Truly good people keep their mind on what is eternal and seek out the spirit for guidance. They are not concern about the material world, the opinions of others, and do not make their achievements known. Mark 10:17-18, As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. They are in alignment with God going about their life effortlessly, yet nothing is left undone. Living in harmony and abundance is a gift from God who endures forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Unlike foolish men who work vigorously to achieve and leave more undone. They gain nothing from their toil because God has made everything beautiful, but yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end. Those who are falsely good constantly have to remind themselves to uphold their image and/or act good. Their actions often lead toward personal agendas to improve their public image, gaining authority, and nullifying their guilt or wrongful doings.
From high virtue to the low: Goodness, Kindness, Righteousness, and Ritual, respectively. These are the four virtues believed to measure our true character. Whenever God is lost, good people anticipate the goodness of God that flow naturally. For the appeal they make does not spring from error or impure motives. When goodness is lost, then kindness appears. Kind people try to remain loving, be compassionate toward others, and free themselves from personal agenda. When kindness is lost, then righteousness appears. Righteousness can be a trap for self-righteousness. People who possess self-righteousness feel strongly justified in themselves that their actions may reflect their own motives. They are not guided by love and compassion, instead they act based on creativeness and justice. Their beliefs become very complex and confusing like the laws today because right and wrong can be subjective. When righteousness is lost, then rituals appear. Unfortunately, many ritual people act unnatural, showing great politeness and modesty. They believe to posses foreknowledge and devise formulas for human action and try to trade the spirit for the letter. Thus, they fall back on protocol and rules to mask their true intentions. If they fail to obtain their goals upon others, they use physical and aggressive means to force their view points. This may be artificial and wrong, but they have something to follow if nothing else works. Those who practice artificial rituals are nothing more than a shell without substance, pretending to be trustworthy and genuine while possessing neither quality. It is the husk of true faith and the onset of confusion and chaos.
Matthew 23:1-7
1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5“Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they love to be greeted in the
Similarly, people who possess knowledge without any of these virtues are also shells lacking substance. Like the pleasing appearance of flowers, they possess none of the fulfilling goodness of the fruits. Their “flowery knowledge of God” represents their own superficial knowledge of this world. They look upon the beautiful surface and not the fruit or substance. In other worlds, the flower is a metaphor of an individual who look good on the outside but lack substance. Thus, people who possess knowledge without virtue may project a knowledgeable image but are ignorant in fundamental ways. Unlike truly good men who dwell in the depths of God and not the surface. They look upon the fruit and not the flower. They prefers what is within to what is without.
Matthew 23:25-28
25“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Before Goodness, Kindness, Righteousness, and Ritual, there is God who just “IS”. If we lose God, what we have left are the four virtues to uphold. When people are living in the Spirit of God, they do not have to uphold these virtues because everything is in alignment with God and comes naturally without effort. It is like the perfect image of God, a Spirit that cannot be measured by any means of virtue.
Wu Ch’eng
The Tao is like a fruit. Hanging from a tree, it contains the power of life, but its womb is hidden. Once it falls, it puts forth virtue as its root, kindness as its stem, justice as its branches, ritual as its leaves, and knowledge as its flower. All of these come from the Tao. ‘That’ refers to the flower. ‘This’ refers to the fruit. Those who embody the Tao choose the fruit over the flower.
