Tao Te Ching Chapter 53-2 Flat Tao

Today's Tao

Big Tao is very flat, but people prefer small shortcuts. (Ch.53)


The word "Tao" is sometimes translated as "a way".

When you follow Tao, your big way is flat, and it is easy to advance there.

Following Tao or practicing Zen is easy. Period.

Who says it is difficult!


"Sir, practicing Zen is very difficult, so you have to buy this Japanese kimono. With our kimono, you will reach Satori immediately"

"Madam, following Tao is very difficult, so you have to buy this hi-tech headset. This miraculous headset will give you the same effect as thirty years' meditation."


Don't listen to them.

No shortcuts are better than doing nothing.


«Related Articles»
-No intelligence 53-1
-Flat Tao 53-2
-Clean court 53-3
-Wild field 53-4
-Painted rice cake / Empty granary 53-5
-Too much money 53-6
-Thief's luxury 53-7
-Hologram is not Tao 53-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 53


Tao answers your question!



☞Masaru Emoto was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1943. His idea that water has memory is convincing more and more people these days. Then, we can go a step farther and ask ourselves where the water is? Certainly, it is part of our hologram. Along with late Masanobu Fukuoka, he is one of the underrated Japanese giants in his own country. The fact remains no matter how sceptically the Japanese media look at him.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 40-5 Chien yen?

Today's Tao

Therefore, the Chien yen has it. (Ch.40)


According to Osamu Kanaya, Chien yen, 建言 [ken gen] in Japanese, means "saying one's opinion clearly, therefore, it means the maxims that can be a model". (Roshi 老子, [Lao Tzu], p136)

According to Gao Heng 高亨, Chien yen is supposed to be the title of an old book. («Tao: A New Way of Thinking», Chang Chung-yuan)

Unfortunately, there is no genuinely original text of Tao Te Ching.

Comments written by later hands are mixed with the original, and even the specialists are not able to perfectly distinguish Lao Tzu's writings from others'.

Inevitably, the teachings written with pure spirituality were tarnished by academic analyses.

On the other hand, Master Dogen's «Shobogenzo» has not been modified by anyone. That's why I want to use the book as a reliable guide.

The truth must be one. It doesn't matter whether they call it Zen or Tao.


«Related Articles»
-High samurai 40-1
-Samurai in doubt 40-2
-Laughable Tao 40-3
-If not laughable 40-4
-Chien yen? 40-5
-Evident = Vague 40-6
-Advance = Retreat 40-7
-Smooth = Tangled 40-8
-Highest attainment = Valley 40-9
-Lacking 40-10
-Lazy 40-11
-Changing 40-12
-White = Black 40-13
-Square without corners 40-14
-No completion 40-15
-No voice 40-16
-No form 40-17
-Hidden with no name 40-18
-Generosity 40-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 40


Tao answers your question!



-I hope that people who are capable of reading both English and Japanese will agree with me. Not all the good books have been translated from one language to the other. On the other hand, it is amazing how many less important books have been translated. To work on this Tao by Matsumoto video blog, I owe a lot to these two authors, Osamu Kanaya and Fumio Masutani. None of their works seem to have been translated into English. At least, their books in Enlish are not available at Amazon. If you can read in Japanese, please check Fumio Masutani's «Shobogenzo». You can imagine how embarrassed the English translators of this important spiritual heritage in Japanese will be if they read it.