Tao Te Ching Chapter 74-3 Fear of End

Today's Tao

If people are always afraid of the end of life, I can arrest those who do something strange and end their life. Who dares? (Ch.74)


Don't be fooled by strange stories.

"After the decomposition of your body, your soul goes to the sea of eternity."

Has anyone told you something like that?

Watch out!

Those who say something strange as this are worth being arrested, Lao Tzu insists.


Zen Master Dogen repeatedly cautions us:

"We must not think that our individual spirit goes somewhere after life.

There is no such thing as the sea of eternity."

(Soku shin ze butsu 即心是仏 and Bendowa 弁道話, «Shobogenzo». ☞See also The body decomposes 16-17)


There is no such a thing as an individual spirit.

Life is like a stack of cards.

Holograms are the cards and life is a stack of them, we can think.

Life does not exist as a being.

It is a name for the combination of holograms.

If life doesn't exist, no one can scare us, telling the end of it.


«Related Articles»
-End of Life 74-1
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-Reincarnation 74-4
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-Carved or uncarved block 74-6
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 74


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao of ****» The first line comparison (13) / "No special effort is necessary to realize the Self." On the left, «The Tao of Now: Daily Wisdom from Mystics, Sages, Poets, and Saints» written by Josh Baran. / "We are in the midst of what some called 'a major turning point in history.'" On the right, «The Tao of Personal Leadership» written by Diane Dreher and Lao Tzu. / More than ever we need Tao now. But "What is «now»?

Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-11 Leader of the vessel

Today's Tao

I try not to be the first under the sky, so I can be the leader of the vessel. (Ch.67)


"Vessel" is a key word in Tao Te Ching and Taoism.

It is a metaphor of a hologram.

"When the uncarved block (=Tao) scatters, it becomes vessels." (☞See Vessels 28-13)

"The world under the sky is a god's vessel. Don't do anything to it." (☞See A god's vessel 29-2)

"Big's vessel will never be completed." (☞See No completion 40-15)

First, Tao, which is true You, projects a hologram.

Second, your own self is part of the hologram.

The self should not try to be the first in there because true You are already the leader of the vessel, that is to say, the projector of the hologram.

Third, holograms are projected and disappear constantly and simultaneously.

They are "never be completed", therefore, eternal.


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-Not the first 67-8
-Be brave 67-9
-Be vast 67-10
-Leader of the vessel 67-11
-Stuck in life 67-12
-Love, win, defense 67-13
-Heaven, Love, Tao 67-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 67


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☞«Raku 楽» means easy, happy, and comfortable. Who said life has to be difficult! Enjoy this easy and happy pot-making.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 59-8 Live eternally

Today's Tao

This is called Tao of "deep roots and firm roots, and living and seeing the eternity". (Ch.59)


All the objects in your hologram are deeply rooted in Tao.

All the phenomena in the world are firmly rooted in Tao.

All of them are the manifestation of Tao.


Life has nothing to do with death, says Master Dogen 道元禅師, whose name means "the root 元 of Tao 道".

「生の死になるといはざる」

(Genjokoan 現成公案, «Shobogenzo»)


Life is part of the hologram, which is an illusion.

Therefore, Zen Buddhists say:

"No life." 不生 [fusho]

The end of life is part of the hologram, which is an illusion.

Therefore, they say:

"No end of life." 不滅 [fumetsu]


Holograms come and go, but true You are Tao.

In Tao, there is no time.

Time is just a parameter in your mind.

Inside the sphere where time doesn't exist, how can a thing be ephemeral!

It has to be eternal.


«Related Articles»
-Don't waste 59-1
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-Forever 59-7
-Live eternally 59-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 59


Tao answers your question!



☞Sometimes, it is ridiculous. Rarely, it is offensive. Often, it is cute. Mostly, the translator's painstaking is admirable. The translation of a title makes its native-speakers wonder or sometimes laugh. Probably not so much between two Indo-European languages, but it is often the case with an English title for a Japanese classic. One should respect the effort to translate it correctly in terms of signification, but for the people who keep a primitive affection towards the sound of a word the title seems too highly conceptual. It makes them imagine a Sumo wrestler in a tuxedo. Yagyu, Munenori's «The Life-giving Sword» is part of «Heiho Kadensho 兵法家伝書» and called «Katsu jin ken 活人剣» in Japanese. This English translation includes the entire book of the former. Zen Master Takuan's «The Unfettered Mind» is called «Fudochi Shinmyoroku 不動智神妙録». Both English titles are very good. Three cheers for the translators!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 59-7 Forever

Today's Tao

If you have the mother of the country, you can last forever. (Ch.59)


What does "the country" mean here?

As always "the country" means "your hologram".

Then, what does "the mother of the country" mean?

It means "the origin of your hologram", which is Tao.

Tao lasts forever.

So do you because true You are Tao.


Zen Master Dogen summarizes this:

"The big Tao is Juki." 大道は授記なり。

(Juki 授記 literally signifies "to distinguish" or "to predict".  The kanji / Chinese character 授 [ju] means: to bestow, to grant, to teach, to instruct; 記 [ki]: a record, a description, a history, annals.)

"This Juki is 'Life and death comes and goes'. 授記これ生死去来なり。

This Juki is 'ten nooks and crannies of the whole world'." 授記これ尽十方界なり。

"Juki is the realization of Self; 授記は自己を現成せり。

Juki is the realized Self." 授記これ現成の自己なり。

Dogen also tells us not to think like others that Juki will take place after we have completed our self-mortification. よのつねに思うには、修行功満して作仏決定するとき授記すべしと学しきたるといえども，仏道はしかにはあらず。

(Juki 授記, «Shobogenzo»)


Life and death, the world, and your own self are part of the hologram.


«Related Articles»
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-Live eternally 59-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 59


Tao answers your question!



☞Mori, Ogai wrote interesting stories about samurai and their epoch. One of those works, «Sansho the Bailiff», was later filmed by Kenji Mizuguchi. This is a tragedy about a brother and a sister who were sold to a slave-driver Sansho Dayuu. Mori, Ogai was a physician, who served his country as Army Surgeon-General.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 58-5 Eternal cycle

Today's Tao

No one knows the end of this cycle. (Ch.58)


Fortune and misfortune, Yin and Yang, Tao and holograms; all of them are the same, the same eternal cycle. (☞See Ch.59)

This cycle is the prayer wheel and the wheel of Buddha's manifestation (=Horin 法輪).

Of course, no one knows its end because there is no end.

No one knows its beginning, either, because there is no beginning.


That's why in Buddhism they say:

"No life, no end of life / 不生不滅 [fusho fumetsu]".


In other words, we are living in the eternal cycle, which is the constant beginning.

Fortune and misfortune are one.

Yin and Yang are one.

Tao and holograms are one.

Then, why do they appear different?

In order to give us an opportunity to remember that they are one.


«Related Articles»
-Dark Government 58-1
-Brilliant government 58-2
-Fortune = Misfortune 58-3
-Misfortune = Fortune 58-4
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-Criterion? 58-6
-Odd criterion 58-7
-Spooky 58-8
-Confused about time? 58-9
-Don't tear it! 58-10
-Kyoka (crazy song) hurts 58-11
-Straight = Bent 58-12
-Amida (Amitābha) shines 58-13
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 58


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☞It is a good idea to read and compare these two books on Samurai. Inazo Nitobe was a Christian and wrote «Bushido: The soul of Japan» in 1900. Bushido signifies "The way of Samurai / Tao of Samurai". Yamamoto, Tsunetomo was a real Samurai and "wrote" «Hagakure: The art of Samurai» about 1716. Hagakure signifies "Hidden by the leaves".

Tao Te Ching Chapter 55-16 No early end

Today's Tao

If you are against Tao, you come to an early end. (Ch.55)


Is time your enemy?

Do you want to stay young?

Do you want to live forever?

Time is running out.

Logically, as you grow up, you get closer to an end.

Though you want to think about Tao, you keep on saying:

"I've got no time. I've got no time".

You know, you are absolutely right when you say that.

Tao has no time.

Neither do you.

Time is just a parameter to reconstruct information in your mind.

Past, present, and future are taking place simultaneously.

That is to say, "If you are one with Tao, you live eternally".


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-Strong = Old 55-14
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-No early end 55-16
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 55


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Tao Te Ching Chapter 55-14 Strong = Old

Today's Tao

If a thing is strong, it gets old. (Ch.55)


You can find the same sentence in Chapter 30.

Being strong is like athletes using steroids.

They get old prematurely. (Strong steroids 30-11)


Chuang Tzu says:

"Do you know that prayer mantis?

Waving its arms angrily, it confronts the wheel of a cart."

(Inner Chapter IV　内篇　人間世篇　第四, «Chuang Tzu 荘子»)


The wheel of the cart is time, your prayer wheel.

The mantis wants to be strong.

Strong enough to defeat the cart, which is a few thousand times bigger than itself.

If you want to be strong, please ask yourself whether you look like this mantis.

If you are strong, you get old. If you fight, the wheel of time will crush you.

Be like a baby and live forever.


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-Peak of harmony 55-9
-Know harmony? 55-10
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-No early end 55-16
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 55


Tao answers your question!



☞«Chuang Tzu» is a very important book. There is not doubt about it. But the problem is that there are so many comments by later hands mixed up with the original. Besides, the book is rather voluminous. Inevitably, one has to ask himself whether it is worth reading the entire book. A relatively safe bet is to read only «The Inner Chapter of Chuang Tzu». Nevertheless, researchers admit that even in the Inner Chapter there are plenty of notes and comments written by someone else.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 50-3 Non-life

Today's Tao

Men of non-life are three in ten. (Ch.50)


A: "I want to live forever. What should I do, Master Bonbon?"

B: "If you want to buy my elixir of life, you have to join our pyramid scheme."


You must not join any pyramid scheme to buy some elixir of immortality.

Lao Tzu says here that 30 percent of people are obsessed with the fear of leaving this world.

Don't worry.

Life is a hologram you project.

Once you accept that Self does not exist, you don't have to worry about the end of your own self any longer.


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-No tiger 50-8
-No blade 50-9
-No desperate situation 50-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 50


Tao answers your question!



☞In Zen Buddhism, they say: "Colors are justly nothing. Nothing is justly colors." It is highly metaphysical and abstract. Nevertheless, when a Japanese person, especially a Japanese man, pronounces the word "iro 色 / color" in Japanese, it often suggests something quite physical and rather carnal. Please look at "Jiki / Shiki" of Yukio Mishima's «Kinjiki 禁色 / Forbidden Colors» and "Shoku" of Ihara Saikaku's «Koshoku Ichidai Otoko 好色一代男 / The Life of an Amorous Man». They are the same Kanji / Chinese character "Iro 色 / color", which means libidinal desire in both contexts.

Watch Hinomoto Oniko project!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 44-8 Last long

Today's Tao

Thus, you can last long. (Ch.44)


True You are Tao.

Therefore, you are eternal.

In Buddhism, we call this «Fusho fumetsu / 不生不滅».

No life no vanishing. (No life. No end of life.)


Dogen says:

"Future is past and present".

(Juki 授記, «Shobogenzo»)


Life is a form of a hologram.

Vanishing is a form of a hologram, too.

They are part of the wheel of manifestation 法輪 [horin].

Don't be attached to either life nor the end of it.


«Related Articles»
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-Last long 44-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 44


Tao answers your question!



☞Kitaro's album «Onbashira» is the name of a traditional Shintoist ritual. «Onbashira 御柱» means "The sacred pillars". The matsuri festival takes place once every six years. They drop the huge and heavy trunk of a fir tree (about 17 meters long, one meter in diameter, 10 tons) at the edge of a cliff top (about 35 degrees , and 100 meters long). People ride the log down the slope. If you want to get your adrenalin going, you can go to Suwa, Nagano, Japan, instead of Pamplona for the run with the bulls, for change. Well, in six years time. Beautiful Lake Suwa will be always there, waiting for you. Enjoy magnificent Mt Fuji over Suwa Lake as millions of Samurai did. Here is Onbashira official site in English and Japanese.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 35-8 Inexhaustible Tao

Today's Tao

Even if you use Tao, you can't exhaust it. (Ch.35)


Probably, this is one of the most encouraging sentences in Tao Te Ching.

Once you accept that so-called "Self" is just a concept,

Once you become free from cause and effect,

You are eternal.

Tao is unlimited.

So are you.

Tao is the inexhaustible fountain of energy.

All you have to do is to keep emitting and receiving the energy.

The rest?

It is not worth worrying about.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 35


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-«Shanks' mare / Tokaidochu Hizakurige 東海道中膝栗毛» might have been read as a travel guide in the epoch of Samurai. It is a collection of funny stories with two non-samurai men from Tokyo, who travel Tokaido 53tsugi (East Seaside way with 53 connections) up to Kyoto without much money but with a great sense of humor. The sandals they used were certainly not as modern as those on the right.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 33-7 Tao the eternal

Today's Tao

Not losing this place is eternal. (Ch.33)


A: "Master Bonbon, you said I had got Satori, right?"

B: "Yes, indeed."

A: "But, Master Bonbon, I am losing my Satori, I suppose. One day, I'm gonna lose all of my Satori. Please help me."

B: "Donate all of your money to our temple, and you will be saved."


"This place" means Tao.

But you are Tao. How can you lose it! So, you are eternal.

You are constantly in the state of Satori.

You sometimes forget the fact and get confused. That's all.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 33


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Tao Te Ching Chapter 30-12 Against Tao

Today's Tao

This is called being against Tao. (Ch.30)


I know the difference between man and superman.

You know the difference between "rich" and "super rich".

We all know the difference between being young and living eternally.

If you are looking for any kind of excess, it is against Tao, mister.

Don't get obsessed with result. It's against Tao, too.

If someone bothers you by talking about your result, just say to yourself:

"uh,uh, my hologram is asking me to be kindly accepted".


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-Can't help it 30-9
-Force nobody 30-10
-Strong steroids 30-11
-Against Tao 30-12
-Early end 30-13
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 30


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-If you are familiar with Major League Baseball, you know what Baltimore Orioles are. Eternal underdogs. We love underdogs somehow, don't we? I do. Particularly when I see the international popularity of Zen, I want to help a bit to promote Buddhist underdogs, Tariki Buddhism. Tariki means "not to help yourself, but let others help you." Read Shinran Shonin's Tannisho. There is a cheaper paperback, too. Under dogs might be closer to Tao. Didn't Mr Lao Tzu say so?

Tao Te Ching Chapter 20-4 Blur

Today's Tao

It blurs, and has not been exhausted! (Ch.20)


"Madame, I can see your future clearly."

"Sir, with our financial portfolios, you can have a clear and definite investment plan of your family fortune."

No clairvoyants or financial advisers see your blurred future.

But Tao does.

Not just the future, Tao see your blurred past and blurred present.

Because everything takes place simultaneously without space or time.

Tao is not tangible, but has no limit. It is omnipresent and eternal.

Tao is nothing and everything.

Ask a Taoist clairvoyant what is the best financial strategy.

He will answer:

"Do nothing."


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-"Yes" and "year" 20-1
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-Sea 20-16
-High wind I 20-17
-Purpose 20-18
-Incompetence 20-19
-I'm different 20-20
-Eat mother 20-21
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 20


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Tao Te Ching Chapter 16-17 The body decomposes

Today's Tao

The body decomposes, but Tao has no danger. (Ch.16)


Do you like black and white Japanese film classics like Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Tokyo story?

Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu; they are true master film makers, aren't they?

By any chance, do you know another classic film called «Ugetsu Monogatari» by Kenji Mizoguchi?

The original was written in the Samurai era. It is a collection of short stories.

In it, there is a beautiful story of love.

An old Buddhist priest adored a boy-monk. The boy-monk got sick and met his end.

The old priest could not bear the site that the body of his beloved was decomposing.

So, he ate it.

Now, his beloved is eternally safe in the stomach.

It is a story called «Aozukin (Blue hood)» in «Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain)» by Ueda Akinari.


Some people search an eternal life.

Would you like to live eternally?

In fact, you do.

Your hologram "decomposes", but true You are Tao.

Tao simply keeps on creating holograms.


Dogen's caution:

We must not think that our individual spirit goes somewhere after life.

There is no such thing as the sea of eternity.

(Soku shin ze butsu 即心是仏, «Shobogenzo»)


Naoto Matsumoto says:

It is easier if we think our individual self does not exist.

A so-called "self" is part of the rest of the world.


«Related Articles»
-Do emptiness 16-1
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-Satori 16-9
-Calamity 16-10
-Know constancy 16-11
-Public 16-12
-King 16-13
-King = Heaven 16-14
-Heaven = Tao 16-15
-Eternal 16-16
-The body decomposes 16-17
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 16


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-It is a great pleasure to talk about our national heritage. The original tales are one of the best literary works in Japanese along with «The Tale of Genji». Although its story is not truly related to the original, the film might be called a cinematographic masterpiece.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 16-16 Eternal

Today's Tao

Tao is eternal. (Ch.16)


A: "Would you like to see a football game tonight?"

B: "I am sorry I have no time."

A: "How about a cup of coffee before you leave?"

B: "No, I can't. Even if you buy me an organic Soya bean cream double mocachino from the Michelin three star restaurant downstairs, I can't. I have no time."


We know it very well, don't we?

We have no time.

No one possesses time.

Even Tao doesn't.

Tao has no time.

Time is just a parameter in order to organise incoming information in our brains.

It is like the speed of the wheel of a movie projector.

You are the one who decides the speed.

Everything takes place simultaneously in Tao.

So, everything is ephemeral and eternal.

Have a nice cup of coffee. You are eternal.


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-King = Heaven 16-14
-Heaven = Tao 16-15
-Eternal 16-16
-The body decomposes 16-17
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 16


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-Yasunari Kawabata is a Nobel Prize winner. His other stories and novels are in Japanese school text books. But one of the best pieces cannot and will not be recommended to school children. Or, probably, it should be used in the part of a precautionary measure for girl students. You can take your child to Tchaikovsky's «Sleeping Beauty», but you will never want to read Kawabata's «Sleeping Beauty» to your child.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 7-3 Live long

Today's Tao

Therefore, they can live long. (Ch.7)


Heaven and earth do not give birth to each other, and can live long.

Birth and death in the world is just a concept in our mind.

So everything lives eternally.

But what is "eternity"? Tao doesn't have time, does it?

Time is just a concept in our mind, isn't it?

Then, what is "our mind"?

Your mind is not true You. It is part of your hologram.

Don't worry, and stop asking yourself "Who am I?".

You are Tao and eternal.


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-Heaven and earth 7-1
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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 7


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