Knowing and Guarding One's Own Clumsiness, Remedied by Diligence, Can Cut Off Vanity and Laziness

A person values having self-knowledge. This self-knowledge is precisely knowing one's own clumsiness. Knowing that one is a flawed mortal, and knowing to guard one's clumsiness with humility, one will not so easily become muddle-headed, losing oneself and growing arrogant merely on hearing a few compliments.

Vanity is one of the weaknesses of human nature. It easily produces cognitive impairment regarding one's true condition, exaggerating one's own abilities. A strong vanity also makes one easily exploited through that very emptiness. There is an old Chinese saying: all things may be pierced, but flattery never pierces. The reason flattery never pierces is precisely that human vanity leaves a gap for others to exploit. Flatterers are everywhere, so a person with strong vanity easily falls into their traps.

If one can know one's clumsiness, then on hearing flattering words one can recognize them as false; whoever comes speaking falsehood must have some purpose. After hearing flattery, the person who knows his own clumsiness is calmer than the person lacking self-knowledge, and is not so easily caught in the traps flatterers set. This is the benefit of knowing one's clumsiness.

Some clumsiness can be improved through effort; some clumsiness, however one strives, cannot be improved—like a disabled person with a severed limb, which cannot be reattached. Everyone has certain points very hard to improve or raise; these are the hard flaws of a person. Toward these hard flaws one must adopt an attitude of guarding one's clumsiness: not matching one's own shortcomings against others, for doing so only wastes one's best time.

There is a Chinese idiom: diligence can remedy clumsiness. If a person wishes to fully avoid the disadvantages his own "clumsiness" brings, he must rely on diligence to make it up. A person of average intelligence who is not lazy and keeps on diligently striving will also gain more than a person of high intelligence.

Therefore, knowing one's clumsiness, guarding it, and remedying it with diligence, and honestly facing one's own "clumsiness," can cut off the two faults of vanity and laziness.