知足 chisoku Be Satisfied

知足 is being at ease with your own share and wanting nothing past it. What the word praises is the knowing, not the having. A rich man who does not know enough is poor, and a poor man who does is rich. The word is at home in the tea room too.

知足 is composed of the kanji 知 (read chi) meaning "know, wisdom" and 足 (read soku) meaning "sufficiency".

The word comes from the Daoist classic 老子, whose thirty-third chapter says that he who knows what is enough is rich, and it reached Japanese Buddhism through the 遺教経, where knowing what is enough is a monk's practice; its first known use in Japan is in Kūkai's own hand in 797.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 知足.

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