Tao Te Ching

Distinguishing the Highest from the Lowest Morality

You can readily recognize
The highest virtuousness
Because it never places itself on display,
You can readily recognize
The lowest virtuousness
Because it is always announcing itself.

The highest virtue
Quietly serves universal needs.
The lowest virtue
Actively strives for personal success.
The highest morality serves common needs,
The lowest morality is self-serving.

True benevolence
Acts without intention
But when rituals go unheeded,
They are enforced with roll-up sleeves.

Failing the Great Integrity,
We resort to virtuousness.
Failing the Great Integrity,
We resort to virtuousness.
Failing virtuousness,
We resort to moralizing.
Failing moralizing, we resort to dogma,
The most superficial form
Of faith and loyalty,
And the nourishment for confusion.

Natural persons are attracted
To substance rather than form,
To the nutritious fruit
Rather than the enticing flower,
To that which dwells deeply within,
Rather than to that which clings
Superficially to the surface.

Verse 38
Photo; M8 Mosaic