When you reach the top, keep climbing.

Framed as a “Zen proverb,” the line urges a stance of continual practice rather than arrival. “The top” symbolizes any milestone—success, mastery, enlightenment, status—that can tempt complacency or attachment. The imperative to “keep climbing” redirects attention from achievement to ongoing discipline: refine skill, deepen insight, and remain humble before what is still unknown. In a Zen-inflected reading, it also cautions against clinging to a fixed idea of attainment; the moment one believes one has reached a final peak, that belief itself becomes an obstacle. The saying thus functions as a compact ethic of lifelong learning and non-attachment to outcomes.