Tao by Matsumoto

Watch Today's Tao Video! Everyday a new entree!

36. Reverse way

[Chapter 36 / English Translation] - click the line to watch the related video.
If you want to shrink something, you must stretch it for a while.

If you want to weaken something, you must strengthen it for a while.

If you want to make something go down, you must have it flourish for a while.

If you want to take something, you must give it for a while.

This is called minute enlightenment.

The soft and weak beat the tough and strong.


A fish had better not leave the deep water.

You must not show anyone the useful tool to govern the nation.


Rapid Decoded
Think the other way round. If you want to concentrate on something, try to do various things. This reverse way will bring you back to the state of Bumo misho izen (=Tao, =the state before things are projected in your hologram). While you are stretching something, you will see it shrinking. This approach is called Dark Depth Female. Reverse Thinking is part of it.

Weak is strong. After all, it is your judgement. You have to know that it is your hologram you project in your mind.

Decline is prosperity. They are the same thing. They are exactly like both sides of a coin. Like favour and disgrace discussed in Chapter 13, the change between decline and prosperity exists in order to stimulate you to emit more of the fundamental energy Tao.

When you give something to someone, from his point of view, it is taking it. "Give" and "take" are clearly the two sides of a coin. When you want to take something, give something else to someone. An odd Japanese proverb says, "When the wind blows, a cooper gains". This mystic chain reaction takes place, in fact, in your hologram. The more you doubt, the more resistance you create. Then, the chain of the reactions will be longer.

This is "minute" enlightenment, small enlightenment. Why small? Because, if you use this Dark Depth Female for your own profit, it shows that you are not completely happy about what it is in your world. You are still refusing to accept the world as it is. All right. It is better. You are not confronting and fighting against your hologram. But, evidently, it is much better if you accept it without resistance.

Don't be tough. Don't be strong. They are the opposite way to do Dark Depth Female. Being soft and weak is much closer to it.


"A fish" is your own self. "The deep water" is your hologram. Your own self is part of it. This could be a concept a little difficult to accept. But, if you can, you won't have to worry about your feelings any more. Interestingly, Dogen uses the same metaphor when he explains how holography works.

"The useful tool" means, of course, Dark Depth Female, or the reverse way. "The nation" suggests your hologram. The best way is to accept your hologram (=the world) completely. But, if you have an unquenchable desire to control it, there is a way. It is Dark Depth Female. By using it, you can transform your hologram. Then, be aware that, if you express your using Dark Depth Female in the hologram (=the world), it will cause sort of a mental short circuit.


Videos

- 36-1 Stretch = Shrink
- 36-2 Weak = Strong
- 36-3 Decline = Prosperity
- 36-4 Give = Take
- 36-5 Mini enlightenment
- 36-6 Soft Tao
- 36-7 Fish and Water
- 36-8 Useful tool


[Related Articles]
-Dark Depth. It is another name for Tao.





Read Yama Uba the Zen play

☞Is it possible to translate a Haiku 俳句 or a Tanka 短歌 into English? Why not? If you can translate Baseball ("Yakyu 野球" in Japanese) into Japanese, translating a Haiku is a piece of cake. Shiki Masaoka 正岡子規, one of the greatest poets of modern Haiku and Tanka, is the one who translated the game of baseball into Japanese. Without Shiki, no Ichiro (イチロー / Ichiro Suzuki, currently playing for Seattle Mariners, holds the Major League Baseball record for most hits in a single season).
  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