38 上德不德 是以有德

老子道德經第三十八章

上德不德 是以有德
下德不失德 是以無德
上德無為而無以為
下德無為而有以為
上仁為之而無以為
上義為之而有以為
上禮為之而莫之應 則攘臂而扔之
故失道而後德 失德而後仁
失仁而後義 失義而後禮
夫禮者 忠信之薄 而亂之首
前識者 道之華 而愚之始
是以大丈夫處其厚 不居其薄
處其實 不居其華 故去彼取此

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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 is 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.

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WOW! This one is truly Something. Lao Tsu is indeed the MASTER of Masters. This above English translation is not accurate and far from insightful. The original Chinese text is so precise and perfect, that any attempt to translate or interpretation will destroy it. I want to compose my own version, but I will have to think about it more. It's only a draft.

A moralist's version (a draft) - tao 38

The genuine moral one sets his own moral values, so he is moral;
The false moral one holds onto set moral values, so he is immoral.

The moral one does not try to act moral, and therefore his goodness is natural;
The immoral one tries to act natural, but his goodness is pretentious.

The Master is moral, because goodness is his nature;
The moral one is moral, because he wants to;
The moralist wants to be moral, but nobody listens to him,
so he sets laws to make others follow.

Therefore, when Tao is lost, there left goodness;
if goodness is lost, there left kindness;
if kindness is lost, there left morality;
if morality is lost, there left law.

I say, the laws are there because the trust in human nature is weak;
so laws mark the beginning of social disorder.

Those who understand social orders
only see the surface of things through moral judgment,
they are actually very wrong (hmm, this a moral judgment)

The Masters always live in the true Reality,
but not dwell on knowledge.
Therefore we should accept human nature,
and get rid of any presumed moral values.

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ST.
38.

People with integrity
don't even think about it.
That's how you can tell
they have integrity.
Other people talk about
how much integrity they have,
when they really don't have much.
If any.

Truly powerful people
don't do anything,
but they get the job done.
Other people are always busy
doing something,
but nothing ever gets done.

When kind people act,
they do so without thinking about it.
When the just act,
they're always sure
they're doing the right thing.
But when the righteous act,
and nobody reacts,
they try to force everyone
to do things their way.

If you're not in touch with Tao,
at least you can still have integrity.
If you don't have integrity,
there's always kindness.
If you don't have kindness,
there's always justice.
If you don't have justice,
all you have left is righteousness.

Righteousness is an pale imitation
of true faith and loyalty,
and always leads to trouble.
If you've already made up your mind,
you don't know the first thing about Tao,
and you never will.

The Masters pay attention
to what's beneath the surface.
They'll look at a tree's leaves,
but eat the fruit.
They turn all that down,
so they can accept this.