He who tiptoes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.
He who shows himself is not conspicuous.
He who considers himself right is not illustrious.
He who brags will not have merit.
He who boasts will not endure.
From the point of view of the way these are excessive food and useless excrescences.
As there are things that detest them, she who has the way does not abide in them.
Is the Tao binary, suddenly? Is it like some Christian moralism? A little morsel of self-abnegation, a thick steak of judgment? After all this odd integration and seeming acceptance of the body, do we have a strange divorce? The Way separate and apart, peering down at the inevitable fulminations of finite souls and proclaiming them Bad? The Way splitting with its clear and shining axe the complex world into two spheres—one of light, one of shadow?
Yes.
The Tao is large enough to include this bifurcating mode, as this mode itself is part of the way. The difference between the Christian and the Taoist is that this mode for the former is the way while this mode for the latter is a way within the way. It is simply a color on the vast palette of the soul—necessary, yes, but not sufficient. And for those who would find it sufficient, they have their rewards: virtue, knowledge, separation, clarity, lines and measurements. They have these things. And that is what they have.
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