Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Tao Te Ching Chapter 40-18 Hidden with no name


Today's Tao

Tao is hidden and has no name. (Ch.40)


You cannot see Tao.

In other words, you are always seeing Tao's manifestation.

Why do we have to look for it somewhere else?

Right here, right now, you are seeing it.

You are receiving its energy, its love.

And please remember that you are the love itself.

Lao Tzu says that it's useless to define what Tao is.

It doesn't even need a name because it exists everywhere.

If you cannot help having an image to love and admire, Zen master Ikkyu invented «Yama Uba» for you.

Yama Uba hidden in the mountains.

She symbolizes Tao, Zen, Love, or whatever you name it.


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-Evident = Vague 40-6
-Advance = Retreat 40-7
-Smooth = Tangled 40-8
-Highest attainment = Valley 40-9
-Lacking 40-10
-Lazy 40-11
-Changing 40-12
-White = Black 40-13
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-No completion 40-15
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-Hidden with no name 40-18
-Generosity 40-19
-Tao by Matsumoto / Tao Te Ching / Chapter 40


Tao answers your question!



-«Yama Uba» means an old woman in the mountains. She is thought to be an imaginary character in Japanese legends. But Japanese ethnologist Kunio Yanagida implies that Japan may have had a substantial number of population who lived in the deep forests without being socially involved in the life in villages. They were dropouts in the feudal age. Some of them may have chosen the way of life consciously for fear of being captured by their enemy. Others may have simply liked the way. Master Ikkyu intelligently used this unsophisticated mountain lady as a metaphor of Zen/Tao.

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