Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-11 Close ears & eyes

Today's Tao

People all open their ears and eyes, but the sage closes all of them. (Ch.49)


The sage never watches the news on TV because he knows so-called objective information is truly misleading.

Now it is about time we followed the attitude of Nikko's three monkeys.

See nothing.

Say nothing.

Hear nothing.

Not just something evil.

Nothing at all because we don't judge.

Or, let's go a tiny step farther.

All what we see is a hologram and catalyst to stimulate us.

We watch and listen to all the financial disasters and environmental catastrophes, while knowing that they are a prayer wheel or Horin 法輪, the wheel of Tao's manifestation.

And we will thank all of them for taking place, while receiving their Love and sending your Love to them.


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-No heart 49-1
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-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


Tao answers your question!



☞Nikko is a place you must not miss when you visit Japan. It is not too far from Tokyo, and, if you have a day-off, it is enough to pay a visit to Toshogu shrine and see the famous three monkeys of "Mizaru, Kikazaru, and Iwazaru" (See no evil, hear no evil, and say no evil, respectively in Japanese). You can also visit the beautiful Kegon-no-Taki Falls. Watch out! Wild monkeys might violently welcome you there. The real monkeys there have nothing to do with Lao Tzu's wisdom and are happy to rob you of the sweets in your bag.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-10 Inmo & No mind

Today's Tao

When he makes the world under the sky, he has no mind. (Ch.49)


When you "make the world under the sky", in other words, when you project your hologram, true You have "no mind".

Tao has neither mind nor intention to dictate the hologram.

Tao is not a judge.

That's why a hologram is called Inmo Butsu 恁麼物, a "what on earth" thing in Zen Buddhism. (☞See Capable = Incapable 45-6)

We don't have to know where Inmo Butsu or a hologram comes from.

We don't need to know why Inmo Butsu or the world is like this.

No one is responsible for Inmo Butsu.


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-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
-Tao by Matsumoto / Country


Tao answers your question!



☞Haruki Murakami adored F. Scott Fitzgerald. He even translated «Great Gatsby» into Japanese though several Japanese translations had already existed. To understand «Babylon Revisited» truly, the Japanese needed to wait until Plaza Accord. After the agreement, the value of Japanese Yen multiplied. Paris was no longer out of reach for most of the Japanese.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-9 Have no heart

Today's Tao

When the sage stays in the world under the sky, he has no heart. (Ch.49)


"The sage" means you because you are the one who projects your hologram, which is the world.

"The world under the sky" signifies your hologram.

Therefore, Today's Tao sentence is decrypted:

"When you stay in your hologram, you have no heart".

"No heart" suggests:

"Your own feelings, thoughts, senses, and even body and mind do not exist outside the hologram".

If you think they are illusions, it will be easier for you to understand how Tao's cycle and holograms work.


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-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


Tao answers your question!



☞Heart, mind, and essence; all of them can be translated as Kokoro / Shin. In the process of the translation from Japanese to English, they are all mixed up, with a reason. Because the first two; heart and mind; are manifestations of Tao, which is Hannya (=Wisdom, =essence). "Learning Hannya is False Emptiness (=Koku, =hologram). False Emptiness is learning Hannya. 学般若これ虚空なり。虚空は学般若なり。" (Makahannyaharamitsu 摩訶般若波羅蜜, «Shobogenzo») Hannya = Emptiness. The world, heart and mind included, (=False Emptiness, =hologram) exists to give us chances to learn Hannya (=Tao).

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-8 Faith

Today's Tao

I attain faith. (Ch.49)


A: "Master Bonbon, how can I attain my faith?"

B: "The more money you donate to our organization, the closer you get to your faith."


You may laugh at Master Bonbon, but are you sure the priest next to you is better than him?

Let's make it clear that salvation or Satori is free of charge.

You don't have to pay for your faith.

Let me put it another way.

Whether you have faith or not, your objective is to maintain the circulation of the fundamental energy Tao. Nothing else.

The moment you remember this, you attain faith.


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-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
-Tao by Matsumoto / Attainment


Tao answers your question!



☞«Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers». "Kami" etymologically means "up above". The Japanese still think that there is something devine up there. The kanji / Chinese character is also pronounced "Shin". The way the divinity wants to do his business is, therefore, called "Kami nagara no michi / Shinto". Once in a while, gods up there send some divine winds to shake and save the floating world. Those students were supposed to be the divine winds incarnated, but they knew what they really were. Read their testimonies.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-7 Not faithful

Today's Tao

I think someone not faithful is faithful, too. (Ch.49)


If you have no faith in anything, it is all right, too.

Whether you believe something or not, Tao works anyway.

Unless you suffer from the existence of your own self;

that is to say, frustration, jealousy, anger, or any pain you can name,

it might be better not to be conscious of faith.

But, if Tao doesn't work for you, and if Zen (=Jiriki / Self-power) doesn't work with you, either, don't worry.

You still have Tariki / Other-power.


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-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


Tao answers your question!



☞The truth has to be simple. It would be strange if it was not valid for everyone. Once you attain Tao, which means you remember that true You are Tao, the barrier between your own self and the others will disappear. Jiriki / Self-power will be synonymous with Tariki / Other-power. The boundary between Christianity and Buddhism will no longer exist as late Shusaku Endo experienced. The Japanese Catholic novelist wrote «Deep River», where all religions are mixed in the water.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-6 Tariki / faithful

Today's Tao

I think someone faithful is faithful. (Ch.49)


Why don't we regard faith as a tool?

If you have faith in something, you are less prone to be fooled by your gigantic ego or Self in Mayoi.

Shinran shonin's Tariki / Other-power is an excellent tool in order to activate Dark Depth Female 玄牝 [gen pi] and change the world (=your hologram).

By asking Tariki / Other-power to do all the work, logically you do nothing.

You create no resistance while your hologram, which is the world, is transforming itself.


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-Inmo and No mind 49-10
-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tariki: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace». The subtitle of the book is a nice and correct way to explain the word "Tariki / Other Power". Of course, the Other Power embraces happiness and joy, too. But the idea is that you should embrace something hard to embrace. For the very hardship is a manifestation of Buddha's love as well as a miracle. Japanese novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki talks about his teenage experience of the Japanese repatriation from the Korean Peninsula. "Even good people will become Buddha, not to mention evil people." (Shinran's Akunin Shoki Setsu)

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-5 Goodness

Today's Tao

I attain goodness. (Ch.49)


What is goodness?


Let's ask again the author of "A Study of the Good", Kitaro Nishida.

He answers:

"It is to find out the true Self".

Don't we ask him how, do we?

His answer is:

"By eliminating your false self."

In Christianity, it is called reincarnation.

In Buddhism, it is called Kensho 見性, seeing into one's nature, says Nishida.


How can we eliminate our false self?

Simple.

You do nothing.

Because you don't have the false self from the beginning.

It is just part of your hologram.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞A quotation from Kitaro Nichida's «An Inquiry into the Good / A Study of the Good»: "According to Aurelius Augustinus (St. Augustine), something bad does not exist in the world, and the nature which God created is all good, but the lack of the true nature is bad." (Book III, Chapter XIII, A perfectly good deed)

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.


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-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 49-3 A Study of the Good

Today's Tao

I think something good is good. (Ch.49)


What is the good?

Let's ask a good friend, a high school mate of the well-know Zen scholar Daisetz Suzuki.

He is Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida, the author of «A Study of the Good».

He says:

"We have only one true good, which is to find out the true Self."

(Book III Chapter 13, «A Study of the Good»)


Watch out.

Nishida is not talking about a self that comes and goes.

He is talking about the true You.

The readers of Today's Tao surely know what it is.


Kitaro Nishida@wiki


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-Inmo and No mind 49-10
-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞«A Study of the Good» and «An Inquiry into the Good» are the same book. They are the translation of «Zen no Kenkyu» originally written in Japanese by Kitaro Nishida. Kitaro Nishida might probably be the only Japanese philosopher whose works are fairly available in other languages than Japanese. He was a classmate of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki at a high school in Kanazawa, Japan. The dynamic duo's contribution to the English-speaking Zen community is immeasurable. When you get confused with an oriental philosophy, ask Kitaro or Daisetz.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-2 People's heart

Today's Tao

He takes people's heart as his own. (Ch.49)


In Zen Buddhism, we call this

尽十方界無一人不自己

[jin juppo (jippo) kai jiko ni arazarumono hitorimo nashi].

That is to say, "in ten nooks and crannies of the whole world, there is no one who is not your own self."

(Jippo 十方, «Shobogenzo»)


People's feelings are yours.

Their thoughts are yours, too.

You and non-you are the same.

Why don't we call them "yourself under your control" and "yourself beyond your control".

Other people are "yourself beyond your control" like your stomach and intestines.


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-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞"Hara gei / Haragei 腹芸" can be translated as the art of the belly, which is the ultimate art of non-verbal communication even without gestures. As time goes by, Japan has been transforming itself from a beehive of robot-like human working bees to a lazy post-consumer society with real robots who do the work. Did Haragei lose its significance? Yes, in a way. No, at the deep bottom of communication in the country. Please watch cute Sylvie Testud's «Fear and Trembling» or read its original by Amelie Nothomb. The Floating World's business attitude has changed, but you are still expected to sense the demand of the person in front of you before he or she pronounces it in the island of Uki-yo.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 49-1 No heart

Today's Tao

The sage always has no heart. (Ch.49)


無心 [mu shin] / no heart.

First, let's read this as "there is nothing called «heart»".

We can accept that our feelings do not belong to us and come from somewhere else.

They are part of our hologram.

Second, let's read the sentence as "nothingness is our heart".

We can accept that our feelings are manifestations of Tao.

No matter how we feel, we cherish our feelings as something sacred.


[Note]
心 [shin]: the Tao/hologram mechanism in Zen Buddhism, sometimes translated as mind or heart. It means the center. Picture the center of the Yin Yang circle. (☞See By going down 61-8) In this sense, 無心 [mu shin] can be interpreted as "no mechanism". Nothingness is the mechanism. The mechanism is nothingness. In other words, the mechanism is the manifestation of Tao.


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-Close ears and eyes 49-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 49


Tao answers your question!



☞Please look at the Kanji / Chinese character on the cover of Natsume Soseki's «Kokoro» on the left. Can you identify the character? It is identical to the one up at the beginning of today's entree. This Kanji character 心 is pronounced [kokoro] or [shin], depending on the context. The confusing thing is that the Kanji 心 [kokoro / shin] is translated as "heart" or "mind" in English, depending on the convenience of the translator. Mercy 38-4, No form 40-17, One's birth 42-1 also have little articles on Natsume Soseki's «Kokoro».