现德經 - Xian De Jing - Treatise of the Modern Age

In the modern world, truth is known as falsity and falsity is known as truth


Doctors do not heal

Influencers do not know

Scientists do not study reality

Business people are not good at business

Nerds are not technical

Therapists are not mature

Psychologists don't have a healthy psyche

Health scientists do not produce health

Longevity experts do not live long


The famous are not venerable

The rich are not worthy

The nice are not kind

The enlightened are not realised

The religious are not pious

The monks are not wise

The yogis are not austere

The gurus are not spiritual

The influencers are not wise

The life coaches do not know how to manage a life

The business coaches do not know how to run a business

The meditation teachers do not know how to meditate

The startup founders do not help the world


People who offer "help", do not really help

The products do not help

The courses do not teach

The medicine does not heal

The drugs do not make one happy

The meditation does not still


Those who think they know, do not know

Those who think they are smart, are not smart

Those who think they are wise, are not wise

Those who think they are intuitive, are not intuitive

Those who think they are strong, are not strong

Those who think they have something, have nothing

Those who think they are worth something, are worth nothing

Those who compete, do not know how to compete

Those who do not compete, know how to compete

But they do not see themselves as competitors anyway


Where are the masters found?

They are not called masters and they are masters of their craft

They are hidden but a discerning mind can see

They charge little and deliver magnitudes

They are responsive to all but few ask for their help


This is the opposite of modern culture

They call themselves masters and yet know merely the basics of their craft

They self-promote and are widely visible to all in the public sphere

They charge much and deliver little

They are unresponsive to most and cordon themselves off from the masses


Those who want to teach, should not teach

Those who want to help, should not help

One should not seek teaching from someone who wants to teach

One should not seek help from someone who wants to help

All of these motivations come from a low place

They come from the body


Where does real help and real capability come from?

It comes from the Divine and anyone who is close to the Divine

It comes from people who know they know almost nothing

It does not come from people who think they are at the apex of society

The apex of society is the bottom of the Divine.


Teachings are used to hide impiousness

But it cannot hide one's spiritual nature

Knowledge is used to hide ignorance

But it cannot hide one's mental nature

Politeness is used to hide immaturity

But it cannot hide one's emotional nature

Cosmetics are used to hide appearance

But it cannot hide one's physical nature


The earth doesn't need help.

People need to help themselves.

People need to help others.


To seek special treatment, leads to subjectivity

To seek subjectivity, leads to self-centeredness

Self-centeredness, leads to a loss of objectivity

A loss of objectivity, leads to a loss of reality


The more that someone tries to give advice, the less I listen to them

The more that someone tries to change others, the less I act like them

Internally, there is an impulse to change oneself

Externally, that impulse gets converted to projections


If someone looks like a villian, they are probably a villian

Children instinctively turn away from ugliness and towards beauty

Adults blind themselves through politeness


When we are children we want to believe that others are good

When we are adults we see the reality of how others are

To possess either or neither of these qualities is folly, to possess both is freedom


People lament that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

But they themselves are the cause of the problem

The rich get showered in gifts

In the hopes of receiving something back

The poor are ignored disdainfully

In the hopes of not receiving anything from them

It should be the other way around

The rich should be treated less well

The poor should be treated better

But few are capable of this

Last updated: July 10, 2025