Tao by Matsumoto

Watch Today's Tao Video! Lao Tzu answers your question!

50. Life

[Chapter 50 / English Translation] - click the line to watch the related video.
Leave life and enter non-life.

Men of life are three in ten.

Men of non-life are three in ten.

The life of a man moves and goes to a desperate situation without any hope of survival. There are also three in ten.

Why is it so? Because they live the thick of life.


I hear that a person who takes care of his life excellently never meets with a one-horned water buffalo or a tiger while he travels in land. Nor does he wear armours and arms after he enters an army.

No one-horned water buffalo finds a place to pitch its horn at.

No tiger finds a place to place its claws at.

No weapon finds a place to insert its blade into.

Why is it so? Because he doesn't have any desperate situation without any hope of survival.


Rapid Decoded
"Leave" your hologram and "enter" Tao though your own self can't do the former and true You don't have to do the latter. Your own self is part of your hologram and can't exist outside it. Master Dogen illustrates this with a good metaphor of a fish in the water in his Shobogenzo. On the other hand, true You are Tao itself. So, you don't have to "enter" it by desperately seeking Satori or enlightenment. All you have to do is to remember them.

Many people are obsessed with "life", which is just a hologram.

Many other people know that there is Tao outside their hologram as well as inside it.

Their hologram (="Life of man") changes constantly. It is a catalyst to stimulate you to emit more of the fundamental energy Tao. Many people find their life (=their hologram) sort of "a desperate situation without any hope of survival".

Why is it so? Because most people are too attached to life and stuck in their hologram. You should know it is just a catalyst and you are the one who projects it. "Entering Tao" signifies knowing this. It is also called "being one with Tao".


You should learn how to "take care of" your life (=your hologram). If you know you are the one who creates it, logically, you will never meet with any danger.

No one will hurt you.

Nothing will bother you.

Everything exists for you.

For what you see is your hologram. Accept it as it is, and you won't be stuck in life.


Videos / YouTube playlist

- 50-1 Life non-life
- 50-2 Life
- 50-3 Non-life
- 50-4 Survival
- 50-5 Thick of life
- 50-6 Excellent life care
- 50-7 No one-horned water buffalo
- 50-8 No tiger
- 50-9 No blade
- 50-10 No desperate situation


[Related Articles]
-Self. Knowing himself is enlightenment.

-Soft and weak. Don't be strong. Don't be tough. "The end of the life of man is hard and strong", says Lao Tzu. The end of life is dry and withered.





Read Yama Uba the Zen play

☞Ronald D. Davis's «The Gift of Dyslexia» and Daisetz T. Suzuki's «Manual of Zen Buddhism» are true gifts of life, which can really help someone in need. One of the causes of sufferings is that he cannot name what he is suffering from.
  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: 13 November 2011)