Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-9 Bonno soku bodai

Today's Tao

When you don't have enough faith, you doubt it. (Ch.23)


Faith and doubt. You know them very well.

Today, let's learn a powerful spiritual tool called "Bonno soku bodai / Being lost is justly Bodhi, or the spiritual awakening".

If you don't have enough faith, you cannot accept all.

Then, you create resistance against accepting your hologram (=the world).

Your resistance create images or feelings that bother you. These hindrances come about in your hologram.

Then, you are completely confused and lost in Mayoi.

But, do not worry.

Their goal is not to make you suffer but to lead you to the attainment of Tao.

That's why in Zen Buddhism they say:

"Being lost is justly the spiritual awakening".

Bonno soku bodai 煩悩即菩提.

Thank you.


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-Attainment loss 23-8
-Bonno soku bodai 23-9
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23


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-I have been waiting for this truly for decades. I have been thinking for ages that someone has to translate this underrated master's works.
There is nothing wrong with being commercial. Futaro Yamada's imagination and originality deserve a place in Japan's history of literature. I sincerely want to thank Mr Geoff Sant, the translator, and his editor for their contribution without snobbism in introducing the excellent literary works in Japanese into English.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-8 Attainment loss

Today's Tao

Those who act according to the loss of its attainment are one with the loss of its attainment. (Ch.23)


"Shittoku 失得(徳)." The loss of attainment.

"Mayoi 迷い", in Zen Buddhism in Japan, which means "being lost".

When you are lost, do not panic.

It is absolutely all right.

You can lose your attainment of Tao, while being one with Tao.

You can be in Mayoi while you are in Satori.

What can we do, then?

Your attitude is supposed to be:

"Uh, uh. Here comes Mayoi. Welcome, Mayoi. I am happy to be lost and confused."

And accept it.


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-Bonno soku bodai 23-9
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23


Tao answers your question!



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-Is it really possible to translate a Haiku or a Tanka into English? Why not? If you can translate Baseball into Japanese, translating a Haiku is a piece of cake. Shiki Masaoka, one of the greatest poets of modern Haiku and Tanka, is the one who translated the game of baseball into Japanese. Without Shiki, no Ichiro.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-7 Satori = Attainment

Today's Tao

Those who act according to the attainment of Tao are one with the attainment of Tao. (Ch.23)


Living is Satori.

The moment you try to attain Tao or reach Satori, you lose it.

In other words, you forget that you are in the state of Satori, being one with Tao.

That's why Lao Tzu says:

"Do nothing".

Life is a koan.

We answer it by living it.

Don't try to look for Satori or Tao somewhere else.

You are already there.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23


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-Rashomon and Rashomon. They are not the same story, but are admired and adored as a masterpiece respectively. The written one is a short story most school children will read in Japan. The shot one is a text book of a film-making that most film school students will watch. The original of the latter is not called "Rashomon", but "In a Bamboo grove". No worries. You will find it in a copy of Penguin Classics' "Rashomon and Seventeen other stories".

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-6 According to Tao

Today's Tao

Therefore, those who act according to Tao are one with Tao. (Ch.23)


What is acting according to Tao?

It is our objective.

It is receiving and emitting the energy of Tao with the least resistance possible.

How can we do it?

By accepting the world with gratitude.

Then, you are one with Tao.

"But aren't we one with Tao all the time?"

Yes, we are. We just forget it sometimes.

By accepting all, you can easily remember the fact.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23
-Tao by Matsumoto / 10 points to be one with Tao


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-The Parisians have the River Seine. The Londoners have the River Thames. The New Yorkers have the Hudson River. The people of the floating world Ukiyo have the River Sumida. This story, «Bokutou Kidan 濹東綺譚 / A strange tale from East of the River», is about the despised ladies doing their business on the eastern side of the River Sumida illegally. On its western side, which is closer to the center of Tokyo, there was a section to do it legally.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-5 Man's responsibility

Today's Tao

How can man keep on doing it for a long time if heaven and earth cannot do it. (Ch.23)


You are not responsible at all.

"Wait a minute, Matsumoto-san! You said: «I am responsible for everything.» yesterday."

Certainly I did.

I said: "true You are responsible because true You are Tao".

Please do not mix true You and your own self.

Your own self, or ego, not true You, is part of your hologram along with man, heaven, and earth.

The Today's Tao sentence means:

"Even heaven and earth's influence is ephemeral. How can a man or your own ego affect other objects in your hologram!".

Your own self is not responsible for anything.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23


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-Chikamatsu Monzaemon, playwright, 1653 - 1725. On the left, «Chikamatsu Monogatari / A story from Chikamatsu» was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. On the right, its original title is «Shinju Ten no amijima». A director / actress couple, Masahiro Shinoda and Shima Iwashita worked together. Iwashita was considered one of the most beautiful women in Japan at that time.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-4 Heaven's responsibility

Today's Tao

Who is doing these? Heaven and earth are. (Ch.23)


Who is causing the high wind and downpour?

Of course, heaven and earth, the Nature is.

Who is provoking the global warming?

I know some people want to blame someone else.

Here, you can test yourself whether you truly embrace Lao Tzu's teachings.

Can you say:

"I am responsible for everything"?

True You are Tao, which is the source of your hologram.


"It is the government's fault!"

"Multinational companies are responsible!"

When you stop saying so, you truly make a step forward in Zen and Taoism.

There is no objective world to blame outside you.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23


Tao answers your question!



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-Shusaku Endo was a Christian. Christianity was often the center of his works. Always you can hear his question to himself: "Why did God make this Japanese man a Christian?" In Deep River, he finds an unconventional way to look at Christianity. At the very depth of this Japanese writer, do you see an ineffaceable trace of Buddhism and Shintoism?

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-3 Downpour

Today's Tao

A noisy downpour doesn't last all day. (Ch.23)


There are some maxims to which our conventional wisdom will agree.

When we face an adversity, let's remember this.

"A noisy downpour doesn't last all day."

We can even go a step further.

Let's say "thank you" to that noisy downpour.

There is no bad weather unless you judge it.

It rains for us.

To give us a chance to thank and emit the fundamental energy Tao.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23


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-A ricksha goes. It goes in the rain. When it rains, it pours in the tropics. When it rains in Japan, there is always a woman waiting for a man. When it rains cats and dogs, they make love in the realm of Uki-yo, the floating world. "Never mind the rain. If it stops raining, people can hear what we are doing."
Caution! «Empire of Passion / the Real of Passion» is NOT «Ai no Corrida».

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-2 High wind II

Today's Tao

Therefore, a noisy high wind doesn't last all morning. (Ch.23)


Nature gives us a very good example.

A noisy high wing doesn't last long, even all morning.

It is about a Nine Days' wonder. We all know it.

In Japan, we say:

hito no uwasa mo sichi juu go nichi 人の噂も七十五日.

Literally it means "people's rumor lasts only for seventy five days".

Nine days and 75 days!

Certainly, the Japanese have learned Lao Tzu's patience for more than one thousand years.


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-Attainment loss 23-8
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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23


Tao answers your question!



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-Without Ishiro Honda, we would not have had Godzilla. He was the one who directed the very first Gojira black and white. He was a magician of cinema who made the impossible possible. He was a friend of Akira Kurosawa. To the eyes of the Japanese kids in 60', the name of Ishiro Honda was more brilliant than that of his worldly known friend.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-1 Say no words / video

Today's Tao

Saying no words makes things come about by themselves. (Ch.23)


Japan stories


Who is the best novelist ever in Japan?

Surely, the answers vary.

Some might say Murasaki shikibu (Lady Murasaki) who wrote «the Tale of Genji».

Other might say Yukio Mishima who committed Harakiri.

Haruki Murakami, the author of «Norwegian Wood», is certainly an up-and-coming star in Japanese literature.

It is a question without one definite answer, isn't it?

So, let's paraphrase the question.

Which Japanese novelist might you miss the most if he or she had not written any works?

My answer is Yasunari Kawabata and I guess that many fans of Japanese literature share the opinion.

Before his «Snow Country», the Japanese word Geisha was a pejorative. After his invention of the heroine Komako, the word has gained some divine power.

Komako the Onsen geisha (hot spa geisha) is the symbol of the pure and sacred womanhood in the collective consciousness of many Japanese and non-Japanese men and women.

"Not all the Japanese, though", I have to admit.



Mishima might have preferred a samurai boy to a geisha girl. Murakami may fancy a glass of gin and tonic with the author of «the Cather in the Rye» more than having Sake with Kawabata, served by a Komako at a snowy onsen ryokan (Japanese style inn).

But look at Japanese boys hanging around Akihabara who adore girls in a Maid Cafe. Aren't they looking for a Komako in a fantasized maid's cutsie wootsie costume?

Thank you, Mr. Kawabata. We are glad that you wrote it.


No matter how much Mishima tried to create his public image resembling the photo, his classmates at Gakushuin high school know who he was. Tough luck, Mishima-san.

-To read the text of Today's Tao, please visit Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-1 Say no words.


Tao answers your question!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 23-1 Say no words

Today's Tao

Saying no words makes things come about by themselves. (Ch.23)


You don't have to express yourself in order to make a thing come about.

You had better not act on it directly.

For the occidental minds and oriental Cartesians, this may be one of the most difficult concepts of Lao Tzu's.

By doing nothing, you can put Dark Depth in action.

It is called Dark Depth Female.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 23
-One who says 56-2


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