Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-8 Useful tool

Today's Tao

You must not show anyone the useful tool to govern the nation. (Ch.36)


"The useful tool" means Dark Depth Female 玄牝 [gen pi].

"The nation" suggests your hologram.

Therefore, you must not show anyone how you use Dark Depth Female in order to "control" your hologram.

Why can't you show that you are the one who "controls" your hologram?

Because it causes sort of a mental short circuit.

You are trying to construct and destruct the hologram at the same time.

Your own self has to play perfectly the role of a character there.

But, if you tell others that the world is a hologram, it's like an actor in a movie trying to convince other characters that it is a fictional world where they live.


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-Visit Japan while you stay at home! Create your own onsen hot spa atmosphere in your bath room. Natsume Soseki's «Botchan» is a fun book to read in the bathtub. The story is based near Dogo Onsen, Shikoku, Japan.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-7 Fish & Water

Today's Tao

A fish had better not leave the deep water. (Ch.36)


"A fish" here is your own self.

"The deep water" here is your hologram.

Your own self cannot exist outside the hologram as a fish cannot live outside water.

It is quite interesting that Zen Master Dogen uses the same metaphor in his «Shobogenzo».

"Since the olden days, no fish has left water and no bird has left the sky." (Genjokoan 現成公案, «Shobogenzo»)

"If the fish tries to comprehend what water is before it gets in there, it will never find either the way or the place." (ditto)


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-Izumi Kyoka is a link between the Edo / Samurai era literature and the modern one. To him, letters were gods. He wrote like a Noh actor performing.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-6 Soft Tao

Today's Tao

The soft and weak beat the tough and strong. (Ch.36)


The soft beats the tough.

That was supposed to be the idea of Judo, the soft Tao.

The weak beats the strong.

A Japanese proverb says:

"To lose is to win / 負けるが勝ち [makeru ga kachi]".

The conventional wisdom may agree.

If you are tough, you might be inflexible.

If you are strong, you might be arrogant.

They are contrary to 玄牝 [gen pi], Dark Depth Female attitude.

Being soft and weak is much closer to Tao.


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-«Hojoki» means "An account of the Ten Foot Square Hut". It is about the size of four Tatami mats and a half. In fact, the urban living condition in Japan has not changed very much. If you have Internet, some Japanese find it cozy enough to live in without too much hustle of tidy-up.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-5 Mini enlightenment

Today's Tao

This is called minute enlightenment. (Ch.36)


If you give more, you can take more.

It is wise, but it is just minute, mini, small enlightenment.

It is not the true Satori.

Of course, you are free to use the Dark Depth Female technique for your benefit.

But, doesn't it mean that you are not happy about what it is right here right now?

Eh, eh, you are refusing to accept your world as it is.

Aren't you fighting against your own hologram?

The mini enlightenment is fine as your first step to transform it, but let's accept all without any resistance.

That's the big, gigantic Satori.


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-Isamu Noguchi at Vitra. He was a close friend of Frida Kahlo. Some evenings at Mexico City are so magical that you cannot resist the temptation of gentle caresses.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-4 Give = Take

Today's Tao

If you want to take something, you must give it for a while. (Ch.36)


You give something to someone.

When you look at this act from the other person's standpoint, he is taking something.

Please remember you = non-you.

So, give = take.

If you want to take more, give more.

We have an interesting Japanese saying:

"When the wind blows, a cooper gains".

This is telling us about a mystic chain reaction taking place in your hologram.

The more you doubt the chain reaction, the more resistance you create in the hologram.

Therefore, the chain of the reactions will be longer.

Skeptics have to wait long.


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36
-Give more, receive more 5-5


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-If you find Zen and Tao too confusing, ask Shusaku Endo for some help. He is a Japanese novelist and Christian. His interpretation of Christianity will give you some useful thought tools when you read oriental philosophies.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-3 Decline = Prosperity

Today's Tao

If you want to make something go down, you must have it flourish for a while. (Ch.36)


Decline is prosperity.

Up = Down

They are the same thing.

Those two opposing elements are exactly like both sides of a coin.

It is like favour and disgrace, which we have discussed in Chapter 13.

Ups and downs exist in order to stimulate you.

You accept ups with joy and emit more of the fundamental energy Tao.

You accept downs, saying:

"Thank you, my dear hard time. I know why you are here. You are asking me to send more love".


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-Those boots are not exactly the ones Matsuo Basho used when he went up to the Deep North, but still retain some taste of the period. They are useful when you do some gardening.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-2 Weak = Strong

Today's Tao

If you want to weaken something, you must strengthen it for a while. (Ch.36)


Weak is strong. Strong is weak.

All the masters say we have to stop judging.

Some wonder why.

Please look at this picture.

This is weak, and that is strong.

We think that weakness leads to strength and vice versa.

This cycle helps us understand the relation between a hologram and Tao.

The hologram stimulates Tao, and Tao creates the hologram.

Eventually, we come to realize that this cycle is one.

Therefore, no judging.


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-Natsume Soseki was one of the first Japanese who were philosophically conscious of individuality. And he suffered from it heavily. Individuality in the floating world, it must be hard to live with.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 36-1 Stretch = Shrink

Today's Tao

If you want to shrink something, you must stretch it for a while. (Ch.36)


Let's think the other way round.

Don't concentrate on something if you really want to achieve it.

With Reverse Thinking, you can go back to the state before things are projected in your hologram.

In Zen Buddhism, the state is called Bumo misho izen 父母未生以前.

In this neutral state, your desire meets the hologram.

Stretch something, and you will see it shrinking.

This is Dark Depth Female 玄牝 [gen pi / gen pin] approach.


«Related Articles»
-Stretch = Shrink 36-1
-Weak = Strong 36-2
-Decline = Prosperity 36-3
-Give = Take 36-4
-Mini enlightenment 36-5
-Soft Tao 36-6
-Fish and Water 36-7
-Useful tool 36-8
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 36


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.36 text / Next video


-Japanese literature has other aspects than being artistic. Jiro Nitta shows an unbeaten track of Japanese adventure and historical novels.