[tinyowl]

Thanks for sending Poco .... Everyone should post each book of TTC on their wall, read one a day, contemplate it for that day, and cycle through it for 80 years. SEEK THE VALLEY BABY!!!!

The highest virtue doesn’t practise virtue

That’s why it is virtuous.

The lowest virtue is always ‘virtuous’

That’s why it has no virtue.

The highest virtue is inaction

But nothing is left undone.

The lowest virtue is action

But things are always left undone.

Benevolence is acting

But without ulterior motives.

Rectitude is acting

But with ulterior motives.

Those steeped in the rites act,

And when no one responds,

They roll up their sleeves

And resort to threats.

So when the Way was lost

There was ‘virtue’.

When virtue was lost

There was benevolence.

When benevolence was lost

There was rectitude.

When rectitude was lost

There were the rites.

The rites are only the semblance

Of loyalty and sincerity,

And a source of disorder.

The seer is a flowery decoration

Obscuring the Way,

And a source of foolishness.

So the wise live in the substance

And not in the semblance.

In the fruit

And not in the flower.

They take the one, and leave the other.

[Talisker]

SEEK THE VALLEY BABY!!!!

I think that should be lowercase...

My favorite translation is by Gia Fu Feng.

With black and white photos by Jane English.

[poconopundit]

Hey tinyowl. Good to read the Taoist passage.

I guess we could quibble about these phrases. Don't tell Donald Trump that the "The highest virtue is inaction".

But I get: "The seer is a flowery decoration obscuring the Way, and a source of foolishness." Alan Watts, one of the cleverest guys who ever taught Westerns about Eastern philosophy, would have approved of being called "foolish".

A fool who persists in his folly becomes wise.

Yet every rule has an exception. Otherwise, how do explain guys like Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz? :- )