[MD] Is Morality innate in the cosmos?

[Matt poot]

Non-Interference with Nature:

Horses have hoofs to arry them over frost and snow;  hair to preotect them 
from wind and cold.  They eat grasss and drink water, and fling up their 
heels over the champaign.  Such is the real nature of horses.  Palatial 
dwellings are of no use to them.

One day, Po Lo appeared, saying:  "I understand the management of horses."

So he branded them, and clipped them, and pared their hoofs, and put halters 
on them, tying them up by the head and shackling them by the feet, and 
disposing them in stables, with the result that two or three in every ten 
died.  Then he kept them hungry and thirsty, trotting them and galloping 
them, and grooming, and trimming, with the misery of the tasselled bridle 
before and the fear of the knotted whip behind, until more than half of them 
were dead.

The Potter says; " I can do what I will with clay.  If I want it round, I 
use compasses ; if rectangular, a square."

The Carpenter says: " I can do what I will with wood.  If I want it curved, 
I use an arc; if straight a line."


But on what grounds can we think that the natures of clay and wood desire 
this application of compasses and square, or arc and line?  Nevertheless, 
every age extols Po Lo for his skill in managing horses, and potters, and 
carpenters for their skill with clay and wood.  Those who govern the empire 
make the same mistake.

Now I regard government of the empire from quite a different point of view.

The people have certain natural instincts: --to weave and clothe themselves, 
to till and feed themselves.  These are common to all humanity, and all are 
agreed thereon.  Such instincts are called "heaven-sent"


And so in the days when natural instincts prevailed, men moved quietly and 
gazed steadily.  At that time, there were no roads over mountains, nore 
boats, nore bridges over water.  All things were produced, each for its own 
proper sphere.  Birds and beasts multiplied;  trees and shrubs grew up.  The 
former might be led by the hand; you could climb up and peep into the 
raven's nest.

  For then man dwelt with birds and beasts, and all creation was one.  There 
were no distinctions of good and bad men.  Being all equally without 
knowledge, their virtue could not go astray.  Being all equally without evil 
desires, they were in a state of natural integrity, the perfection of human 
existence.

But when Sages appeared, tripping up people over charity and fettering them 
with duty to their neighbour, doubt found its way into the world.  And then, 
with their gushing over music and fussing over ceremony, the empire became 
divided over itself.


----Chuang Tzu