Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-9 Hossho stays low

Today's Tao

The strong and big stays low. (Ch.76)


What is the strongest and biggest of all?

Certainly, it is Tao.

Do you remember Tao's nickname is Big? (☞See Big 25-9)

Like water, Tao look for a lower place, which you cannot see. (☞See Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching Chapter 8 / Be like Water)

In a sense, Tao remains in the shadow of every phenomenon.


Zen Master Dogen puts it this way:

"It puts its body into storage, and the shadow is more exposed."

(Mitsugo 密語, «Shobogenzo»)


Zen Master Ikkyu uses the metaphor of Tao (=Buddha, =Zen) being in the shadow of everything in his «Yama Uba».

Yama Uba, the old woman in the mountains, helps everyone in his shadow.

He doesn't know what she is doing.

You don't know what Tao is doing in your shadow.

When you commit a mistake, it is not your fault. Tao is just sending you Love (=Tao).

In Buddhism, it is called Hossho 法性, the nature of manifestation.


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-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
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-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (9) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "Indeed, it is the mystery of mysteries. It is the door of all spirituality." On the left, «The Teachings of Lao-Tzu: The Tao-Te Ching» translated by Paul Carus. / "This being so is profound, mysterious, and dark: The threshold to all secrets. (This translation seems to correspond to the Kanji / Chinese characters 同謂之玄玄之又玄衆妙之門.)" On the right, «Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching» translated by Keith Seddon.

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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-Perfect integration 65-9
-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 64-16 Desire no desire

Today's Tao

That's why the sage desires not to desire. (Ch.64)


A: "Master Bonbon, I still have got my desire. I cannot suppress my desire. Please help me."

B: "Meditate for sixty years, and you will have no desire."

A: "I did, Master Bonbon. I have meditated for sixty years. I am eighty years old now. But I cannot suppress my desire yet."

B: "Contact our sales division and buy the special amulet to get rid of your desire."


Master Bonbon, stop saying things like that.

One is suppose to have "no desire".

Desire is part of your own self.

The self is part of your hologram.

Holograms do not exist in reality.

In conclusion, desire does not belong to you from the beginning.

It is a catalyst like feelings, thoughts, mountains, rivers, clouds, and flowers.

"Desiring not to desire" means "accepting that there is no desire".


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-Don't dare 64-21
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 64


Tao answers your question!



☞In stead of studying Tao Te Ching, why don't we live Tao Te Ching? Living without resistance. Accepting all with love. "We can't do that cos we are not a saint!", some may say. But, in fact, no matter how you live, you are doing it. It is a question of whether you refuse to admit it or not. Even this question is not important. Look at the geisha girl Komako in Yasunari Kawabata's «Snow Country». She is not aware of what she is doing. She is just living. Her way of living does not stop her from enjoying life. She is a perfect Tao girl.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 61-10 Work on people

Today's Tao

A small country simply wants to enter and work on people. (Ch.61)


Do you think some authority or power is dictating to your life?

What Lao Tzu is saying here is rather the other way round.

The outside world, which is your hologram, seems to be influencing you and your life, but it doesn't in fact.

In Zen Buddhism, they use various expressions to illustrate a hologram:

山河大地

[sen ga daichi]

"mountains, rivers, and lands"

and

尽十方界

[jin juppo (jippo) kai]

"ten nooks and crannies of the whole world"

among others.

Its sole objective is to stimulate the circulation of the fundamental energy Tao.

Then, how can we get along with it?


Master Dogen answers the question with a metaphor of a man and a boat.

「われふねにのりて、このふねをもふねならしむ」

[ware fune ni nori te, kono fune wo mo fune narashimu]

"I go on board the boat and make it be a boat." (boat = hologram)

(Zenki 全機, «Shobogenzo»)


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 61


Tao answers your question!



☞When you visit an island in the southern Pacific Ocean, you may come across a tree tied with many strips of colorful cloth. This is a sacred tree. The tree protects the local people. The reminiscence of this worship still remains in the collective memory of the Japanese. We have not forgotten at all our distant past before the days some of our ancestors traveled across the sea from the islands and settled in this archipelago. No wonder Jizo Bodhisattva wear a fancy Pikachu cap in Japan. (See the photo of Jizo Bodhisattva with a Pikachu cap) He is a reincarnation of the sacred tree in the islands of Nintendo. Now Jizo with colorful strips has come back to Hawaii.  («Guardian of the Sea / Jizo in Hawaii»@Amazon) Looking down the ocean, he is doing his business as usual, protecting the locals and travelers.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 59-6 Never-ending cycle

Today's Tao

If you don't see the end of this cycle, you can keep the country. (Ch.59)


A: "Master Bonbon, banks are bankrupt. Our country is collapsing. Do something for us!"

B: "Trust your bank managers and political leaders. Leave your money in the stock market. Meditate and wish that stock prices will go up."


Remember?

When Lao Tzu says "the country", it means "your hologram".


Zen Master Fuyo Dokai 芙蓉道楷 (Fu-jung Tao-k'ai) called it "blue mountains".

He said:

"Blue mountains walk constantly. 青山常運歩"

（正法眼蔵「山水経」より）


This is the Tao / hologram cycle.

It is Hokke ten hokke 法華転法華: Buddha's manifestation turns Buddha's manifestation (=Tenborin 転法輪).

This cycle of the manifestation of Love will never stop.

Don't worry.


従来の転いまもさらにやむことなし

In the chapter of Hokke ten hokke in «Shobogenzo», Master Dogen guarantees you that the spin of this cycle has never stopped nor will stop.


You know why?

Because you are the cycle.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 59


Tao answers your question!



☞Intelligence has the least importance for Lao Tzu. Nevertheless, some books are worth reading. You can get information in order to reduce your knowledge in general. One is Lynne McTaggart's «The Field». Thanks to the book, I learned plenty of information about the recent discoveries in various academic fields that correspond to Lao Tzu's teachings. Another is Shusaku Endo's «Silence». The Japanese Catholic author tries to look for the answer to the question: "Why did God keep silent at the very moment when one needed his voice?".

Tao Te Ching Chapter 50-8 No tiger

Today's Tao

No tiger finds a place to place its claws at. (Ch.50)


One-horned water buffaloes and tigers are there for you.

It is you who decide whether you will be bothered or appreciate their presence.

Zen master Sozan Honjaku 曹山本寂 [Ts'ao-shan Pen-chi] told his disciple that when a mule looks at the well, the well looks at the mule. (Egenroku 会元録, Book 13)

Dogen wrote: "Not just that."

"The well looks at the well. The mule looks at the mule. A man looks at the man himself. A mountain looks at the mountain itself."

(Shoakumakusa 諸悪莫作, «Shobogenzo»)


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 50


Tao answers your question!



☞Some things have to be told whether the society accepts them or not. Some people have to have guts to tell them regardless of the risk of being ridiculed or even being prosecuted. Some truths are so simple and self-evident that people in the society do not want to accept them. Thank you, Mr Galileo. Thank you, Mr Pribram, for your holonomic brain model. Thank you, Mr Benveniste, for your homeopathic digital memory of water. Thank you, Ms Mctaggart, for telling us Galileo-like stories in your book «The Field». Please read the book. I can guarantee you that it will help you understand Tao and Zen better.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 40-18 Hidden with no name

Today's Tao

Tao is hidden and has no name. (Ch.40)


You cannot see Tao.

In other words, you are always seeing Tao's manifestation.

Why do we have to look for it somewhere else?

Right here, right now, you are seeing it.

You are receiving its energy, its love.

And please remember that you are the love itself.

Lao Tzu says that it's useless to define what Tao is.

It doesn't even need a name because it exists everywhere.

If you cannot help having an image to love and admire, Zen master Ikkyu invented «Yama Uba» for you.

Yama Uba hidden in the mountains.

She symbolizes Tao, Zen, Love, or whatever you name it.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 40


Tao answers your question!



-«Yama Uba» means an old woman in the mountains. She is thought to be an imaginary character in Japanese legends. But Japanese ethnologist Kunio Yanagida implies that Japan may have had a substantial number of population who lived in the deep forests without being socially involved in the life in villages. They were dropouts in the feudal age. Some of them may have chosen the way of life consciously for fear of being captured by their enemy. Others may have simply liked the way. Master Ikkyu intelligently used this unsophisticated mountain lady as a metaphor of Zen/Tao.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 39-21 Like stone

Today's Tao

They are like stone. (Ch.39)


"Be like dust", says Lao Tzu.

In the chapter of Mountain Water Sutra 山水経 [san sui kyo] in his «Shobogenzo» 正法眼蔵, Dogen 道元 quotes Fuyo Dokai (Fu-jung Tao-k'ai) 芙蓉道楷:

"Blue mountains walk constantly. A stone woman gives birth to a child at night." 青山常運歩、 石女夜生児。

Dogen tells us not to doubt if mountains walk.

"While you are doubting mountains' walk, you don't know anything about your own walk", he says.

"Mountains" and "stone" as well as your own self are part of your hologram.

A stone woman gives birth to her child, and the child gives birth to the stone woman.

This is the Yin Yang cycle.

Nature and people are our prayer wheel.


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-Mean = Root 39-18
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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 39


Tao answers your question!



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-Monaco is well-known for its Casino de Monte Carlo and Formula 1 Grand Prix. Some may associate the principality with off-shore banking. But, believe it or not, it enjoys a beautiful Japanese garden in its territory. The garden was conceived and built by a Japanese master from Kyushu. He didn't like to bring in all the rocks and mosses from Far East. He believed that the materials must be related to the land there. Surely, the garden is authentic both in style and in spirit. Princess Grace must be quite content.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 28-10 Under the sky

Today's Tao

Be the valley under the sky. (Ch.28)


Valley = Void

Under the sky = Hologram


So, "Be the valley under the sky" means "Be one with Tao the nothingness while living in your hologram".

Don't look down on your hologram you are living with.

It is the manifestation of Tao.

Zen Master Dogen says:

"The true prayers are «ten nooks and crannies of the whole world», «mountains, rivers and lands», «grasses, trees, you, and non-you»". (Jishozanmai 自証三昧, «Shobogenzo»)


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 28


Tao answers your question!



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-There are always people who say something and the others who don't. There are always some whose ideas and stories are heard and the others whose cries and way of living are completely ignored. Some people have the power to write a history and the others don't. When we talk about this island nation called Japan, we really have to know who we are talking about. Some say that the society is homogenous. Is it right? Does a homogenous nation truly exist? I really want to hear stories ignored by the establishment. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to leave stories that might make the upper class feel ashamed.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-16 Tao's rear

Today's Tao

When you follow it, you don't see its rear. (Ch.14)


Can you see your rear?

No, we can't.

"Tao's rear" symbolises our feelings.

It is not important to know how your feelings are composed.

Do you know why the clouds in the sky move this way and that?

It is a useful tool in life to think that feelings are like the clouds.

You are not responsible for them.


Dogen says:

You own self is like mountains, rivers, and lands. (Keiseisanshoku 谿声山色, «Shobogenzo»)


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-Big Bang 14-18
-Tao's quintessence 14-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



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Tao Te Ching Chapter 14-12 Back to nothingness

Today's Tao

It goes back to nothingness. (Ch.14)


The word "nothing" confuses new comers of Zen and Taoism.

It is because it's difficult to eliminate the concept of time and space from our head.

If there is no time or space, everything is taking place simultaneously in one place, which is Tao.

Everything is generated in Tao and goes back to Tao the nothingness.

Check Zen master Dogen's essay on existence-time.


Master Dogen says:

Time and space exist in mountains, rivers, and lands.


Naoto Matsumoto says:

It would have been much easier for Master Dogen if had had the word "holography". He could have said: "Time and space exist only in your hologram".

Zen Master Dogen helps us a lot about how to deal with time and space.

He wrote a masterpiece essay called «U-ji», which can be roughly translated as existence-time.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 14


Tao answers your question!



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Tao Te Ching Chapter 13-10 Trouble and body

Today's Tao

I have big trouble because I have my body. (Ch.13)


Love your trouble because it is part of you.

You project your trouble, and your trouble projects you.

Zen Master Dogen uses the expression "You are mountains, rivers, and lands".

We can say, "we are mountains, rivers, lands, clouds, flowers, our happiness, our contentment, and, of course, our trouble".

Without them, we do not exist.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 13


Lao Tzu answers your question!



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Tao Te Ching Chapter 25-17 Earth's model

Today's Tao

Earth models itself upon heaven. (Ch.25)


Earth and heaven represent the natural world.

In Zen Buddhism, they say your mind is mountains, rivers, and lands.

Earth and heaven, mountains, rivers, and lands are part of your hologram.

So is your mind.


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-Heaven's model 25-18
-Tao's model 25-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 25
-Work on people 61-10. "Mountains, rivers, and lands" are called "Sen ga daichi" in Japanese. 山河大地


Everyday a new entry!



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