“When humankind strayed from the natural way of life,
Relative social disciplines began to appear.
When intelligence and cleverness of mind are admired,
Great hypocrisy is born.
…
Let all people return to their true nature.
Love, kindness, wisdom, family harmony, and loyalty
Should not be taught one by one,
Separately from an honest life.
Then, once again,
People will regain the natural virtue of wholeness.
The world will be naturally ordered.
There will be no one who singly and cunningly
Works for personal interest alone.”

To say it differently:

“When people try to improve upon, and thus deviate from, the way Nature itself naturally functions,
they develop artificial codes of right and wrong.
When knowledge becomes highly abstract, men are deceived by mistaking abstractions for realities.
When instinctive family sympathies are replaced by rules for proper conduct then parents
become “responsible” and children become “dutiful”.
When corruption replaces genuine benevolence in government,
then loyalty oaths are demanded of officials.”

Again:

“When the way of the Tao is forgotten,
morality and ethics need to be stressed.
When the body’s innate intelligence is not heeded,
deception becomes routine, and men learn to pretend to be wise and good.
When genuine peace among people is not regarded;
filial piety and compassion are made apparent.
When a nation falls into chaos; loyalty and patriotism are renewed.”

***

Once upon a time, I took a Nature Writing course.

The oldest example of nature writing in the textbook was about a hundred years before Thoreau.

In other words, there wasn’t any need to meditate upon “Nature”, until the natural world was starting to permanently disappear from our daily lives.

It is the same, with kindness.

Justice.

And so on.

Feel free to preach noble virtues like these to me.

So long as you remember why you have to.