The Five Colours
After an hour of scrolling, you put the phone down and can't remember a single thing you saw.
After a quiet walk, you remember the colour of one particular leaf.
五色令人目盲，
wǔ sè lìng rén mù máng,
The five colours make the eye blind;
五音令人耳聾，
wǔ yīn lìng rén ěr lóng,
the five notes make the ear deaf;
五味令人口爽，
wǔ wèi lìng rén kǒu shuǎng,
the five flavours make the mouth lose its taste;
馳騁畋獵令人心發狂，
chí chěng tián liè lìng rén xīn fā kuáng,
racing and hunting make the heart go wild;
難得之貨令人行妨。
nán dé zhī huò lìng rén xíng fáng.
goods that are hard to get make people go astray.
是以聖人為腹不為目，
shì yǐ shèngrén wèi fù bù wèi mù,
So the sage is for the belly, not for the eye;
故去彼取此。
gù qù bǐ qǔ cǐ.
and so lets go of that, and takes this.
The words
five
Old China counted the world in fives. Five colours: green-blue, red, yellow, white and black. Five notes, the five tones of the scale. Five flavours: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent. "The five colours" means all the colours, every one at once, as much as there is.
here: to fail, to go wrong; today, refreshing
Today 爽 means fresh, pleasant. In this line it has an older sense: to miss, to lose. The mouth that has had every flavour can no longer taste any of them.
the belly
The belly takes what it needs and is full. The eye is never full: there is always one more thing to see. To be "for the belly" is to live by what actually nourishes, and to let the endless wanting of the eye go.
Sitting with it
This chapter was written more than two thousand years ago, about the luxuries of a court: bright silks, music, banquets, hunting on fast horses, jewels from far away. It reads as if it were written about the screen in your pocket.
The five colours make the eye blind. Not because colour is bad, but because too much of it at once leaves you seeing nothing. Anyone who has walked through a huge shop with music playing and lights everywhere, and come out tired without knowing why, has felt this line. More is not more. After a point, more is less.
The five flavours make the mouth lose its taste. If every meal is as salty and sweet as it can be, a plain apple tastes of nothing. Eat simply for a week, and the apple is sweet again. The senses were not broken. They were only shouting over each other.
Then racing and hunting: the chase, the thrill, the heart beating fast. They "make the heart go wild", and a wild heart can't rest. And goods hard to get: whatever is rare, expensive, wanted by everyone. They make people go astray, because a person will do things for them they would never do for bread.
So the sage chooses the belly over the eye. This is not about food. It is about the difference between need and appetite. The belly says enough. The eye never does.
"Lets go of that, and takes this." That is the far, the bright, the always-more. This is what is here. The meal in front of you. The one leaf, the one voice, the one quiet hour.
A practice
Today, eat one meal with nothing else: no screen, no reading, no talk if you can manage it.
Taste each thing. Stop when the belly, not the eye, says enough.
To carry
去彼取此
qù bǐ qǔ cǐ
Let go of that; take this.