Ingrained ideas, a high regard for oneself,
abandoning the world to pursue an uncommon course,
talking imposingly and disparaging others –
these are the traits of conceit.

This is
what scholars who retreat
to the hills and valleys,
who find fault with the world
and who are like withered trees
or
throw themselves into deep pools
are fond of.

Propounding benevolence, righteousness,
loyalty and faithfulness, humility, restraint,
selflessness and courtesy
–these are indications of self-cultivation.
This is what
scholars who seek to bring order
to the world
and what teachers and reformers
who pursue their studies
at home and abroad
endorse.

Zhuangzi trans. by Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, Book 15

Midway through the Zhuangzi Book 15. This criticism of the thoughtless echo of the usual things and events which trigger a swell of pride for us Americans. You know: the flag, “patriotism,” our rights, our opinions, that I am a white male, etc.. Said differently to be sucked into the vortex of my own headspace. Then to project all of that as a norm, as a standard upon the external world.

If one is privileged to have a better than average education, then to gaze with furrowed fault-finding-brow from the ivory tower, upon the unwashed scrum below. What deep pool am I tempted to throw myself into? Into the Chicago Bears playoff mania, or into the deep pool of written critique of what Nietzsche or Byung-chul Han has published? A free-fall into either pool is silly according to the tao.

Better that I keep this in mind:

…it is said,
“Calm, impartiality, silence, quietude,
emptiness and non-action
–these are the attributes
of the equilibrium of heaven and earth
and the essence of the tao and virtue.”

---

Music, music elevates restoring the equilibrium of heaven and earth. This one by Berlin, Take My Breath Away conveys truth.