Quiet Clarity is a 2x/week newsletter and podcast for people who want to build a life of presence, depth, and deliberate intention.
The Teaching
I was recently skimming through the Dhammapada — a collection of the Buddha’s teachings.
One chapter, titled The Fool, stood out to me.
It’s blunt and almost humorous, but carries a sharp truth about how easily we chase applause instead of wisdom.
From My Father’s Voice
From My Mother’s Hand
The Meaning
Who is the fool really?
We think it's the person who fails, who goes unnoticed, who dies unknown.
But the Buddha saw differently.
The fool is the one who needs credit for everything. Whose name must be attached. Who announces every good deed. Who posts every achievement.
The town must know it was them.
"Look what I did," they say. And in that moment, the purity dies.
The Buddha understood: when you chase worldly gain, you lose everything else.
You gain applause but lose peace.
You gain recognition but lose joy.
You gain credit but lose the soul of the work itself.
Recognition never satisfies. Today’s win breeds tomorrow’s fear.
The chase steals the present — and with it, the purity of your creation.
The Reflection
After I create, I sometimes find myself saying this: Look what I built. Look at me.
But the work isn’t mine — it’s just work.
The moment I claim it, I stain it.
The need for credit makes me the fool the Buddha warned of.
And I see the cost:
Pride when things go well, collapse when they don’t
Mood swings tied to outcomes
Anxiety in checking results
Living in past/future instead of presence
There’s nothing wrong with sharing.
If it’s done in service, it’s beautiful. But when it’s pride, it poisons the gift.
The Practice
Can you give without being seen?
Create without signing your name?
Help without being thanked?
Succeed without announcing it?
If yes — then share freely. The work is flowing through you.
If not — pause. Ask where it’s really coming from.
Do beautiful things in secret.
Let your work dissolve into the world without your fingerprints.
Be a channel, not an owner.
When you stop needing credit, something shifts: the work becomes pure,
the joy returns and all the pressure dissolves.
You realize you were never the doer anyway.
You were just the vessel through which doing happened.
The fool says: "I did this."
The free one says nothing at all. They are the vessel and not the voice. They create, release, and disappear.
