Tao Te Ching Chapter 68-2 True warrior

Today's Tao

A true warrior doesn't get angry. (Ch.68)


A true samurai might say:

"If you are angry, you are already defeated".


A true Taoist might say:

"If you are angry, you don't know anything about Tao".


What do you have to say, then?


You in the sense of your own self projected in the hologram would say:

"I am angry because the world is full of injustice."

or

"Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I am angry but I am not supposed to be angry. I am supposed to suppress my feelings. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I am gonna lose my Satori".


But you in the sense of true You, which is Tao, should say:

"I accept my anger. I even cherish the anger because it is part of my adorable hologram".


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 68


Tao answers your question!



☞A woman can be a samurai warrior or a yakuza swordsman. A legendary Japanese actress / singer Meiko Kaji 梶芽衣子 takes a katana sword to fight. «Blind Woman's Curse» is titled «Kaidan Nobori-ryu 怪談昇り竜» in Japanese. In the samurai period, Japanese women did not have a nice chest protector like the one from Mizuno.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 68-1 True samurai

Today's Tao

A true samurai doesn't fight. (Ch.68)


It is as clear as day.

If you don't fight, you will never be defeated.

The noun "samurai" came from the verb "saburau", which meant "to wait on" in the senses of "to attend or serve" and "to pay a respectful visit to".

A true samurai doesn't fight.

Or, at least, he does not look for a fight.

If it is inevitable to fight, he accept it.

He does not fight against fighting, either.

He does not fight against his hologram.

He knows that his act, the body, the enemy, and the fight itself are manifestations of Buddha (=Tao).


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 68


Tao answers your question!



☞It is interesting to compare the images of the samurai in two different periods of modern Japan. On the left, we have the famous «Seven Samurai» directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1954. On the right, «The Twilight Samurai / Tasogare Seibei たそがれ清兵衛» shot in 2002. It is directed by Yoji Yamada of the well-known «Tora-san» series.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 62-8 Why Taoism?

Today's Tao

Why did they appreciate this Tao in the old days? (Ch.62)


It is a very interesting question, isn't it?

Lao Tzu or the person who inserted this sentence is saying something important.

Once Chinese people had appreciated the original Taoism a lot;

then, at the time of writing, they no longer did so, he lamented.

Why?

Has anyone distorted its teachings?

Well, who knows?

But one thing is historically clear.

In Japanese there are two words, Doka (Doke) 道家 and Dokyo 道教, although they are translated with the same word: Taoism. (cf. 道家 [daojia] and 道教 [daojiao] respectively in Chinese)

The former is the philosophical study of Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 62


Tao answers your question!



☞There is no doubt about it. The best Japanese actor ever is Toshiro Mifune. Of course, we have some Japanese actors who contributed to the establishment of "Japanese" theaters such as Zeami, the banished founder of Noh, and Izumo no Okuni, the shamanic actress of Kabuki. Nevertheless, who on earth knows these names outside Japan? Along with Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune will remain in the hearts of many people who adore and admire Samurai and their way of living. The life is a floating world, not the one and only objective world. Please watch the Japanese duo's masterpiece «Rashomon» for explanation.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 58-11 Kyoka (crazy song) hurts

Today's Tao

He is pure, but doesn't hurt anyone. (Ch.58)


白河の清き流れに魚住まず　もとのにごりの田沼恋しき

[Shirakawa no kiyoki nagare ni uo sumazu. Moto no nigori no Tanuma koisiki]

(Supposedly composed about 1790 by the Kyoka poet Ota Nanpo 大田南畝 / Ota Shokusanjin 大田蜀山人 although he personally denied it)

No fish can live in the clear water of White River.

They miss the muddy water of good ole Paddy Pond.


This is a Japanese Kyoka 狂歌, which means "crazy song".

This Kyoka was popular under an austerity policy in the Edo period of Shoguns and samurai.

People could not stand the belt-tightening by the current minister Shirakawa 白河, White River, and were missing the preceding period of corruption governed by the former minister Tanuma 田沼, Paddy Pond.

Being pure is not always welcomed in the land of Geisha girls.

Nevertheless, let's be "pure" and courageous enough to tell your «emperor» that he is naked.

After all, everyone is part of your hologram and no one will be hurt.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 58


Tao answers your question!



☞The Edo era in Japan was an exceptional period of about 230 years without a war. Naturally, we experienced the urbanization of life and the emergence of a consumer society. People made love and were happy to talk about scandals and love affairs. Chikamatsu, Monzaemon was a Japanese Shakespeare who captured the heart and soul of burgeoning modern consumers in the world of samurai and geisha.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 55-3 No attack

Today's Tao

Violent animals don't attack him. (Ch.55)


In your hologram, there is no danger.

Then, why are we fearful of the attack by our enemy or an animal?

Daisetz Suzuki tells us the story of a Japanese samurai swordsman and cats. (The swordsman and the cat, Appendices IV, «Zen and Japanese Culture»)

Let's ask the wisest cat.

"Why do we have the enemy?"

"Because of the self there is the foe; when there is no self there is no foe."

The cat continues:

"You make no choice between right and wrong, like and dislike."

Both your own self and the enemy are part of the same hologram.


Daisetz Suzuki@wiki


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-No early end 55-16
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 55


Tao answers your question!



☞«Zen and Japanese Culture» was published in 1959 precisely a quarter of a dicace after the publication of «Manual of Zen» (in 1934 in Kyoto, Japan; in 1950 in London). The former includes the chapters on the story above and «Yama Uba». The latter has «Ten Ox-herding Pictures», which will tell you the ten steps of reaching Satori. Please remember that time is just a parameter. All the ten steps take place simultaneously.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 53-5 Painted rice-cake / Empty granary

Today's Tao

The granary is totally empty. (Ch.53)


Don't judge anyone even if some people are starving.


A Zen master (香厳智閑 [Kyogen Chikan / Hsing-yen Chih-hsien / Xiangyan Zhixian]) said:

"A painted rice-cake does not satisfy hunger."


On the other hand, Master Dogen concludes the chapter of Gabyo 画餅 / a painted rice-cake in Shobogenzo 正法眼蔵, saying:

"If it is not a painted rice-cake, it must not be a remedy to satisfy hunger."


Hunger and a painted rice-cake are part of your hologram.

They exist to stimulate you to emit more fundamental energy (=Tao, =Love).

Just thank the empty granary.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 53


Tao answers your question!



☞The battle of Sekigahara / Sekigahara no Tatakai was the last of the big battles before the arrival of 230 years' peace in Japan. It took place in 1600. Miyamoto Musashi, an artist and samurai, is supposed to have written «The Book of Five Rings / Gorin no Sho» about 1645. Ihara Saikaku, a playwrite and son of a wealthy merchant, wrote «Five Women Who Loved Love / Koshoku Gonin Onna» in 1685. It took half a century for the Japanese to think that the art of battle is more important than real battles. It took another half century to think that the art of loving is more important that of battle.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 40-2 Samurai in doubt

Today's Tao

When a middle man hears about Tao, he is half in doubt. (Ch.40)


In the old days, an ordinary person would be half in doubt when he heard of airplanes.

An ordinary person would be half in doubt when he heard of Internet.

An ordinary person would be half in doubt when he heard of Sony's flexible TV screen.

An ordinary person would be half in doubt when he heard of Karl Pribram's Holonomic brain theory.

An ordinary person will be half in doubt when he hears of Tao.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 40


Tao answers your question!



-Of course, even a samurai had doubt once in while. Especially after his function changed from a warrior to a bureaucrat, he had doubt about what he was living for. He needed a book like «Hagakure». It is quite different from Musashi's «The Book of Five Rings».

Tao Te Ching Chapter 40-1 High samurai

Today's Tao

When a high man hears about Tao, he tries hard to do it. (Ch.40)


上 [jo]: high

士 [shi]: man, samurai


In Japanese, this word 士 [shi] has a special connotation.

When you say 武士 [bushi], he is a samurai with swords.

When you say 文士 [bunshi], he is a samurai with pens. He uses a pen instead of a sword to fight.

Are you a seeker of Truth?

Are you a true seeker of Tao?

Everyone is kind of a samurai of life in his own way.

We simply try hard to attain something; Tao or Satori.

It is exactly because of that we will never get it.

Seeking Satori like a samurai is a mental Hara kiri.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 40


Tao answers your question!



-The word "Samurai" somehow fascinates the Japanese. All of them want to embrace the values of samurai although their population represented 10% of the Japanese population at most. The majority of the islanders in this floating world had nothing to do with severe reasonings of world-famous warriors.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 16-9 Satori / video

Today's Tao

Learning constancy is called enlightenment. (Ch.16)


Japan stories


Satori = Enlightenment? What is Satori, really?

The word has been confusing the Japanese mind for ages.

Most Japanese didn't give a hoot about Satori before because they were pesants and Shintoist-Buddhists (of a non-Zen school).

In principle, Zen buddhists were samurais, soldier-bureaucrats who occupied merely a fraction of Japanese population.

After the end of Tokugawa Shogun era, all the people became legally equal, and everyone wanted to behave like a samurai.

It was cool to meditate squatting in an exotic fashion and think about something abstract like Satori.

Well, what does it mean by Satori?

Linguistically, the word doesn't have a Chinese origin, which is quite rare since most of conceptual terms were imported from China in the middle age.

"Sa" means "that". "Tori" "take"

Please look at the photo above. Can you recognise four Kanji characters on the square wooden plate?

香取神宮 ka-tori-jin-gu

This is the name for one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan.

The second one from the top 取 is the Kanji for "tori / take".

So, Satori means "Take that".

Is it just a coincidence that it resembles Lao Tzu's «throw away that one and take this one.» (Chapter12 / Five Colours)?


Tao answers your question!



To read the text of Today's Tao, please see Tao Te Ching Chapter 16-9 Satori.


Keep on squatting, my friend!

Satori is life itself.

Of course, you can accept and love your life while meditating.

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.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 16


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.16 text / Next video


-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.