Thursday, February 25, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 27-10 No bad man


Today's Tao

A non-good man is the resources of a good one. (Ch.27)


Yesterday, we talked about "a good man is the teacher of a non-good one".

Please pay attention to the expression "non-good" man 不善人.

In the original of Tao Te Ching, it is not written as a "bad" man 悪人.

There is neither good nor bad in Tao.

Good is the source of non-good.

Non-good is the source of good.

It shows us the cycle of Yin and Yang.

It doesn't matter whether the hen or the egg comes first.

As long as it cycles, it is perfect.


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-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 27


Tao answers your question!



Previous video / Ch.27 text / Next video


-Hanzo on the left is Hanzo Itami in Goyokiba. Hanzo on the right is Hanzo Hattori in Kill Bill. The latter is not Hanzo the Ninja minister, but his descendent acted by Sonny Chiba (Shin'ichi Chiba), who played the great athlete cop in Key Hunter series. Since I was a kid, I have been wondering what a key hunter means.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

NAOTO MATSUMOTO - SAN :

How are you ?

I have a doubt :

Lao- Tze, Chuang- Tzé: Teach " THE WAY OF HEAVEN ".

---> Is it right ?

THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR EXPLANATIONS !!!

Waiting your answer,
See you again !

Unknown said...

Thank you for your good question that many people might share, Anonymous-san.

My answer is no. Please do not interpret Tao like that. There are too many things lost in translation.

1. "Heaven" in the sense of Heaven and Hell does not exist in their teaching.

2. "Heaven" in the sense of the heavenly body is not a good translation, either. Please don't think that the heavens include Tao. It is the other way round. Tao > heaven (= a hologram).

3. "Way" in the sense of a route or a method is not a good translation of Tao 道. Tao should be expressed as Tao.


Here we have some words from the two masters.

"Heaven models itself upon Tao. 天法道" (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 25)
"(The sage) composes that heaven by himself. (聖人)獨成其天" (Chuang Tzu, Inner chapters, Chapter 5)

It is impossible to distinguish with precision the original texts from the latter-day comments. Besides, we have English translations. It is totally natural that we have got plenty of room of misunderstanding.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to clarify a few points.

Yours.


Naoto Matsumoto