Showing posts with label Shintoism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shintoism. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Tao Te Ching Chapter 81-8 Sage's Tao


Today's Tao

The sage's Tao acts and doesn't compete. (Ch.81)


Who is the sage?

Of course, you are the one.

Then, who are you?

"Eh, excuse me, sir, which are you talking about, 'true You' or 'your own self'? Self doesn't exist, right?"

That's right.

Self, life, world. They are names given to some groups of information.

They are not independent entities.

"I see. Eh, excuse me, sir. What is 'true I'?"

True You are Tao.

Tao is always "acting without competing", that is to say, projecting a hologram without directly interfering with it.

Tao, Love, Buddha, and Zen among others are names given to the fundamental energy.

"Eh, sir, it is also called nothingness 無 [mu], right?"

Exactly.

Please picture the circulation of an energy with neither time nor space.

What else can you call it but nothingness.

Time and space are parameters used to reconstruct information in "the mind".

In other words, they are names.

"If you can talk about Tao, that Tao is not Tao itself."

This very first line of Tao Te Ching is not saying that it is impossible to understand Taoism logically. No!

It is possible to comprehend Taoism logically.

It is saying that the comprehension itself is part of your hologram.


«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 18» The most important function of a Japanese is making love. It doesn't matter if he is the poorest dropout living in the forests or the most revered priest of Shintoism living in the castle. He or she has got to make love. This could be a hidden heritage from our Polynesian ancestors or a genetic mission imprinted in the deepest recess of our chromosomes. Whatever it is the reason, the Japanese love to make love not only for the reproduction of the people but for pleasure. In spite of all the moral prohibitions by Confucianism and by jealous parents, Japanese girls have been successfully finding a way to enjoy making love. We used to have an institution called Geisha girls. Though it changes names and appearances, the institution never die out. A nice gift of a Gucci bag is an excuse good enough to make love with an aged stranger. Why? Because making love is sacred. Carnal desire is a manifestation of divinity. We, all the human beings, are divine. That's why we make love for pleasure. The gadgets for pleasure are offerings to the deity of joy. Please read «Kojiki», one of the oldest written records in Japanese, and «Love Songs from the Man'yoshu: Selections from a Japanese Classic», one of the oldest anthologies of Waka poems, which is a precursor of Haiku. You will see why love and desire are officially important.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 39-11 Gods rest


Today's Tao

If gods were not spiritual, they might rest. (Ch.39)


Everything is a god.

You are a god, too.

In Shintoism in Japan, we express it as "yaoyorozu no kami gami 八百万の神々 (=eight million gods)".

All the objects, all the living beings, even words and thoughts, of course, your own self; all of them are gods.

Your so-called reality is a collection of gods. You must respect every aspect of it.

Don't waste your food because it is a god.

Chew it completely and receive its life with respect.

Don't throw away your ball point pen before you finish all the ink inside.

For the ink is also a god like you.

Everything is the manifestation of Tao.

Don't let the Tao/hologram cycle rest.


Shintoism@wiki


«Related Articles»
-Attain One 39-1
-Heaven 39-2
-Earth 39-3
-Gods 39-4
-Filled valley 39-5
-Hologram's birth 39-6
-Hologram's master 39-7
-One = Tao 39-8
-Heaven torn apart 39-9
-Earth unstable 39-10
-Gods rest 39-11
-Inexhaustible valley 39-12
-Ruined 39-13
-Lords and Kings = Masters 39-14
-Noble = Mean 39-15
-High = Low 39-16
-Lords and Kings = Less virtue 39-17
-Mean = Root 39-18
-No honor 39-19
-No jade 39-20
-Like stone 39-21
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 39


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.39 text / Next video


-Hibari Misora is a Judy Garland of Japan. She sings a song of Asakusa with La (The). Asakusa deserves the article "The". The neighborhood is very special.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 22-1 Twisted / video



Today's Tao

Twisted therefore complete. (Ch.22)


Japan stories


When you visit a Buddhist temple or a Shintoist shrine, you will surely see it.

It is a piece of paper called "Omikuji".

You will find a bunch of them tied on the braches of the trees in its precincts.

Japanese men and women pay a few dollars or euros to a young lady working in vermilion and white traditional costume if it is at a Shinto shrine. In exchange, they receive this piece of paper.

As all the good students of Japanese know very well, the prefix "O" expresses politeness.

Though only advanced students of Japanese know it, the prefix "Mi" is an old way to express politeness.

The word "kuji" has plenty of respect, it seems.

It means "lottery".

Although it does not win you money or anything, it will tell you about your future.

Each piece of paper has detailed descriptions concerning your money, love, family, education, job, and others.

If you like what it is written, you keep it.

If you don't like it, you tie it on the branch. Then, divinity will take care of the purification of your bad luck.


To read the text of Today's Tao, please visit Tao Te Ching Chapter 22-1 Twisted. You will find a little article about Shohei Imamura's films, too.


Tao answers your question!



-They are based on a true story. In 1950 Kinkaku-ji / Golden Pavilion was burnt down. A young monk set fire. Yukio Mishima thought the temple was too beautiful for the monk to face. Another Japanese writer Tsutomu Minakami made up a totally different story. The young monk was having affair with a girl from the same village, who was now working in the quarter Gobancho, a district of pleasure.

Monday, December 28, 2009

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.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Body soul & Spirit soul video / Tao Te Ching Chapter 10-1


Today's Tao

Can you make the body soul and the spirit soul embrace Tao? [Ch.10]



This is a mark shot in a Shintoist shrine. The combination of red and white is typically Shintoist and rarely seen in a Buddhist temple in Japan.

The red, like the circle in the Japanese national flag, reminds us of the sun. The sun is a woman in Japan. She is called Amaterasu-oomikami, the Great Goddess who lights up the world.


To read the text for Today's Tao video, visit Body soul & Sprit soul / Tao Te Ching Chapter 10-1.


Everyday a new entree!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

True wisdom video


Today's Tao

The sage has no mercy.

He treats everyone as straw dogs. [Ch.5]


See True wisdom 5-2 to read the text of the video.

The paper in the photo is not "Straw dogs". This symbolises the presence of gods in Japanese Shintoism.


Everyday a new entree!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Tao Te Ching Chapter 5-2 True wisdom


Today's Tao

The sage has no mercy.

He treats everyone as straw dogs. (Ch.5)


Straw dogs are discussed in detail in Tao by Matsumoto site. It is in the chapter with the same name.

When I read Chuang Tzu's explanation on straw dogs, it reminds me of the paper gods (wakazari?) in Japan.

We put them at all the corners of our house for the preparation to New Year's day.

Our little gods somehow adore nooks and crannies, especially places like a toilet booth and a kitchen corner.

We put paper on leaves (and make a wakazari) and offer it to gods, wishing the safety of the house.

Once New Year holidays are over, we throw them away like Chuang Tzu's straw dogs.

It symbolizes renewal and rebirth.

Too much mercy may block the natural process of renewal. The sage doesn't like that.


«Related Articles»
-No mercy 5-1
-True wisdom 5-2
-Is a bellows a hologram? 5-3
-Never exhausted 5-4
-Give more, receive more 5-5
-More words, more exhausted 5-6
-Stay empty 5-7
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 5
-Tao by Matsumoto / Straw Dogs
-Tao by Matsumoto / What's a hologram
-Tao by Matsumoto / Hologram and Tao
-Tao by Matsumoto / Nintendo means "Do nothing" Corp.


Lao Tzu answers your question!


Previous video / Ch.5 text / Next video