Tao Te Ching Chapter 68-1 True samurai

Today's Tao

A true samurai doesn't fight. (Ch.68)


It is as clear as day.

If you don't fight, you will never be defeated.

The noun "samurai" came from the verb "saburau", which meant "to wait on" in the senses of "to attend or serve" and "to pay a respectful visit to".

A true samurai doesn't fight.

Or, at least, he does not look for a fight.

If it is inevitable to fight, he accept it.

He does not fight against fighting, either.

He does not fight against his hologram.

He knows that his act, the body, the enemy, and the fight itself are manifestations of Buddha (=Tao).


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-Limit of space and time 68-7
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 68


Tao answers your question!



☞It is interesting to compare the images of the samurai in two different periods of modern Japan. On the left, we have the famous «Seven Samurai» directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1954. On the right, «The Twilight Samurai / Tasogare Seibei たそがれ清兵衛» shot in 2002. It is directed by Yoji Yamada of the well-known «Tora-san» series.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-14 Heaven, Love, Tao

Today's Tao

Heaven surely saves those who send Love, and guards them by sending Love. (Ch.67)


Heaven, or the heavens, mean a hologram here.

Tao sends Love through your hologram.

The world is part of the hologram, which functions as a catalyst.

You receive Love through it.

And you send Love back to Tao by accepting and loving your hologram.

This is the cycle of Tao.

Everything exists in order to maintain this cycle.

But remember?

True You are Tao.

Tao is Love.

The exchange of the energy takes place in one entity, which we call Tao, Love, or true You.


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-Heaven, Love, Tao 67-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞There are quite a few translations of «Tao Te Ching» available for Kindle. Here we have one in Einstein Books and another in Public Domain Books. It is important to compare the translations. Besides, one has to be aware that most of them are interpretations rather than word by word translations.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-13 Love, win, defence

Today's Tao

By sending Love, if you wage war, you always win, and, if you defend something, you will be able to do it firmly. (Ch.67)


Send Love.

Then, you will never be beaten.

By sending Love, you will remember that there is no competition.

Accept all.

That's one way to send Love.

Without resistance, you will never block the flow of the energy Tao.

Do you think someone can take something from you?

No.

It is impossible because the world is your hologram and your own self is part of it.

Say "thank you" as often as you can.

Being grateful is one of the easiest ways to send Love.


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-Not the first 67-8
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-Heaven, Love, Tao 67-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞Whichever you like, Zen is Zen. «Kanzan» on the right is an adored subject of Zen paintings and stories. He is often paired with Jittoku. The laughers of «Kanzan Jittoku» are considered to symbolize an ideal Zen state of being. A teddy bear in a «I love Zen» T-shirt is able to symbolize Zen, isn't it?

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-12 Stuck in life

Today's Tao

Now, if you are brave without sending Love, if you are vast while wasting all, or if you want to be the first without being the last, you will end your life. (Ch.67)


Are you stuck in your life, the world, or the hologram?

There are three points to think about.


1. Are you brave without sending Love?

2. Do you believe that there is an objective world outside you?

3. Do you refuse to accept your life as it is?


不生 不滅

[fusho fumetsu]

No life. No end of life.

Life is your hologram.

You are never stuck in there.

You just think you are.


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-Not the first 67-8
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-Leader of the vessel 67-11
-Stuck in life 67-12
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-Heaven, Love, Tao 67-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞Here we have two books written by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, one of the best advocates of Zen and other schools of Buddhism internationally. They are «Manual of Zen Buddhism» and «An Introduction to Zen Buddhism».

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-11 Leader of the vessel

Today's Tao

I try not to be the first under the sky, so I can be the leader of the vessel. (Ch.67)


"Vessel" is a key word in Tao Te Ching and Taoism.

It is a metaphor of a hologram.

"When the uncarved block (=Tao) scatters, it becomes vessels." (☞See Vessels 28-13)

"The world under the sky is a god's vessel. Don't do anything to it." (☞See A god's vessel 29-2)

"Big's vessel will never be completed." (☞See No completion 40-15)

First, Tao, which is true You, projects a hologram.

Second, your own self is part of the hologram.

The self should not try to be the first in there because true You are already the leader of the vessel, that is to say, the projector of the hologram.

Third, holograms are projected and disappear constantly and simultaneously.

They are "never be completed", therefore, eternal.


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-Heaven, Love, Tao 67-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞«Raku 楽» means easy, happy, and comfortable. Who said life has to be difficult! Enjoy this easy and happy pot-making.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-10 Be vast

Today's Tao

I don't waste any, so I can be vast. (Ch.67)


You are vast because true You are Tao.

No matter what you do, you are not wasting Tao's energy.

You (=Tao) receive the energy through the world, which is your hologram.


In Zen Buddhism, they say:

"尽十方界是自己光明

[jin jippo kai kore jiko no komyo / jin juppo kai kore jiko no komyo]

Ten nooks and crannies of the whole world are your light".

(Komyo 光明, «Shobogenzo»)


You are as vast as the world.

You may not like this world.

You might think that you refuse to accept it.

But it is not possible because you are the world.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞«Koshihikari コシヒカリ» means the light of Niigata. It is the one of the best rice brands in Japan. «Genmai 玄米» is a Japanese expression for unpolished rice. It literally means black rice. The Kanji / Chinese character 玄 [gen] is also used to express Dark Depth, that is, Tao.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-9 Be brave

Today's Tao

I send Love, so I can be brave. (Ch.67)


Be brave.

But how can you be brave?

Lao Tzu asks you to send Love.

When you are afraid of something, you are doubting life.

The doubt is generated from the lack of Love, or the fundamental energy Tao.

In other words, doubt and fear are generated in order to increase the amount of Love.

So, what you have to do is quite simple.

Just send more Love.

Accept all.

This is "doing nothing".

A byproduct of "doing nothing" is making you remember that everything is a hologram and catalyst asking you to send Love.

Now you are brave.

How can you be afraid of a catalyst!


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞When we truly needs help, we always receive it. Or, we receive help constantly, but we don't realize it. Why did Shusaku Endo write about the Christian Samurai? Why Masuji Ibuse write Black Rain? When we need help, we find it in books sometimes.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-8 Not the first

Today's Tao

The third one is to try not to be the first under the sky. (Ch.67)


The third treasure is "to try not to be the first".

You don't have to be the best.

Don't try to be the number one.

You don't have to control the world "under the sky".

Because you are "the only respectable being" as the baby Buddha said. (☞See Ordinary? 67-3)

Because you are the one who projects the world, which is your hologram.

Try not to be the first.

Lower yourself. (☞See Verbally 66-2)

This is the way you activate Dark Depth Female 玄牝 [genpi].

If you try to do nothing, you will see the world changing naturally.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞On the left, it is "Ichiban 一番" in Kanji / Chinese characters. On the right, «Sapporo Ichiban» Miso taste. "Ichi" means one; "Ban", number. "Ichiban" means Number One. The Ramen is the best instant noodles from Sapporo, the name of the product claims. Sapporo is one of the heartlands of Ramen noodles in Japan. Unlike other noodles distributed internationally, the taste of «Sapporo Ichiban Miso Ramen» is not adapted to the consumers abroad. It tastes like typical and "authentic" instant Ramen noodles in their place of birth.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-7 Don't waste holograms

Today's Tao

The second one is not to waste any. (Ch.67)


The second treasure is "not to waste" any in your hologram.

Don't waste any because everything is the manifestation of Tao.

It is a catalyst asking you to emit more Tao (=Love).

Accept all with gratitude whether they are good or bad, and you will not waste any.

For example, chew everything well.

You are eating someone else's life whether it is an animal or a plant.

Assimilate its energy into your body with respect.

Not only food but everything is Master Dogen's "painted rice-cake / Gabyo 画餅", which stimulates you to fill Tao's mechanism with the energy of Love (=Tao).


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞The word "rice-cake" is misleading. It is used to express both the cake made of rice and the traditional Japanese Mochi rice cake. These are Japanese Mochi. The ones on the left are non-sweetened authentic cake for festivities. On the right, they are modern sweets invented relatively recently.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-6 Send Love

Today's Tao

The first one is to send Love. (Ch.67)


The first treasure is "to send Love".

This Love signifies not only the feeling between two people but the energy that sustains all the beings.

You can call it Tao, Buddha, Zen, the Higher Being, or whatever you think appropriate.

The expression is the translation of the Kanji / Chinese character 慈 [ji].

Receiving and sending this energy Love is the basis of the mechanism, which has plenty of names, including 心 [shin], 転法輪 [tenborin], and Yin Yang circle.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞The Kanji / Chinese character 心 can be interpreted in various ways. If you pronounce it [kokoro], it means heart. The character can signify the center such as part of 中心 [chushin]. At the chapter of Sangai yuishin 三界唯心 in his «Shobogenzo», Dogen asks us to interpret 心 [shin] as a mechanism.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-5 Protect the treasures

Today's Tao

I keep and protect them. (Ch.67)


You've got to keep and protect the three treasures, or the three important ways.


1. Send Love.

2. Don't waste any.

3. Don't try to be the first. / Try not to be the first.


How can you keep them?

It's easy.

Do nothing.

Do nothing?

Right.

Do nothing.

In fact, whether you are aware or not, you are practicing them all the time.

Your acts are part of your hologram.

So, whatever you do, you are sending Love.

You can never waste any of your hologram.

You are already the first without trying.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞Please look at this originality and creativity of Katsushika, Hokusai. Manga in Japan has a long history which goes back to the medieval era.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-4 3 treasures

Today's Tao

I have got three treasures. (Ch.67)


To be one with Tao, or to remember that true You are Tao, you have got three useful ways.


1. Send Love.

2. Don't waste any.

3. Don't try to be the first. / Try not to be the first.


First, you receive and send Love, which is the fundamental energy Tao.

Second, you should respect all the elements in your hologram.

All of them, the seemingly good and the seemingly bad alike, exist to stimulate you as catalysts.

So, don't waste them.

Third, you don't need to try to be "the first" because you are "the only respectable being". (☞See Ordinary? 67-3)

These three ways will be discussed one by one later.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞Jizo (Ksitigarbha) has an important role in Japan's everyday life. For example, this Japanese "Enka (country)" singer Koji Fukushima sings «Furusato Jizo / Jizo in my home village». "I wanna go home. I miss my Jizo."

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-3 Ordinary?

Today's Tao

If I were ordinary and looked like my parents, I would long have been small. (Ch.67)


You are special because true You are Tao.

Be courageous to say:

天上天下唯我独尊

[tenjo tenge yuiga doku son]

"Above heave, below heaven, I am the only respectable being".

The baby Buddha said this when he was born.

This baby Buddha is you.

Don't try to be "ordinary" like others.

If you try to be ordinary, you will be stuck in your hologram.

This is the state of being "small".

You will be stuck in your "small" self, or mind, or body.

Aren't you thinking that you are a "small" part of the world?

No. You are the biggest and most respectable of all because you are the one who projects it.

How can you be ordinary!


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞To Nobuyoshi Araki, shooting a woman is an act of love. Unlike Hokusai and Utamaro he is able to use cameras. Now love in Tokyo can be recorded numerically.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-2 Parents

Today's Tao

Simply I am Big, so I resemble an idiot who doesn't look like his parents. (Ch.67)


Big is a nickname of Tao. (☞See Ch. 25 Manifestation and Big 25-9)

Then, what is "an idiot who doesn't look like his parents"?

Please do not mix this expression with Bumo misho izen: before the father and the mother are born.

This expression is the translation of the Kanji / Chinese characters 不肖 [fusho].

It means an idiot, but the two characters originally signified "not to resemble the parents" (Osamu Kanaya, «Roshi 老子», Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko)

Today's Tao sentence means:

"Simply true You are Tao, so you resemble an idiot who does not look like others in your hologram".

Don't be intelligent, and you will remember Tao is true You.


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-Heaven, Love, Tao 67-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞Osamu Kanaya (1920 - 20060) was a Japanese specialist on Chinese philosophy. It seems that his works have never been translated into English. It is a pity.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-1 Idiot

Today's Tao

Everyone in the world under the sky says that I am Big and resemble an idiot who doesn't look like his parents. (Ch.67)


Everyone in the world under the sky, including "parents" or whoever, is part of your hologram.

When you talk about Tao, people must laugh at you, saying like:

"All right, all right. You are Tao. You are the sage. I know. I know. I am sick and tired of hearing that I have got to love others. Listen. I don't want to patronize you, but your stories about Tao are bizarre. You speak like an idiot. Look at your family. Your parents, brothers, and sisters are quite normal. You are a black sheep in the family."

Lao Tzu is saying that other people should react like that.

You "resemble an idiot".

You are not like your parents, who are part of the hologram.

The holograms are also called prayers, which are telling you that true You are Tao. (☞About Big = Tao, see Ch.25 Manifestation)


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


Tao answers your question!



☞Nobuyoshi Araki is one of the most important photographers in post-war Japan. He is an acute witness of the life in Tokyo. So was Hokusai in Edo, which is the former name of the current capital of Japan.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 66-7 Don't compete

Today's Tao

He doesn't compete, so no one in the world under the sky can compete with him. (Ch.66)


You want to fight, right?

"Get up and stand up. Don't give up to fight."

Right?

But against what?

Everyone and everything in the world is part of your hologram.

You are the one who projects it.

Do you want to compete with yourself?

It's useless.

Don't stand up.

Lower yourself.

That's Lao Tzu's message.

Don't fight.

Love all.

Everything you see is asking you to send Love (=Tao).


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 66


Tao answers your question!



☞Read «Tannisho» by Yuien to find out what Shinran and Honen's «Akunin shoki setsu: the Doctrine of Evil Persons as the Object of Salvation» is.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 66-6 Support

Today's Tao

Therefore, the world under the sky is happy to support him and never hates him. (Ch.66)


"Therefore, the world is perfect."

That's what Lao Tzu is saying.

Your hologram is perfect.

It must be.

Don't judge it.

Just accept it.

Do not impose your criteria on it.

"Support" and "hatred" are one's interpretation.

No matter how awful it looks, it is the manifestation of Love (=Tao).

Do not doubt it.

It seems awful because we see it with our limited capacity of comprehension.

Or, even accept your own judgement as part of the hologram that comes and goes.

All you have to do is to emit as much love as you can.

That's the one and only thing the world is asking you to do.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 66


Tao answers your question!



☞On the left, Heart Sutra. It is called Hannya Shin gyo in Japanese. On the right, «Essence of the Heart Sutra: The Dalai Lama's Heart of Wisdom Teachings»

Tao Te Ching Chapter 66-5 Harmless

Today's Tao

He puts himself before people, but they find him harmless. (Ch.66)


Even though true You are the creator of the world, which is your hologram, people inside it don't know it.

Even your own self doesn't know it.

This is the origin of suffering.


Zen Master Dogen says:

身先の心あり、身後の心あり。

[shinsen no shin ari, shingo no shin ari]

"There is a mechanism before the body. There is a mechanism after the body."

(Sangaiyuishin 三界唯心, «Shobogenzo»)


In the mechanism, you receive Love (=Tao) and emit Love.

The body is your hologram.

So is the world.

You emit Love before creating it.

You receive Love after accepting it.

Love is nothing but harmless.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 66


Tao answers your question!



☞The title of the book on the left is «Vision of Awakening Space and Time Dogen and Lotus Sutra». On the right, Diamond Sutra is called 金剛般若波羅蜜多経, Kongo Hannyaharamita kyo, or simply Kongo Kyo.