Thought on MARATHON — SUFFERINGS

Tomorrow, tens of thousand of people will run for London Marathon.

Quite few of my friends did it and till some years ago, I was thinking I’ll do too though,

I’m becoming aware, better not.

( I can invent hundreds of the excuse not to do = it’s mean to think about itself is utterly a waste of

time.= So that, in accordance to my Zen Moto [Just do it] => Just think not. Ha ha ha 😀

Therefore, in my peaceful mind — Marathon ?  What Marathon ?   What a nice day !

[]

Why people run for such enduring action which is not even their imperative, which is,

some said useless action.  = Of cause, some are running for the Champion Medal and some are running

for Charity though, bast majorities are running for a sake of just running, or even for a fun.

What is a fun while giving 50 km or so torturing, punishing task to the own body ? —– of cause, as

I used to be a member of the Alpine Club, I know what it is, as we did similar training and above all,

we did pretty similar body punishing long walk in the mountain, often carrying 40, 50 kg of lord on

our back. —– and we mountain climbers were always making joke

“ What silly things we are doing 😀 ”

[]

Then give a thought or two. —– ? ? ?

Have I, have we ever had an easy life ever ? —– We, the greedy creature, the human,

always assess an action in comparison to the gain though, is this kind of view true ?

For a sake of convenience and to have an quick answer, we Buddhists having a tendency and good

excuse to end the argument, we have pretty nice story to convince ourselves into contented, which

called Enlightenment 😀

—– See this in reverse. = Need to have an excuse to have a peace of mind is,

because it is not in a peace at all isn’t it. 😀

[]

In Lord Buddha’s teachings, life was defined as SUFFERING (how nice). Yes in deed, this is true.

So, a training is the training for this unavoidable enduring life. = training for the Marathon but the

Marathon itself is a training to face a situation in the life.

June in every year, we members of our High School Alpine club had a special stamina training for a

preparation for a summer climb while carrying 40 kg of stones to a 900 m high mountain top,

starting 6 o’clock morning, reaching the top about mid day.

It was on a ridge called Baka o-ne in Oh-yama, west of Tokyo. Why it called Baka o-ne, Nut’s ridge

is, it is just one continuous boring climb, no respite = makes anybody just fed-up.

[]

While carrying 40 kg of utterly useless stones, I cursed every single step “What am I doing.

How silly I am. Ok, on the next step, I’m going to through this stones away and shout to the leader

“ Kill me here, I’m out” — on the end we reached to the top AND came down with empty ruck-sack,

that was all.  (Since many clubs are doing this many years, the mountain top having tens of tons of

round shaped river stones, which makes innocent walkers just puzzled.  “How come ?” 😀 )

( Soon or later, I tired to complain = after all, to join the club and came to the mountain was my

choice.  I’ve gained a kind of contemplation [Just walk] otherwise I shouldn’t have born to this

world. — And I continued this, while keeping Mountain shelter as a volunteer, we had to carry-up

the food staff for the lodgers of up to 300 people a night, without receiving any money, far from it,

we had to spend our own money to get there  Kita Yatsuga-take.)

[]

Anyhow, the life is the suffering  😀     But, if we have a training while having heavy punishment

to the physics and to the mental strength, we obtain good resilience to a cause of those sufferings.

To over-come the endurance of Marathon, the person gain the proof in the fact, I did.

And this proof gives the person a confidence = I can do, because I have done.

This confidence brings a peace of the mind = Don’t worry too much, it may not

as bad as the Marathon. 😀

So, it is a good news, it wouldn’t be in vain.

Enjoy a running.   Have a good Marathon 🙂

___/\___

[]

Mushin – Panya Paramita – Dharma (in [Z-band] )

Hidden between the line of funny Cat’s story, the paragraph ;

The stories of the Zen Buddhist communicating with other animal may have

the basis in this phenomenon = silencing the noise of thinking in the Brain

mean, it is to be in a state of  Mushin.

Not in thinking but having a deepest perception of  friendliness in the

primeval Limbic feeling = This feeling is the common language with any

living form.

= Here is a good insight to understand what the Panya Paramita and the Dharma is.

[]

To make the story easy to understand, let’s use a metaphor = assuming the [common language]

quoted above is a kind of signal in certain frequency, to say [Z-band].

Like Internet system, all the Spiritual communication and the information are exchanged through

this [Z-band] channel.

This channel is inherent to all the existences include the all the life form, it’s mean this is the

communication system of the Dharma.

All the life form mean it’s include us too.   Therefore everybody having born with

the Dharma with in (born with a Receiver and Transmitter) hence, the person

should able to receive the signal.

But, unfortunately, because of us, only us human got hugely out grown brain, thanks to the evolution,

our brain and its activity is creating too much noise, and this noise is

masking the [Z-band] signal.

[]

Since we evolved like an “add-on extension” on top, we still retain old system in the base.

The process how we were developed in the Mother’s womb, from a single-cell organism = egg to

fully grown human body, showing this fact.  = (Once, you were a fish —– remember ?)

In other words, we are retaining whole evolutionary history together with its DNA (and memory).

In our expanded brain / neural system, the old part is known as the Limbic system.

This Limbic system is common with another animal.   So that, we (our far ancestor) were

using this Limbic system with pretty small brain.  But, as there was no huge noisy brain then, all the

signal we were using for communication was in the [Z-band]. As all the existences are using

this [Z-band] too, we were able to communicate with other animal and the nature.

Life and the survival was relying on this system.

[]

You may feel strange though, this communication in [Z-band] is existing even in a photography.

In WordPress Blog, such as [draw and shoot] (link here) I noticed, the author, Karen is communicating

with nature in this [Z-band] as her photos are showing it.  Hence, I often commented saying her, her

eyes are the eyes of Zen. = No wonder, her Blog was selected as one of the great blog for Earth Day.

(Incidentally, Radio Communication is using X-band for Satellite channel but not Z-band yet.  So, I

made up a word Z-band = Z after Zen  😀 )

[]

Unlike so-called intelligence and our signal processing system in the current brain, which got only

few hundred thousand years history, this [Z-band] has been used and refined in the hundreds of

millions of years in the history since then the Universe was created.

Because of this, this is the channel, where the information of  Dharma, even the

activities of such as this Planet was broad casted.

(Hence animal can sense the coming Earthquake or foresee the weather).

[]

To listen this [Z-band], it is essential to silence the noise of the brain.

The Buddhist’s practice is a way to obtain this silence = Mushin.  Then, in Mushin,

what we are able to listen is, what Dharma is telling = This is the Panya Paramita.

But this signal is not an abstruct message such as the God’s words, but live broadcast of the

situation we are facing. = It’s like a latest Drive Information system. You can see all the

meter-readings and the SatNav information of trafic condition though, it wouldn’t tell you

the destination or Philosophy in driving.    Read it and what to do is up to you.

[]

Lord Buddha’s teachings are all about “How to get it” = the way and the Practice, not an

abstract answer.   The Answer has to be found by the person = [Think yourself], as it is different

in situation by situation, person to person, as each person has own Karma.

To see its situation and respond to it,  live in its moment is the matter.   It can only be found

by [mindful clear eyes] of the person, obtained through the learning. —– This was why

Lord Buddha didn’t answar “General view or belief” like what the Dharma is = Because

the Dharma is a moving mechanism, working in its rationality ( of which we only able

to analyze its small corner, not in its total dynamics, and WHY) = The important matter for us,

is to see the Fact in meter-reading, not a belief or a fancy illusion which exist only in the mind.

Lord Buddha didn’t teach anything supernatural.  But, this Panya Paramita in the [Z-band]

came to the edge of it.  For him, it is the FACT though in the same time, he knew it is audible

to only few people who can hear = no need to explain to them since they knew it, but impossible

to make sense of who couldn’t.  It’s like a pain of Kidney stone = only the people who got it knew.

This was the reason why he taught only the way to get it ( I mean not Kidney stone  😀 ). 

And this was what

Lord Buddha found and taught.

___/\___

[]

Humble Lens (?) for Canon Camera = Pinhole Photo / BGR Tri-Pinholes Photo

You might think the Photo here is yet another bloody Soft Focus lens.

It’s not by Soft Focus lens. —– In fact it was not even a lens at all.

——– ( Like latest  5D Mk-III,  5D Mk-II also has Light-leak or it might have caused by the internal reflection

———  on a shiny surface of a parts.   Canon can say, it is not in a normal use what camera was designed for)

This is a Pinhole Photograph on Hi-Tech DSLR —– ! ! !

You might be surprised —– or bemused ?

(End of this post, you can see  3-pinhole photo with BGR color-filter for each pinhole )

—————— ( Cutty Sark in Greenwich —– Hand held Pinhole camera, F250, 1/15th Second, ISO 3200 )

One of the best advantage of the Canon EOS cameras is, their Light-measuring

function works  without any lens attached on the body. = Light was

measured on the light actually came into the sensor, and the exposure value

was calculated on So-called Stop-down Metering.

In comparison, other cameras are guessing the exposure based on the

information came from the lens, mounted on the camera. Its mean, their

camera was designed to work only with a ROM memory hidden inside of the

lens which gives the information of lens ID, what is the current setting of

focal length on Zoom, F-aperture setting (in a case such as Nikon which allow

you to use an old manual lens) etc, with an assumption of the lens would

work accordingly.  (If the lens was F4 in full open, calculates how many stops

needs to close in this lighting condition.  Canon measure actual light instantly,

when F-aperture was closed, then select the shutter speed).

The reason why other manufacturers are using this design was, to prevent

the use of a lens other than their genuine products.

(The ID of lens would direct a correction program,  such as to brighten up

the corner-fall-off of the wide-angle lens).

——–  — ( Cutty Sark in Greenwich ) ——— ( There was a Cinema Film Shooting at Old Royal Naval College )

On the beginning, in order to cut into the Nikon dominated professional

camera market, Canon designed their camera even capable to use with

Nikon lens.   Hence, in the early 70th, they sold a lens mount adapter to use

for Nikon lens.  (Later, when they gained popularity and their confidence grow,

they stop to sell this adapter). 

The First Gulf war was the turning point for the choice of professional camera,

as most of Nikon were stopped to work, thanks to the microscopic sand dust in

the desert.  Only the camera kept working was the Canon. —– As a consequence,

News Photographers changed to Canon.

Still, the tradition to allow the use of Nikon lens was kept by Canon, since such

as special 2000 mm lens which was made only by Nikon, Canon has to make a

provision for News photographer to use such special lens on their Canon body.

= hence, camera was designed to functions with the lens which has no Canon

ROM memory.  In other words they can work with any lens. 

So that, their camera, even Digital SLR can give enough exposure function except

Tv and Program Mode. = still perfect on AV Mode and of course with

Manual Mode.

Above all, with DSLR, we can check the result on the spot, and change

manual setting or exposure compensation on Av.

( Or, change ISO setting further).

——————————————————- ( At Painted Hall, Greenwich )

So, there is no problem to use Canon with a reading glass, plastic flat lens

(Fresnel lens, which gives utterly unsharp image 😀 ) —– even with

Pin-hole, while leaving all the exposure control to the Camera !

= Just use AV mode and adjust exposure compensation.

(Though, Canon 5D gives only up to 30 seconds on AV Mode, if you need

longer exposure to make picture brighter = increase ISO to higher setting,

or change to Manual Mode.

And if you need to have very long long exposure to make all the moving

things disappear, use lower ISO or use dark ND filter together.

Unlike on color film, the adverse effect of UV light  (which causes blue cast),

doesn’t affect the color on Digital camera.  But never have a direct sun in

the image.  Without having any protective glass lens which blocks UV light,

it may damage the Image Sensor).

————————————————————— ( At Greenwich Town )

And, to do this kind of creative shooting, you need to pay attention to

[Good Common Sense] such as, to use View finder cover to block the

stray light from the back.  

And use good black paper for making Pin-hole, and make sure, pinhole

should be clean round hole with no paper floss messing on it.

And DO MAKE SURE, keep everything DUST FREE. 

Wash your hand before hand.

= a dust particle got onto the Image Sensor is very tricky to clean.

Your acute mindfulness was required.

——— ( Sake of photo, Pinhole was placed on EOS RT body )—– ( To make a perfect hole, it was made on a smaller

———————————————————————————————- piece of thin metal and attached in the center )

A paper with Pinhole, will be stacked on the lens mount of the body by a black

PVC tape to seal-off the stray light.

The Canon DSLR camera has the depth = Flange-back (Lens mount to Image

Sensor) 44 mm, therefore the field of view is the same as 44 mm lens. 

And if you use an Extension Ring and stick the pinhole further away from the

body, effectively it would give you telephoto images.

In the most of the case, (as a fine sawing needle has a diameter about 0.5 mm)

the size of this hole is equivalent of F90. (With a focal length of 44 mm lens,

if the diameter of the lens was 44 mm, it would give effective F-aperture F1,

hence, 44 /0.5 = 88 = about F90)

—– I’ve made it less than 0.2 mm = F250.  Instead to use a paper, I used thin

aluminium panel of a Drink Can, and pierced it with just a tip of the needle.

The smaller the hole, it would give sharper image though, the optical effect of

Diffraction will scatter the light, it can not give sharp image like an optical lens

anyway, but on the other hand, it gives pan-focus. 

(The hole doesn’t necessary in the center = You may put it far side and take

picture always one half, like top-end.  Or to put TWO, to make double images,

or one with color filter and so on, there are endless possibilities,

still cost nothing.  😀 )

—– (The samples of 3-PINHOLEs photos with each Red, Green and Blue filter)

—–

—– It would be a fun to play with a camera in open-minded way.

(Try it and find new play ground in photography  😉 )

[]

Fuji Soft-Focus Lens

While looking for a Pentax 20 mm lens to use for Macro shot (use it with revers mount-ring

on Canon —– Canon’s 20 mm lens is too big and F-aperture couldn’t be set manually),

Then I bumped to 40 year old  Fuji Soft-focus 85 mm F4 lens, deep inside of camera cabinet.

Yah, yah, I’m still having this ! —– I remember, I used this lens twice = It is my bad habit to

buy strange Camera, Lens, funny devices whether I need to use it or not = still, to see how

it was designed or what sort of things could be created from such junk is,  I should say,

my pleasure. —– (Like £10 broken camera, it is a treasure box of spare-parts)

Any how, to test this lens, I popped out to take picture of  Chery Blossoms. (Yet again  😀 )

Most Soft focus Lens is using an optical aberration = Uncorrected Spherical Aberration, 

which cause the light spread out side of the image, hence giving soft halo around the image

while maintaining the sharply focused core image in the center.  (Though, having inherent

soft image in the view finder, to have sharp focus in the first place is not easy  😀 )

And as this Fuji Lens is using so-called Lotus-Root Iris (having lots of hole in a disc) to

control intensity of the effect, some time the artifact appears in the off-focused Boke image. 

In the photo above, you can see the ghost of multi-hole disc. = this is a sample of dirty Boke.

When soft effect works well, effect is far better than soft filter or grease, as the image has

solid core of focused image.   (With soft filter, everything become soft).

With darker background,  you can see how halo spread around the bright images.

Though, with low contrast subjects, the effect is subdued.  In fact, with smaller F setting,

the effect of aberration become very little, same as even a cheap bad lens can give sharp

image with small F-aperture setting.

These days,  even a Mob’Phone camera can take pretty sharp photos.   Sharp images with

over Photoshoped photos are everywhere, and I’ve got rather weary with them.

Our eyes are not necessary need to see everything in its details. That is why, when sharp-eyed

Photographer showed unknown view or fresh viewing angle, the image surprises us.

So, I found, soft images which shows [the details as if no details are there],  isn’t too bad.  😀

[]

Talk with Cats = What is MUSHIN

Somebody said “Hey yoshizen, you are utterly nuts, how you can talk with cats ?”

—– Quite often, when I saw a cat, I call him (her ?) “wu Nya” 😀

And lower my body or crouch and say “Oide, oide” (it’s mean, “Come, come” in Japanese.)

So that, my friend who happened to be with me, say “How this cat understand Japanese ?”

or “Can they understand Japanese ? Hey, don’t be silly ” —– then, those friend

was surprised as he saw the cat is coming to me and having their head scratched.

[]

So, I said to my friend “Of cause, they don’t know what that Japanese mean.

But, do you know, the cats can read our mind ?” “Oh yes, I know they can”

“So, this is it. It doesn’t matter what language I have used on my rip, but my mind,

in fact deep down to my subconscious level, I’m expressing the friendship message

as the same kin.  Cat understand this message like a mind reading”

[]

If you remember what I wrote in the previous post, you may be confused by this description.

—– “Deal with cat in Mushin”. —– What the Mushin mean here ?

THIS IS the most misunderstood point in the Buddhism and in the concept

of Mushin and the SELF.

Open your mind, don’t think anything, empty your mind, brah brah brah ——.

They are all just the words, only described the superficial appearance and its observation.

Yes it is true. There was no thinking in the brain on that moment, hence it seemed the mind

was empty. —– still, full function of the body is continuing.

Tea Master is making a tea, Sword’s Master is fighting, I was calling the Cat. = all

those actions were carried out in Mushin.

[]

Lots of amateur Buddhists and Sham Monks or so-called Instructors, Practitioners are believing

and teaching that the Mushin is a kind of special mental state occurred only

when sitting and meditating.

—– Forget the Buddhism for a while. (Before talking Buddhist’s mind, you better know what

the ordinarily mind is 😉 ) = Remember what people say “Talk from your Heart”

“It struck our Soul” “Selfless Love” etc ==== You can understand all those words straight,

what it’s mean. = In fact all those words are describing the same psyche in our deep-down mind

= the pure human emotion in our subconsciousness, without any intentional thinking

= away from political, psychological manipulation, self enriching maneuver or egotistic thinking.

People can naturally feel, talk and act without having any those intentional artificial thinking.

—– Where those Thinking come from, and where those psyche described as

Heart, Soul or Pure Human Emotion come from ?

[]

Complexed highly intentional thinkings are all bore out of our highly intelligent Cerebrum =

large Brain.  But Heart, Soul and Pure Humanistic Emotion are come from our

Old Cortex and Limbic System.

(Which is common, even with cats, hence we can shar the same psyche. 😀 )

Mushin = Mind of No-Mind is the state of the brain, when all those Thinkings in the Cerebrum

were stopped (or suppressed, abandoned what ever the word. And an advanced Zen Master can

stop even the process or Emotion in the Limbic System as well). = Still, some subconscious and

basic function in the Limbic System can be maintained and continue its process.

[]

Likewise, the Self with its Self Conscious Thinking together with its Emotion could

be disappeared, still able to maintain the integration of the body and its function.

= Thinking was stopped still, subconscious is aware the situation.

In fact, subconsciousness knows the situation far better, because Limbic system

is directing and controlling all the data flow in the Brain.  The Cerebrum is only

converting some of those data into the words and to the visible conscious.

(This is why the argument, what is the SELF and whether it is exists or not was started.

And the typical Mahayana Expression [It exists as not exists] was invented).

Consciously conscioused SELF is clearly be seen, but subconscious is invisible. 

You can hear my word to a cat “Oide, oide”, but you can’t hear the signal

in [Z-band] channel hidden there.   (Unless you too a cats person  😀 ).

[]

PHILOSOPHER (Cat’s story – 2)

This is an old story though,  when I got a water flood from a burst pipe of the flat above,

I had to shelter myself to a friend architect’s house in the south London.

Strangely, the garden of this house was a gathering place of the cats around.

Every day more than 10 cats came and go or staying there all day.  The wife of my friend

complained as the cats stomped the flower shoots etc etc, not mention their droppings.

She tried all sorts of tactics to chase-off the cats, but nothing deter them keep coming.

[]

I gave a solution to prevent the cats damage young shoot of the flowers by putting many

sticks standing on the seed bed. (as the sticks sticking out every 4 inches or so, cat can’t walk,

let alone to jump down there from the fencing wall) —– yet still the cats were keep coming

by climbing the tree.

While watching them, I invented the nick name for each of them.

Such as [Wu-he] after a character in a Japanese comics as this cat got a fanny slimly face.

(If you pronounce this, on front of a mirror, you will see your face looks smiling with a bit of

embarrassment = the character in the comics was this kind  🙂 )

[]

The another cat named [Philosopher] was after his habit and he seemed to be a loner,

not playing with others so much, but stay in the garden looking up the bird on the tree.

When he saw a bird, he was making strange noise, like cracking his teeth “ Ka ka ka ka”.

Then one day, I saw this cat actually caught a sparrow and eating it with cracking noise

“Crack, crick, munch, munch” —– M m m ?

There was a sort of say in Japan “Never feed a chicken with bone in it, since broken bone is very

sharp to damage cat’s stomach, causing the cat’s death” — though, if he could eat whole sparrow,

the bone may not be dangerous for him to eat.   So, I tested it by giving him chicken wing.

He eat whole of it while cracking the bones and appreciated very much.  Since then, I kept giving

him a chicken wing every day.  He was waiting me on the garden door every day. (The wife of

my friend hated this and she kicked [Philosopher] out when he walked into the kitchen.)

[]

Then I found a ground floor flat with big garden in the north London and moved to there taking

this [Philosopher] with me though, it was a first experience to him. He seemed to be panicked.

While having second journey to bring other boxes, he escaped through a ventilation hole in the

bathroom. —– what a blunder = I made a lost cat.

Few days later, when I met the friend again, he mentioned that [Philosopher] is

still coming to the door waiting my chicken wing. —– What ? ? ?

[]

My friend didn’t know, I took him to north London, but if the cat is still coming to his house, it’s

mean, the cat managed to go back to the south London within 3 days, while finding

the direction and having 8 miles (13 km) journey !    What an incredible story though,

in the same time, it showed that the cat couldn’t comprehend, I was the one moved out, and took

him to the new flat (while giving him a big trouble) = therefore, no more chicken wing there.

There is another say in Japan that cat never cross a water or river. From the north

to south London, of cause, there is the Themes river. Still it wasn’t a problem for him.

One of the most enduring story of this kind was, a cat in Japan who was

accidentally left behind, did follow the owner who has moved from a

north-western city of Itoigawa to Yokohama, and found the owner, after 2 years

of journey while traveling 600 miles (1000 km).

Nobody know how he could find the direction but simply the cat did.

[]

There are many myth around the cat though, many of them are not true.

It was said that the cat belong to the house not to the owner.   But this is not true.

One of the cat I used to live with, remembered me even after 10 years kept by

others.  (When the cat saw me, he jumped up to my shoulder,  and rubbing

his nose to my cheek.  This is the greeting the animal does each other.

Because my cats thinking me as their same kin, they treat me like another cat).

Something certain is, they got unknown, hence mythical sensory power.

[]

When I talked about this [Philosopher] story to a secretary of a Bank who was one of

my client, she mentioned, one of their staff is asking if anyone can adopt a kitten.

—– So, it was a beginning of my life, living with the cats.

[]

The old part of our Brain, like Limbic System is common with another animal.

In fact we only got add-on of large brain on top.  In other words, the process, the control of

the sensory grands and the basic perception in the Limbic system having the same language.

( Similar to the computer, what ever the operational system and the higher language, still

down to the bottom, they are programmed and operating in the hexadecimal binary cord.)

= by using this channel, we human could communicate with the other animal.

To do this, we human needs to silence the noise coming from the Cerebrum and its thinking.

[]

The stories of the Zen Buddhist communicating with other animal may have

the basis in this phenomenon = silencing the noise of thinking in the Brain

mean, it is to be in a state of  Mushin.

Not in thinking but having a deepest perception of  friendliness in the primeval

Limbic feeling = This feeling is the common language with any living form.

The most peculiar things about this, the cats can sens this remotely.

Often suddenly a cat came out of dark, and asking me to scratch, or tangling

with my foot. —– How they knew me a cat’s person before-hand ?

(But it seems there is a drawback, the dogs often hates me.  😀

—-– So, I’ve been asking many people if I smell fishy ? )

[]

Different Perspective (Cat’s story – 1)

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

————- ( Here, I’m going to put a photo of my cat when I find the old film  😀 )

It is easy to say to others “See it in another perspective”

—– in fact I used this phrase a bit too casually and too often.

Here is a very good sample —– How good is because the situation was seen and handled by

[Totally different view point] = in deed, it was made by a cat.

[]

I used to live with, up to 9 cats.   I’ve risen 18 kittens bore out of  my Tom and Queen cats.

(In fact those two were also 6 weeks kittens when they came to my place —– and I didn’t know they become

mature in just over 3 months and became pregnant = and every 4 months the queen cat gave a birth of 3 litters,

hence all together 18 kittens).

[]

As I treated those cats just as another person, (simply I don’t know how to treat them as pets) they had

somewhat same freedom like a man.   Their only restriction limitation was that they happen to be the cats.

(they became more like a dog character —– Who said, cat is the solitary animal  😀 )

(If you behave and live like their big daddy, and take care of them like daddy does, they think you are the

same kin but just got big body, they keep play like Lion’s cab play with a tail of parents Lion. They are

very playful mischievous creatures.   My guess is, neglected left alone cat became solitary sulky cat.  😀

Most of the cat’s owner is believing that be intimate with a cat is hugging them and squeeze them, but cat

hate it  = in the nature, they never being hugged.  I never hug a cat, but they likes parch on the shoulder.)

[]

When I was hand-writing a draft such as for an article go together with photos.  A cat sat on my desk started

to play with a pencil in my hand.   Gazing at the pencil almost captivated by its movement, and rose a hand

and waited the moment to strike.   And as the pencil was keep moving try to hit though, to capture slippery

pencil was not an easy play for him.

[]

Most of you may react  “Hey stop it” and just whack a cat  to chase off the desk.

Or, some of you might think  “Aha silly cat,  mistaking me playing and teasing the cat by moving a pencil”.

In cat’s view, he might have thought “ Oh, my Lord ( me) having a struggle to contain a funny

moving creature.  I should help him to fight against  it” 😀

So, he was offering side support to a battle with the evil pencil.   As he had no animosity toward

the pencil, when I gave the pencil to him, he just examined it to see it is dead, he didn’t do anything further.

If the cat was playing with me, he was making eye contact, but not in this case.

(Some time they do a football with a pencil on the floor and they are very fond of it)

—– of cause it was just a guess and I was not doing any animal behavior research, he just came up to my

desk to see what I’m doing. —– When they need my attention, they knew what to do.

What clear is, even a cat has their own way of thinking but in totally different perspective.

We human should have a bit more flexible thinking proportional to the size of the brain. 😀

[]

Some animal trainer is saying that we need to see the things in their view point, so we need to see the world

from the ground level, looking up though, I’m not telling you to obtain cat’s view.

—– To see the things in different view or perspective in human life. 😀

To start, what we need is [To know how we are imprisoned in our Ego] and egotistic view.

Just feel that the cat is obstructing the writing, is derived from a thought [what I AM doing and its value is

surpassing anything, let alone a cat !] —– is it ?   Who, you are ?

[]

When we need to work together or deal with others, to protect your own interest is one thing, but to have the

job done needs the hands of others as well. = It’s mean, others are also thinking to protect their own interest.

Others might be even more desperate in their own situation. It is necessary to see the situation with other’s

view as well and find the common ground. It is not just a compassion to others, if you deprive others, it will

boomerang to you one day, but this is the Karma.

Karma works in much personal level and quite visibly rational way.

[]

In fact, to deal with others or system is comparatively easy in our life because you can see them and it is not

difficult to see what they are up-to or thinking.

An heaviest difficulty in one’s life is when the person has to face the invisible counterpart, Fate.

The situation involved was too big to asses and the number of people coming into the equation were too many

to consider.  The force acting those complicated situation may not be a kind of economics or politics but the

huge scale dynamism.   It is more likely the dynamism of the Fate = Dharma.

You can’t see the Dharma like a western God, as Dharma has no personified shape or personality =

Character or behavioral tendency. Above all, Dharma has no Ego or Self, hence you can’t exercise inference

like to other human or to negotiate.

[]

If the Dharma has no Ego, you can’t deal with it with your Ego  = Only the way to see it, is you

have to see it without your Ego = See it without your Mind = Mind of No-Mind = Mushin.

It is not a matter to tinker or merely shift your view point.

But, completely abandon any view point (in fact, forget everything first, and empty the mind)

= and expose your whole sensory and your invisible perception = use subconscious hunch

===> wait and see.  = Suddenly you will see the view or scope which is totally free from your

view point. = This is the Answer.  = This is what the Dharma has chosen.

In this way, you can see the situation in much longer term and able to take the measure in much wiser way.

Above all, as you can have much longer perspective, an immediate endurance wouldn’t cause

unnecessary worries as you know the end result will be OK.

This is what we call Peace of Mind.

___/\___

[]

Goma-ae Ingen (Green Bean in Sesame source)

– ——( To show the source, it was poured on top of the Green bean, instead to put the bean into the bowl

——where the source was mixed = it’s mean one more bowl to wash = it’s against the way of simple  life    🙂 )

[]

As a humble  Zennist’s principle, I don’t buy so-called snack or sweets.   ( I said, in principle =

exception is a fruits cake in December.   In an old tradition, families goes out to the woods to pick wild

fruits and use them to make a cake to celebrate a festive season. —– Even if it is just a nostalgic story,

still I like a luminescence,  when people had a life with a cycle of the nature.

[]

As a matter of fact, last time I eat a piece of chocolate was last year ? at somebody’s party.

( I don’t like a scandalous situation, even after it became an issue, still the African children were forced to

harvest chocolate beans to satisfy the craving of the people )

But it was not the reason of such social issue, why I don’t buy those sweets was, simply my shopping

list was fixed.  Where and what to buy is always the same and bare essential.  Hence, in my shopping habit,

there is no such item of sweets, and they don’t came up to my scope. —– Of cause I can see, it is there, like

a land scape though, —– So What ?

[]

Instead of such snack, I always have boiled Green bean (Ingen Bean) or Sprouts in a pan.

Before, I used to buy fresh one.   Then, I realized, frozen one is about the same price.

And, they are already prepared. ( In here, I wouldn’t brandish a dogma —— simple life is meant to be

good for a lazy person. = Life would be even simpler if I don’t need to cut them —– yet, I don’t have

Food processor = when one knife can do all the work, why do I need to spend a money to

buy a machine.    Ha ha ha   😀 )

[]

—– Anyhow, in a day, I eat those Greens as a snack.

I eat  fruits as a snack as well, though they are sweet = this is a savory alternative.  (In fact, a Tomato is

also good alternative  🙂 )  —– Then you may say why not a bread — but  to eat tasteless bread we need

to put either butter or jam kind, hence it’s no good.  ( Don’t tell me about Marmite  😀 )

Ask your mouth, not to your brain —– An idea came from the brain can force your mouth to chew, but it

can’t force your throat to swallow = throat was controlled by your instinct,  not by your thinking )

(Priority here is, it should be cheaper than sweets, and others may say it is healthier too)

[]

To eat them, I wouldn’t eat like a rabbit.

Its gotta be good enough for the sophisticated  Zennist’s mouth.   😀

( Simple life doesn’t mean eat junk food = Still, it should be cheap and easy to make =

achieved by some clever adaptation here.   😀 )

In the authentic Japanese cooking, sesame seeds have to be ground in a kind of small mortar called

Suri-bachi with Surikogi stick which I don’t have here ( —– once I tried it with Coffee grinder,  ended up

with miserable havoc = unlike coffee, sesame seeds are very oily = without falling to the bottom, the seeds

became gluey sticky staff and clogged the grinder.  It took me hours to disassemble and clean every parts.

And even after a cleaning, the ground coffee became awfully oily taste = The lesson was, never attempt to

use coffee grinder for anything else but for coffee bean.   😀 )

instead to grind the sesame-seed, I discovered ready-made sesame-seed paste = Tahini

from Greece or Turkey.   ( Sold in the most super-market.   This substitute is a cheat, and not much

freshly ground crispy flavor though, still it has the Sesame taste)

[]

So, this the way to eat  Goma-ae Ingen  in Yoshizen style :

—– (to make for one potion)

= Put a teaspoon full  Tahini paste into a rice (sized) bowl.

= Add a teaspoon of Soy-sauce and mix well —– That it !

This is too humble and taste is not rich enough, so I normally put something a bit more.

= Half tea spoon of Miso (Soybean paste).

= Quarter teaspoon of Dashi powder. ( or few shake of MSG if you dare)

= Two or three drops of  West Indian Chilly Sauce. (This is a very hot staff so, if you like )

===> Mix well. Then put boiled Green bean and mix with the sauce.

And just eat as its own,  or a side-dish for a meal.

[]

—– It wouldn’t take more than few minutes to make still,  you will be surprised the taste so good !

With this source, I eat boiled sprouts or broccoli as well.

In place of  Tahini, it can be done with Mayonnaise as well.

(Except Dashi which contains fish powder, rest are totally vegetarian.  People despise MSG though, it was

originally extracted from Kombu ( Kelp seaweed) and synthesized out of  Wheat Gluten = if it is anything

bad for the health, Chinese are already extinct from the Planet as they use tons of  it every day.

Additives in a Mayonnaise are far more suspicious than few shakes of MSG   :-D)

So, have a try, and Enjoy an healthy eating of  Ingen-bean.

( Incidentally, the name Ingen was after a  16th century Zen master who said to have

brought this bean from China)

The beauty of this cooking is,  if we are going to go a party, where everybody bring a cooking,

—–  just bring a mixed source in a small jar, boil the bean in their kitchen and serve.

It will be counted as one good dish.  = very convenient !

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Humming a Song

While having a chats, how we feel about a particular sound,  a friend recalled one of my post

[Spiritual Sound] (click the Link) which he said pretty interesting.

“ Oh yeah,  high pitch tone instantly  take our attention,  and it gives a bit chilly feeling

doesn’t it.   But if it wasn’t a rapid warning sound but slowly moving continuous tone,

strangely it makes us a bit mesmerized and feel something spiritual, because high-tone

alerts our emotion “Be careful” and makes us highly perceptive,  it’s mean, silencing  the

thoughts and open the mind to listen its meaning.  

This completely open passive mind-set is what we feel “Spiritual”. 

Spiritualism is in fact, a matter of our mind-set, not the existence of the God. 

A mind-set which open the perception try to listen and awaits to see its meaning”

” Hum,  sound convincing”

” In fact any sound which gives no meaning or too repetitive and boring,  also makes our

brain to resign the data process and become blank or open-minded state. 

This open-minded state is the essential key to the all the religion”

“ Aha, isn’t it related to the continuous chanting of  Buddhist’s mantra ?”

“ That’s right”

“ It’s very funny isn’t it. Chanting Mantra is supposedly concentrates to their belief and

show their dedication, but in fact, it lead the Mind to fed-up and resign.   Ha ha ha.”

“ That’s a beauty of the Buddhism.   Buddhism is based on this paradox.

The end result to open the Mind is the matter,  regardless the approach”

“ Do you mean, fed-up is the Enlightenment ?”

“ Oh, you are almost Enlightened. Ha ha ha.

Fed-up to chase money-making, Fed-up women’s bottoms, Fed-up to fear the Death.

Then convinced [OK, never mind Life just goes on] is what all about the Enlightenment.”

“ Ha ha ha, it’s really a Dog Shit isn’t it”

“ Yes, Dog Shit are everywhere.  It’s called Universality of the Darma.  Ha ha ha”

[]

Then the other, mentioned “ Oh, there was a TV program.  A scientist  try to investigate

what our brain is configuring the information, he try to learn Tight-rope Walk, and found

a humming a song would help learning the body balance”.

“ Well spotted.  Whether the sound come from external source or from inside, it stimulate

our sensory. But, if it has no meaning, our brain resign to process its data, and became blank.

Still, if he was on the rope, body’s motor region have to control the body balance, but

without any disturbance of noise such as a fear to fall or a conscious of that the TV camera is

watching.   Humming signal chased off all the evil thoughts.  Ha ha ha”

“ Oh I see, was that’s the reason”

[]

“ Oh, do you remember the time, when you had a long walk or doing a boring manual work,

suddenly an old song came up to your mind, and it kept ringing in your mind, or you were

just keep humming it.   I remember when I was having long long walk in a mountain range,

the same song on a loop  all the day, and I walked like an automatic musical toy ”

“ Oh, yeah.  I remember it happened many times”

“ It must be the self protection or a remedy to deal with, otherwise intolerable situation”

“ Sounds not very happy isn’t it”

“ Yeah, but that’s why our brain filled our mind with the same repeating song, and avoided

us to fall into a mind crunch.   Blank mind can leave the body to just carry-on the task.

So that we could survive”

“ May be”

“ No, it’s not may be.   Blank Mind is the Key to deal with the situation best”

[]

In the public perception, the words [Blank Mind] sound not very promising.

So, the Zen Buddhists found better word [Mushin]  🙂

In fact, this [Mushin] can deal with everything better, because even the conscious mind became blank,

still all the necessary data processing are automatically carried out.

While the Scientist was on the rope, his conscious brain was occupied by a humming song and let the

subconscious motor region to control body movement, with no interference from the useless thoughts.

While walking in the mountain, a song in the mind eliminated any thoughts to blame the

situation,  still all the necessary knowledges and the control of the body kept functioning.

When you need to find a new tactics or to be creative, let the mind become blank, hence, no useless thoughts

still all the necessary data of which the subconscious has been storing are available to deal with the needs.

As a matter of fact, they automatically do far better job than ourselves.

[]

So, to resign thinking and put the Mind into the Blank Space,  would bring better judgement and the

better way to live. —– (Time to time, it’s better to hum a song than occupied by worries = humming a

song, may work better than Zen sitting, as it brings [Mushin] straight   🙂 )

And this is the reason why the Musicians are often having very close understanding of the spirituality.

( Except  the case, some times they got the feeling of spirituality mixed-up with the trance by a drug)

___/\___

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MEANING

Looking into the Stats page of my blog ( well, it is only a Stats I can access —– unless I ask my

hacker friend to hack into other’s blog site I have no idea what others’ blog environment) —– the most

interesting thing which provoke my thought is what [search term] the reader has used, and end-up here.

As I wrote before, quite few of them are obviously intended to seek porno site, may be because I often use

rather naughty choice of the sexual words. ( my friends said , it is not MAY BE but obvious facts —–

Because, I hate a pretense to be a kind of holy thinker. —– I rather stay to be an old dirty man as

many of us are = sorry folks. ( or you may say, only you are different.)   😀 )

[]

[ Self awareness starts from looking into our own shit ] = to see what has been digested and

what wasn’t —– if you actually do this, you will find that the vegetable you eat raw, comes out as it is

= pretend to be natural, is often having hidden reality = how you lost the weight is not because it is healthy

but simply your body couldn’t digest them = effectively eat less.

Head-big thinking, boasting buzzwords has exactly the same situation.

( A loss of libido may not occurred because of Buddhist’s enlightenment,  but simply because eating

so-called Buddhists humble food which caused Malnutrition.  Ha ha ha  😀 )

[]

Among the search term, what caught my eyes were [Meaning of Lemon Zen] = it’s must refer to

one of my old post [Lemon Zen] —– ? ? ?      But what is the question ?

My old post has explained how a practice (actual body movement) affects our brain activity

= which lead to vacates the thoughts = and lead to have the state of Mushin (Mind of no-mind).

There is no meaning in the practice.   As all the Buddhist’s practices are, the practice itself is,  just a

body movement and has no meaning at all.

So that, in a glance, it may looks silly and useless.

Useless, still you have to keep doing it. = This mind-set is, what was stated in the fundamental

Buddhist Teachings,  Four Noble Truth [ This teaching have to be actively cherished].

There is no meaning.  = But Just Do It.

[]

Virtually all the Lord Buddha’s teachings were, The instruction.   Not the Belief.

Instruction to do. = Because, while doing it, the organization of the brain, especially in the

region of subconscious changes.  (This the aim of his teachings =this change is not occurred

by the intellectual understanding which is in the New cortex in the brain.  

Subconsciousness is in the Old cortex / Limbic system, where the body movement affects)

[]

Lord Buddha’s word [ Don’t believe the words, but think yourself] is, because as he had

been teaching what and how to DO, —– as he, himself as a living sample = think by the

self-observation about what the self is doing and feeling.  = DOING is the stimulus.

Only dealing with this, is what called Mindfulness.

=== Without having this DOING, but — what to think about the meaning ?

—– What is the object or issue to think about. —– In this context, the word of

Lord Buddha = [Think yourself] may be understood as [Grasp yourself].

Lord Buddha meant not abstract thinking ( which many of you might be misconceived)

but the brain activity occurred only in the moment, while DOING it.

Because, the abstract thinking had been already defined as a Delusion.

And the Truth of that there is no fixed situation, had been already taught.

( Disciples were expected to have fully understood those teachings )

[]

So, again, there is no meaning in cutting a lemon. —– Just Do It.

( And have a nice cup of tea = it comes with a peace of mind   🙂 )

___/\___

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