Tao by Matsumoto

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[Chapter 25 / English Translation] - click the line to watch the related video.
There is a thing. It envelopes all and is holistic.

It is born before heaven and earth.

No sounds. No forms.

It's independent. It doesn't change.

It goes around and never stops.

Thus, one should make it the mother of heaven and earth.

I don't know the name of it.

Let's nickname it Tao.

Or, let us force ourselves to name it Big.

It's big, so it's said to go away.

It's going away, so it's said to be far away.

It's far away, so it's said to return.


Therefore, Tao is Big. Heaven is Big. Earth is Big. The king is Big.

Within the zone, there are four Bigs.

One of them is the king.

Man models himself upon earth.

Earth models itself upon heaven.

Heaven models itself upon Tao.

Tao models itself upon nature.


Rapid Decoded
<POINT> The world is a manifestation 法 of Tao.

It doesn't matter if it is chaotic or organised. There is one being that envelopes everything. It is holistic.

It creates (or projects) your hologram, which includes your own self and the rest of the world. If it is easier for you, you can interpret it as follows. Your own brains, which are holograms, project in the mind the holographic images of the world (=heaven and earth) in order to enable you to comprehend it. Time and space are concepts that your mind adds to restructure all the information into 3-dimensional moving and tangible images. (They are called holography.)

There is neither sound nor form in Tao. Some readers may want to interpret Tao as a kind of field, where the transmission of energy takes place in a form of wave. This idea will help you to abandon the concept that the world is concrete. Nevertheless, it is not ideal to think of Tao this way because it may give you the idea that Tao has time and space. Time and space belong to your hologram and Tao doesn't have them.

Tao creates your hologram (=the world), which includes your own self. The explanation is supposed to end here, but you can say that firstly Tao creates your "self" and body, then in your brains you project the holographic images of the rest of the world. Therefore, your hologram doesn't affect Tao. It is independent of the world (=your hologram) though it manifests itself through the worldly beings. Although Tao is called the fundamental energy, it doesn't change its form like other forms of energy.

"Goes around" indicates Yin Yang circle. Yin and Yang are exactly like the shiny and shadowy sides of the moon. They are not two different entities. They are the names of the two parts of the one thing. Metaphorically, Tao turns around like a prayer wheel in a Tibetan temple. The world (=your hologram) is the prayer wheel. Its objective is constant rotation. Every time it turns around, it emits the fundamental energy Tao. Then, Tao manifests itself through the living prayer wheel called the world (=your hologram). That's why some Buddhists say the world is Buddha's prayer. Of course, the prayer never stops.

Thus, Tao creates the world (=heaven and earth, =your hologram).

The word Tao, which means a way in Chinese, can be misleading since the fundamental energy refuses any categorization.

Nonetheless, we need a name for it in order to discuss it (though discussion itself is meaningless). Let's call it Tao, shall we?

Or, we call it Big, instead.

Since it is big, it spreads itself all over. It is like any other energetic field, but hopefully you abandon the idea soon after you overcome the concept of the world being concrete. After all, the world is "smaller" than Tao. That's why Lao Tzu wants to name it Big.

"Far away" means that the limit of the world (=your hologram) is within Tao. Again, the hologram is much smaller than Tao (though there is no space in Tao).

Tao "returns". This is one of the most important ideas in Taoism to comprehend. By Reverse Thinking, you can accelerate its process of returning. In other words, you can help the living prayer wheel (=the world, =your hologram) go around. Thus, you can transform your hologram (=the world). But "return" is a figure of speech (=Hoben in Buddhism). Don't forget that there is no space, therefore no distance, in Tao.


Therefore, Tao is the manifestation of Tao. It means Tao itself is created by Tao the fundamental energy. The world (=heaven and earth, =your hologram) is the manifestation of Tao, too. So are you since you are the creator (=the king) of your hologram.

Inside the zone of your hologram, all the beings are the manifestation of Tao. Your own self is its manifestation. Even your thoughts and feelings are the manifestations. So, you are not responsible for what you think and how you feel. Just let them come and go.

People are manifestations of Tao as well as objects are.

Objects are manifestations of Tao as well as something intangible like thoughts and feelings.

Thoughts and feelings are manifestations of Tao as well as Tao itself.

Tao is the manifestation of something (="nature" in this text, but not the nature we know of) that creates Tao. You may wonder why Tao has something that creates it while it it the origin of all. This is a problem when we try to conceptualise it. Tao as the origin doesn't mean the starting point of all creation. There is no such thing in Taoism as a starting point. It is a constant rotation like a prayer wheel. Tao creates all, so all creates Tao.

In Zen Buddhism, you can find a similar thing. It is Butsu kojo ji 仏向上事. In Master Dogen's «Shobogenzo», there is a chapter with the same name. It is about how to be better than Buddha though he is the supreme being. It is exactly because he is the best that there is a way to be better than him. Master Dogen kindly says, "You don't have to be better. All you have to do is to know that there is a way to be better than Buddha".

☞Live Tao Te Ching 道徳経 instead of studying the words in the book. Difficult? No. It is easy. All you have to do is to do nothing. Need an example? Read Yasunari Kawabata's «Snow Country» 川端康成「雪国」. Komako 駒子 the geisha girl is a good example. Good saké and a nice bath in an Onsen hot spring Ryokan hotel 温泉旅館. What else do you need? Living is Satori 悟り.

 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