I'm worthless.

chapter 42 (the English/Feng translation)

Men hate to be "orphaned," "widowed," or "worthless,"
But this is how kings and lords describe themselves.

For one gains by losing
And loses by gaining.

chapter 41 (the John Wu translation)

When a wise scholar hears the Tao,
He practices it diligently.
When a mediocre scholar hears the Tao,
He wavers between belief and unbelief.
When a worthless scholar hears the Tao,
He laughs boisterously at it.
But if such a one does not laugh at it,
The Tao would not be the Tao!
The wise men of old have truly said:
The bright Way looks dim.
The progressive Way looks retrograde.
The smooth Way looks rugged.
High Virtue looks like an abyss.
Great whiteness looks spotted.
Abundant Virtue looks deficient.
Established Virtue looks shabby.
Solid Virtue looks as though melted.
Great squareness has no corners.
Great talents ripen late.
Great sound is silent.
Great Form is shapeless.
The Tao is hidden and nameless;
Yet it alone knows how to render help and to fulfill.

Faith/Belief is a tricky thing...

for years now, given my secular Buddhist world view, i have often argued that Faith should be removed from religion. As it is used by organized religion now; Faith implicitly requires acceptance of a belief structure without any proof.

But- with Buddhism (which never really was a religion, at least not a theist one) there is no need to have Faith or Believe in anything- because Buddhist experience provides personal knowledge of the divine nature of the entire universe through direct experience of it through the catharsis of satori- there is no need to believe or have have faith in the Atman, because when you let go of your ego (which any human being is capable of doing) you directly experience the fact of Atman. A Buddha knows he is the Buddha, and that the human individual is the result of the Atman manifesting individual identity by interacting with the unique qualities of the body's neural interface.
a dude, knows he is the Dude, and yet is still a fucking moron!
at least, this is how i understand things to be.