Tao Te Ching Chapter 67-4 3 treasures

Today's Tao

I have got three treasures. (Ch.67)


To be one with Tao, or to remember that true You are Tao, you have got three useful ways.


1. Send Love.

2. Don't waste any.

3. Don't try to be the first. / Try not to be the first.


First, you receive and send Love, which is the fundamental energy Tao.

Second, you should respect all the elements in your hologram.

All of them, the seemingly good and the seemingly bad alike, exist to stimulate you as catalysts.

So, don't waste them.

Third, you don't need to try to be "the first" because you are "the only respectable being". (☞See Ordinary? 67-3)

These three ways will be discussed one by one later.


«Related Articles»
-Idiot 67-1
-Parents 67-2
-Ordinary? 67-3
-3 treasures 67-4
-Protect the treasures 67-5
-Send Love 67-6
-Don't waste holograms 67-7
-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


Tao answers your question!



☞Jizo (Ksitigarbha) has an important role in Japan's everyday life. For example, this Japanese "Enka (country)" singer Koji Fukushima sings «Furusato Jizo / Jizo in my home village». "I wanna go home. I miss my Jizo."

Tao Te Ching Chapter 61-10 Work on people

Today's Tao

A small country simply wants to enter and work on people. (Ch.61)


Do you think some authority or power is dictating to your life?

What Lao Tzu is saying here is rather the other way round.

The outside world, which is your hologram, seems to be influencing you and your life, but it doesn't in fact.

In Zen Buddhism, they use various expressions to illustrate a hologram:

山河大地

[sen ga daichi]

"mountains, rivers, and lands"

and

尽十方界

[jin juppo (jippo) kai]

"ten nooks and crannies of the whole world"

among others.

Its sole objective is to stimulate the circulation of the fundamental energy Tao.

Then, how can we get along with it?


Master Dogen answers the question with a metaphor of a man and a boat.

「われふねにのりて、このふねをもふねならしむ」

[ware fune ni nori te, kono fune wo mo fune narashimu]

"I go on board the boat and make it be a boat." (boat = hologram)

(Zenki 全機, «Shobogenzo»)


«Related Articles»
-Satori = Reality 61-1
-Intercourse 61-2
-Female of the world 61-3
-Female beats male 61-4
-By stillness 61-5
-Under small 61-6
-Under big 61-7
-By going down 61-8
-Gather and Raise 61-9
-Work on people 61-10
-Go down 61-11
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 61


Tao answers your question!



☞When you visit an island in the southern Pacific Ocean, you may come across a tree tied with many strips of colorful cloth. This is a sacred tree. The tree protects the local people. The reminiscence of this worship still remains in the collective memory of the Japanese. We have not forgotten at all our distant past before the days some of our ancestors traveled across the sea from the islands and settled in this archipelago. No wonder Jizo Bodhisattva wear a fancy Pikachu cap in Japan. (See the photo of Jizo Bodhisattva with a Pikachu cap) He is a reincarnation of the sacred tree in the islands of Nintendo. Now Jizo with colorful strips has come back to Hawaii.  («Guardian of the Sea / Jizo in Hawaii»@Amazon) Looking down the ocean, he is doing his business as usual, protecting the locals and travelers.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 57-8 Ho 法 & Laws

Today's Tao

The more laws and decrees are known, the more robbers there are. (Ch.57)


Laws cannot control the world.

The more we try to control it with them, the more troubles we create.

We have been learning this hard ways these days.

This chapter 57 has Lao Tzu's maxims directly applicable to your life.

Nevertheless, the more practical they seem to be, the less essential they are.

We have to remember that many later hands had been added to the original Tao Te Ching.

That's the difference from Dogen's «Shobogenzo», whose original is the one we read nowadays.

That's why we often ask the 13th-century Zen master for some help.

Laws are part of your hologram.

In Buddhism, laws, teachings, and Buddha's manifestation are beautifully expressed by one word, 法 [ho].


«Related Articles»
-Justice 57-1
-Surprise attack 57-2
-Don't work 57-3
-How do I know? 57-4
-No prohibitions 57-5
-More useful tools 57-6
-More intelligent, more evil 57-7
-Ho 法 and Laws 57-8
-Sage's "Do nothing" 57-9
-Don't move 57-10
-Don't work and Get rich 57-11
-Desire 57-12
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 57


Tao answers your question!



☞This «Child Guardian» is called Jizo in Japan. The Kanji / Chinese characters 地蔵 [jizo] literally express the storage of the earth. He stores plenty of love for the people, for both the children and the adults. This deity probably represents the Japanese sentiments towards Buddhism better than mighty Buddha himself. The earthiness of Jizo reminds us of our ancestors, who came from all over by land or by sea or who had been living in the archipelago all the time. With the incense from Kyoto, this mini Jizo statue will make a good gift for your enlightened friend.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 40-19 Generosity

Today's Tao

It is only Tao who lends anything generously and accomplishes anything very well. (Ch.40)


Tao is generous. I know you are generous.

C'mon, admit it.

And I know you don't judge anyone or anything in fact.

You help all.

You don't segregate one from another.

I know you don't.

No matter how modestly you insist you do, I don't believe it.

Because you are Tao the fundamental energy.

And Tao creates the world perfectly.

You are doing your job perfectly.

No, no, you must not say:

"Watch TV news and see the catastrophe."

Only you can create the world.

And you are doing it perfectly.


«Related Articles»
-High samurai 40-1
-Samurai in doubt 40-2
-Laughable Tao 40-3
-If not laughable 40-4
-Chien yen? 40-5
-Evident = Vague 40-6
-Advance = Retreat 40-7
-Smooth = Tangled 40-8
-Highest attainment = Valley 40-9
-Lacking 40-10
-Lazy 40-11
-Changing 40-12
-White = Black 40-13
-Square without corners 40-14
-No completion 40-15
-No voice 40-16
-No form 40-17
-Hidden with no name 40-18
-Generosity 40-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 40


Tao answers your question!



-Jizo. I would like to address him as "O-jizo-san" as Japanese kids call this gentle deity of fertility with affection. Forget Buddhism. Forget its Hindu origin and so on. O-jizo-san simply protects kids. And they adore him until they grow up and start calculating cost per profit ratio. Then, adults grow out of their so-called harsh financial reality and go back to see the nice smile on O-jizo-san. Well, once again we see the cycle.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 28-11 Constancy attainment

Today's Tao

Then, the attainment of constancy is sufficient. (Ch.28)


It is sufficient.

You don't have to do anything superhuman.

You accept all.

You love all.

Then, you are perfect; perfectly and constantly one with Tao.

This is constancy attainment 常得 [jo toku].

No one can do better than this.

It is your goal.

You are already there.

You are a runner standing at your goal and waiting to start.


«Related Articles»
-Male 28-1
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-Attainment of constancy 28-5
-Baby 28-6
-White 28-7
-Protect Darkness 28-8
-Valley, male, female 28-9
-Under the sky 28-10
-Constancy attainment 28-11
-Uncarved block 28-12
-Vessels 28-13
-Chief officials 28-14
-The greatest control 28-15
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 28


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.28 text / Next video


-Jizo knows it. We don't really have to squat in an exotic fashion. We can lay ourselves like a Buddha in the tropics. We don't have to be serious to be a Buddhist. Kanzan and Juttoku are laughing at you. Jizo Bosatsu are the ones who are standing at the crossroads of Buddhism and Shintoism. They will never ask you for any sacrifice, but they are always with you like a good friend. If you really want to show some respect to them, just offer them a piece of onigiri, the rice ball. A left-over hamburger will do, too.

What are "people"? Video

Today's Tao

Therefore, in the sage's way to control the people, he empties the mind, fills the belly, weakens the will, and strengthen the bone. [Ch. 3]


For the text, please see What are "people"?.

And, if possible, enlarge the photo above and look at the round faces of the Jizos. Don't they look how all of us used to look like?


Everyday a new entree!

No easiness Video

Pokemon meets Buddhism. Here, in this photo I shot at Kusatsu Onsen, you can see a Jizo (roadside Buddha) wearing Pikachu cap. It symbolises perfectly the Japanese idea on Buddhism.


Today's Tao

Difficulty and easiness need each other. [Ch.2]


Please see "No easiness" article for the text of Today's Tao video.


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- No judgement
- Everything and nothing
- No easiness
- No shortness
- No lowness
- Intended or accidental
- Before and after
- No interference
- No explanation
- No possession
- Don't rely
- Don't stay
- Don't go away
- Tao by Matsumoto / Chapter2


Everyday a new entree!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 16-6 Stillness

Today's Tao

Going back to the root is called stillness. (Ch.16)


To return the root, which is Tao, is easy.

Use Reverse Thinking.

It is a simple technique.

All you have to do is to switch the cause and the result.

You can easily go back to the state of stillness, the state before the things are projected in your hologram.

Reaching the state is called Satori in Zen Buddhism.


«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
-Tao by Matsumoto / Bumo misho izen. The state before things are created (or projected) is called "Bumo misho izen" in Japanese. It means "before your father and mother were born". The article has an extract from the chapter Buddha Nature in Dogen's «Shobogenzo».
-Heat 45-9


Lao Tzu answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.16 text / Next video


-The Japanese adore Jizo. He doesn't preach us. He doesn't impose us his dogma. He likes to be in the place which people don't pay attention to. But he is always there. He is there to help us when we really need help. For most Japanese, he doesn't belong to theoretical Buddhism. He is part of animism. Jizo is a good friend of all the kids like Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Pikachu, Yugi-o or Naruto.