Tao by Matsumoto

　　松　　本　　乃　　道

Index
About
Contact
1. Gateway
2. Do not judge
3. Do Nothing
4. Tao's function
4a. Hit face
4b. Colour
[Zen is Love]
5. Hologram
6. Valley God
7. No Self
8. Be like Water
9. Don't Stay
10. Magic words
11. 30 spokes
12. Five Colours
13. Love Trouble
14. Tao is evasive
15. Man knew Tao
16. Go Back
17. Best way
18. Tao no use
19. Cleverness
20. Eat mother
21. Tao/essence
22. Return to Tao
23. No Noise last
24. Don't show off
25. Manifestation
26. Root
27. Love all
28. Uncarved block
29. A god's vessel
30. Result
31. Arms
32. Nameless
33. Self
34. State
35. Big's image
36. Reverse way
37. No desire
38. High attain
39. One
40. Laughable
41. Tao's move
42. 1-2-3
43. No existence
44. Attachment
45. Perfection
46. Be content
47. No outside
48. Reduce
49. No heart
50. Life
51. Attainment
52. Enlightenment
53. Thief's luxury
54. Learn Attain
55. Baby is safe
56. One with Tao
57. Intelligence
58. Government
59. Attain & cycle
60. Control
61. Country
62. Treasure
63. Use Tao
64. Easy
65. Integration
66. Lower yourself
67. Send Love
68. No fight
69. Enemy
70. Actor
71. Knowing
72. Fear
73. Heaven's net
74. Reincarnation
75. Starvation
76. Soft & weak
77. No excess
78. Resistance
79. Grudge
80. Small country
81. Summary
Glossary
Site Map
Link
Watch Today's Tao Video! Lao Tzu answers your question!
Tao Te Ching videos by Naoto Matsumoto
Read Yama Uba the Zen play to find out how Zen functions!

4. Tao's function

[Chapter 4 / English Translation] - Click the line to watch the related video.
Tao functions through nothingness and is not tangible.

Profound, it looks like the origin of everything.

          Dull the sharpness.

          Untangle the entanglements.

          Soften the light.

          Be like dust.

Filled, it looks as if it existed.

I don't know who created it.

But it seems that it had created the one who created everything.

 
Rapid Decoded
Tao is an intangible energy.

It is not a black magic. At every root of a hologram lies this energy.

          Don't be sharp. (☞See Ch.56 for another interpretation in its context.)

          Don't be bothered.

          Don't impress others.

          Be the least important.

Although things seem to exist and to occupy their space, they are empty.

You create Tao.

Tao has created you, and your brains create in the head the holographic image called «reality».


Videos

- 4-1 Field
- 4-2 Origin
- 4-3 Filled emptiness
- 4-4 Creator
- 4-5 Creator of Creator


Contents
-4a Masters hit your face
       Old Zen masters might have hit your face with his wooden shoe if you had fallen asleep while meditating. It was not to punish you but to help you with love.
        "What's wrong with falling asleep?", Lao Tzu might have wondered. He may find it totally ridiculous if mortification is more important than the fundamental, which is Tao.

-4b Colour
        Colour is justly nothing. Nothing is justly colour. Everything is nothing. Nothing is everything.
        Enigmatic it sounds, it is a desperate attempt for Zen monks to explain the concept of holography. Easy it is to comprehend in the head, it is a bit difficult to apply to one's day-to-day life.
        Satori is not just the state of mind. It is to live "Colour is nothing, and nothing is colour". It is an action, in fact.

-Zen is Love [Practical Uses]
        The grass is always greener somewhere else. Asian girls adore a white Christian wedding dress and Occidental philosophers sometimes look for answers in Oriental classics.
        Lao Tzu will tell you, "Sir, stop looking around. Your back yard is not as bad as you think it is.


[Related Articles]
-Ch.56 has four identical sentences. The chances are that the part was miscopied.

-Be like Dust. The identical part is discussed in detail.

-Dark Depth. What does this Dark Depth 玄 mean literally?

 
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Read Yama Uba the Zen play


☞Haruki Murakami admired F. Scott Fitzgerald. He even took pains to translate «Great Gatsby» into Japanese although several Japanese translations had been available. Do you think the beacon of American literature lighted up the Japanese novelist well enough? Or rather, was Haruki Murakami misled and lost in 20th century's consumerism? He should have written a "Zen and the art of Pinball machine maintenance", you think?
 
Key Words
 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

Help Wanted
-"Frustrated?"

  Why don't you think the other way 
  round?

-"I am not happy about how I look."

  There are a few things to think
  about.

-"Are you scared of seeing your
  reports?"

  To forget about statistics.

-"We need to change our way to
  grow foods."

  If you are interested in organic
  foods, read about a modern-day
  Lao Tzu.

-"People talk about Zen, but what
  the heck is it indeed?"

  Zen is nothing special. It is
  something you know well.

-"I am desperate. I need some
  solutions right away."

  No worries.
  Here is a practical method.

-"I am confused when people tell me
  to face reality. What is it?"

  A good question!
  Zen masters have been tackling
  the question for ages, but our old
  man knows the answer.


NEXT>>  


(Last modified: 13 November 2011)