Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-6 Soft and weak men

Today's Tao

Those who are soft and weak are men of life. (Ch.76)


No matter how hard and strong the person is, he is part of your hologram.

Then, who are you if you are soft and weak?

If you are soft and weak, you are man of life, Lao Tzu says.

Life?

What is true life?

Why do we live?

Your true life is the circulation of energy.

You are the infinite light with other names, including Tao, Buddha, Zen, and Love.

You live in order to sustain this circulation of the energy.

You live in order to sustain your true life.

Your so-called "life" is a film that stimulates the circulation.

Be soft and weak, and your light will go through the life of ego more easily.

Soften your personal and egotistic light, and your true light will light up the world.

The softer your personal light of ego is, the stronger your true light will be.

(☞See Kanshiketsu / Like dust 56-7)


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-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 (6) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "Or rather the 'Darker than any Mystery', The Doorway whence issued all Secret Essences." On the left, «Tao Te Ching (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)» translated by Arthur Waley. / "Profound and remote and again more so: This is the gate to all mysteries." On the right, «Tao Te Ching: An All-New Translation» translated by William Scott Wilson.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-5 Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard & Strong

Today's Tao

Therefore, those who are hard and strong are men of non-life. (Ch.76)


無情還解説法否

Do non-living objects understand what one preaches?

In Zen Buddhism, they discuss the question often.

They also ask themselves a question:

"What kind of people can hear the preaching of non-living beings?".

無情説法什麼人得聞

(cf. the preaching of non-living beings = Mujoseppo 無情説法)

The answers are quite clear:

"Yes, non-living beings can hear the preaching of non-living beings".

Life is part of a hologram, which we call the world.

A hologram is projected.

As both people and buildings in a movie are projected, living beings and non-living beings in your hologram are projected.

Living and non-living beings are the same.

In a sense, everything is non-living.

How can you tell that people and animals have got thoughts and feelings while rocks and clouds haven't?

Now you know why you are not able to hear what other people and animals think or feel.


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-Hoben gate / Soft and Weak 76-10
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 76
-Heaven's Tao 9-6 Zen Master Dogen says: "Life is just non-life". (Shoji 生死, «Shobogenzo»)
-Life non-life 50-1
-Non-life 50-3


Tao answers your question!



☞«Tao Te Ching» Key word comparison (5) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "The passage which exists between them is a door to all the miraculous." On the left, «Lao Tse. Tao Te Ching» translated by Vladimir Antonov. / "Mystery of all mysteries! The door to the hidden." On the right, «Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way» translated by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-4 Dry end

Today's Tao

The end of its life is dry and withered. (Ch.76)


When you see that your plants are dry and withered, what do you think?

Their lives are getting closer to an end?

If so, please remember that every moment of life is a momentary phase (=Ho-i 法位). (☞See Hard end 76-2)

It is an independent momentary holographic image.

The end has nothing to do with the beginning.

Besides, all the holographic images are prayers. (☞See Tao by Matsumoto / Male and Female; Life's a prayer wheel)

When we see their end, we often feel sad.

Why?

Some associate it with their own end;

others are reminded of the loss of someone.

But it is strange.

Nothing ever ends because there is no beginning.

No one loses any because nothing has ever existed.

The holographic images of end and loss are asking us the same thing as those of beginning and birth:

"Send more Love".


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-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 (4) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄衆妙之門 in Chapter 1. / "The Mystery of mysteries is the Door of all essence." On the left, «Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (Shambhala Dragon Editions)» translated by John C. H. Wu. / "Subtle wonder within mysterious darkness. This is the beginning of all understanding." On the right, «The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu» translated by Brian Browne Walker.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-3 Fragile life

Today's Tao

The life of everything; grasses or trees, is soft and fragile. (Ch.76)


Why does life exist?

Why do the lives of grasses and trees exist?

First, life, or the life of any being, is part of a hologram.

Second, a hologram exists as a catalyst.

The catalyst stimulates Tao, the circulation of the fundamental energy.

This relation between the stimulating and the stimulated beings is metaphorically expressed as "to explain manifestation / 説法 [seppo]", or "to turn the wheel of manifestation / 転法輪 [tenborin]".

In other words, everything you see in your hologram is a prayer.

The catalytic prayer stimulates you, who is Tao.


That's why Zen Master Dogen says:

"Sometimes it uses the letters of one hundred grasses;

sometimes it uses the letters of ten thousand trees".

あるいは百草の文字をもちゐ、

あるいは万木の文字をもちゐる

(Bukkyo 仏経, «Shobogenzo»)


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-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 (3) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄 in Chapter 1. / "Mystery of mysteries" On the left, «Tao Te Ching (SkyLight Illuminations)» translated by Derek Lin. / "Deep and again Deep" On the right, «Tao Te Ching» by Stephen Addis and Stanley Lombardo.

Tao Te Ching Chapter 76-2 Hard end

Today's Tao

The end of the life of man is hard and strong. (Ch.76)


What is the end of life?


Zen Master Dogen answers the question clearly:

"Life is a momentary phase.

The end of life is a momentary phase."

生も一時のくらゐなり。

死も一時のくらゐなり。

(Genjokoan 現成公案, «Shobogenzo»)


He particularly uses the expression "a phase in the manifestation / Ho-i 法位" in order to describe the same stages.

Every moment of life is a phase in the manifestation and part of one hologram you project.

The important thing is that each hologram is independent of the others as an individual image (=a frame) in a film has nothing to do with the ones before and after it.

That is to say, the end of life has nothing to do with the beginning of life.

There is no cause and effect between holograms.

The true cause and effect takes place between a hologram and Tao, which is true You.

The projected holographic image stimulates the circulation of energy.

The circulation is called Tao.


Check

-A hologram does not affect another.

-A hologram is a momentary phase.


«Related Articles»
-Soft life 76-1
-Hard end 76-2
-Fragile life 76-3
-Dry end 76-4
-Mujoseppo = non-living preach / Hard and Strong 76-5
-Soft and weak men 76-6
-Strong army, no win 76-7
-Karoshi / Snapped branch 76-8
-Hossho stays low 76-9
-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 (2) / -Dark Depth 玄 [gen]- Let's see how they translate 玄之又玄 in Chapter 1. / "Darkness within darkness" On the left, «Tao Te Ching: A New English Version (Perennial Classics)» translated by Stephen Mitchell. / "The hidden within hidden" On the right, «Tao Te Ching: The New Translation from Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions)» translated by Jonathan Star.