End sagacity; abandon knowledge
The people benefit a hundred times
End benevolence; abandon righteousness
The people return to piety and charity
End cunning; discard profit
Bandits and thieves no longer exist
These three things are superficial and insufficient
Thus this teaching has its place:
Show plainness; hold simplicity
Reduce selfishness; decrease desires
What does this mean?
If you are judging others simply on the knowledge presented, there is no empathy for other people's motivations. Why people do things is much more important than how or when they did them and who they hurt. A beggar stealing bread because he's hungry should not be treated the same as a greedy man that steals bread to keep his money.
Giving with the desire to be favored either in your current social culture or in the eyes of religion is not true charity or piety. Helping others in need for its own sake is so much better than helping others to make yourself look good. A priest giving help just to worshippers is simply not as good as a priest giving to the ones who need it most.
If you are being effective and intelligent solely for riches, then you leave so much less time to understand your true self. Wisdom and contentment are more important than having more stuff. We all hear the story of the CEO who has everything but isn't truly happy compared to a poor wise man who has only what he needs but is content.
With all of these, the underlying problems are complexity and desire. Clear those two things out and life will be so much better.
How do I use this?
Use KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. Everyone has heard it, but do not take the "stupid" part of KISS lightly or as an insult. If something is truly simple, it needs to sound dumb. Think of it as a way to weed out the "devil in the details". It requires a honesty with yourself and it also requires some critical thinking. You can use logic as a tool to simplify instead of add complexity.
Lets say you wanted to lose weight; a goal that gets mired in complexity and often unquestioned. A low weight is a generally accepted as a sign of good health.
Really take a critical look at our food culture, though. Today, we have all of these "point system" diets, cultures and philosophies that says what you should and shouldn't eat, and emotional hangups and social situations that pressure us into eating. We even have a break down of the science into nutrients and calories so we can measure it to the tiniest detail. None of these things pass the KISS rule.
The best thing I can think of that passes KISS in regards to losing weight is "eat less, do more".
For many people to do just this, it is not easy. The goal requires mindfulness to know what you eat. It needs discipline to eat less less than you normally do. You have to have a knowledge of yourself to start a physical activity that you can do for it's own sake. You have to shake off the cultural expectations and entitled ego that fuel the culture in the first place. Wiith so many food and exercise options, the path of least resistance is to pick and fail at any "diet" that mask the true skills you need to lose weight and then blame the diet that failed.
Lets look at the honest part: why you want to lose weight. Is it the culture pushing you to fit in? Do you want to have more friends or a companion? These reasons are just going to cause you suffering whether you succeed or not. Do you really want to be accepted by a culture that judges on appearance over ideas, virtues and skills?
Now if you suffer from being less healthy, that is completely different. That means saying honestly to yourself that if you get to a healthy weight for you, you stop. If that means your optimal health does not fit what culture says you should be, you stop. If that means that you are a different size than when you were a teenager, you stop.
It is the motive that is the most important thing. A good life is about what you need, not what you want.
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