressed by image than substance when it really came down to it. When I was overseas, I found that I could bond the best with those who appreciated the substance.
I also find this part of verse 12 to be a great media filter. This runs parallel to my political beliefs of my distrust of the mass media. My main source of this belief is from Noam Chomsky and the Madison-published journal, The Progressive. If I find myself really interested in a news item, I will research it myself to find if the news was accurate. I believe the mass-media news is good at raising topics but not delivering them. If you want to know more, always look deeper into the issue and always look deeper within yourself about your true feelings on the matter.