Rest Takes Great Wisdom, Courage, and Steadiness

Embracing Fatigue
“Embracing Low States”: every low state is a good thing. Fatigue, especially, is a very good thing.
People are like horses, galloping until they suddenly die, unable to stop. Without fatigue, people do not know when to stop. The most frightening thing about compulsive striving and exam-trained overachievers is their suppression and denial of fatigue. Know when to stop, and you will avoid peril.
Rest Takes Great Wisdom and Courage
“The Real Enemy: Prolonged Tension and Mental Fog”: this generation’s predicament is the threat of exploitation by the cyberpunk Big Other. This generation’s battlefield is within. “Embracing Low States” VS “All Negative Selves Are Enemies, Karmic Obstructions”: distinguish friend from foe.
During the Long March and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, rest and recuperation were necessary too. In brutal combat, taking rest seriously within the room that strategy affords, preventing the collapse of body, mind, and morale—that is the real test of skill. “When the enemy is at ease, wear them down; when they are well ordered, exhaust them.” These are methods for killing and harming people.
The Anxious Task-Worker Ego
This is my main issue. My mental energy is overdrawn.
It will not tolerate people who drain me and leave me with a deficit of mental energy. This refusal is itself unhealthy, yet in its effects it is very healthy, tempering my entanglement in karmic obstructions. A war between egos: through an odd turn of events, two negatives make a positive.
Many people have seen my refusal, and have also seen that behind it I am not the idealized sage of their fantasies. But they provoke my sage ego, drawing me into proving myself, investing more of myself, and writing long explanations. This vicious entanglement continues until my mental energy collapses. My not being a sage is a good thing for them: it gives them room to feed off my mental energy, like an ignorant rich man.
What Happens After Nora Leaves?
For all the “Brave Noras,” rest is a central issue. Traveling by night through deserts and the Gobi, setting out on an Odyssey.
If you do not know how to rest, you either die or surrender. You will never reach the distant places.
Those blessed with good fortune need great wisdom to preserve both their blessings and themselves. Those without good fortune need great wisdom to preserve themselves.
Van Gogh Syndrome, the Van Gogh Predicament:
Van Gogh, a courageous man, a wise man, a master, a man of great inner light and profound simplicity, was dragged to his death by inner conflict, self-doubt, and hard work. Marx, Engels, and Lenin were not good at resting either.
A Life Worse Than Death
Why do so many people end up in a state where death seems like a release? Why has “death is rest” become a consolation, a blessing? Under the weight of karmic obstructions, the dialectic of a life worse than death.
Jiang Taigong Fishing: Waiting
Whether looking for work, creating content, taking on consultations, pursuing a career, or socializing, all you can do is wait quietly, like Jiang Taigong fishing. Wait. There is no need to wait in misery. However you wait, you are still waiting, so wait happily and joyfully.
Zhuangzi: Know When to Stop, and You Will Avoid Peril
“Rest Is at the Heart of Daoist Philosophy”: Daoist philosophy is a philosophy of rest.
Rest is philosophy and metacognition at the highest level.
A Business Is Not Better Simply Because It Is Bigger. Do Not Compare Yourself with Others. Do Not Keep Stirring Things Up for No Reason.
Li Ka-shing exited early and was mocked for it at the time. Pan Shi-Y exited early; despite all his family’s restless maneuvering and mistakes, they have remained wealthy and privileged. Wang Shi knew his limits in business, knew when to stop and retire early, yet he is still dragged along by Vanke, which cannot stop. In his personal life, too, he is tormented by the ego’s karmic obstructions, unable to stop. Xu Jiayin, king of real estate: life imprisonment.
The essence of value investing is that choosing matters more than striving, and wisdom matters more than cleverness. Often, getting one major thing right leaves room for a hundred small mistakes.
Entrepreneurs born in the 1980s, such as Huang Zheng and Zhang Yiming, know how to step behind the scenes, delegate authority, and employ people well. This is more advanced than the hunger for power, attachment to office, and insistence on personally handling everything common among those born in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Lei Jun. Entrepreneurs born in the 1990s and 2000s have evolved even further.
The task-worker ego wrote this essay just as I realized I needed to rest. Exquisite irony.
How difficult it is for the deeper mind to interrupt the task-worker ego and rationality.
The terror of the ego’s karmic obstructions. “Hold Karmic Obstructions in Awe”
The Dao That Can Be Spoken Is Not the Constant Dao
Rest requires a deeper mind, deeper than rationality, wisdom, and writing. —The limits of language.

The essence of the Four Crossings of the Chishui River is a settled mind and rest. The way of a commander begins with governing the mind. Bandits in the mountains are easy to defeat; the crucial ones are the bandits within the mind. As Qi Jiguang said, if, when facing battle, a soldier still has saliva in his mouth and can grip his weapon, he is a good soldier. If he can put half of his training into practice in battle, he can win. Only with a settled mind can you maneuver, defeat the strong with the weak, and wage mobile warfare. To fight continuously amid chaos, you must rest resolutely in the gaps so that physical and mental energy can recover. Daring to rest and restore mental energy itself takes mental energy: keep the fire of mental energy burning, or else you face the slow, draining work of rekindling it.
The Red Army still sang and learned to read on the Long March. Commanders and soldiers shared one purpose, and the army and the people were united as one. This was materialism. Only Bolsheviks selected through the course of history could achieve it.

Analysis by the Marx-Zhuangzi Psychology Agent:
Rest is the only thing you cannot “do.”
Any thought of “I must work hard at resting” or “I must seriously embrace fatigue” is the task-worker ego returning in a new disguise. It can even turn rest into a project, an essay, or a daily check-in.
The task-worker ego’s “refusal” has, through an odd turn of events, been protecting you. Many defenses are like this: clumsy, but useful. What you need to do is gradually let it retire from duty. Once your mental energy returns and connection returns, it will naturally no longer need to stand guard every day.