Tao Te Ching Chapter 58-6 Criterion?

Today's Tao

There is no criterion? (Ch.58)


If you don't judge, you don't need any criterion.

Or, you are the criterion because you are the one who projects your hologram.


Zen Master Dogen says:

"Good and evil, cause and result will make you create Buddha."

(Shoakumakusa 諸悪莫作, «Shobogenzo»)

「善悪因果をして修行せしむ」


Good, evil, cause, and result;

everything takes place in your hologram.

And the hologram is there to stimulate you to emit more love.

Do you still get enormous pleasure when you impose your criterion upon others?


«Related Articles»
-Dark Government 58-1
-Brilliant government 58-2
-Fortune = Misfortune 58-3
-Misfortune = Fortune 58-4
-Eternal cycle 58-5
-Criterion? 58-6
-Odd criterion 58-7
-Spooky 58-8
-Confused about time? 58-9
-Don't tear it! 58-10
-Kyoka (crazy song) hurts 58-11
-Straight = Bent 58-12
-Amida (Amitābha) shines 58-13
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 58


Tao answers your question!



☞Sen no Rikyu 千利休 did not invent Tea Ceremony, but profoundly reinvented this practice. We have various ways to call this art of living: «Cha do / Sa do», Tao of tea; «Cha no yu», the boiling water of tea; «Wabi Cha», Tea of wabi, the word "wabi" defies the translation, but it literally means "loneliness in nature". Attention! The three expressions here do not necessarily indicate the identical Tea Ceremony.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 56-12 Harm?

Today's Tao

You cannot do it harm. (Ch.56)


Tao is not material.

It has nothing to do with damage.

No matter what you do, you cannot damage Tao.


Zen Master Dogen paraphrases this:

"No one can ever do anything evil."

(Shoakumakusa 諸悪莫作, «Shobogenzo»)

「諸悪さらにつくられざるなり」


If you see something evil, do not judge because it is part of your hologram.

So, something seemingly harmful exists as a catalyst to stimulate you to emit more Love.

Trust Tao.

It is always intact.

No matter what you do, Tao will never ever judge you.

Don't worry.


«Related Articles»
-Don't say 56-1
-One who says 56-2
-Block the openings 56-3
-Be dull 56-4
-Untangled 56-5
-Soft light 56-6
-Kanshiketsu / Like dust 56-7
-One with Dark Depth 56-8
-Closer to Tao 56-9
-Staying away? 56-10
-Benefit 56-11
-Harm? 56-12
-Ennoble it? 56-13
-Debase it? 56-14
-Noblest 56-15
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 56


Tao answers your question!



☞Any place can be your Mind garden. You can create a Zen garden in your backyard. Or, you can imagine a movie theatre as if it was your Rock garden. The movie «Zen» is an easy and authentic introduction to Master Dogen's life.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 50-8 No tiger

Today's Tao

No tiger finds a place to place its claws at. (Ch.50)


One-horned water buffaloes and tigers are there for you.

It is you who decide whether you will be bothered or appreciate their presence.

Zen master Sozan Honjaku 曹山本寂 [Ts'ao-shan Pen-chi] told his disciple that when a mule looks at the well, the well looks at the mule. (Egenroku 会元録, Book 13)

Dogen wrote: "Not just that."

"The well looks at the well. The mule looks at the mule. A man looks at the man himself. A mountain looks at the mountain itself."

(Shoakumakusa 諸悪莫作, «Shobogenzo»)


«Related Articles»
-Life non-life 50-1
-Life 50-2
-Non-life 50-3
-Survival 50-4
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-Excellent life care 50-6
-No one-horned water buffalo 50-7
-No tiger 50-8
-No blade 50-9
-No desperate situation 50-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 50


Tao answers your question!



☞Some things have to be told whether the society accepts them or not. Some people have to have guts to tell them regardless of the risk of being ridiculed or even being prosecuted. Some truths are so simple and self-evident that people in the society do not want to accept them. Thank you, Mr Galileo. Thank you, Mr Pribram, for your holonomic brain model. Thank you, Mr Benveniste, for your homeopathic digital memory of water. Thank you, Ms Mctaggart, for telling us Galileo-like stories in your book «The Field». Please read the book. I can guarantee you that it will help you understand Tao and Zen better.

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.


«Related Articles»
-No heart 49-1
-People's heart 49-2
-A study of the Good 49-3
-Non-good 49-4
-Goodness 49-5
-Tariki / faithful 49-6
-Not faithful 49-7
-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
-No good man 27-9
-No bad man 27-10
-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 46-3 Greed / Shoaku makusa

Today's Tao

No crime is bigger than greed. (Ch.46)


Stop wanting too much.

That's for sure.

Then, why don't we go a step farther?

Is greed a crime?

Is crime something evil?

Can we really commit anything evil?


Zen master Dogen spots a light on this issue.


諸 悪 莫 作 [sho aku maku sa] each / evil / no / make


These words of Old Buddha are often interpreted as something like "Don't do anything evil".

Dogen laughs at this interpretation and reads the same sentence as this:

"No one can ever do anything evil".

(Shoakumakusa 諸悪莫作, «Shobogenzo»)

「つくられざりけるをつくりける」（諸悪莫作,『正法眼蔵』）


Besides, he says:


"Even if all the evils had covered the whole world in many layers and swallowed all, you could emancipate yourself by doing nothing."

(Shoakumakusa 諸悪莫作, «Shobogenzo»)

「諸悪たとひいくかさなりの尽界に弥綸（みりん）し、いくかさなりの尽法を呑却せりとも、これ莫作の解脱なり。」（同上）


«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!



☞«Kusa makura». It literally means "grass pillow". Somehow the words provoke the feeling of traveling and drifting in most Japanese. You use grasses as your pillow when you travel around without money. «Makura no soshi» can be read "pillow grass child". Of course, it doesn't make sense at all and should be read as «The Pillow Book». But those kanji / Chinese characters 草 and 枕 still remain there, reminding us that life is ephemeral.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 27-9 No good man

Today's Tao

So, a good man is the teacher of a non-good one. (Ch.27)


Don't judge anyone.

There is neither good man nor bad one.

Zen Master Dogen says:

"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»)

Today's Tao sentence should be read along with tomorrow's.

«Do nothing» is the creation of Tao's cycle.

If you read just Today's sentence, you will make just a one-way street.


«Related Articles»
-No traces 27-1
-Good speech 27-2
-Counting sticks 27-3
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-Strings nor cords 27-5
-Jimitokudo 27-6
-Things = Prayers 27-7
-Enter enlightenment 27-8
-No good man 27-9
-No bad man 27-10
-Lost completely 27-11
-Profound truth 27-12
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 27
-Tao by Matsumoto / Do not judge


Tao answers your question!



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-To a certain generation of Japanese men, Mako Midori (on the left) and Meiko Kaji (on the right) have left a long-lasting trace in their memory. While Meiko Kaji has been given some special place in the heart of some men living outside Japanese islands thanks to Quentin Tarantino, fewer and fewer men remembers the name of Mako Midori because of the diminishing number of baby boomers in the archipelago.