Showing posts with label chapter 14. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chapter 14. Show all posts

Monday, November 16, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-19 Tao's quintessence


Today's Tao

It is called the quintessence of Tao. (Ch.14)


Tao is you.

What are you afraid of?

Of future? Of others? Of your own mind?

Don't be afraid. You are all right.

"Your life itself is Buddha!"

Zen Master Dogen says so.

You are the quintessence of Tao.

You don't have to look for it somewhere else.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

The Chinese Character (Kanji) 紀 [ki] is translated as "quintessence" here. It can be understood as "the hub" in the sense that is discussed at 30 spokes 11-1 and Wheel 11-2.


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
-You can't hear Tao 14-3
-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-18 Big Bang


Today's Tao

Then, you can see the beginning of the distant past. (Ch.14)


Ha, ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

This is the way actors laugh in a Kyogen play.

Laughter is your personal Big Bang.

When you do "ha, ha, ha, ha", you can change your emotional cosmos immediately.

"The beginning of the distant past" is the world-famous Big Bang.

But when did the beginning of the world take place?

Tao doesn't have time.

So, it has to be now.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

Kyogen is a comic counterpart to the serious Noh theatre of Japan, in which characters rarely laugh. You don't have to worry about falling asleep during a Kyogen performance.

And, you know, it is you who is creating the world, your hologram.


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
-You can't hear Tao 14-3
-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



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Saturday, November 14, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-17 Distant past


Today's Tao

Stick to Tao of the distant past, and control the existence of the present by doing so. (Ch.14)


Tao has no time.

Past, present, and future is our memory, which is being created simultaneously now.

So, "stick to Tao" means "accept the present".


Zen Master Dogen says:

"A pine tree is time. A bamboo tree is time. You must not learn that time only flies away".

(Uji 有時, «Shobogenzo»)


Time is attached to your hologram.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

Forget about past. Forget about control.


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
-You can't hear Tao 14-3
-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Friday, November 13, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-16 Tao's rear


Today's Tao

When you follow it, you don't see its rear. (Ch.14)


Can you see your rear?

No, we can't.

"Tao's rear" symbolises our feelings.

It is not important to know how your feelings are composed.

Do you know why the clouds in the sky move this way and that?

It is a useful tool in life to think that feelings are like the clouds.

You are not responsible for them.


Dogen says:

You own self is like mountains, rivers, and lands. (Keiseisanshoku 谿声山色, «Shobogenzo»)


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
-You can't hear Tao 14-3
-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-15 Tao's face


Today's Tao

When you face it, you don't see its head. (Ch.14)


I wonder why we cannot see our face.

If our appearance is quite important, why don't we have eyes on our hands, or somewhere we can see the face without a help from a mirror.

An inevitable conclusion:

Why can't we see our face?

Because it is not important at all to know what others think of us.

Well, they are part of your hologram, aren't they?


Dogen seems to think we are a mirror itself, and says: "If a roof tile were not to become a mirror, a man could not become Buddha". (Kokyo 古鏡, «Shobogenzo»)

Tile = Mirror = Man = Buddha


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
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-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-14 The evasive being


Today's Tao

This is called the evasive being. (Ch.14)


You cannot get hold of Tao.

Can you touch the magnetic field?

Can you touch radio waves?

We can only perceive things projected in our mind, that is to say, holograms.

Words are quite ironical, but one has to say: "Only illusions are perceivable".


Dogen says:

You must not think that mountains, rivers, and lands are only mountains, rivers, and lands. (Keiseisanshoku 谿声山色, «Shobogenzo»)


Naoto Matsumoto says:

Cherish your illusions (=holograms, =the world). Herman Hesse says the same thing in his «Siddhartha».


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
-You can't hear Tao 14-3
-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-13 The shape without a shape


Today's Tao

This is called the shape without a shape, an image without a thing. (Ch.14)


Tao doesn't have a shape. Anything that has a shape belongs to the sphere of your hologram.

But a thing needs Tao's energy to exist.

So, Tao is the essence of an object with a shape.

Where do we have images?

In our mind, isn't it?

We use time and space to decode our holographic images according to our own social perspective of life.

Well, with or without time and space Tao is the origin of a shape or an image.


Zen Master Dogen might say:

Don't waste your time, and learn "time doesn't exist." as soon as possible.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

I like Master Dogen's practical contradiction.

Why don't we think that the concept of time and space is like grammar to understand a language? We need it in order to interpret the world.


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
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-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Monday, November 9, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-12 Back to nothingness


Today's Tao

It goes back to nothingness. (Ch.14)


The word "nothing" confuses new comers of Zen and Taoism.

It is because it's difficult to eliminate the concept of time and space from our head.

If there is no time or space, everything is taking place simultaneously in one place, which is Tao.

Everything is generated in Tao and goes back to Tao the nothingness.

Check Zen master Dogen's essay on existence-time.


Master Dogen says:

Time and space exist in mountains, rivers, and lands.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

It would have been much easier for Master Dogen if had had the word "holography". He could have said: "Time and space exist only in your hologram".

Zen Master Dogen helps us a lot about how to deal with time and space.

He wrote a masterpiece essay called «U-ji», which can be roughly translated as existence-time.


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
-You can't hear Tao 14-3
-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-11 Tao has no name


Today's Tao

It is omnipresent and has no name. (Ch.14)


You say: "Buddha".

I say: "Tao".

You say: "Zen".

I say: "Love".


Tao has no name.

So, any name can be its name.

Even if you don't know the word Tao, you can live happily.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

Don't you think some Buddhists are too concerned about terminology, Daisetz Suzuki and Master Dogen included? In this sense, Master Ikkyu is much more original. This drunken Zen bonze is a poet rather than an academic.


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
-You can't hear Tao 14-3
-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-10 «Yama Uba» under it


Today's Tao

It is not dark even if it is under it. (Ch.14)


Japanese Zen Master Ikkyu supposedly wrote a Noh play called «Yama Uba» in order to explain how Tao (= Zen) functions.

Behind any human or natural activity lies Tao.

Tao's function is symbolised by an old woman roaming in the mountains, who helps working people without letting them know her presence.

Master Ikkyu wrote it in the fifteenth century.

I wonder if it was easier then to receive Tao's energy by cherishing the holographic world.


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-The form without a form 14-2
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-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14
-Ikkyu's funny dirty love poem 6-6
-Yama Uba the Zen play


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Friday, November 6, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-9 Not brilliant


Today's Tao

It is not brilliant even if it is above it. (Ch.14)


Tao the fundamental energy is everywhere.

It lies inside and outside the objects we see.

Even though Tao lies "above" something, it is invisible. It is not brilliant.

You can interpret what Tao is this way if it is too hard to accept that the world is a hologram.

There is no point forcing yourself to think that we are living in a floating world, or an illusion, unless you are very unhappy about it.


«Related Articles»
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-The form without a form 14-2
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-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Thursday, November 5, 2009

You can't see Tao video / Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-1


Today's Tao

Even if you try to see it, you can't do it. (Ch.14)


You can't see Tao. For sure. Modern Japanese life is far from the Taoist way of living.

Surely, it is far from the Buddhist or Shintoist way, too.

When you visit Japan, would you still like to experience a mystic Orient? Well, if you have to pay a hefty amount of dollars or euros for your flight ticket, it may be an inevitable sort of wish. Oh, c'mon, you are better than that!

The moment you abandon the quest of a postcard image of Japan, the real Japan will start caressing your sense of beauty. The key word is a "juxtaposition".

A girl disguising a Manga character in a pink mini-skirt and rainbow coloured knee-high boots may be walking in front of an ancient sacred meditation site of medieval Zen monks.


To read the text of Today's Tao video, please see You can't see Tao / Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-1.


Tao answers your question!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-6 The minute being


Today's Tao

It is called the minute being. (Ch.14)


Tao is not tangible.

It is too minute to touch it.

It is so small that it doesn't have volume.

It is not good idea to regard Tao as a quantum particle.


«Related Articles»
-You can't see Tao 14-1
-The form without a form 14-2
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-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Masters hit your face. Quantum physics and the theory of Zero Point Field may be good tools for occidental and occidentalised minds to approach the seemingly far-fetched idea from Far East. Is it so?


Everyday a new entry!



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Friday, March 20, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-5 You can't grasp Tao


Today's Tao

Even if you try to grasp it, you can't do it. (Ch.14)


Let's decode this.

It means:

Don't think Tao is tangible. It is too small to touch it.


Mata ashita. See you tomorrow.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

The expression "small" here is something rhetorical. Tao doesn't have space. In this sense, it is as small as nothing.


See Tao by Matsumoto / Chapter 14 / Tao is evasive for the text spoken in Today's Tao.

It also has the chapter's entire English translation and Rapid Decoded.


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-The form without a form 14-2
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-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Everyday a new entry!



Previous video / Ch.14 text / Next video

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-4 The sound without a sound


Today's Tao

It's called the sound without a sound. (Ch.14)


Let's decode this.

Tao can manifest itself as a sound, but the sound exists only in your hologram.

Tao can manifest itself through the hologram, which means the world.


Naoto Matsumoto adds:

We have the famous koan of Hakuin 白隠 (a Japanese Zen Buddhist 1685 - 1768).

隻手声あり、その声を聞け [Sekishu koe ari, sono koe wo kike].

translation:

One hand has voices. Listen to the voices.


("Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?"---Wikipedia)


Hakuin used this koan to propagate his teachings. There is a conversation between Hakuin and Osan, an Japanese old woman and his disciple. (Ref: http://hk-kishi.web.infoseek.co.jp/kokoro-127.htm)


Hakuin: There are sounds and voices when both hands hit each other. What sounds and voices are there in one hand?

Osan: Instead of listening to the voice of Hakuin's one hand, I want to hit both hands and do business.

Hakuin: If you can do business by hitting both hands, you don't need to listen to the sound of the one hand.


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-The form without a form 14-2
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-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
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-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Manifestation

-Hakuin@wiki


Everyday a new entry!



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Friday, February 20, 2009

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-2 The form without a form



Today's Tao

It's called the beginning of everything, the form without a form. (Ch.14)


Don't think Tao is an entity in the material world.

It doesn't have a form. It is the fundamental energy that creates all.


Naoto Matsumoto adds:


When we say: "Tao includes all the world or your hologram", it is more in a metaphorical sense than in a physical sense.

Please be aware that Tao doesn't have space.


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-The form without a form 14-2
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-The sound without a sound 14-4
-You can't grasp Tao 14-5
-The minute being 14-6
-You can't find out Tao 14-7
-Mixed and one 14-8
-Not brilliant 14-9
-Yama Uba under it 14-10
-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Everyday a new entry!



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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-1 You can't see Tao



Today's Tao

Even if you try to see it, you can't do it. (Ch.14)


You cannot see Tao. You can only receive the energy of Tao through your hologram, which is its manifestation.

You may think that Tao is a kind of field such as the magnetic field.

It may help you to understand Tao and its mechanism, but, if you stick to the idea, it will do you more harm than good.

After all, all the fields that science proposes exist inside your hologram.

Tao, of course, exists in it. But it does exist outside of it as well.


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-Tao has no name 14-11
-Back to nothingness 14-12
-The shape without a shape 14-13
-Evasive being 14-14
-Tao's face 14-15
-Tao's rear 14-16
-Distant past 14-17
-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14
-Tao by Matsumoto / What is Tao?


Tao answers your question!



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