Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 81-8 Sage's Tao


Today's Tao

The sage's Tao acts and doesn't compete. (Ch.81)


Who is the sage?

Of course, you are the one.

Then, who are you?

"Eh, excuse me, sir, which are you talking about, 'true You' or 'your own self'? Self doesn't exist, right?"

That's right.

Self, life, world. They are names given to some groups of information.

They are not independent entities.

"I see. Eh, excuse me, sir. What is 'true I'?"

True You are Tao.

Tao is always "acting without competing", that is to say, projecting a hologram without directly interfering with it.

Tao, Love, Buddha, and Zen among others are names given to the fundamental energy.

"Eh, sir, it is also called nothingness 無 [mu], right?"

Exactly.

Please picture the circulation of an energy with neither time nor space.

What else can you call it but nothingness.

Time and space are parameters used to reconstruct information in the mind.

In other words, they are names.

"If you can talk about Tao, that Tao is not Tao itself."

This very first line of Tao Te Ching is not saying that it is impossible to understand Taoism logically. No!

It is possible to comprehend Taoism logically.

It is saying that the comprehension itself is part of your hologram.


«Related Articles»
-Beautiful words 81-1
-Good one 81-2
-Not knowledgeable 81-3
-Accumulate not 81-4
-Act of others 81-5
-Richer detachment 81-6
-Tao in Heaven 81-7
-Sage's Tao 81-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 81


Lao Tzu answers your question!



«Recommended Books 18» The most important function of a Japanese is making love. It doesn't matter if he is the poorest dropout living in the forests or the most revered priest of Shintoism living in the castle. He or she has got to make love. This could be a hidden heritage from our Polynesian ancestors or a genetic mission imprinted in the deepest recess of our chromosomes. Whatever it is the reason, the Japanese love to make love not only for the reproduction of the people but for pleasure. In spite of all the moral prohibitions by Confucianism and by jealous parents, Japanese girls have been successfully finding a way to enjoy making love. We used to have an institution called Geisha girls. Though it changes names and appearances, the institution never die out. A nice gift of a Gucci bag is an excuse good enough to make love with an aged stranger. Why? Because making love is sacred. Carnal desire is a manifestation of divinity. We, all the human beings, are divine. That's why we make love for pleasure. The gadgets for pleasure are offerings to the deity of joy. Please read «Kojiki», one of the oldest written records in Japanese, and «Love Songs from the Man'yoshu: Selections from a Japanese Classic», one of the oldest anthologies of Waka poems, which is a precursor of Haiku. You will see why love and desire are officially important.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 81-7 Tao in Heaven


Today's Tao

Heaven's Tao gives benefits and does not damage any. (Ch.81)


"Heaven" signifies "this world right here right now", which is your hologram.

Therefore, "Heaven's Tao" means Tao in a hologram, that is to say, Tao manifested as a hologram.

This manifestation is called Hossho 法性 in Buddhism.

Your life is Hossho.

Don't worry about how you live and how others live.

All the lives are more or less the same.

Your life that manifests itself right here right now is the most important.

Don't worry about someone else's criteria to judge a man's life.

When you see them in a book or on TV, just say "thanks" and ignore them.

Gratitude is an act of sending Love (=Tao).

All the acts take place in a hologram.

So, an act of sending Love takes place in a hologram, which is the life right here right now.

That's why you must not despise this world.

You receive "Tao's Love" and all the hologram it projects.


Zen Master Dogen says:

"You must not look at anywhere but this world in order to meet Buddha".

いわゆる世界は十方みな仏世界なり

(Kobutsushin 古仏心, «Shobogenzo»)


Meeting Buddha is receiving Love.

It takes place on your face. (☞See Face Transmission / Menju / Beauty 80-8)

That's why Dogen asks you to wash your face and body well. (Senjo 洗浄, «Shobogenzo»; Senmen 洗面, «Shobogenzo»)

The world is an extension of your body.

Keep your face clean.

It is one easy and practical way to accept this world.


«Related Articles»
-Beautiful words 81-1
-Good one 81-2
-Not knowledgeable 81-3
-Accumulate not 81-4
-Act of others 81-5
-Richer detachment 81-6
-Tao in Heaven 81-7
-Sage's Tao 81-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 81


Lao Tzu answers your question!



«Recommended Books 17» Zen Master Ikkyu was a good friend of Konparu Zenchiku, a dancer/actor of Noh theatre. This eccentric duo wrote and performed «Yama Uba» in a village in medieval Japan. You can study Zen Buddhism, but studying something is not necessarily living it. Rather, you can learn Zen without analyzing Sutras and Mantras. Meditation will certainly help you find out what Zen is, but if you think squatting a la Japonaise will teach it better than theatre does, you will never learn what it is. You can even learn Zen while frying French fries at a diner. Peter Brook's «Empty Space» inevitably makes a Japanese think about "Ma 間", spacial or sonic emptiness. The Japanese have been considering it as the rich source of creativity. If you find the concept of Everything = Nothing a bit too hard to grasp, why don't you look to this theatrical genius for advice? You don't have to go straight to the gate of Tao or Zen. Anne Bogart will show you some backstage door to get in there. Read her «Viewpoint», and you will see why theatre is a good friend of Zen Buddhism.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 81-6 Richer detachment


Today's Tao

Although he gives everything to others, he is richer. (Ch.81)


What is being rich?

The richest man is the one who can detach himself from all.

Don't be attached to wealth or prestige.

Don't be attached to an object or an idea.

Don't be attached to your life.

Don't be attached to individuality or your own self.

Mu ga 無我. Self doesn't exist. Or, nothingness is your true "self". (☞See Tao Te Ching / Chapter 7 / No Self)

Since the so-called "self" is part of a hologram, there is neither before-life nor after-life. (☞See Man's self 77-7 and After life / Task successfully accomplished 77-11 ☞As for "former life", see End of life 74-1)

An individual and independent soul does not exist. (☞See Out-Tao (Heresy) Seniya / Gedo Senni / Settled 80-9)

If you believe it does, you are too attached to the concept of individuality.

Don't think that your soul will go back to Tao after your life.

You have never left Tao in the first place.

You are always one with Tao. (☞See Tao by Matsumoto / One with Tao)

No life. No end of life. 不生不滅 [fusho fumetsu]. (☞See Live eternally 59-8)


«Related Articles»
-Beautiful words 81-1
-Good one 81-2
-Not knowledgeable 81-3
-Accumulate not 81-4
-Act of others 81-5
-Richer detachment 81-6
-Tao in Heaven 81-7
-Sage's Tao 81-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 81


Lao Tzu answers your question!



«Recommended Books 16» "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." The more difficult to pronounce the mantra is, the more sacred. One can laugh at exoticism, but is he able to show you the way? The way how you can overcome the fancy costumes? If the seemingly greener grass fascinates you, the only solution might be going over the fence into the other side and discovering that the grass has the same color. If a Japanese boy believes that Major League Baseball (or Premier League football) is definitely "greener" than the baseball (or football) his countrymen play, he's gotta go there and beat some hitting records (or play better than George Best). Until then, the kid will be trapped in a strange mixture of complacency and self-negation, saying to his fellow citizens: "You don't know what it really is. What we have is false. Look over there. They have got something authentic". Kafu Nagai needed to go to America to make enough money to see France. The money he had earned was barely enough to let the spoiled Japanese twenty-something hang around in France for just ten months. Did he find that the grass was the same green wherever one went? It seems that in his mind the grass still remained greener somewhere but he was not able to be there. To fill the gap between what he had and what he wished to have, he created his "strange" but adorable world in the life of a woman who practiced a libidinous profession illegally on the other side of the River Sumida.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 81-5 Act for others


Today's Tao

Although he does everything for others, he has more. (Ch.81)


First, who are "the others"?

The others are you.

All the other beings are an extended part of your own self.

The self under your control, Jiko 自己, and the self beyond your control, Tako 他己. (☞See Moonlight and Dewdrops / Dogs and Roosters 80-12)

They are the same hologram.

Therefore, Jiriki 自力/ Self-power, and Tariki 他力/ Other-power are the same. (☞See «Related Articles» below)

These concepts are useful tools to reduce resistance.

Second, what is the act of doing everything for others?

It is that of doing nothing.

Doing nothing is sending love (=Tao) by accepting all.

This is the true Za-zen 坐禅. This is the true sitting.

You receive Tao's energy through a hologram (=the world, =your life) without resistance by accepting all.

Then, you emit the energy while projecting a hologram.

Everything exists to maintain this cycle.

You live for this cycle. (☞See Eternal cycle 58-5)

Therefore, the most religious act of all is living.

Living is a catalyst, so there is neither better living nor worse living as long as you are emitting love.

What is happening in your hologram doesn't have the slightest importance.

You are doing nothing no matter what you are doing.

In other words, you are sending love no matter what you are doing.


«Related Articles»
-Beautiful words 81-1
-Good one 81-2
-Not knowledgeable 81-3
-Accumulate not 81-4
-Act of others 81-5
-Richer detachment 81-6
-Tao in Heaven 81-7
-Sage's Tao 81-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 81
-Your body = World 13-12
-Learn Self 33-2
-Tariki / faithful 49-6
-Aikido and Tariki / Other people's power 68-6


Lao Tzu answers your question!



«Recommended Books 15» What does fight teach you? It teaches you who you are. The way of Samurai is not an object sitting quietly in a museum. It is still alive. I is still evolving. Miyamoto Musashi's «The Book of Five Rings» was written in the seventeenth century. Please compare this classic with Tatsuo Kimura's «Transparent Power», which was written by a Japanese Mathematician working at Tsukuba University in 2008. Aikido and the quest of "the power / Ki" will never cease to impress us. Aikido 合気道 literally means "Tao of synchronized energy".

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 81-4 Accumulate not


Today's Tao

The sage doesn't accumulate. (Ch.81)


In Chapter 48, Lao Tzu says:

"When you study, you accumulate your knowledge everyday.

When you do Tao, you reduce everything every day." (☞See Reduce 48-1)

There are two important ways to look at reducing.


First, reduce your resistance. (☞See Tao Te Ching / Chapter 78 / Resistance)

Our raison d'être is to maximize the circulation of Tao's energy.

Accept everything as it is.

Be like water. (☞See Tao Te Ching / Chapter 8 / Be like water)

Use Dark Depth Female, 玄牝 [genpi].


Second, reducing is increasing.

This is what Yin Yang circle is telling you.

In Chapter 36, Lao Tzu shows us some examples.

Stretch = Shrink

Weak = Strong

Decline = Prosperity

Give = Take

Why don't you use Reverse Thinking?

This is a good way to activate Dark Depth Female.

How?

The easiest example may be:

"Instead of thanking Tao for letting you live, live to thank Tao".


«Related Articles»
-Beautiful words 81-1
-Good one 81-2
-Not knowledgeable 81-3
-Accumulate not 81-4
-Act of others 81-5
-Richer detachment 81-6
-Tao in Heaven 81-7
-Sage's Tao 81-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 81
-Reduce and reduce 48-2
-No increased life 55-12


Lao Tzu answers your question!



«Recommended Books 14» Laday Murasaki (Murasaki Shikibu)'s «The Tale of Genji» is strongly recommended. No Japanese has ever written a better novel. Many aspiring writers, medieval or modern, tried hard to create a better one, but in vain. The public domain e-book on the left has some selections from «The Tale of Genji». It is about a man who adored his mother, seduced his mother-in-law who looked exactly like his mother, and found a little girl who looked like his mother, raised and made her an ideal woman, and married her. The novel was written about 1000 A.D.. The e-book on the right is a full-length version translated by Royall Tyler. There is another version translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.