Showing posts with label individuality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label individuality. Show all posts

Monday, August 15, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 81-6 Richer detachment


Today's Tao

Although he gives everything to others, he is richer. (Ch.81)


What is being rich?

The richest man is the one who can detach himself from all.

Don't be attached to wealth or prestige.

Don't be attached to an object or an idea.

Don't be attached to your life.

Don't be attached to individuality or your own self.

Mu ga 無我. Self doesn't exist. Or, nothingness is your true "self". (☞See Tao Te Ching / Chapter 7 / No Self)

Since the so-called "self" is part of a hologram, there is neither before-life nor after-life. (☞See Man's self 77-7 and After life / Task successfully accomplished 77-11 ☞As for "former life", see End of life 74-1)

An individual and independent soul does not exist. (☞See Out-Tao [Heresy] Seniya / Gedo Senni / Settled 80-9)

If you believe it does, you are too attached to the concept of individuality.

Don't think that your soul will go back to Tao after your life.

You have never left Tao in the first place.

You are always one with Tao. (☞See Tao by Matsumoto / One with Tao)

No life. No end of life. 不生不滅 [fusho fumetsu]. (☞See Live eternally 59-8)


«Related Articles»
-Beautiful words 81-1
-Good one 81-2
-Not knowledgeable 81-3
-Accumulate not 81-4
-Act of others 81-5
-Richer detachment 81-6
-Tao in Heaven 81-7
-Sage's Tao 81-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 81


Lao Tzu answers your question!



«Recommended Books 16» "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." The more difficult to pronounce the mantra is, the more sacred. One can laugh at exoticism, but is he able to show you the way? The way how you can overcome the fancy costumes? If the seemingly greener grass fascinates you, the only solution might be going over the fence into the other side and discovering that the grass has the same color. If a Japanese boy believes that Major League Baseball (or Premier League football) is definitely "greener" than the baseball (or football) his countrymen play, he's gotta go there and beat some hitting records (or play better than George Best). Until then, the kid will be trapped in a strange mixture of complacency and self-negation, saying to his fellow citizens: "You don't know what it really is. What we have is false. Look over there. They have got something authentic". Kafu Nagai needed to go to America to make enough money to see France. The money he had earned was barely enough to let the spoiled Japanese twenty-something hang around in France for just ten months. Did he find that the grass was the same green wherever one went? It seems that in his mind the grass still remained greener somewhere but he was not able to be there. To fill the gap between what he had and what he wished to have, he created his "strange" but adorable world in the life of a woman who practiced a libidinous profession illegally on the other side of the River Sumida.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 80-12 Moonlight & Dewdrops / Dogs & Roosters


Today's Tao

People in one country can hear the voices of dogs and roosters in another country. (Ch.80)


What is the relation between your hologram and those of other people?

How do yours and theirs interact?

Today's Tao sentence is the answer to the question.

"People in one country" signifies your hologram.

"The voices of dogs and cocks in another country" suggests another hologram.

Firstly, you think that others exist independently, but they are part of your hologram.

They are 他己 [tako], your own self beyond your control, that is to say, the extended part of yourself (=non-you).

Secondly, you think that your own self exists, but it is also part of your hologram.

The self doesn't exist. It is a name given to some collective information. (☞See Tao Te Ching / Chapter 33 / Self and Tao Te Ching / Chapter 7 / No Self)

Then, a question arises.

Who in the world is projecting the hologram?

Tao is.

It is true You.

Zen Buddhists cherish the beautiful metaphor of the dewdrops reflecting the moonlight.

The moonlight is Tao.

The image of the moon on the dewdrops is your hologram.

The light is called 無碍光 [mugeko], the light without obstacles.

How many dewdrops or holograms are there in the world?

The answer is one.

You and non-you are the same manifestation of Tao.

Let's overcome the trap of individuality.


«Related Articles»
-Small country 80-1
-"110 vessels" 80-2
-Don't travel 80-3
-Boats and Cars 80-4
-Armor and Arms 80-5
-Tie the rope 80-6
-Hunger and Food 80-7
-Face transmission / Menju / Beauty 80-8
-Out-Tao (Heresy) Seniya / Gedo Senni / Settled 80-9
-Enjoy your customs 80-10
-Neighbors 80-11
-Moonlight and Dewdrops / Dogs and Roosters 80-12
-Life without intervention 80-13
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 80


Lao Tzu answers your question!



«Recommended Books 9» "Which country do you like the most?" USA? Mexico? Spain? China? France? Argentin? Or Japan? The answer is: "Snow country". «Snow Country» is unarguably the best novel written by Yasunari Kawabata. Probably, the most popular Japanese novel in the last one hundred years. "Be like Komako" is the novelist's answer to Lao Tzu's "Be like water". When you face a difficult situation and don't know what to do, check «Snow Country» and make decisions as if you were Komako the Geisha. Water is a little too abstract. Komako is a woman and artist of life. If you are interested in Kawabata's literature but do not have enough time to read all his works, «Palm-of-the-Hand Stories» are strongly recommended. They are shorter than most ordinary short stories. There are plenty of them in the book. Therefore, it is ideal to read the book in the bed before you fall asleep.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 77-7 Man's self


Today's Tao

Man's Tao is not like that. (Ch.77)


Here, Lao Tzu says:

"Man's Tao is not like Heaven's Tao".

As we discussed in the previous entry, "Heaven's Tao" signifies Tao's nature of manifestation in each hologram.

What is "Man's Tao", then?

"Man" suggests the so-called individual "self", which does not exist. (☞As for non-existence of self 無我 [mu ga], visit Know yourself 72-4. There are a few links to the related articles. See also Chapter 33 / Self and Chapter 7 / No self of Tao Te Ching.)

What happens after the end of one's self, that is to say, the end of one's life?

His soul goes up to somewhere?

Or, it re-integrates itself with Tao?

No. I am sorry.

It is not like that.

You are Tao, so you are never separated from Tao.

Like a frame in a movie, Tao flashes a hologram every moment.

"Life" is a name given to the sequence of innumerable holograms.

The end of another person's life is a backdrop of your hologram asking you to emit more Love (=Tao).

A self does not exist, so how can one's life exist independently!

不生不滅 [fusho fumetsu]

No life. No end of life.


[Note] Time does not exist in Tao, so all the holograms are created simultaneously.


«Related Articles»
-Bend a bow 77-1
-Suppress doubt? 77-2
-Raise Hossho? 77-3
-No excess / Why does history repeat? 77-4
-Lack and Supply 77-5
-Nirvana / Reduced excess and Supplied lack 77-6
-Man's self 77-7
-Rich man's excess 77-8
-Love and Excess 77-9
-Attachment 77-10
-After life / Task successfully accomplished 77-11
-Secret of superiority 77-12
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 77


Lao Tzu answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (17) / -Do nothing (treat things without interference) 無為 - Let's see how they translate 是以聖人処無為之事 行不言之教 in Chapter 2. / "Therefore the sage keeps to the deed that consists in taking no action and practices the teaching that uses no words." On the left, «Tao Te Ching (Penguin Great Ideas)» translated by D. C. Lau. / "Therefore the sage resides in nonfabrication, and conducts himself according to wordless teachings." On the right, «Tao Te Ching: An All-New Translation» translated by William Scott Wilson.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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
-Don't terrify them 74-2
-Fear of End 74-3
-Reincarnation 74-4
-Big's carpenter 74-5
-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»?

Friday, February 11, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 64-4 While minute


Today's Tao

It is easy to erase a thing while it is minute. (Ch.64)


"A thing" is your hologram.

The Kanreisu (the bar / spring for your spiritual leap in Zen) here is that your own self is part of a hologram.

Tao projects a hologram.

The hologram stimulates Tao.

As Zen Master Dogen clarifies it,

this exchange mechanism of energy between projection and stimulation is what we call Life or Self.

(☞See Before materialization 64-2)

Self is not individual or independent, but a name for the mechanism.

Therefore, Self does not exist as a tangible entity.

"Erase" the concept of Self if you think it exists.

If your own self or ego is minute, it is easy to forget it.


«Related Articles»
-Something stable 64-1
-Before materialization 64-2
-While fragile 64-3
-While minute 64-4
-Before existence 64-5
-In order 64-6
-Tree from a hair 64-7
-Nine-story tower 64-8
-A thousand league travel 64-9
-Do and Defeat 64-10
-Stick and Lose 64-11
-Defeat nothing 64-12
-Don't stick 64-13
-Before completed 64-14
-Careful end 64-15
-Desire no desire 64-16
-Rare coins 64-17
-Learn no learn 64-18
-Excess 64-19
-Transformation 64-20
-Don't dare 64-21
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 64
-The minute being 14-6
-Small = Big 63-4


Tao answers your question!



Ju-on 呪怨 means "curse - grudge". Do the Japanese hold a grudge against someone and never forget it? In general, no. We forget things easily. Rarely we plan well and revenge ourselves well. Nevertheless, it does not mean that all the happy-go-lucky islanders in Far East are incapable of holding a grudge. Of course, some do. They do it very well. They even commercialize their curse. Having enjoyed commercial success, the film «Ju-on the Grudge» was turned into a video game. It is available on Nintendo Wii.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 54-5 Family


Today's Tao

Learn it in the family, and its attainment is abundant. (Ch.54)


Love your body and mind, first.

Then, love your friends and family.

But, don't be fooled by the words; body, mind, friends, and family.

They are all part of your hologram, not separate or independent entities.

Love your hologram.

Accept your own self and people close to you as they are.

Then, you can re-circulate Tao's energy.

The world in front of you is abundant of this fundamental energy whatever you call it.


«Related Articles»
-Well built 54-1
-Embrace 54-2
-Descendants 54-3
-Body 54-4
-Family 54-5
-Village 54-6
-Country 54-7
-World 54-8
-See the body 54-9
-See the family 54-10
-See the village 54-11
-Bodhidharma from the West / See the country 54-12
-Jin juppo kai / See the world 54-13
-Why telepathy? 54-14
-Because of Satori 54-15
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 54


Tao answers your question!



☞Izumi Kyoka, another great personality from Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, along with Kitaro Nishida and Daisetz Suzuki. If you like Edgar Alan Poe, it is worth checking Kyoka's works. Thousands of miles apart and in the two completely different languages, but somehow you can see the same sensitivity towards words and the intangible world. Their love to something supernatural was quite natural to them.☞In our common understandings, a Yama Uba is not supposed to be so beautiful. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being beautiful.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 37-4 No desire


Today's Tao

The uncarved block with no name naturally wants to have no desire. (Ch.37)


The uncarved block means Tao, which is true You.

Tao doesn't have a name.

You don't have individuality, in reality.

Tao doesn't have desire.

You don't have desire, in reality.

Do you have an unquenchable desire to control your life, uh?

"Where does this desire come from?"

Forget looking for the answer to this meaningless question.

The more you think, the more resistance you create.

Every time you cannot find an answer, avoid the question as water avoids obstacles.


«Related Articles»
-Tao does nothing 37-1
-Lords and Kings = You 37-2
-Uncarved block with no name 37-3
-No desire 37-4
-Be still 37-5
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 37


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.37 text / Next video


-«Higan sugi madé» is roughly translated as «To the (Spring) Equinox». This is considered to be the first book of Natsume Soseki's later triptych.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Tao Te Ching Chapter 16-12 Public


Today's Tao

Acceptance is the public. (Ch.16)


Here, the word "the public" suggests "without self".

If you accept all, your own self disappears.

Then, you will see that individuality is an illusion.

If you are sure of this, you are one step closer to admit that your own self is part of your hologram.


«Related Articles»
-Do emptiness 16-1
-Guard stillness 16-2
-Material beings 16-3
-Go back 16-4
-Root 16-5
-Stillness 16-6
-Destiny 16-7
-Constancy 16-8
-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


Lao Tzu answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.16 text / Next video


-Saigyo 西行 means "go west". He is a poet/adventurer when travelling was very difficult. He adored Sakura (cherry flowers) and wished to die beneath it in spring. Poems of a Mountain Home / San Ka Shu 山家集.