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Chuang Random Page 3: 134

 The people had knowledge but they didn't use it; all this was perfect Oneness.

Ruling by decrees and grand plans, they polluted the purity of nature and destroyed simplicity. The Tao was abandoned and Good substituted.

Then innate nature was abandoned and hearts allowed to determine their own way. Heart linked with heart through knowledge but were unable to give the world peace.

Pomp and ceremony were added to this knowledge. This displaced simplicity, resulting in the people being confused and disobedient.

Perceiving this, we can see how the world has lost the Tao. In this sort of world how can the world come to appreciate the Tao? Even if the sage does not retreat to the forest his virtue is still hidden whether he likes it or not.

The times were not favourable and it was not possible, so they put down deep roots, remained still and waited. This was the Tao by which they survived.

To have knowledge is by itself no bad thing. But to use it starts to unfurl the connection between us, how we live, and the wider flow of all existence. This then creates a chain of causes and effects, many of which result in humanity growing ever further from nature and deep understanding of how we fit in the universe.

He states that government laws, plans, decrees also create this same schism. Nature is seen rightly in my opinion, as the place where we belong, and where we have a natural, organic fit. Being innately part of it means our lives are simple but this simplicity and the peace it brings with it is lost, destroyed by human efforts to rule, control, manage society and the world. And thus the human world has become increasingly estranged from nature, with more and more ideas being implemented, many well-meaning, and thus we lose our sense of place, of purpose, of peace. All our woes- wars, inequality, poverty, etc - come from this increasing complexity and divorce from the wider flow.

In a situation like we have today the best that wise people who try to flow with the ways of nature is to mentally create deep roots of understanding the universal flow, do as little activity as possible so as not  to be contaminated by society's madness, and just live as simple and peaceful a life as possible.  

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