According to Lao Tzu the following are inappropriate to good living:

To be moody and fussy and use others as one's victim.
To be greedy and disregard righteousness.
To be lascivious and ignore one's own virtue.
To cling to worldly objects.
To hate others and to pray for their death.
To overindulge in something that one likes and to discard one's spiritual light.
To defame the reputations of others and then to boast of one's own goodness.
To change for one's own benefit that which has already been accepted.
To rejoice in the misfortunes of others.
To convert one's virtues to new, fashionable immature thoughts.
To be in treacherous collusion.
To pass rumors about anything.
To hold a narrow view and mislead people.
To make false statements.
To defile the good name of others.
To swindle simple people.
To brag about one's own achievements.
To violently use one's force, capability, and speech.
To be dualistic in thinking and unfaithful to one's true nature.
To lie and cheat.
To be meddlesome in the business of others.
To disclose the secrets of others.
To look into the activities of others without their knowledge and approval.
To bewilder people so that they will stumble and fall.
To teach evil.
To rob people of their profits.
To take from others when they do not have the strength to resist.
To be deceitful.
To injure others with evil and crafty means.
To postulate conclusions.
To misappropriate and cheat.
To suppress the weak and help the violent.
To be hypocritical.
To be untruthful in speech and insincere in thought.
To bend one's own virtuous principles for popular interests.
To be jealous of another's virtues and capabilities.
To engage in extravagant talk and impure chatter.
To allure and entice the naive.
To use slanderous language.
To seduce the young, ignorant, or naive.
To vilify the virtuous.
To exaggerate in emotions and speech.
To radically treat those who are lost.
To pride oneself on one's own intelligence and to use this sarcastically against others.
To abuse one's own influence by suppressing others.
To use force.
To use social power to threaten others.
To try to influence others with an alluring manner of speech.
To borrow and not return.
To take pride in one's wealth.
To take pride in one's honor and glory.
To envy those who become prosperous.
To ridicule the success of others.
To please with, or to be pleased by flattery.
To take pride in one's own high virtue.
To obstruct another from accomplishments.
To disturb public affairs with selfish purposes.
To disguise one's bad motives with a beautiful approach.
To make people believe that one is straight when one is actually crooked.
To insult others with what one thinks is correct.
To feel that others are disgusting but to praise oneself.
To think that one is superior to all others.
To take credit for other people's accomplishments.
To complain about one's own life.
To make people believe that a fabricated story is true.
To endanger others in order to acquire or preserve one's own security, or because one likes to behave this way.
To incite a riot.
To be critical of the affairs of others, but not to practice one's own cultivation.
To cause others to be burdensome.
To take advantage of people.
To use people's shortcomings as a means of controlling them.
To expect repayments for doing favors.
To demand that people do you favors.
To envy what others have acquired.
To argue habitually.
To curse animals.
To use black magic.
To disgrace the talents and virtues of others.
To hate people, or yourself, because others are better than you.
To take drugs or use alcohol improperly.
To hold prejudices.
To not forgive others for their wrongdoings.
To refuse the good advice and teachings of others.
To behave recklessly.
To be unreasonable.
To be self-righteous.
To hold skepticism toward all truth.
To make fun of people who are insane and ill.
To be arrogant and impolite.
To use vulgar and obscene language.
To disrespect people who are young or old.
To adhere to an unhealthy environment.
To be undutiful in one's work.
To be irresponsible for one's life.

Lao Tzu, an older contemporary of Confucius, was keeper of the imperial archives at Loyang in the province of Honan in the sixth cnetury B.C. All his life he taught that "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao"; but, according to ancient legend, as he was riding off into the desert to die -- sick at heart at the ways of men -- he was persuaded by a gatekeeper in northwestern China to write down his teaching for posterity.

from the introduction to "The Tao Te Ching" translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.
Submitted by Greg Anton in the interest of Zero Consciousness


The Players Show Dates Zero History Zero Music
Family Affairs Zero Music Zero Zone Zero Music

Page Design and Graphics by:
Doug Greene & Dave Hunter
© Copyright Doug Greene 2001