Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-10 Hoben gate / Soft & Weak

Today's Tao

The soft and weak stays high. (Ch.76)


"The soft and weak" thing is a hologram, which stays high, that is to say, at the superficial level.

If you want to mature spiritually, what do you have to do?

Meditate for thirty years?

No.

You can mature right now right here.

All you have to do is to open the gate of Dark Depth Female. (☞See The root of heaven and earth 6-3 and Tao Te Ching Chapter 6 Valley God)

It is also called "the gate of various surprises" (☞See Reverse Thinking 1-9 and Tao Te Ching Chapter 1 Gateway to Tao)

and

"Heaven's gate" (☞See Tao Te Ching Chapter 10 Magic words).


In Buddhism, Buddha calls it "the gate of Hoben 方便門",

which means "the gate of Buddha's tool to enlighten people".

(Shohojisso 諸法実相, «Shobogenzo»)


How can you open the gate?

It is easy.

You have only to accept the world in front of you (=your hologram).

Then, what do you see after it opens itself?

Exactly the same scenery.

But do you see the difference?


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
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-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76
-Suppress doubt? 77-2


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (10) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "The deepest and the most profound, the door of all mysteries." On the left, «A Taoist Classic: The Book of Lao Zi» translated by Ren Jiyu. / "and both are called mysterious, and the mystery itself is the gateway to perception. 同謂之玄玄之又玄衆妙之門" On the right, «Tao Te Ching: A New Translation» translated by Sam Hamill.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-9 Hossho stays low

Today's Tao

The strong and big stays low. (Ch.76)


What is the strongest and biggest of all?

Certainly, it is Tao.

Do you remember Tao's nickname is Big? (☞See Big 25-9)

Like water, Tao look for a lower place, which you cannot see. (☞See Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching Chapter 8 / Be like Water)

In a sense, Tao remains in the shadow of every phenomenon.


Zen Master Dogen puts it this way:

"It puts its body into storage, and the shadow is more exposed."

(Mitsugo 密語, «Shobogenzo»)


Zen Master Ikkyu uses the metaphor of Tao (=Buddha, =Zen) being in the shadow of everything in his «Yama Uba».

Yama Uba, the old woman in the mountains, helps everyone in his shadow.

He doesn't know what she is doing.

You don't know what Tao is doing in your shadow.

When you commit a mistake, it is not your fault. Tao is just sending you Love (=Tao).

In Buddhism, it is called Hossho 法性, the nature of manifestation.


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (9) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "Indeed, it is the mystery of mysteries. It is the door of all spirituality." On the left, «The Teachings of Lao-Tzu: The Tao-Te Ching» translated by Paul Carus. / "This being so is profound, mysterious, and dark: The threshold to all secrets. (This translation seems to correspond to the Kanji / Chinese characters 同謂之玄玄之又玄衆妙之門.)" On the right, «Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching» translated by Keith Seddon.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-8 Karoshi / Snapped branch

Today's Tao

A strong branch of a tree will surely be snapped. (Ch.76)


Don't work too hard.

Do you know a Japanese expression "Karoshi 過労死"?

It means "death from overwork".

Diligent, industrious, tireless.

All these adjectives once had the status as a national motto in post-war Japan.

The Japanese worked hard, as hard as possible until their lives were suddenly "snapped".

They had worked a lot to buy a Toyota Corolla or a Sony Walkman.

Then, they realized they had got no time to use it.

Some were lucky enough to listen to the music with a Walkman in the train.

Others were too tired to stay awake even while standing there.

Most car owners simply enjoyed washing theirs.

A day trip?

Out of question!

Lao Tzu's «Tao Te Ching» has been one of the "must read" study materials for more than one thousand years in Japan.

Did we really learn what Lao Tzu is saying in the book?

Do you?


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (8) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "the mystery of mysteries; the door through which have issued, on to the scene of the universe, all of the marvels which it contains." On the left, «Tao-Te-Ching» translated by Derek Bryce and Leon Wieger. / "The secret of secrets, the gate of all mysteries." On the right, «Tao Te Ching: The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained» translated by Stefan Stenudd.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-7 Strong army, no win

Today's Tao

Hence, if your army is strong, you will never win. (Ch.76)


If your army is "strong", is it easier to accept other people's acts against your will?

Don't you want to use your "strong army" to control the people against you?

That's why Lao Tzu says:

"you will never win".


Zen Buddhists use two key concepts to understand it.

1. 即心是仏。[soku shin ze butsu] The very mechanism is Buddha (=Tao).

2. 一切法一心。[issai ho isshin] All the manifestations are one mechanism.

Therefore, treat the so-called reality, which is a manifestation of Tao, as if it is the real Tao (while knowing that the manifestation and Tao are not exactly the same).

半箇衆生半箇法性。・・・。法性不是衆生。

(法性 Hossho, «Shobogenzo»)


It is not your ego who controls the situation.

Don't be strong.

Your true victory is to keep Tao's mechanism working.


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (7) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "Calling it 'fathomless' is still not to fathom it. …the door to a cluster of puzzles." On the left, «Tao Te Ching on The Art of Harmony: The New Illustrated Edition of the Chinese Philosophical Masterpiece (The Art of Wisdom)» translated by Chad Hansen. / "dark-enigma deep within dark-enigma, gateway of all mystery." On the right, «Tao Te Ching» translated by David Hinton.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-6 Soft and weak men

Today's Tao

Those who are soft and weak are men of life. (Ch.76)


No matter how hard and strong the person is, he is part of your hologram.

Then, who are you if you are soft and weak?

If you are soft and weak, you are man of life, Lao Tzu says.

Life?

What is true life?

Why do we live?

Your true life is the circulation of energy.

You are the infinite light with other names, including Tao, Buddha, Zen, and Love.

You live in order to sustain this circulation of the energy.

You live in order to sustain your true life.

Your so-called "life" is a film that stimulates the circulation.

Be soft and weak, and your light will go through the life of ego more easily.

Soften your personal and egotistic light, and your true light will light up the world.

The softer your personal light of ego is, the stronger your true light will be.

(☞See Kanshiketsu / Like dust 56-7)


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
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-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (6) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "Or rather the 'Darker than any Mystery', The Doorway whence issued all Secret Essences." On the left, «Tao Te Ching (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)» translated by Arthur Waley. / "Profound and remote and again more so: This is the gate to all mysteries." On the right, «Tao Te Ching: An All-New Translation» translated by William Scott Wilson.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-5 Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard & Strong

Today's Tao

Therefore, those who are hard and strong are men of non-life. (Ch.76)


無情還解説法否

Do non-living objects understand what one preaches?

In Zen Buddhism, they discuss the question often.

They also ask themselves a question:

"What kind of people can hear the preaching of non-living beings?".

無情説法什麼人得聞

(cf. the preaching of non-living beings = Mujoseppo 無情説法)

The answers are quite clear:

"Yes, non-living beings can hear the preaching of non-living beings".

Life is part of a hologram, which we call the world.

A hologram is projected.

As both people and buildings in a movie are projected, living beings and non-living beings in your hologram are projected.

Living and non-living beings are the same.

In a sense, everything is non-living.

How can you tell that people and animals have got thoughts and feelings while rocks and clouds haven't?

Now you know why you are not able to hear what other people and animals think or feel.


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
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-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76
-Heaven's Tao 9-6 Zen Master Dogen says: "Life is just non-life". (Shoji 生死, «Shobogenzo»)
-Life non-life 50-1
-Non-life 50-3


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (5) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "The passage which exists between them is a door to all the miraculous." On the left, «Lao Tse. Tao Te Ching» translated by Vladimir Antonov. / "Mystery of all mysteries! The door to the hidden." On the right, «Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way» translated by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-4 Dry end

Today's Tao

The end of its life is dry and withered. (Ch.76)


When you see that your plants are dry and withered, what do you think?

Their lives are getting closer to an end?

If so, please remember that every moment of life is a momentary phase (=Ho-i 法位). (☞See Hard end 76-2)

It is an independent momentary holographic image.

The end has nothing to do with the beginning.

Besides, all the holographic images are prayers. (☞See Tao by Matsumoto / Male and Female; Life's a prayer wheel)

When we see their end, we often feel sad.

Why?

Some associate it with their own end;

others are reminded of the loss of someone.

But it is strange.

Nothing ever ends because there is no beginning.

No one loses any because nothing has ever existed.

The holographic images of end and loss are asking us the same thing as those of beginning and birth:

"Send more Love".


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-Soft life 76-1
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-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (4) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "The Mystery of mysteries is the Door of all essence." On the left, «Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (Shambhala Dragon Editions)» translated by John C. H. Wu. / "Subtle wonder within mysterious darkness. This is the beginning of all understanding." On the right, «The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu» translated by Brian Browne Walker.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-3 Fragile life

Today's Tao

The life of everything; grasses or trees, is soft and fragile. (Ch.76)


Why does life exist?

Why do the lives of grasses and trees exist?

First, life, or the life of any being, is part of a hologram.

Second, a hologram exists as a catalyst.

The catalyst stimulates Tao, the circulation of the fundamental energy.

This relation between the stimulating and the stimulated beings is metaphorically expressed as "to explain manifestation / 説法 [seppo]", or "to turn the wheel of manifestation / 転法輪 [tenborin]".

In other words, everything you see in your hologram is a prayer.

The catalytic prayer stimulates you, who is Tao.


That's why Zen Master Dogen says:

"Sometimes it uses the letters of one hundred grasses;

sometimes it uses the letters of ten thousand trees".

あるいは百草の文字をもちゐ、

あるいは万木の文字をもちゐる

(Bukkyo 仏経, «Shobogenzo»)


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
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-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (3) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄 in Chapter 1. / "Mystery of mysteries" On the left, «Tao Te Ching (SkyLight Illuminations)» translated by Derek Lin. / "Deep and again Deep" On the right, «Tao Te Ching» by Stephen Addis and Stanley Lombardo.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-2 Hard end

Today's Tao

The end of the life of man is hard and strong. (Ch.76)


What is the end of life?


Zen Master Dogen answers the question clearly:

"Life is a momentary phase.

The end of life is a momentary phase."

生も一時のくらゐなり。

死も一時のくらゐなり。

(Genjokoan 現成公案, «Shobogenzo»)


He particularly uses the expression "a phase in the manifestation / Ho-i 法位" in order to describe the same stages.

Every moment of life is a phase in the manifestation and part of one hologram you project.

The important thing is that each hologram is independent of the others as an individual image (=a frame) in a film has nothing to do with the ones before and after it.

That is to say, the end of life has nothing to do with the beginning of life.

There is no cause and effect between holograms.

The true cause and effect takes place between a hologram and Tao, which is true You.

The projected holographic image stimulates the circulation of energy.

The circulation is called Tao.


Check

-A hologram does not affect another.

-A hologram is a momentary phase.


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
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-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (2) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄 in Chapter 1. / "Darkness within darkness" On the left, «Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)» translated by Stephen Mitchell. / "The hidden within hidden" On the right, «Tao Te Ching: The New Translation from Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions)» translated by Jonathan Star.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-1 Soft life

Today's Tao

The life of man is soft and weak. (Ch.76)


The expression "soft and weak" suggests being intangible.

Why is the life of man intangible?

Because it is part of a hologram.

What is life, then?

To answer the question, movie is a perfect metaphor.

A movie does not exist as a tangible entity.

A movie is a story told on the screen where a sequence of numerous photographs is projected.

The life of man is a movie.

As the name of "movie" is given to a sequence of projected images, "life" is the name of a collection of holograms.

Technically speaking, a hologram does not change as an individual image in a film does not change.

The sequence of holograms gives us an impression that it changes.


Check

-Life does not exist as a tangible entity.

-A hologram does not change.


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
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-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76
-Tao by Matsumoto / Life is a movie


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (1) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄 in Chapter 1. / "Darkness within darkness" On the left, «Tao Te Ching, 25th-Anniversary Edition (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition)» translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. / "The mystery of mysteries" On the right, «Tao Te Ching» translated by Dwight Goddhard.