When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.
Therefore the Master concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go.
—Lao-tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell
But why is ritual so powerful? I cry at the Episcopal Mass.
That’s a good point. I’m not sure the passage precludes the possibility that ritual has power and value so much as it warns about one of its qualities.