Tao Te Ching Chapter 40-8 Smooth = Tangled

Today's Tao

Smooth Tao seems tangled. (Ch.40)


Something that seems to be smooth and simple is, in fact, more uneven and tangled.

Our ecosystem is a good example.

We, insolent human beings, think we know all.

Then, we touch Nature and destroy it, and don't know what to do afterwards.

We need a modern Lao Tzu right now to stop us from making stupid mistakes.

Luckily, we have one. He is late Masanobu Fukuoka.

He teaches us an agriculture of doing nothing.

Don't worry. Something seemingly tangled is in fact simple, too.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 40


Tao answers your question!



-"We've gotta do something to change the world!" Wrong, absolutely wrong! We have to do nothing to change the world. Late Masanobu Fukuoka, an agriculturist and botanist, has transformed deserts into green fields by doing nothing. It is about time we learned that, every time we act on something directly, we disturb the natural course of change. A truly courageous man knows how to do nothing. Please allow me to feel proud of sharing the same nationality as this late exceptional human being. You never know. One day Fukuoka might be compared with Dogen or Lady Murasaki.

Save the Asakusa seaweeds

Asakusa is just an old sector of Tokyo, which has nothing to do with marine lives.

Most of the tourists there may think so.

However, the name of the place means "Shallow grass". It can be interpreted as the reeds in the shallow water. Half a millennium ago, Asakusa was on the sea.

When they eat sushi rolls, people never think Asakusa was once well known for the cultivation of nori, the paper-like seaweeds wrapping the roll in their hand.

Now the wetlands at the river mouth of the Sumida have been turned into the reclaimed lands, and the sea weeds cannot grow there any more.

Asakusa nori is on the verge of extinction.

There are a few men in Chiba, the neighbouring prefecture to Tokyo, who are trying to revive the species in Tokyo Bay. Though it is polluted, its marine resources are surprisingly diverse. Those guys are unsung heroes protecting the endangered species.

Fukuoka, the old ecologist

Fukuoka Masayoshi is an old Japanese ecologist who has worked a lot in Africa and Asia, planting trees in deserts.

His method is abnormal. He doesn't do anything. That is his philosophy. Sometimes he is nicknamed "modern day Laotzu" because of this attitude.

He just uses his mud balls mixed with seeds. Thanks to their excellent combination, once the plants hatch, they help each other to grow. Some decades later the desert becomes green.

"Human beings are very stupid to think that they know something. In fact, they don't know anything, and with so-called scientific approach, they destroy the balance in nature", he says.

It's not stealing. It's recycling.

My girlfriend and I got up early this morning.We drove down to a neighbourhood nearby.

She saw there a heap of transparent plastic boards to be disposed.

They were about 2 meters by 1 meter. It was what she was looking for to protect her wooden sliding door from rain.

I had a hang-over and felt a little ashamed to do this semi-stealing.

I said to myself, "It is not stealing. It is recycling those abandoned objects. There is nothing wrong. On the contrary, we are doing something good for our environment".

I was very glad when we finished this without being noticed by their former owner.