Tao Te Ching

The Sadness of Superficialities and of the Unfulfilled Great Integrity

It is sometimes deeply depressing
To be a rebel,
Knowing that we can never share
Most people’s way of life,
Nor can they share ours.

Schooling stuffs the brains
Of our children with trivia.
The more the trivia,
The more their anxieties.
They indoctrinate the children
To believe that the consequences are grave
When the fail to distinguish
“good” from “evil”,
And agreement from disagreement.
What gross nonsense!

To escape the rubbish
Of all this so-called knowledge,
In the winter, people run
To the great feast of lamb, pork and ox,
And they climb high in the mountains
To view the first signs of spring.

We are so different!
Having no desire for the trivialities,
Nor for their compensations,
We are like infants
Not yet knowing how to laugh!
Ever wandering, and having no home
To which we may return.

While most people are obsessed
With superficialities,
We feel empty
They know so much,
We feel simple-minded.
While most people believe
They live happily
In the best of possible worlds,
We are despaired to witness this world!

It is so painful to know
That we will always be outsiders,
Endlessly moving the ocean,
Aimlessly blowing like the wind.

While we fear what others fear,
We don’t treasure what others treasure.
Our treasure is the Great Integrity.
However, until it is shared,
It will not be the Universal Integrity,
For we are part of them,
And they are a part of us.

Verse 20
Photo; Antennae Galaxy Closeup