Showing posts with label Shiki soku ze ku. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shiki soku ze ku. Show all posts

Friday, July 30, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 45-3 Full = Empty


Today's Tao

Big's fullness seems empty. (Ch.45)


Even an "empty" space is filled with Tao.

Watch out!

This word "empty" is not the emptiness that suggests Tao.

The world is full of colours, right?

Those colours are holograms, which are manifestations of Tao the emptiness.

Let's review the cycle.


emptiness (Tao) → full of colours (hologram) → emptiness (Tao)

Therefore, emptiness = emptiness


full of colours (hologram) → emptiness (Tao) → full of colours (hologram)

Therefore, colours = colours


To explain this cycle, Master Dogen says:

"色即是空。空即是色。色是色なり。空即空なり。

[shiki soku ze ku. ku soku ze shiki. shiki ze shiki nari. ku soku ku nari.]"

Colours are justly emptiness. Emptiness is justly colours. Colours are colours. Emptiness justly emptiness.

(Makahannyaharamitsu 摩訶般若波羅蜜, «Shobogenzo»)


«Related Articles»
-Completion 45-1
-Never tired 45-2
-Full = Empty 45-3
-No exhaustion 45-4
-Straight = Winging 45-5
-Capable = Incapable 45-6
-Poor speech 45-7
-Tozan Ryokai / Cold 45-8
-Heat 45-9
-Clear and Still 45-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 45
-Empty 15-9
-Valleys and the Sea 32-9
-Filled valley 39-5
-Evident = Vague 40-6


Tao answers your question!



☞I am happy to introduce two great Japanese men. Each of them lived in two different contexts in two different periods of time. Kukai 空海 is the founder of Japanese Shingon 真言 Buddhism and the monastery in Mt Koya 高野山 in the ninth century. Ryotaro Shiba 司馬遼太郎 was a successful commercial novelist and thinker of a profound understanding about the history of Japan. The modern writer described Kukai's monastery as an "exceptionally different city state". Visit it if you have a chance. You can spend a night there and enjoy authentic Shojin 精進 dishes for Buddhist monks.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 39-5 Filled valley


Today's Tao

The valley attained One and got filled. (Ch.39)


In Taoism, "the valley" means emptiness.

"Valley God exists any time any where", says Lao Tzu in Chapter 6. (☞See also Valley God 6-1)

Once the emptiness gets Tao's energy, it gets filled and becomes a hologram.

The hologram constitutes the so-called world.

What you think has colours is in fact a hologram and emptiness.

色-[shiki]=colour (☞See Tao by Matsumoto / Chapter 4b / Color)

即-[soku]=just (or immediate)

是-[ze]=be

空-[kuu]=emptiness (or sky)

色即是空 [shiki soku ze ku]

空即是色 [ku soku ze shiki]

"Colour is justly nothing.

 Nothing is justly colour. " (Heart Sutra 般若心経)

That's how the Buddhists summarize the mechanism.


«Related Articles»
-Attain One 39-1
-Heaven 39-2
-Earth 39-3
-Gods 39-4
-Filled valley 39-5
-Hologram's birth 39-6
-Hologram's master 39-7
-One = Tao 39-8
-Heaven torn apart 39-9
-Earth unstable 39-10
-Gods rest 39-11
-Inexhaustible valley 39-12
-Ruined 39-13
-Lords and Kings = Masters 39-14
-Noble = Mean 39-15
-High = Low 39-16
-Lords and Kings = Less virtue 39-17
-Mean = Root 39-18
-No honor 39-19
-No jade 39-20
-Like stone 39-21
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 39
-Full = Empty 45-3


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.39 text / Next video


-You can compare Japanese society before and after the bubble-economy. Everything has changed? Not exactly. We still eat. We still sleep. The sun rises. The moon shines.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 15-9 Empty


Today's Tao

Empty, as if he were a valley. (Ch.15)


A: "Be empty."

B: "Sir,... Excuse me, sir. How can I be empty?

A: "Empty your mind."

B: "Yes, sir."

B tries to empty his mind.

B: "No, sir, I can't do it. I can't do it. Oh, my god! There must be something wrong with me. Something wrong with me!"


Don't worry.

Nobody needs to empty his mind.

Don't waste your time and energy. It doesn't matter if you can do it or not.

Your mind and body are a hologram. In a sense, you are already empty.

Then, what does "Be empty." mean really?

It means:

"No resistance. Accept all".


☞See Tao by Matsumoto / Chapter 6 / Valley God. The word "valley" is always associated with emptiness, vacuum, and void in Tao Te Ching.


Buddhists say:

Colour is justly equal to emptiness. Emptiness is justly equal to colour.

色即是空。空即是色。

[Shiki soku ze ku. Ku soku ze shiki.]


Dogen adds:

Colour is colour. Emptiness justly emptiness.

色是色なり。空即空なり。

(Makahannya Haramitsu 摩訶般若波羅蜜, «Shobogenzo»)


Naoto Matsumoto says:

You say Potato. I say Potahto.


«Related Articles»
-Dark Depth 15-1
-How profound! 15-2
-Mr I-know-Tao? 15-3
-Take time 15-4
-Hesitant 15-5
-Solemn 15-6
-Disintegrating 15-7
-Thick 15-8
-Empty 15-9
-Muddy water 15-10
-Muddy but clear 15-11
-Restructured World 15-12
-Break your mirror 15-13
-Break your face 15-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 15
-Full = Empty 45-3


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.15 text / Next video