Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-11 Close ears & eyes

Today's Tao

People all open their ears and eyes, but the sage closes all of them. (Ch.49)


The sage never watches the news on TV because he knows so-called objective information is truly misleading.

Now it is about time we followed the attitude of Nikko's three monkeys.

See nothing.

Say nothing.

Hear nothing.

Not just something evil.

Nothing at all because we don't judge.

Or, let's go a tiny step farther.

All what we see is a hologram and catalyst to stimulate us.

We watch and listen to all the financial disasters and environmental catastrophes, while knowing that they are a prayer wheel or Horin 法輪, the wheel of Tao's manifestation.

And we will thank all of them for taking place, while receiving their Love and sending your Love to them.


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-Faith 49-8
-Have no heart 49-9
-Inmo and No mind 49-10
-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞Nikko is a place you must not miss when you visit Japan. It is not too far from Tokyo, and, if you have a day-off, it is enough to pay a visit to Toshogu shrine and see the famous three monkeys of "Mizaru, Kikazaru, and Iwazaru" (See no evil, hear no evil, and say no evil, respectively in Japanese). You can also visit the beautiful Kegon-no-Taki Falls. Watch out! Wild monkeys might violently welcome you there. The real monkeys there have nothing to do with Lao Tzu's wisdom and are happy to rob you of the sweets in your bag.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-10 Inmo & No mind

Today's Tao

When he makes the world under the sky, he has no mind. (Ch.49)


When you "make the world under the sky", in other words, when you project your hologram, true You have "no mind".

Tao has neither mind nor intention to dictate the hologram.

Tao is not a judge.

That's why a hologram is called Inmo Butsu 恁麼物, a "what on earth" thing in Zen Buddhism. (☞See Capable = Incapable 45-6)

We don't have to know where Inmo Butsu or a hologram comes from.

We don't need to know why Inmo Butsu or the world is like this.

No one is responsible for Inmo Butsu.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49
-Tao by Matsumoto / Country


Tao answers your question!



☞Haruki Murakami adored F. Scott Fitzgerald. He even translated «Great Gatsby» into Japanese though several Japanese translations had already existed. To understand «Babylon Revisited» truly, the Japanese needed to wait until Plaza Accord. After the agreement, the value of Japanese Yen multiplied. Paris was no longer out of reach for most of the Japanese.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-9 Have no heart

Today's Tao

When the sage stays in the world under the sky, he has no heart. (Ch.49)


"The sage" means you because you are the one who projects your hologram, which is the world.

"The world under the sky" signifies your hologram.

Therefore, Today's Tao sentence is decrypted:

"When you stay in your hologram, you have no heart".

"No heart" suggests:

"Your own feelings, thoughts, senses, and even body and mind do not exist outside the hologram".

If you think they are illusions, it will be easier for you to understand how Tao's cycle and holograms work.


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-Inmo and No mind 49-10
-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞Heart, mind, and essence; all of them can be translated as Kokoro / Shin. In the process of the translation from Japanese to English, they are all mixed up, with a reason. Because the first two; heart and mind; are manifestations of Tao, which is Hannya (=Wisdom, =essence). "Learning Hannya is False Emptiness (=Koku, =hologram). False Emptiness is learning Hannya. 学般若これ虚空なり。虚空は学般若なり。" (Makahannyaharamitsu 摩訶般若波羅蜜, «Shobogenzo») Hannya = Emptiness. The world, heart and mind included, (=False Emptiness, =hologram) exists to give us chances to learn Hannya (=Tao).

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-8 Faith

Today's Tao

I attain faith. (Ch.49)


A: "Master Bonbon, how can I attain my faith?"

B: "The more money you donate to our organization, the closer you get to your faith."


You may laugh at Master Bonbon, but are you sure the priest next to you is better than him?

Let's make it clear that salvation or Satori is free of charge.

You don't have to pay for your faith.

Let me put it another way.

Whether you have faith or not, your objective is to maintain the circulation of the fundamental energy Tao. Nothing else.

The moment you remember this, you attain faith.


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-Inmo and No mind 49-10
-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49
-Tao by Matsumoto / Attainment


Tao answers your question!



☞«Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers». "Kami" etymologically means "up above". The Japanese still think that there is something devine up there. The kanji / Chinese character is also pronounced "Shin". The way the divinity wants to do his business is, therefore, called "Kami nagara no michi / Shinto". Once in a while, gods up there send some divine winds to shake and save the floating world. Those students were supposed to be the divine winds incarnated, but they knew what they really were. Read their testimonies.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-7 Not faithful

Today's Tao

I think someone not faithful is faithful, too. (Ch.49)


If you have no faith in anything, it is all right, too.

Whether you believe something or not, Tao works anyway.

Unless you suffer from the existence of your own self;

that is to say, frustration, jealousy, anger, or any pain you can name,

it might be better not to be conscious of faith.

But, if Tao doesn't work for you, and if Zen (=Jiriki / Self-power) doesn't work with you, either, don't worry.

You still have Tariki / Other-power.


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-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞The truth has to be simple. It would be strange if it was not valid for everyone. Once you attain Tao, which means you remember that true You are Tao, the barrier between your own self and the others will disappear. Jiriki / Self-power will be synonymous with Tariki / Other-power. The boundary between Christianity and Buddhism will no longer exist as late Shusaku Endo experienced. The Japanese Catholic novelist wrote «Deep River», where all religions are mixed in the water.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-6 Tariki / faithful

Today's Tao

I think someone faithful is faithful. (Ch.49)


Why don't we regard faith as a tool?

If you have faith in something, you are less prone to be fooled by your gigantic ego or Self in Mayoi.

Shinran shonin's Tariki / Other-power is an excellent tool in order to activate Dark Depth Female 玄牝 [gen pi] and change the world (=your hologram).

By asking Tariki / Other-power to do all the work, logically you do nothing.

You create no resistance while your hologram, which is the world, is transforming itself.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tariki: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace». The subtitle of the book is a nice and correct way to explain the word "Tariki / Other Power". Of course, the Other Power embraces happiness and joy, too. But the idea is that you should embrace something hard to embrace. For the very hardship is a manifestation of Buddha's love as well as a miracle. Japanese novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki talks about his teenage experience of the Japanese repatriation from the Korean Peninsula. "Even good people will become Buddha, not to mention evil people." (Shinran's Akunin Shoki Setsu)

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-5 Goodness

Today's Tao

I attain goodness. (Ch.49)


What is goodness?


Let's ask again the author of "A Study of the Good", Kitaro Nishida.

He answers:

"It is to find out the true Self".

Don't we ask him how, do we?

His answer is:

"By eliminating your false self."

In Christianity, it is called reincarnation.

In Buddhism, it is called Kensho 見性, seeing into one's nature, says Nishida.


How can we eliminate our false self?

Simple.

You do nothing.

Because you don't have the false self from the beginning.

It is just part of your hologram.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞A quotation from Kitaro Nichida's «An Inquiry into the Good / A Study of the Good»: "According to Aurelius Augustinus (St. Augustine), something bad does not exist in the world, and the nature which God created is all good, but the lack of the true nature is bad." (Book III, Chapter XIII, A perfectly good deed)

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-4 Non-good

Today's Tao

I think something not good is good, too. (Ch.49)


Good is good.

Non-good is good, too. That is to say, evil is good, too.


Shinran said:

"Even good people will become Buddha, not to mention evil people".

(«Tannisho», Chapter 3)

「善人なおもて往生をとぐ、いはんや悪人をや」

This is Akunin shoki setsu (The Doctrine of Evil Persons as the Object of Salvation / becoming Buddha).


Dogen wrote:

"It is not that something evil does not exist. Just do nothing. It is not that something evil exists. Just do nothing."

(Shoakumakusa 諸悪莫作, «Shobogenzo»)

「諸悪なきにあらず、莫作なるのみなり。諸悪あるにあらず、莫作なるのみなり」


To Lao Tzu it was much clearer.

If you don't judge, there is neither good nor evil.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49
-No good man 27-9
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-Lost completely 27-11
-No arrogance 30-8


Tao answers your question



☞Don't do any extra effort. Just thank everything for taking place. Instead of helping yourself by effort, let Tariki / Other Power help you. Tannisho is supposed to have written in the thirteenth century by Yuien, a disciple of Shinran, who himself was Honen's. Honen is the founder of Japanese Pure Land school Buddhism / Jodo shu Buddhism. Shinran is the founder of Jodo Shin shu (the true school of Pure Land) Buddhism. Shinran is contemporary to Dogen, the founder of Japanese Soto shu Zen Buddhism.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-3 A Study of the Good

Today's Tao

I think something good is good. (Ch.49)


What is the good?

Let's ask a good friend, a high school mate of the well-know Zen scholar Daisetz Suzuki.

He is Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida, the author of «A Study of the Good».

He says:

"We have only one true good, which is to find out the true Self."

(Book III Chapter 13, «A Study of the Good»)


Watch out.

Nishida is not talking about a self that comes and goes.

He is talking about the true You.

The readers of Today's Tao surely know what it is.


Kitaro Nishida@wiki


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-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞«A Study of the Good» and «An Inquiry into the Good» are the same book. They are the translation of «Zen no Kenkyu» originally written in Japanese by Kitaro Nishida. Kitaro Nishida might probably be the only Japanese philosopher whose works are fairly available in other languages than Japanese. He was a classmate of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki at a high school in Kanazawa, Japan. The dynamic duo's contribution to the English-speaking Zen community is immeasurable. When you get confused with an oriental philosophy, ask Kitaro or Daisetz.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-2 People's heart

Today's Tao

He takes people's heart as his own. (Ch.49)


In Zen Buddhism, we call this

尽十方界無一人不自己

[jin juppo (jippo) kai jiko ni arazarumono hitorimo nashi].

That is to say, "in ten nooks and crannies of the whole world, there is no one who is not your own self."

(Jippo 十方, «Shobogenzo»)


People's feelings are yours.

Their thoughts are yours, too.

You and non-you are the same.

Why don't we call them "yourself under your control" and "yourself beyond your control".

Other people are "yourself beyond your control" like your stomach and intestines.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞"Hara gei / Haragei 腹芸" can be translated as the art of the belly, which is the ultimate art of non-verbal communication even without gestures. As time goes by, Japan has been transforming itself from a beehive of robot-like human working bees to a lazy post-consumer society with real robots who do the work. Did Haragei lose its significance? Yes, in a way. No, at the deep bottom of communication in the country. Please watch cute Sylvie Testud's «Fear and Trembling» or read its original by Amelie Nothomb. The Floating World's business attitude has changed, but you are still expected to sense the demand of the person in front of you before he or she pronounces it in the island of Uki-yo.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-1 No heart

Today's Tao

The sage always has no heart. (Ch.49)


無心 [mu shin] / no heart.

First, let's read this as "there is nothing called «heart»".

We can accept that our feelings do not belong to us and come from somewhere else.

They are part of our hologram.

Second, let's read the sentence as "nothingness is our heart".

We can accept that our feelings are manifestations of Tao.

No matter how we feel, we cherish our feelings as something sacred.


[Note]
心 [shin]: the Tao/hologram mechanism in Zen Buddhism, sometimes translated as mind or heart. It means the center. Picture the center of the Yin Yang circle. (☞See By going down 61-8) In this sense, 無心 [mu shin] can be interpreted as "no mechanism". Nothingness is the mechanism. The mechanism is nothingness. In other words, the mechanism is the manifestation of Tao.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞Please look at the Kanji / Chinese character on the cover of Natsume Soseki's «Kokoro» on the left. Can you identify the character? It is identical to the one up at the beginning of today's entree. This Kanji character 心 is pronounced [kokoro] or [shin], depending on the context. The confusing thing is that the Kanji 心 [kokoro / shin] is translated as "heart" or "mind" in English, depending on the convenience of the translator. Mercy 38-4, No form 40-17, One's birth 42-1 also have little articles on Natsume Soseki's «Kokoro».

Tao Te Ching Chapter 48-5 Do something

Today's Tao

If you do something, you will never get the world. (Ch.48)


"Do something for the world!"

"Do something for the planet!", people shout.

Haven't we kept on shouting this modern-day mantra for long enough?

Long enough to learn that this "Do something!" attitude never works?

If we intervene, things will get more complicated.

By blocking the natural flow of Tao, you will get stuck in your own hologram.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 48


Tao answers your question!



☞ Previous video / Ch.48 text / Next video


☞Takashi Murakami is not Haruki Murakami the novelist. He is a painter with a traditional background of Nihon-ga, the Japanese painting. He is well known as a creator of the colorful Luis Vuitton design. The artist paints modern-day Japanese mandalas, using Manga-like images and a keen sense of art business.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 48-4 Get the world

Today's Tao

You always get the world by doing nothing. (Ch.48)


Doing nothing signifies accepting the fact that we are doing nothing.

It is about time we stopped bragging we are in control.

We can't even control our body, emotion, or mind.

"The world" is part of your hologram.

So, "get the world" means "accept your hologram".

We can do it right here right now, can't we?

Or, do you still want to say that you need years of mortification and meditation before you receive Satori as a diploma or something?


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 48


Tao answers your question!



☞ Previous video / Ch.48 text / Next video


☞«Manual of Zen Buddhism» By Taisetz Teitaro Suzuki is a good book. It is not a "manual" in the sense of a training manual in which you can find out how to do a thing, but is a manual in that of "a book of the forms to be used by priests in the administration of the sacraments." (Apple Dictionary) The book has a comprehensive collection of sutra prayers from India and admonitions by Chinese and Japanese masters.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 48-3 Do nothing / video

Today's Tao

By doing nothing, you can do everything. (Ch.48)

Japan stories

The Japanese are tired now. Not only the old ones, but also the young ones.

Especially the young male Japanese are very tired. Some of them are even too exhausted to make love.

The girls call them herbivore boys.

Men with a vital libido who do not miss a chance to "eat the meat of a girl" are considered carnivore.

Carnivore boys do not mind hanging around all night to look for their prey at Roppongi in Tokyo. On the other hand, the herbivore prefer staying at home without wasting energy.

The choice between them has nothing to do with the attractiveness of his personality or appearance. Herbivore boys are not necessarily ugly nor have bad manners. Some of them are good-looking and gentlemanly.

Simply, they do not have desire to follow his prey and to devour her heart and body. The herbivore boys are not interested in those "trifle" matters. There are much more important things in life. For example, taking the photos of trains and playing Loveplus on Nintendo DS.


Please visit Do nothing 48-3 to read the Today's Tao sentence.


Tao answers your question!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 48-2 Reduce and reduce / video

Today's Tao

You reduce and reduce it.

Eventually, you reach the state of doing nothing. (Ch. 48)

Japan stories

Some things change. Other things remain the same.

Please look at the photo. I shot it in the parking lots of a supermarket in my hometown Chiba, Japan. The place was a rice paddy when I was a child.

Can you see what the boy is looking at? Those are Yakitori. Yaki mesa "to grill" and Tori "a bird". If you speak about its meaning etymologically, the word should be used only for grilled chicken on a bamboo skewer. But these days the term is employed to describe any meat on a skewer as the contradiction in the photo shows: on the red lantern it says "Yakitori", but most of the photos with prices are inviting you to buy «pork» on a skewer.

Although the image has integrated into a Japanese landscape, a van like this is not at all an authentic Yatai, which is a sort of ricksha with a kitchen facility. The chef would pull the cart, spraying the nice smell in the neighborhood. It was hard to resist.

Well, the smell hasn't change much. All the skewered meats being grilled tickle the inside of our nostrils from the distance.

Visit Japan and taste it!



To read the text of Today's Tao sentence, please visit Reduce and reduce 48-2.


Tao answers your question!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 47-4 Accomplish with no act

Today's Tao

That's why the sage doesn't go but know, doesn't see but know, and doesn't act but accomplish. (Ch.47)


Forget national politics and international affairs.

You don't have to do anything in order to make the perfect world "better".

If you do nothing, everything comes about naturally.

If you are not happy about the world (=your hologram), it is you who has to change, not the world.

The bigger it looks, the smaller it is in your hologram.

The closer, the more important.

Who is the closest to you?


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 47


Tao answers your question!



☞ Previous video / Ch.47 text / Next video


☞You may not like Manga Japanese cartoons. If so, I am afraid to tell you that you are avoiding the easiest way to understand Japanese traditions and legends. Manga is a modern-day equivalent to story-telling by a grand-pa or grand-ma by the mantlepiece. Highly metaphysical concepts like reincarnation and soul are explained with friendly images and cute characters. Japanese kids will remain quite "Japanese" this way.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 47-3 Kensho Jobutsu / No Away

Today's Tao

The farther you go away from it, the less of it you know. (Ch.47)


Osamu Kanaya talks about Kensho Jobutsu 見性成仏 of Zen Buddhism in his Japanese translation of this chapter of Tao Te Ching. («Roshi», Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko, Kodansha, Tokyo)

"See one's nature and become Buddha." (=Kensho Jobutsu 見性成仏)

You are Buddha. You are Tao.

So, it is logical that "The farther you go away from" your own self, the less you learn about Tao and Buddha.

First, you learn that your own self and the rest of the world are part of the hologram. (1)

Then, your hologram will teach you what Tao and Buddha is. (2)


Naoto Matsumoto adds:

This exchange between (1) and (2) is precisely the cycle of Yin and Yang, Tao's cycle,  the prayer wheel, or the wheel of the manifestation (Horin 法輪).

That's why turning the wheel of the manifestation (Tenborin 転法輪) is interpreted as preaching, where the learning and the teaching of (1) and (2) take place simultaneously.

This is synonymous with receiving and sending Love.


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Tao answers your question!



☞A man who can speak English cannot talk about Zen as well as this Japanese man does. A man who can talk about Zen cannot speak English as well as the Japanese man does. His name is Daisetz Suzuki. He asks us three questions: "Can we live by Zen?", "Can we live with Zen?", and "Can we live Zen?". His answer is a rhetorical question: "Can we live without Zen?". Whether you live by Zen or not, Zen is you. One cannot live without Zen.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 47-2 Not out of Self

Today's Tao

Without looking out of the window, you see Heaven's Tao. (Ch.47)


Although Tao is not visible, thank God, Heaven's Tao is.

"Heaven" means your hologram, which is the world.

"Heaven's Tao" means a manifestation of Tao.

"The window" suggests your own self, which is part of your hologram.

Therefore, Today's Tao sentence signifies:

"Without going out of your own self, you can see a manifestation of Tao".

You don't have to go into any altered state or anywhere.

Satori is "right here right now".


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Tao answers your question!



☞Soto Zen Buddhism in Japan was founded by Dogen in the thirteenth century. «Shobogenzo», which embodies the entire philosophy of the greatest philosopher we have ever had in the land of the floating world Uki-yo, is written in the mixture of Japanese and Chinese. For some monks, it was too metaphysical and uninviting, so they found a refuge in the warmth of geisha girls. Way to go!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 47-1 No outside

Today's Tao

Without getting out of the door, you know the world under the sky. (Ch.47)


Certainly, Lao Tzu didn't know what we do these days.

We don't have to go outdoor to see what is going on in the rest of the world.

We watch TV or videos on Internet.

Although it sounds contradictory, we have to stay at home to "know the world under the sky".

Exactly because of this we have to ask ourselves the question:

"Where are those things happening?".


Modern medicine may answer:

"Inside your brains. All the information has to be reconstructed there".


Taoism and Zen Buddhism may answer:

"The world exists inside your hologram, not outside it. So does your own self".


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Tao answers your question!



☞"Mr. Dustin Hoffman, do you really agree with Lao Tzu? The old Chinese master thinks that Heave and Earth treat everything as straw dogs." The American actor may not, but Yukio Mishima's hero in «The Temple of Golden Pavilion» might. The young monk with speech defect might think Heaven and Earth and everyone on the planet treat him as a straw dog. Even the incredibly beautiful Golden Pavilion "looks at" him as a disposable straw dog, he would have thought. Now, it is his turn to look at it as a paper pavilion of origami, and sets fire to destroy its beauty. The novel is based on a true story.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 46-6 Content x 3

Today's Tao

Therefore, if you know the contentment of being content, you are always content. (Ch.46)


Please don't think that the truth has to be beyond our comprehension.

On the contrary, the truth is simple.

"The contentment of being content" means "accepting the world happily and love it dearly".

At the moment of their final teachings before they left this world, Buddha and Dogen talked about 八大人覚 [hachi dainin gaku] / Eight Satori of great men.

The second of them is 知足 [chi soku] "Know contentment." and the last 不戯論 [fu ke ron] "Don't argue casually".

"Don't argue casually" means "to learn to completely accept everything as it is 究尽実相", said Dogen. (Hachidainingaku 八大人覚, «Shobogenzo»)


«Related Articles»
-Sowing 46-1
-Arms / Joshu 46-2
-Greed / Shoaku makusa 46-3
-Not content? 46-4
-Want no gain 46-5
-Content x 3 46-6
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 46


Tao answers your question!



☞When you swim, do you jump straight into the cold water without any warm-ups? Well, it is not recommendable, is it? When you try to understand Eastern philosophies, it is not recommendable to start reading Tao Te Ching or Master Dogen's Shobogenzo right away, either. You will simply be lost in their contradiction and frustrated by the incoherence. To depart for a spiritual adventure, why don't you begin with «LOL2A-Principle, or the perfectness of the world» and Hermann Hesse's «Siddhartha: An Indian Tale» and warm yourself up a bit?

Tao Te Ching Chapter 46-5 Want no gain

Today's Tao

No fault is more miserable than wanting to gain. (Ch.46)


Learn that gain and loss are the same.

If you want to only gain, you will be lost in Mayoi.

But, please remember there is nothing wrong with Mayoi.

You may feel frustrated, but that's all.

You don't have to detest the state of Mayoi.


Dogen thinks:

"You get lost by prayers. Prayers never make you get lost."

なんぢ経にまどふ、経なんぢをまよはさず

(Bukkyo 仏経, «Shobogenzo»)


As for gain, if you cannot help wanting it, try to gain as much as possible.

Your desire is a prayer.


«Related Articles»
-Sowing 46-1
-Arms / Joshu 46-2
-Greed / Shoaku makusa 46-3
-Not content? 46-4
-Want no gain 46-5
-Content x 3 46-6
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 46


Tao answers your question!



☞Mr Kawabata, I hope you didn't do it in reality. You only did it in your own imagination or creation. «The lake» is about a man who follows and observes the woman he adores. The act has a undesirable chance of being considered as "stalking" in the current social and political climate where everyone has to be "correct". When you read Yasunari Kawabata's works from this point of view, well, in most of his books, the acts described there are not really recommendable to imitate. You are risking too much.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 46-4 Not content?

Today's Tao

No calamity is bigger than not knowing contentment. (Ch.46)


A: "Master Bonbon, I want to be happy? What should I do?"

B: "Be content, and you will be happy."

A: "But, Master Bonbon, tell me how I can be content."

B: "Pay your annual income, and you can buy contentment from our organization."


What is contentment, really?

It is the same as doing nothing.

All of us are here to sustain the system, which is the cycle of the fundamental energy with many different names.

But our task is very simple.

We accept and love what we experience, with contentment, by doing nothing.


«Related Articles»
-Sowing 46-1
-Arms / Joshu 46-2
-Greed / Shoaku makusa 46-3
-Not content? 46-4
-Want no gain 46-5
-Content x 3 46-6
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 46


Tao answers your question!



☞Some colors are forbidden to wear. The color Korozen (#d99502) is the color that only the emperor of Japan can wear. It is reddish yellow, which is very difficult to dye. No korozen color is identical to another, they say. As for Yukio Mishima's «Forbidden Colors», its impression seems to vary as much as the korozen. Color implies desire in Japan. Some adore Mishima's audacity to write about the forbidden desire. Others simply try to deny the existence of the forbidden practice in many established institutes in the land of Samurai.