Impressionist photo of Autumn

They are utterly vague fuzzy images though, strangely we can see enough information,

or we feel enough of what is going on there.   And it is enough to carry on our life.

( The detail of Concentric Double-density Pinhole can be found in this post (link))

Some one said, ” To know the name of Plant is the start to respect and love the Nature”

Is it ? —– I think, ” To realize, How little I know,  lead me to just accept what’s there,

regardless any  name or details, —– This must be the Truth to be there”.

= Therefore, see nothing is what clear eyes can see at it’s best !    Ha ha ha  😀  😀

So, those fuzzy images may be what our eyes are actually seeing.   And so-called sharp

photographic images were, the results of the heavy  manipulation in the brain.

( Do remember, our eyes never able to see a straight line, as the Retina is not flat =

impression of  straight line was created in the brain !  = so did any images.  The facts

in the Argumented Reality showed, our vision is very very flexible.  😀 )

They looks like just common tall grass though, this one is the Japanese Susuki Grass.

And I’m very very attached to it.

So, this is it.    It was my Autumn moment of this year.  🙂

[]

Autumn CHERRY BLOSSOMS

It was on the end of November last year, I found the flowers on this Cherry tree.

But it happened to show the same, two weeks earlier in this time. —– As it is a bit early

this year, the Cherry tree has lots of leaves as well.

So, the autumn golden leaves and the pink blossoms in the same time = rather unusual

sight in deed. Because it was unusual, I didn’t feel very comfortable last year though, I was

more permissive mood this year. After all, to impose “What is normal or abnormal” is man’s idea.

—– Nature may have much more facets which we never know = And they may say,

“What’s wrong with having flowers in an Autumn = it’s not your business”.

A sort of stereotypical knowledge = there may not be an insect who visit and pollinating

the flowers out of season though, —– yes, there is an insect (kind of fly ?) was in the flower.

Out of our eyes and beyond our knowledges the Nature may still be in full

operation regardless the season 😀

And WHO said, the Cherry open the flowers only for the purpose to make fruits

and seeds = yet still, they could blossom just giving a fun

for the winter insects too —– why not 😀

—– As a result, this tree gave the opportunities for me to talk about TWICE already

= it’s a big achievement for such a small tree !

Never mind, the Wheel of the Nature is Going Round and Round and Round —–

And our lives goes on as well. 🙂

___/\___

[]

Info’ and Link for 2013 NEW YEAR CARD Design

—– (You may see rather funny, in the design above = A snake is in a Shape of  Kanji Character

—– ／巳　which mean snake though, this letter has been used only to describe Snake-year —–

—– otherwise another Kanji / 蛇  will be used for a Snake in general)

[]

Gosh, I started to receive the Search-terms for New Year’s Card again. 🙂

And the Japan Post started to sell their Official New Year’s Card / 年賀状(Nenga-jo) with

lottery /お歳玉 (Otoshi-dama) = (It’s the institutionalized Japanese annual custom =

never mind a Christmas Card, but without having the New Year’s Cards / 年賀状

Japanese couldn’t have a New Year. (Well, the Wise-man in Japan Post said so) 😀

[]

Still, it’s early November, we got plenty time = So that, as a first step, I’ll give you

the Info’ and the Link to see what they got in their Japanese website.

= If you are a non Japanese, you either ask your Japanese friend or try Google Translate

kind and bit by bit explore into their collection of the Snake-year’s / 巳年 design.

Web-design is structurally more or less the same in any languages, even if they are all

in Japanese, still you can guess and give a likely click = it would work. (if not try again ;-))

Websites listed here is the well known trusted sites, and there wouldn’t be any risqué of

you fallen into a trick by mistakenly clicking any button. —– still, some button may be

saying “Buy the Design for Commercial Use” kind = you will see it on a following page —>

Just go back one page, and try another button = no harm would be done 😀

Later, I’ll make a post = a show-case of the design —– mean time, have a fun to explore

the Japanese sites such as ——-

デザインバンク．年賀．designbank-nenga.com/

年賀状無料素材（年賀状テンプレート／年賀状イラスト）のご利用について

個人・法人にかかわらず、年賀状としてのご利用はすべて無料です。DM（ダイレクトメール）など商用へのご利用も無料になりました。
色変え、リサイズなど素材の加工は原則自由です。画像への直リンクは禁止です。無料素材の二次使用・再配布は原則禁止です。
素材の著作権は年賀状デザインバンクdesignbank-nenga.comに帰属します。
素材使用に際して生じたトラブルについて当サイトは一切責任を負いません。詳しくは利用規約とプライバシーポリシーをご参照下さい

当サイトの年賀状素材に満足されなかった方、いまいちピンとこないと思われた方は年賀状の無料素材を扱っている年賀状無料Koos・素材JPN・お得WEBなどからお探し下さい。管理の行き届いた安全な無料素材検索サイトです。特に無料年賀状素材は一押しです。
また、知名度の高い老舗年賀状サイト（可愛い系なら無料年賀状わんパグ）（ビジュアル系ならStudioYosshe年賀状・干支と年賀状イラスト・COCOの年賀状）などもお勧めです。何れも無料で良質な年賀状素材をご提供されています。

——-

In the above Japanese script, especially last two paragraphs, there are 7 links to other sites.

If you like try them as well.    Especially 　無料年賀状素材。

[]

Stop SMOKING

In England, there was a health campaign held on October, which was

dubbed as “Stoptober” to stop smoking.

—– I was talking with a local man, who remember me used to smoke.   As he has been

trying to stop smoking, asked me how I managed to give-up, “Was that thanks to Zen ?”

[]

My smoking seemed to be a mystery to others, long time. = How a Zennist who doesn’t

drink alcohol, never take drug, even managed to give-up woman, still keep smoking ? ? ?

My joke was “I’m perfectly clean Holy-man except smoking.   So, if I stop smoking

Lord Buddha wants me to work there. It’s mean, I will be called up straight.

—– in other words, me to stay in this dirty world, I was forced to smoke = if I stop,

I would be just gone.” —– then other friend advised me “If you need one vice to stay

in this world, change smoking to woman. It’s would be much healthier and exciting”

“I know, but to have a woman is much more expensive  :-D”

[]

The local man (in fact he is a musician) asked me what sort of mind-set needed to

stop smoking ? —– I answered, there was non. I just stopped. That’s all.

—– people seemed to have a misunderstanding such as

= [To Stop Smoking, it needs a firm determination and lots of efforts] —–

utterly contrary to popular belief, such mind-set has opposite effect.

= People think, [Stop Smoking] is [TO DO Stop Smoking] hence strong will and

the proper mind-set is needed = IT MUST BE a matter of Mindfulness.

—– is utterly wrong.   And it is not Zen.

[Stop Smoking] mean, [Smoking is no longer exists] = Just disappeared. 

Put a Mind or Effort to a thing which is not exists = is nothing but a delusion.

If you need to DO, you have to deal with it with your Mindfulness and the effort.

But, when you deal with a thing which is not exist = you do nothing

(can you DO anything ? ) = you don’t even notice it.

[]

So that, when I stopped smoking = I just stopped.

The last packet on the desk was still containing 4 cigarettes.  (I still remember  😀 )

Technically I could have re-started any moment = anyhow there was no obligation,

nobody watching me still, no such thoughts came up —– because, the notion of

smoking itself had been disappeared = when the target is not there where to put an effort ?

I didn’t need to have such high tension in my mind at all.  The harder, it will crack.

= So, it’s better to be relaxed. —– (easy, easy, it’s only about smoking 😀 )

[]

People has been inventing lords of excuse “Not to Stop Smoking” before-hand, such

as it is addictive etc etc.   Therefore, when they try to stop, they put so much Preparation

and the “Determination” —– from many Rituals (such as to destroy all the related objects,

ashtray, lighter, etc etc) to Declaration to others — 😀

In reality, the more you put Effort or Ritual kind, they stack to your mind and

remind you again and again = prevent you to get rid of the notion of SMOKING.

As long as the notion of Smoking is in your mind = it IS viable CHOICE to DO.

[]

So, the best tactics is, just stop it, even to take notice of it = when you see a

cigarette —– “What is CIGARETTE ?”

In Zen term, this is Mushin.

= vacates the Mind, not mention any related thinkings.

If you need to stop smoking = JUST DO IT IN THIS WAY

= You will succeed.

___/\___

[]

INTUITION / Face reading in the Szondi Test

In the previous post I gave rather vague and not

necessary positive impression about the Intuition.

It’s because of the invisible nature of the

subconscious brain activities.

Yet still, (strangely, or as a family tradition ?) I got

pretty good accurate intuition.

I can assess the person in one glance, even in a

distance or from a photograph.

Trouble is, even if visible phenomenon is there, still

I have to give a guess-work to analyze its mechanism = how it’s works.

[]

It’s strange though, every body can see the personality from a portrait photograph

—– or at least able to judge like or dislike at once.

No body knows how it was done, but this is an obvious fact.

Even with its vagueness of the Intuition, still, some way of the practical use

has been exploited with significantly high reliability.

—– One area is to read the air reconnaissance photograph in the military front. (This is a fact,

not a joke 🙂 ) Instead to scan the details of whole area which is utterly time consuming

laborious work, but just see all the aria with open-eyed detachment —– then

suddenly somewhere catch the attention. The photograph was not necessary showing

typical military installation but giving somewhat odd impression. Then give a detailed

inspection = Boila, enemy’s activities ! This intuitive method is actually employed in

the Military ground image analysis, because of its quick process with

amazing accuracy.

—– And somewhere in this blog, I wrote about a Rail-way Ticket-inspector who

can intuitively distinguish ticket-cheats among hundreds of passengers

passing through in every minutes, with almost 100% accuracy.

[]

In Psycho-analysis , there is a test called [Szondi Test] invented by a

Hungarian Dr Leopold Szondi. = It is a very simple test = Just chose which person

you like and dislike among 48 photos of the faces.

(You can read this in the Wikipedia, please see yourself its detail.)

—– In fact, when I was in my secondary school, we had this test which gave the result

such as “You are an aggressive sadist” or “Depressive, passive person” and so on, rather

not nice to tell to the 13,14 year old kids though, we were very surprised as its

assessment was amazingly spot-on.

Originally, those 48 photos were in fact, Mental Hospital Patients whose Character or

Pathological symptom was clearly known, such as a person who was a sadistic murderer or

suffering depression etc etc and the person under the test feel like to chose a face who

got the same character, which the person can Intuitively see from a photo

= hence, if you are a maniac, you chose the photo of a maniac as your favourite.

(— sound awful though, this is what we do unconsciously / Intuitively !

= Hence feather gathers :-))

(The test I had, was an American version which was using 4 or 5 sets of 48 photos of

the Prisoners —– that’s what the teacher told us, after the test)

—– As an intelligent decent boy I was (might not true now. 😀 :-D), I’ve chosen looked like

decent-faced, intelligent man’s photos (= hence, I got the assessment, saying “You are an

intelligent decent man with good common-sense, etc = Yes, that’s who I was. Honest. :-D)

Seeing the photos, I couldn’t imagine if anybody dare to chose another gloomy looking faces

—– then we realized, somebody had actually chosen those gloomy faces, hence received the

assessment “You are a sadist” ! = In fact this boy was a notorious bully, so, all of us burst

into laughing. —– (Before 60s, there wasn’t a kind of Human Right notion to protect

sensitive personal nature and anyhow, we all knew the character of every body, we took it

more like yet another mocking = Nobody complained that its assessment was wrong, nor

complained that his secret has been exposed. = It was a fun for the kids. :-D)

[]

Though, it may not a fun, this psychological test strip you naked = as you intuitively, feel

like particular face and put a mark without knowing why, you can’t hide who really you are.

And, because of this test is blatantly accurate and ruthlessly explicit, yet as no scientific

explanation (= as in a nature of the invisible psychological phenomenon ), and especially in

the today’s “Human Right, Sensitive Privacy, Political-Correctness etc etc” kind of awkward

social climate, it became out of fashion, so that, not many psychologist is using it now.

Yet, this is the most visible demonstration of how our subconscious mind /

intuition actually works, by showing the character with known pathological symptom,

and observe direct coloration between the viewed person (photo) and the viewer.

= Because of no information, other than the facial photos, viewer has to use

solely intuitive perception.

Other than this test, it is difficult to visibly test and demonstrate accuracy of our intuition.

( remaining question is how a person’s character or symptom shows up on the face or

even on the photograph —– I wonder, am I looks like Zen Buddhist ?

—– Or was that what Master Kogetsu found on my face ? ? ? :-D)

[]

It is impossible to teach Intuition, same as a creativity in the art or invention.

And same as a vision of Medicine-man = apprentice may not have the same mental ability,

so-that a second class Medicine-man needed to resort with hallucinogenic drag.

We can not swap the eyes with other person , let alone the mind = without the apprentice

having had a real experience, it is no point to teach the meaning of the vision or even

humble Intuition.   Explanation in the words is utterly pointless = because the

part of the brain which perceive Intuition and processing Language are

completely different. = Somebody can do better but not others.

—– Such as a Ticket inspector aforesaid = he was the best in the station, still it was

impossible to teach others because he, himself didn’t know how and why, where to look for.

Neither me can explain why I can see the personality at once = I only feel —– even if

I try to say such as a shape of the mouth brah, brah though, it’s not necessary make an

explanation since, there are too many variations and exceptions.

And all the faces are different.

—– One face contains thousands of the informations, and as in total, it gives off the

impression of who the person is = hence, few parameter of the biometrics wouldn’t and

couldn’t give an answer.

If you imagine, the very same face can express thousands of different

expressions by minute movement of the muscles —– Only Intuitive

perception can grub those informations in total, at once.

But its mechanism is still beyond the our understanding. Funny paradox is, they are all

in the same Brain, yet we don’t know what other part of the Brain is doing.

We know everything else, but not our own brain, let alone its contents = mind.

[]

INTUITION

Intuition is a tricky subject. 🙂

Every body knows it is there though, as a mater of fact nobody is sure how it works and

works correctly or not.   Generally, the woman said to be good at with this though, if it is true,

how come 1/3^rd (now it is getting nearly ½) of the marriages end-up in divorce = wasn’t it

correct intuitive choice —– or, correct intuition had been over-ridden by the useless thinking ?

[]

Many Internet blog sites are keep shouting “Be intuitive” though, funny contradiction is,

in the same time, often the very same blogger also saying “Never judge a person in first

impression but to be Kind to others and Open-minded” or

“Never chose a book with its cover” kind of crèche wisdom.

In most of the so-called WISDOM, there is always opposite wisdom as well.

= Silence is Gold and Eloquent is Silver, still many relation brake down because of lack of

communication —– if intuition is so good, why it needs to speak by the words. 😀 😀

Reality is, to see the situation down to the minute details and to pay attention to every

aspects of its implications and give enough consideration and correct rational judgement

is a heavy task, in fact too much to do —> So, don’t bother JUST react and pick-up first idea

—– IS what people calls “Intuitive Decision”.

[]

Our subconscious memory-bank has enormous amount of accumulated data, deposited since

we were born —– the more serious matter, it has been imprinted with the more stronger

emotional tag, often with the accompanying pain,  or if it is important in the family or in the

society,  it has been strengthen by the repeated input as it occurred again and again

= hence, the first INTUITIVE reaction against the situation was based on those

important data without having mere hear-say or “read yesterday” kind of

cheap data and thinking,  therefore it is more or less correct, but not necessary

perfect. —– to compare to the result of “Deep consideration” which has been done by

a not necessary very bright brain = may be the probability of hitting right answer

would be the same.

[]

If the outcome would be the same = right or wrong, half and half, why bother

bothersome consideration or thinking ?   Anyhow, we have to pick-up the

consequence — favorable or not =  This IS what the LIFE is.

This contemplation is the core of the “Intuitionism”.

And to live the Life in natural flow.

And the more importantly,  even the most wisest man in the history,

Lord Buddha has found (= even to such a wisest brain) “the Life is suffering”

= no one can escape from this fundamental truth. (If you feel not seriously suffering

= You’ve done rather well  😉 )

What we can do the most important attitude toward the Life is,

= NOT dwell the idea “IF NOT” = as the situation is changing moment to moment, to

keep regretting a wrong decision which had been made in the past,  and a result already

arrived,  is in the matter of the fact = have to deal though, the new and current situation is

on front of the eyes and it is burning. = This is what we have to fight against.

(If the fire is not big, a pint of beer could be enough to put the fire down otherwise, just run !

Don’t sitting there ! 😀 )

[]

Yes, don’t sitting there.  DO something !  Enjoy a nice and active Weekend. 🙂

___/\___

[]

Yoshi-Handy / Handmade Fish-eye Photos

Those photos were taken by my handmade camera which was nick-named as Yoshi-Handy, by the Director of the Pentax Gallery in Tokyo, Mr. Taizo Nakamura, named after eary1910’s camera style called Handy-Camera, because of its square shape. (Why called handy was = most of other camera then were big wooden camera, not possible to use by hand-held) And the photos here were shot in the north of Thailand, so-called Golden Triangle area in the 70s. I rediscovered this Camera in a box when I needed to find the Side-view Prism adapter (ultra low-angle adapter), a month ago.

I went up north of Thailand, from Cheng-Mai to Cheng-Lai then took a boat to further north and started to climb the mountain, going through many mountain tribe’s villages. I went there with a local guide who came back after working in the Vietnam war hence able to speak in English and having a hand gun.

The purpose was, I wanted to interview and photograph General Twan, an exiled Chinese Army of Chang Kai-sheck who proclaimed to be an anticommunists warrior though, in reality he was the Drug Baron dominating the Opium trade there then. But, we had to abandon the plan as the guide noticed a hatred of those Chinese called Kuomin-tan toward Japanese. = Yes, I realized that the Japanese was the enemy of the Chang Kai-sheck Army and they are still armed, and they made a gesture to swing a hand on the neck (mean cut off the head) or aiming me a hand with pointing finger (mean shoot with a gun).  (Strangely, they seemed to know that I’m a Japanese at once  may be because of my camera).

With after thought, it seemed, I was rather lucky to come back alive, since about the same time an American who went into the same area had been killed by his own guide. = may be my guide saw my strange handmade camera and a huge Pentax 6×7, they couldn’t be sold easily,  therefore not worthwhile to rob and he might have me spared.  🙂

So, I came back from Thailand with 100s roles of films which has been survived even under intense heat and completely soak wet condition. Without capturing General Twan’s photo, rest was mostly shot in Bangkok and its surrounding poor area. It was one of my most adventurous journey in my photographic life. ( It was really a fun )

A month after the shooting, to see the developed results was the most thrilling moment, having a butterfly in the stomach. (— in comparison, DSLR camera has no such intense moment = if no good, just click again on the spot = crucial excitement has lost in the game. :-D)

(Note: The lens fitted here (photo left) is Nikkor Fish-eye 16mm f3.5 with its lens-hood removed)

The camera Yoshi-handy is a very simple camera = Lens > Shutter > Role-film Holder, that’s all. Only unique structure was, the front panel with SLR’s Square-Shutter and the rear panel with Film-Holder was connected with adjustable 4 individual screws, hence the Lens can be tilted to any angle up to 30 degrees.

Lens mount was Nikon though, as the distance from the lens to film is adjustable = any lens with Nikon mount can be used.   Hence, I mainly used Pentax 17mm F4 Fish-eye, PC Nikkor 35mm F2.8 and Pentax 15mm F3.5 (Those Pentax lenses were used with handmade mount adapter).  Though, to have a focus from infinity to almost lens front surface with 30 degree tilt, Copal Square-Shutter had to be modified to make its one-side thinner.

In certain view, to use those 35mm Camera lenses on 2-1/4 or 6×6 format had merely enabled to use the surrounding image circle outside of 35mm format = hence

Fish-eye image become whole circular image though, on that time, there was no

Circular Fish-eye lens for 6×6 medium format camera in the world, let alone

a camera which can focus from infinity to life-size close-up in one shot.

(Only a short-coming of this camera was, as it is using Grand Glass for focus = then change to film-Holder,  it needs the camera fixed on a tripod,  otherwise take a photo while guessing the distance by eyes and set a distance ring manually. = still, once get used, it can be done with ease.  —– A kind of view finder was made out of ubiquitous Door-scope.

= cheap yet good enough for the purpose. 😀 )

This unusual camera with its strange photographs were taken and featured in the British Journal of Photography (17 Dec’ 1976 issue) and exhibited in the Pentax Gallery, then it appeared in the Zoom magazine internationally.(in English = 1978 Oct/Nov issue)

( The another Camera I’ve mentioned in this blog before, Conica Tilt II  was a camera to create the effects of 30 degree tilt, with the convenience of SLR)

Incidentally, the sample photos above were just hand-held digital copy of the 6×6 transparencies on a florescent tube light box = even without dust off, quality may not be as good as done by a proper scanner —– still usable enough for the blog size.

= I’m wondering if it was done by Nikon D810’s HDR function, would the result be much better ? = I’ll test it soon.

Can Ordinary Bicycle Rider become Zennist ?

I’ve wrote about many samples of the Natural Mushin, such as the examples,

Typing, Riding Bicycle even ordinary Walking, or through the practice to Cut

Lemon, Put a Pen onto a paper, just watching a Flow of Water, Sea Wave etc.

= In our daily life a Moment when our brain fallen into the state of the No-Mind [Mushin]

is not a rare occurrence, far from it, it is quite an ordinary psychological condition.

—– If so, you might ask, what makes the difference between those

common Moment of No-Mind to the ZEN.

= The answer is in the person’s Mind, or what the person thinks and accepts

[this is the ZEN] = then, it is the Zen or at least it is a start.

[]

While riding a bicycle or cutting a lemon, once you realized that your mind doesn’t have

any thinking other than a mere feeling of “ I’m riding” and the vision “ Land scape is just

passing by” and “ Air is just flowing on my cheek”, or you just see the Knife cutting a Lemon.

—– You need to feel [Oh, this is the ZEN] or feel [I’m in the ZEN] = and

make it a kind of tag bound two together, so that the notion of ZEN is always

stack to the action, Riding, Cutting or Typing what ever be the action.

[]

And you must became aware, the subject you are acting on, and your action is just passing

on or going on, such as the Landscape, shape of the Lemon or the Letters you are Typing,

next by next and moment to moment, like as to see an endless continuing flow.

= As it is the Flow, it never stays the SAME (of cause, that is what Riding, Cutting or

Typing meant to be = otherwise you can’t reach destination, couldn’t make Lemon Slices

and a cup of tea, or finish Typing).

And you must become aware, “ This is what the action meant, or the situation IS”

= YOU just have to DO, hence the SITUATION CHANGES = You are seeing

its flow as if you are just an observer, despite YOU, Yourself is

ACTING and CAUSING this FLOW.

( You have to see and aware this, as it is just a passing phase = but NOT THINK,  just see

as if it is a distant land scape) —– And need to be convinced and become aware,

This IS the ZEN scape.

[]

This detached eyes is what called OPEN EYES and the OPEN-MINDED MIND.

= with this, you must become aware YOU CAN DO THE THINGS ALMOST

AUTOMATIC, IN QUITE DISPASSIONATE BUT EFFICIENT WAY.

While DOING this or HAVING this eyes, a landscape even a bottom of a woman become

just another landscape ! (fortunately or unfortunately 😀 😀 )

[]

Ultimately, ZEN is to have this MINDSET and the OPEN EYES (often called

Clear-Eyes), by which, strangely you might think

“ With the detached EYES, I can see the Real Detail more”

Details, hence the Change, in minute Moment to Moment = Hence YOUR response as well.

Because of the open-eyes, you can have more facts, hence you can be much

more PRECISE  or less SELECTIVE and more TOLERANT and FLEXIBLE,

(as you can have the More Freedom on YOUR  JUDGMENT and the CHOICE)

and able to pay more attention even to the others as well.

This is what the ZEN IS.

[]

When you try this and became able to DO this, go back to the old posts in this blog

= You must be realized Why, and see What is the psychological mechanism behind.

And see, amazingly all those were taught by

Lord Buddha, 2500 years ago already = this is nothing new or fancy novelty.

( In fact, they are the matter of Subconscious =To see and Feel is done by your intuitive 

Subconscious — but Reasoning and Rational Sorting etc is done by the Thinking. 

ZEN rely on the Subconscious perception and the straight response = hence

eliminates the bias or distortion caused by the intentional Thinking )

= Have a good try or many = it is not difficult as even I hthinkingave done (as DIY).

___/\___

[]

How Buddhism has survived ? / アビダルマを読む？ エッ，マジ？

It was a real history, once there was a time, the Study of the

Abidharma Mantra was the main task of the Buddhist.

If you open and read few pages of such as Abidharma Kosa, you will see the trouble if

anyone has to study those. = they are incredibly complicated, laborious and endless

description of all sorts of definition or the relation of each phenomenon, existences

= which was purported to be the analysis and elucidated structure of the Dharma.

[]

I think, and you can easily see, they were not what

Lord Buddha taught. —– Imagine, if it was taught by him, soon he would see, half of the

disciples are sleeping. = No such non-appetizing or boring teachings were ever given, as

Lord Buddha was not such idiot.

And does anybody think, is any essence or even hint of Buddhism were written in there?

= So, how come, how the tradition or essence of the teachings were

not lost through that period?

—– The secret was hidden in the situation itself.

= If you were a monk then, you were forced to study it.

You got to have strong will to follow the Buddhism.   But if you were having strong Ego, you

might be just run away from the monastery. = in another words, if anybody survived its hell,

it was a person having strong will to serve Buddhism but abandon to have any Ego.

Repeatedly read the same book of Abidharma again and again, you must have memorized

everything hence able to recite all the passages = mouth can move automatic and recite the

words though, the Emotion and the Mind is no longer there = NO THINKING.

[]

Our Brain filter out the same signal. If the same signal is coming again and

again, the threshold of the perception became much higher and it will be

processed without involving any Emotion.

Like the same wall on the street, you wouldn’t pay attention twice = you can see it’s still

there = So What ? = Once you know it has no significance (not special or impose

any danger), the visual signal would be ignored.   It is the same to a radio CM. = even if

you heard it 100 times, you may not remember what it was saying, because it has no

significance or took your attention with interest = it mean, it didn’t take interest of your

Emotion or no longer appearing to your Emotion.

= all those signal / information became transparent = doesn’t trigger any thinking.

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= So, the Study of Abidarma Mantra was not what written in there but it was a training

to get rid of the Ego and eliminate the Thinking ( = reach to Mushin).

= this is what all about the Buddhism study needed.

It’s mean, DESPITE of Abidharma, Buddhism tradition was continued. 😀

( In case, if you like and enjoy reading it —– M m m ? Who the hell you are :-D)

___/\___   😀

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仏教２５００年の歴史の中にはアビダルマ経が教義の主流であった時代が有ます。

パラパラ数頁を読めばすぐ解る事ですが，とにかくしちめんどくさい事がびっちり延々と書かれている。

誰が見ても明らかですがこんな解りにくく退屈なものを

釈尊が延々と説いたとは考えられない。ほんの数例が喩えとして説かれたと言うのがいい所で，延々とやったら

さすがの直弟子ですら居眠りに落ちていたでしょう。

これが全ての存在物，事象それぞれとその関係（因果／縁）の定義で,これがダルマの解明であるという訳ですが

バラしたカメラ部品全ての説明を受けたからといってカメラは元より写真が何かはまるで解らないというのと

同じで,アビダルマ経の全てを読んでも仏教が何であるかは全く解らない。

＝逆に言えば，読んでも足しにならないものを読む事が 主流であった時代を経て来ながら，

どうやって仏教の教えが失なわれる事なく，綿々と受継がれて来たのかと言う疑問が出て来ます。

［］

この答はその当時の現場の情況を思い浮べてみると解ります。

僧院に入った若い弟子は何が何んでもこのアビダルマ経を学ばざるを得なかった

＝無条件に受入れるしか無くエゴの入り込む余地は無い。さもなければ寺を離れる以外に道は無かった。

＝つまり寺に残るのは苛酷な修行に耐えてでも仏に仕えようという強靭な意志と経文をマスターできる頭を持ち

 ながら, しかもエゴ／自我を消滅できた少数のエリートであったという訳です。

それに加え，冗長な経文をマスターするには何千回も繰返して読む必要が有り,最後には全てを暗唱できる

ようになっていたでしょう。

人間の脳は繰返し入って来る同ー刺激（信号）に対しては刺激の閾値が高くなり，それを感情抜きで

機械的に処理するようになります。

見慣れた物や風景はそこに在るのが見えていても全く注意を引かない（思考に結びつかない）事と同様の

現象で， 経文を唱えるにも頭はほとんど無意識のまま口は自動的に動いて唱えられるようになります。

これは禅で言う［無心］に他なりません。

［］

つまり，アビダルマ経を学ぶという事には，経文の内容の問題ではなく，それを学ぶ実践の過程，

その派生効果の中に仏教の核心（無私，無心への到達）が隠されていたという事です。

（もちろんアビダルマ経は仏教用語の用法やその定義を明確にしたという意味でその後の経典作者や

仏教学者に とっての聖典でもありますが－－－アタシャ苦手だね）（笑）

___/\___

［］

( Thinking ) in MUSHIN

While talking with people, I found even a person regularly reading this blog still having a

confusion about the subconsciousness and the state of Mushin.

—– giving a thought = It might be caused by my explanations, since I might have used the

term Mushin = Mind of No-Mind, too casually = since it is almost a crèche, I presumed that

the term must be well understood from other books or the sort, so that I just concentrated

to the way [How to reach or experience and learn it].

= Or, may be I haven’t been clearly defined about two different “Thinking” yet.

Mushin Without Thinking might be very deceptive words in deed 😀

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“ Mushin without Thinking” = In this “Thinking” mean, Higher level of the brain process

such as categorization and the sorting process = matching to an existing

references, and the conversion to the linguistic expression.

(All those process are the matter of the pattern-recognition)

On the other hand, Sorting is according to the value or its importance.

= this Value and Importance mean Personal Preferences, the Value or Significance

in the Society, Value in the Belief System, above all importance in the scope of the

Preservation of the Self and the Society / Species (Mankind)

= (All those are related to the Survival instinct).

= So, you may think “ How we can survive without thinking”

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It is a well known phenomenon that our brain is doing thinking process without us noticing it,

and when we became aware of “I thought”, subconscious has processed it 6 seconds ago.

(This must be measured while observing the brain activity on MRI or PET scanner though,

I wasn’t there = I know not whether it was 3 or 7 second in reality 😀 )

So, the question is, out of our conscious,

what our brain has been doing during those 6 seconds ?

—– As a matter of fact, even in the state of Mushin, our brain is fully working.

Even if the Sword- Master Musashi is fighting in Ichijo with his sword and with the

Rule of the Dharma, his eyes have to see his opponent’s movement and the brain has to

analyze other conditions or situation as well, not mention the control of his hand and the body.

= It is the moment to moment responses.

(Some are really done out of our conscious by the Motor-region of the brain, such as to keep

the body balance —– but to pay attention to such as to the road condition, not to tumble on

a stone, may needs a bit more of the instinctive body reaction = stone has to be seen and take

it into account)   It’s mean, even in the state of Mushin, your brain is not blank but

fully committed to the matter what you are committed in its moment

(hence this is called Mindfulness) still without you consciously noticing it

(hence this is called Mushin) while your hand, body, mind, your sword are

all in one unity or in perfect coordination (so,this is called Ichijo / Oneness).

To DO this, or to BE in this condition, you can’t have any noise or unrelated

obstrucing thought, therefore it was described  “ Not to have any useless or

intentionally conceived thought”

(hence this is called Mind of No-Mind / Mushin).

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Those invisible / hard to describe latent thought or unconscious process in a dark depth of the

brain was bracketed into “Feeling”, and often called Intuition, Inspiration, Spontaneous Thought,

even Spiritual Feelings. = As those latent Proto-Thinkings has yet to be categorized to the

existing type, selected, filtered, or scrutinized against rationality etc, often they are pretty

wild and irrational (just like our dream is ), still showing amazing truth.  😀

Hence, they are also the source of  Inventive-creativity,  Artistic-creativities

and Open-eyed Free-minded Thinking, Lateral thinkings etc etc. = I described

those Free-Thinking process is taking place in the  “ Blank Space” in the brain,

long time ago.

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In comparison, so-called (Conscious) Thinking is either HAD been processed and HAS been

converted to legible or translated into linguistic format from those latent feeling or thought

aforesaid, otherwise the information has come externally in the linguistic format. (read a book)

So that, it is always the parallel process in the brain though, as the conscious process needed

additional formatting, it loose the reality (such as, processed words “red blood” doesn’t have a

fresh bloody reality in comparison to one’s experience = actually in the accident) and far slower

than the process which subconsciously done in its moment = Yet, Conscious Thinking is easy to

remember as it has been sorted and converted to the words, still, Original Latent Thought

has much more fresh facts / reality = much closer to the TRUTH.

This Truth is what Zen Buddhist is after = But it needs clear eyes and the Mind.

With clear eyes and the Mind, we can sense the situation in every moment = and

able to respond as it is happening. = This is the Life [Live in its moment].

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It must be clear now, the real meaning of Mindfulness, Mushin, Ichijo (in fact, they are

the words to describe the same state of the MIND in different angle)

= “ Without Thinking” has to be understood as “ The Mind has no Conscious

Thinking, still it is not blank but keeping all the perception fully open and

making intuitive up-to-the-moment response, without us noticing it”

= clear eyes and the mind is to capture those intuitive response in the depth of

subconsciousness,  without a distortion caused by useless Thinking and Ego.

= This is how ZEN with clear eyes and the mind can lead you to reach truthful

answer or the best judgement, even inventive totally new idea.  

And ultimately  “Able to reach to the Dharma”

= We might be retaining even ancient, ancient memory of the primeval time

which has been written in the DNA, where we came from, how we been evolved

= the reflection of the rationality in the Dharma = Rules of the Dharma.

To discover and reach this wisdom is the ultimate quest to the Zen Buddhists.

___/\___

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PS : You might be realized here something is missing

= What is the control of our thinking ?

Conscious Thinking is parallel with Subconscious Thinking and if we can’t escape

Subconscious Thinking which is invisible hence out of control mean,

“ Can’t we escape from wrong thinking ?”

—– If we were imprisoned in wrong thinking down to the bottom of subconscious, there is

a remedy what the Buddhism has been specialized.

Here, Practice of Buddhism come to play their role ! As

Lord Buddha found, the main cause of wrong thinking bore out of the Ego or Self.

Against this, unconditional endless practice of the practice ware-out one’s Ego.

= If one’s Ego is no longer there = no instinctive drive of Self-Preservation = no greed, no fear,

no fear of the death = This is the fundamental change in the basis of thinking = If the basis

changed = upper structure changes as well.

If there is no Self = Nothing to loose = Freedom. (If mortal Self is no longer there,

why afraid to make a failure and own demise or even death. = Anything is

possible though, as neither Ego is there, there wouldn’t be a possibility to

conceive self enriching act or having grudge against others.)

So, Freedom here but not a sign of selfish wrong thinking !

= What a contented, peaceful life. = WHAT you want more.

(This is the reason why the Great Zen Masters having so many extraordinary jokey stories !

= They must have had lots of fun in liberated mind  😀 :-D)

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