Tao Te Ching Chapter 64-9 A thousand league travel

Today's Tao

A travel of a thousand leagues starts from beneath the feet. (Ch.64)


Don't be fooled by size or distance.

Space doesn't exist in Tao.

There is a famous story used as a Zen koan concerning space.


When Seppo Gison 雪峰義存 [Hsueh-feng I-tsun] asked Gensha Shibi 玄沙師備 [Hsuan-sha Shih-pei] why he would not go on a pilgrimage, the latter answered:

"Daruma / Bodhidharma 達磨 did not come to East Land (=China).

The Second Ancestor did not go to West Heaven (=India)."

達磨不来東土。

二祖不往西天。

（Keitoku dento roku / Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, No. 18 景徳伝燈録第十八）


Dogen explains:

"Gensha's answer 'Daruma / Bodhidharma 達磨 did not come to East Land' was not a ridiculous remark of whether he came or not.

It is the principle that lands have no earth at all".

玄沙道の達磨不来東土は来而不来の乱道にあらず。

大地無寸土の道理なり。

(Hensan 遍参, «Shobogenzo»)


Lands are a hologram.

So are East and West.

Therefore, there is "no earth", that is to say, no space.

All of them exist as catalysts.

Just remember.

The earth beneath your feet and the land thousands of miles away are asking you the same thing:

"Send Love (=Tao)."


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 64
-Bodhidharma from the West 54-21


Tao answers your question!



☞«No Longer Human» is not a bad English title, but the title of Osamu Dazai's masterpiece is called «Ningen Shikkaku» in Japanese. A Japanese-English dictionary will tell you that the word "shikkaku" signifies failure or disqualification. Its antonym in Japanese is "gokaku". It is undoubtedly the happiest Japanese word in February and March, when most entrance examinations are held. "Ningen" means a human being. Dazai is declaring: "I flunked the examination as a human being!". What will happen if you fail it? Shusaku Endo, the author of «The Sea and Poison», «Silence», and «The Samurai», may answer: "Whether we succeed or fail, all of us go to «Deep River» eventually".