Tao Te Ching Chapter 80-10 Enjoy your customs

Today's Tao

Make them enjoy their customs. (Ch.80)


The grass is always greener on the other side.

The fancy costumes are fancier in someone else's religion.

The mantras seem more precious if you don't understand what you are saying.

Are you sure you would read «Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching» if the title were «an old man's prayer of morals»?

There is nothing wrong with being a bit exotic.

These days Japanese princesses get married in a white wedding dress at a Christian church in Tokyo even though they have no idea who the heck St. Mary Magdalene is.

Their eyes can be greener when they wear colored contact lenses, but there is no guarantee that they can see things more clearly.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 80


Lao Tzu answers your question!



☞«Recommended Books 7» しばふ, shibafu, gazon, grass, hierva, 芝生, 草. / みどり, midori, vert, green, verde, 緑. / となり, tonari, voisin, neighbor, vecino, 隣. The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. A Tao and Zen discussion can be very profound and rewarding in a Christian and Occidental context. In Fyodor Dostoyevsky's «The Brothers Karamazov», the conversations between the elder Zossima and Alexey Karamazov teach us a lot about the Tao / hologram mechanism. It is worth rereading the book while decoding Christian and Occidental terms into Taoist and Zen Buddhist ones. Besides, although his appearance is brief, the elder Varsonofy leaves an unforgettable impression on Taoists and Zen Buddhists. In W. Somerset Maugham's «The Razor's Edge», the life of an American, who went as far as India to find out what life is, is portrayed along with other Americans who also found out the same thing without going to the East. Let's go East (or West), and we will discover that the grass has different names but does have the same color.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 65-8 Return to Tao

Today's Tao

You return to Tao with things. (Ch.65)


There are two key functions here.

1. "Return".

The word indicates the energy cycle.

This cycle is Tao, therefore, true You.

Everything returns to Tao.

This is Big Natural Flow, that is to say, Tao's perfect integration 大順 [taijun]. (☞See Chuang Tzu's teachings 42-8)


2. "With things".

The word "things" suggests a hologram.

The key is the preposition "with".

This implies a hologram's function as a catalyst.


Your mind and body are part of your hologram along with mountains, rivers, flowers, and stars, in short, with all other elements of what you see (and you cannot see).

All of them return to the neutral state of Tao (=the state before your hologram is projected, =Bumo misho izen).

What we call "one life" is the emission and return of a hologram.

But, remember there is no time in Tao.

The moment something begins, it ends.

The moment something ends, it begins.

No life, no end of life.

不生不滅 [fusho fumetsu].


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 65


Tao answers your question!



☞There was a band called "Japan". There is a band called "Tokio Hotel". A few decades ago, it seemed that Japan had abandoned being "Japan" and was transforming all its territory into "Tokyo". All the provincial areas wanted to be as sophisticated as Tokyo, and the country was on the verge of a successful transition from "lost Japan" to "Greater Tokyo". Old soldiers did not disappear easily, and now it seems that the pendulum has changed its direction completely. The fastest aging industrialized nation is creating a bigger and bigger mass of post-comsumers. The younger Japanese haven't got cash to spend for sure, but they are still happy because spending money is no longer "sexy" there.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 22-9 Righteousness

Today's Tao

He doesn't think he is right. So, his righteousness is visible. (Ch.22)


"You are wrong!"

"I am right!"

"When you eat Sushi, you must not put your ginger between the rice and the fish."

"I know what I'm doing. This is the authentic way!"


You don't have to convince anyone, do you?

Do you still want your righteousness to be recognized?

All right. Use Dark Depth Female technique.

Don't think you are right.

What does it mean by being right, anyway?

There is neither right nor wrong in Tao.


Naoto Matsumoto adds:

We always need innovation and open-mindedness, but, if you put the ginger between the rice and the fish at a high class Sushi establishment in Japan, chances are that they will ask you to leave unless your Japanese friend explain to the Sushi chef that you are an important political figure from Timbuktu.

In a Tokyo-style Sushi bar, ginger is served to erase the aftertaste between a piece of Sushi and another.

At a belt-conveyer Sushi bar, they are less strict, and almost all reasonable bad manners are accepted, including belching and slurping the soup. Nevertheless, talking too loud and sprinkling saliva on the small dishes on the belt-conveyer is considered offensive. Besides, please do not forget that, once you have taken a dish with sushi from the belt-conveyer, you are not allowed to bring it back on it. It is not a question of manners, but it is a question of hygiene.


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-No bragging 22-10
-No boasting 22-11
-Aikido 22-12
-Empty words 22-13
-Return it! 22-14
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 22


Tao answers your question!



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Tao Te Ching Chapter 20-16 Sea

Today's Tao

Calm as if it were the sea. (Ch.20)


Tao resembles the sea.

It is calm, but has plenty of energy inside.

Let's stop the beautiful comparison here, though.

Otherwise, you would be Chuang Tzu's frog in the well.

If you think that Tao is the energy surrounding you, you are surely the frog.

Tao is the sea without its mass.

It is the energy without its volume.

So, you cannot be stuck in there.

You are the energy.


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-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


Tao answers your question!



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Hokusai's print above certainly inspired Quiksilver's logo, but waves are never that big at Tokyo Bay. Well, who knows. Probably, once every one hundred years when a typhoon hits a right spot. The image on the left is much closer to its reality. So, please do not pack your travel bag to try to catch a huge Tokyo Bay monster wave.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 18-1 Tao out of use / video

Today's Tao

After great Tao has fallen out of use, we have "morality of love" and its rules. (Ch.18)


Rules are strict in Japan.

At the platform in a railway station, you can hear something like:

"The train will depart at 8:47AM thirty second."

And it does exactly at the time.

In the train, you may find some Japanese men standing by the conductor's booth and staring at him.

They are admirers of the excellent train control by the conductor.

These days in Tokyo, you can have your own fans if you are a train conductor.

Thanks to Nintendo's «Ressha de Go (Go by train/ a train simulator)», those fans know all the regulations and hazards at any station in Yamanote Line.

Of course, they know perfectly where hazard signals and speed limit panels are.

Lao Tzu doesn't like rules, but some surely do.


To read the text of Today's Tao / Tao out of use, please see Tao Te Ching 18-1 Tao out of use.


Tao answers your question!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 17-1 The highest / video

Today's Tao

The highest is the one that the lower ones don't know of. (Ch.17)


Where is the best city to eat out in on the planet?

Paris?

I am afraid not.

Recently, the famous Michelin Guide book awarded more 3-starred restaurants to Tokyo than to Paris.

(although as a nation France has more 3-starred restaurants than Japan)

Its chief editor apologetically admitted that it is natural because Tokyo has four times as many restaurants as Paris.

Therefore, please study today's photo well if you have a business engagement in Tokyo or vacations in the Japanese archipelago.

These written on the dark blue cloth are the Kanji characters for Sushi.

Caution!

Normally this type of a small establishment is fairly expensive.

A sushi bar with a conveyor belt is much cheaper.

Except in Aomori City!

Aomori City, located in the north of Japan, is considered to be the best town (quality-price-wise) in the country and enjoys plenty of cheap but good sushi bars without a conveyor. Some of them are even cheaper than those with a conveyor belt.

Nevertheless, Aomori might not be the best city to eat sushi in on the planet.

Tokyo may beat Paris, but I don't know if Aomori can beat Boston (quality-price-wise).

Let me know your opinion.


To read Today's Tao / The highest, please see Tao Te Ching Chapter 17-1 the highest.


Tao answers your question!

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!



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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 12-6 Belly

Today's Tao

That's why the sage does the belly but doesn't do the eye. (Ch.12)


You should concentrate on Hara, the belly.

Then, no colours, no sounds, no tastes can fool you.

No superficial thing can fool you.

About the art of the belly, Hara gei, check Tao by Matsumoto / Chapter 3 Hara gei the belly art.

It is interesting especially if you are a businessman in Japan.



Naoto Matsumoto adds:

Though it is useful, this is simply a physical technique like a Kyogen actor's laughter.

We must be aware of it.

Both of them have a certain result in terms of influencing your mind.

Nevertheless, we have to remember that both our body and mind are part of the hologram.

The desire to control our mind physically itself is part of it like the mountains, rivers, and lands, as Master Dogen says.



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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 12
-Tao by Matsumoto / No absolute truth If you are interested in teaching English in Japan, read this funny story in Tokyo.


More than 800 episodes available!



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-The Unspoken Way Haragei: Silence in Japanese Business and Society by Michihiro Matsumoto (Paperback - Sep 1988) @Amazon

A long wait

I know one should not be frustrated, but how do you help being impatient?

Now our site is placed page rank 4, but the robot of the search engine has not crawled it yet. Our new entries have not yet listed in the search engine. We have not seen a major change at our site analyser, either.

Site management teaches us a lot about Zen.

Do not expect. If yes, it will be counter-productive.

Just be patient and wait. Wait till it happens naturally.

Meanwhile we have started our new project. 

This time we carefully choose the name of the site, referencing a key word analyser.

Let's see what will happen.

Page Rank 4

Finally we made it, but we don't know what it really means.
Yesterday the world best search engine granted our Asakusa Underground a rank 4.
Since we started our site last March, we hadn't had our page rank.
We thought that one could improve his rank step by step.
First one gets rank 1 and moves up to 2, then 3.
Eventually he is accepted the class of big league players, 4+.
That was what we thought, but in reality it is not like that.
One day you wake up, and, voila!, you are in the major league of Internet.
It feels fantastic.
We are very grateful to the people who supported us, especially the site owners who placed the link to our site.
They didn't laugh at us though our site was an n/a. They treated us as their equal.
We must not forget that.
Soon, we hope, we will be receiving e-mails asking for reciprocal links.
We must not be haughty.
We should reach out and help them as the others helped us.
Thank you all.

Drink Bar

What do you think when you hear the word "drink"?
Then, what do you think when you hear the word "bar"?
You may think of beer, whisky, or your favorite cocktail.
In any case, it is related to alcoholic beverages.
If you pronouce the two words in a Japanese family restaurant, they do not mean alcohol at all.
It means the right to drink as much non-alocoholic drinks as you like.
Once you order a "drink bar", you can taste any soft drinks from the machines situated at a designated area. If you wish, you can try all kinds of them, and, if you please, you can drink 10 cups of hot chocolate.
Having seen the success of free coffee refill, some Japanese restaurant owners developped more genereous version of it.
That is "drink bar".

Net Cafe Refugees

Have you ever heard the expression ?
A Japanese TV station showed a report on the people who live in a cyber cafe in Japn last year, and immediately the expression became known to the Japanese.
Net cafe refugees are the young workers who are not able to pay their rent any longer and forced to live in a cyber cafe.
It is relatively cheap to sleep over at a cyber cafe in Japan, and some of the cafes even have shower facilities. (See Sleep in a Net cafe)

The strange thing is that we hardly encounter a man who really live in a cyber cafe in Japan.
Some Japanese believe that the story is an absolute invention by the Japanese media.
It is sensational enough to sell their stories.
The truth still remains to be seen.

Family restaurant Juraku

We have posted two new pages at Asakusa Underground:
and .
The former is about a brief analysis on how the Japanese imported and assimilated the consept of a roadside diner.
The later is about cheap sweets in Japan.

Besides, to improve SEO, I wrote an article on our site itself.
By using the words like travel, guide, tokyo, and Japan, we hope that they will place us at a much better position in the search engine.
Lte's see what will happen.

Asakusa Samba Carnival

Strangely, Asakusa enjoys its Samba Carnival.

It attracts a lot of spectators with a camera and a huge zoom lens in their hands.

Those are the amateurs of fetish photos.

The Asakusa district authority wisely chose the spectacle in the early 80s to stimulate its local economy.

Unlike other exotic attractions in Japan, some of which have a very short life, Asakusa's Samba celebrates nearly 30 years of its existence.

The difference is the presence of bikini girls.

Sleeping at a Karaoke box in Tokyo

You can sleep in a Karaoke Box in Tokyo.

Sleep at a Karaoke Box.

This is a new article on Asakusa Underground.

I am translating Romance-hunting in Ueno.

Both articles are written by Chi-chi.