Explanation Of The Tao Te Ching Part Thirty Eight

“A truly good man is not aware of his goodness,
And is therefore good.
A foolish man tries to be good,
And is therefore not good. 

A truly good man does nothing,
Yet leaves nothing undone.
A foolish man is always doing,
Yet much remains to be done. 

When a truly kind man does something, he leaves nothing undone.
When a just man does something, he leaves a great deal to be done.
When a disciplinarian does something and no one responds,
He rolls up his sleeves in an attempt to enforce order. 

Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is kindness.
When kindness is lost, there is justice.
When justice is lost, there ritual.
Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion.
Knowledge of the future is only a flowery trapping of Tao.
It is the beginning of folly. 

Therefore the truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface,
On the fruit and not the flower.
Therefore accept the one and reject the other.”

I love this chapter because it points out the difference between the simplicity of the Tao and how contrived it becomes when we have an agenda.  

When we have an agenda we try to enforce it upon others and in so doing create a resistance and lose the quality in ourselves. 

When we create ritual and dogma around goodness and kindness it becomes artifice for our own agenda, it’s an easy trap to want to force others to become the way you want them to be, to create a better future but history proves that doesn’t work. 

We need to set the example, to go deep into what and who we really are, rather than judge by society’s agenda, to be fully engaged in the present moment, to not seek societal recognition or awards, to allow the way of nature to work through us and that will create harmony nature’s way.