religion is still like a thorn
You can see if a man has newly acquired wealth -- he will be showing it. A real aristocrat is one who has forgotten that he is rich. A man of Tao is the aristocrat of the inner world.
If a person shows his religion he is not yet really religious. The religion is still like a thorn, it is not natural, it hurts, he is eager to show it. If you want to show your simplicity what type of simplicity is this? If you exhibit your gentleness, then it is simply cunning, nothing gentle exists in it.
A man of Tao is an aristocrat of the inner world. He is so attuned to it, there is no exhibition -- not only to you, he himself is not aware of it. He does not know that he is wise; he does not know that he is innocent -- how can you know if you are innocent? Your knowledge will disturb the innocence.
A follower of Hazrat Mohammed went with him to the mosque for early morning prayer. It was summer, and on the way back they saw many people still asleep in their houses or just on the street. It was early morning, a summer morning, and many people were still asleep. The man very arrogantly said to Hazrat Mohammed, "What will happen to these sinners? They have not been to the morning prayer."
Today was the first time he himself had gone to prayer. Yesterday he was also asleep like these sinners. The newly rich man wanted to exhibit, to show off to Mohammed: "Mohammed Hazrat, what will happen to these sinners? They have not been to the morning prayer; they are still lazy and asleep."
Mohammed stopped and said, "You go home, I will have to go back to the mosque again."
The man said, "Why?"
He replied, "My morning prayer is wasted because of you; keeping company with you has destroyed everything. I will have to do my prayer again. And as for you, remember please never to come again. It was better for you to be asleep like the others; at least they were not sinners then. Your prayer has done only one thing -- it has given you the key to condemn others."
The so-called religious person is religious only to look at you with a condemning eye.