Marx, Zhuangzi & Psychology Marx + Zhuangzi · Everyone is inherently whole

Karmic Obstacles Series

Accepting Mediocrity

Mediocrity is something many people find hard to face. 1. Looking outward for fulfillment leaves no room to accept mediocrity. 2. The “people around us” cannot accept mediocrity. 3. Looking for a job leaves no room to accept mediocrity. 4. An existential crisis leaves no room to accept mediocrity. 5. All the various attachments of the ego cannot accept mediocrity. My past inability to accept the younger generation in my family being ordinary or mediocre was also a projection of my inner anxiety.

I. Acceptance

Accept limitations, accept external fate, and accept every truth, challenge, and shadow within. Greatness comes from the capacity to embrace. The ego recedes, and external narratives recede.

II. Looking Back Now, the Mediocre Years of the Past Were All Precious

I can still see innate wholeness. That was the life I was living. Another article: “We Have Always Been Fighting Alongside Our Past Selves”

III. Making Peace with the Mediocre Relationships of the Past

When I think about it, I have always been an ordinary, even mediocre person, not particularly worthy of attention. I used to feel greed, anger, delusion, and resentment over how some people from my past treated me. But thinking it over, that was still my ego acting up. Ordinary people are lonely, and mediocre people are naturally lonelier still. I resented them for “not valuing emotional bonds,” but I, too, was relying on “emotional bonds” to draw people into relationships and bind them to me. That is a mediocre tactic, and naturally it does not last.

Mediocrity is not good, but it is nothing to be ashamed of either. This world is not kind to ordinary, unremarkable people. Those who lack understanding have little choice but to protect themselves through vulgarity; it is hard to avoid. But once tactics become strategy and vulgarity becomes the core, it is all over.

Striving to be ordinary without being mediocre in the second half of my life already counts as having come to my senses.

IV. Mediocrity Puts Me at Ease

In the past, whenever I felt unsettled, I would encourage myself by recalling the moments when I had been outstanding, excellent, or special. Now, thinking about how mediocre I am puts me at ease. Accepting mediocrity puts me at ease. I am one ordinary thing in nature, an ordinary existence, coming naturally and going naturally.

  1. Being an ordinary person without troubling myself needlessly means being ordinary without being mediocre.
  1. I owe Heaven nothing, I owe no one anything, and I owe myself nothing.
  1. I have no tasks to fulfill. I do not need to make a deliberate effort to do anything. I am simply a very mediocre person who has always been carried along by fate. Only when I settle down and stop struggling wildly can I enjoy the river of fate.
  1. I bear no guilt. I have done nothing wrong.