Tao by Matsumoto

Watch Today's Tao Video! Lao Tzu answers your question!
19. Destroy cleverness

[Chapter 19 / English Translation] - click the line to watch the related video.
Destroy discernment. Throw away intellect. And people's benefit will be 100 times as much.

Destroy "morality of love". Throw away its rules. And people will recover children's filial duty and parents' merciful "love".

Destroy cleverness. Throw away profit. And there will be no thieves.

About these three things, the words don't seem to be enough. Therefore, I am forced to add something.

Show your essence and hold an uncarved block.

Diminish self and reduce desire.

Destroy learning and have no worries.


Rapid Decoded
No dichotomy. Stop discerning good from evil. There is neither good nor evil in nature. It's the same in Taoism. Throw away intellect and stop learning. Then, we can accept and love all much more easily. This is the true profit.

No morality. Love is not "give and take". It is another name for the fundamental energy Tao. Rules are not natural. Be careful with the words "filial duty" and "merciful love". If we accept all, we are merciful to everyone without the word "mercy". When we do something for the sake of filial duty, the act is false. Avoid conceptualisation of your feelings. When we have a concept in our mind, it blocks the flow of the energy. Love all (=accept all) without thinking any words like "duty", "mercy", or "love".

Don't be clever. Don't think of profit. Since we have a hidden desire to outsmart others and gain profit, we have thieves. Look at financial markets.

These three things; discernment and intellect, morality and rules, cleverness and profit; are part of your hologram (=the world, =illusion). Stop looking for an objective world outside you. It doesn't exist. The words used above are not strong enough to express true dangers when you practice Taoism. Here, I am forced to paraphrase them.

Be your true self, which is Tao. Be no more pretentious than an uncarved block. To hold it means to be one with Tao.

Your self is part of the hologram. If you are out of your hologram (=your own self), you are one with Tao (=true you). Your desire is part of your hologram as well. "Reduce" it if you can. If you cannot, don't worry. Just leave it as it is. Treat it like clouds in the sky. That is to say, you are not responsible for your desire. It belongs to the rest of the world (=your hologram).

Learning is useless. Stop learning. You already know all you have to know. Don't worry.


Videos

- 19-1 No discernment
- 19-2 Morality of love
- 19-3 No profit, no thieves
- 19-4 Taoist investment
- 19-5 Essence = Uncarved block
- 19-6 Reduce desire
- 19-7 Don't learn


[Related Articles]
-This chapter 19 should be read along with the chapter 18 Taoism out of use because there are so many words shared in-between such as "morality of love", rules, filial duty, and merciful "love".

-As for the difference between studying and doing Tao, see Reduce and reduce.





Read Yama Uba the Zen play

☞Akira Kurosawa's «The Idiot», originally written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, was shot in 1951. Is it difficult to destroy cleverness? No, not at all because we are not clever. We don't have to be clever because we will never be. All we have to do is to accept the fact. Would you still like to pretend?
  1. Tao

 2. Hologram

 3. The floating world Ukiyo

 4. Play

 5. Gate

 6. Dark Depth

 7. Dark Depth Female

 8. Do nothing

 9. Body soul and Spirit soul

10. You and non-you

11. Yin Yang circle

12. No judgement

13. Resistance

14. Satori

15. Act without acting

16. Colour

(Last modified: 17 November 2011)