Tao Te Ching 18

When the Tao is forgotten, goodness and piety appear.
When the body’s intelligence declines, cleverness and knowledge step forth.

When there is no peace in the family, filial piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos, patriotism is born.
______________________________________________________

When we fail to trust – in the inherent power in the way of life, in the inherent nature we share with others – when we fail to remain aware that life can only be lived in the present moment – that’s when we begin to compensate. Unfortunately, most of our attempts at such compensation are little more than expressions of ego and conceit.

We step in to the self-created and illusory void and attempt to fill it with something we call good, pious, clever, knowledgeable, filial or patriotic. In the midst of our insecurity, we grab for handrails, without realizing that those handrails aren’t connected to anything solid.

In each response, we divide people. We become good, while others become bad. We become pious, while others become irreverent. We become clever, while others become dimwitted or naïve. We become knowledgeable, while others become ignorant. We become devoted, while others become fickle or unfaithful. We become patriotic, while others become disloyal.

Each response is a sad attempt to reassert some form of self-importance. We endeavor to feel good about ourselves by trying to manufacture something that can never be made – superiority over others.