Tao Te Ching Knowledge and Wisdom Quotes

So this one points to intelligence as being a big root of a lot of problems. When humans became sentient, meaning that we realized that we were alive, our big brains made it harder for us to be one with the flow of the Tao. Seems like there are real parallels here with the Judeo-Christian story of "Adam, Eve, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." Click here to see what differences and similarities you can find.

Hold on, now. All throughout, the TTC is telling us how awesome the sages are, but here it's telling us to end sagacity, which means being all sage-y and stuff. What gives? Our take is that the TTC is saying it's a bad idea to put sages on a pedestal. The simple wisdom of the Tao is out there for everybody to find. You don't have to go get a degree in sage-iness to find oneness.

An overly simple reading of this one might lead somebody to think that we should only look inward to find enlightenment. But in other sections, the TTC encourages us to learn from others and to not be super full of ourselves. What's your take? How can we find a balance between the two?