Genuine ? — or tampered Scripture

On the end of previous post, I rather casually wrote

“Now look around and check so-called books about the Buddhism.

How many this kind of absurdities you can find ?” —– though,

I realized that it was not so easy job for the most of Buddhists in

the town.  Often, they were given only few booklet to read by the leader

or the instructing monk and not used to look for any other scripture.

For the monks, the followers are the cash-cow, of course, they don’t

want the followers to know anything other than “What he is teaching”.

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In the net, there are enormous number of the Scriptures available (in different translation).

Here is a sample of website, kindly providing comprehensive collection of the scriptures.

On their list, by scrolling down, soon after the Agama series, you may find a sutra called

[ Compassionate Lotus Sutra ] , click an English version and — you may start reading. —–

though, if you like a shortcut, go to V-6 (0157 / 0158) and scrolling down to somewhere

paragraph 13 =

“‘For the 1004 persons including Fire-Wreath Manavaka, who reads and recites Veda — the

Exterior-Path scriptures, the Tathagata has already awarded them the distinctive marks

of future Buddhahood, which predicts that they will become Buddhas in the Good-kalpa

(Bhadra-kalpa: the present kalpa), and will, by using the three vehicles (yana), enlighten

all the living beings who often commit greed, lechery, anger, ignorance, and arrogance.”

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A kind of Buddhists, more often called New-age group of the people, who is believing such 

as a mythical power of crystal etc too, also speaking the buzz-words, Veda, Upanishads etc

may not necessarily know the significance of the word Veda —– and this is the most

Un-Buddhists like word.   

Veda is the scriptures of Brahmanism, Hinduism but never with the Buddhism as

Lord Buddha took a stance against the existence of perpetual soul (Self = Atoman), 

hence against the idea of reincarnation. (When the Self isn’t existing, who reincarnate ?)

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As the [Compassionate Lotus Sutra] referred to Veda, obviously this wasn’t a genuine

Buddhist scripture.    Likewise, neither the scripture which got many names of Vedic, 

Hindu Deities such as Brahma God was not.  

As a matter of fact, all the Mahayana scriptures are quite remote from the original

Lord Buddha’s teachings. —– other than some resemblance in the idea of Void.

Mahayana Buddhism might be better understood as a carnival party staff with a lots of

costumed Hindu dancers. It was a party entertainment, choreographed by Nagarujuna.

And in fact, it was an extravaganza of sales ploy!    Nagarjuna was quite talented in this

kind as he used to be a performing magician.

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Still, the most important core of the Buddhist teachings were kept, not in the scriptures

but in their practice. (Of course, who believe a magical figure from another universe kind,

but through the practice the psychological, physiological change actually occur and it was

noticed by the followers.)   This was the reason why Zen teachings says 不立文字 (Never

rely on the lexical teachings) 以心伝心 (Heart to heart transmission).

And why all the Buddhist’s teachings consists endless repeated act as their practice.

(Chanting the name thousands of times, banging the drum, walking round and round so on

—– counting the breath or special way of breathing is literally endless practice.)

—– I’ll talk about this in the coming post.

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Contradiction in Agama (Nikaya) Sutra

The scripture called Agama (Known as Nikaya in the Theravada sect) is the oldest

group of the Buddhist’s scripture written down from the recited oral heritage

kept mouth to mouth for 200 years.   Since they came from the memories of the

original followers, we should expect that they are the closest to the

Lord Buddha’s real words though —– were they ?

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—– Use your common sense and good imagination.

Think about the text, kept purely in the memories, taught mouth to mouth for 200 years

where in the society, everybody else was believing and talking completely different idea.

Lord Buddha was the only one, teaching the impermanence of the soul = or denying the

permanence of the Self (Atoman).  —– Against this, all others were believing the

perpetual soul (Atoman) and believing reincarnation, hence the man is suffering in the

endless cycle of Birth and the Death (of which the Hindu people call Samsara.)

This idea gradually seeped into the original words.

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And the time when the oral heritage was written down, the people who took the task 

were the Vedic Brahman. Because, they were the only people who knows write and read, 

and has learned the Veda.   Of course, the Veda teaches the perpetual soul, Atoman and 

its reincarnation.   Therefore for those Brahman, the teachings of No-Self, Anatoman is

nothing but an absurd idea.   Naturally, when they wrote down the recited texts of the

teachings, they couldn’t understand the alien idea, so that they changed it to the words

which made more sense for them.  And to show off their writing skill, they decorated the

text with a lots of glorious addition, such as the name of deities and kings etc not

mention the new fancy stories.

—– As a result, the Scripture Agama or Nikaya ended-up to be a mix-up with Hinduism.

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Amazingly, this mess is still continuing today and you can easily see the situation.

The translated script of Agama (Nikaya) is available in the Net, though as you may expect,

they are quite hefty amount.    Such as the one, “here is the link”.

And “this one is an extract” with good commentary and the explanation of the historical

background.   The author of this extract, Dr. Thomas Tam seemed to be a quite profound

scholar of Buddhists scripture though, he was showing the deep spell of the Vedic idea.

So, he was writing “The following passage does not appear to carry any religious message.

It is just a vignette of a moment of the Buddha’s life.

“It was a dark night, raining lightly, with flashes of lightning. The Buddha said to Ananda:

“You can come out with the umbrella over the lamp.” Ananda listened, and walked behind

the Buddha, with an umbrella over the lamp. When they reached a place,

the Buddha smiled.   Ananda said: “The Buddha doesn’t smile without a reason.

What brings the smile today?” The Buddha said: “That’s right!  That’s right!

The Buddha doesn’t smile without a reason. Now you are following me with an umbrella

over a lamp.   I look around, and see everyone doing the same thing.”” [S-1150] “

This was the passage I’ve quoted in the “Test of Selflessness” (though, Since I’ve read it

many years ago, wording of my memory was not exact) — As I said in the post, this was how

Lord Buddha demonstrated what “Selflessness should be”, but Dr.Tam thought it has

religiously no significant. = This is the very situation how “So called” scholar is

understanding  the Buddhism. —– If this passage was seen “No Significant”  how PhD

could talk about the selflessness or the Void in Buddhism. 

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There was the another passage the author was saying that “This was the evidence that

Lord Buddha had the concept of reincarnation”

“Did the Buddha talk about reincarnation? In the Diverse Agama Sutra, there are

several passages that the Buddha had referred to it. The following is an example.

The Buddha told the monks: “Let’s say the whole earth becomes a big ocean.

A piece of wood with a hole floats on it, drifting with the waves, and being blown by

winds from all directions.   There is a blind turtle that sticks out its head once every

 hundred years. Will it meet this hole?”

Ananda said: “Not possible, if the blind turtle is in the ocean’s east, the driftwood 

may be in the west, south, north, all directions.   They may not meet.”

The Buddha told Ananda: “Hard as it may for the blind turtle to meet the driftwood,

it may still be possible.  For an ignorant person to regain his human form, however, it

is much more unlikely to happen.   Why? It is because these people don’t follow the

principles of the dharma.   They don’t do good deeds. They kill repeatedly, with the

strong ones bullying the weak, and sinned without end.   That’s why for those who do

not understand the four noble truths, they better start to learn and practice them

diligently…” [S-328]

—– Can you read this in such context ?  

The words “regain human form” did mean reincarnation ?

(wasn’t that meant just “regain sanity to be a human” ? )

Do you agree with his wishful thinking ?

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Lord Buddha brought the aspect of the Karma into the Dharma.

By definition of its word, Dharma should be the one which keeps its own attribute

= keeps mean never change.   Though, Karma affects.   And it is the dynamic driving

force.   Therefore the karma in the Dharma mean, it is the constantly changing huge

mechanism hence, there is no permanence. = Non can stay permanent as the 

existence of everything is relying on the others.   And as a soul is dependent to its body,

 no permanent body mean no permanent soul (Self, Atoman).

 And this is the very basis of the teachings of No-Self.   No-Self = No-atoman (Anatman)

mean no remaining soul after death = no possibility of reincarnation.

= No past life which will “Cast” next life could exists = Therefore, there was no “Cast” in

the Lord Buddha’s follower’s sangha. This was why his teachings were so revolutionary.

Though, this idea couldn’t be accepted in the Vedic, Hindu society.

So, they changed the story and started to call

Lord Buddha as one of their Guru.   What a contempt.

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Though this tendency is still active today

= insatiable appetite to find an evidence among the scripture, the

Lord Buddha’s words mentioning “Reincarnation”.

Obviously, it is nothing but absurd that if the teachings of the “Impermanence and

the Selflessness” containing “Perpetual Soul reincarnates to the Next Life, hence

having the suffering from the endless cycle of Birth and the Death (Samsara)”.

As a matter of fact, we can see lords of such words in the Agama / Nikaya though

as I aforesaid, they were nothing but the mix-up or expression for a convenience and

Lord Buddha’s stance was still the same “There was absolutely no answer to the

silly question, what would happen after a death”.

This NO answer was not just a rack of word but the strongest denial with despise.

—– You might got your eyes clear.

Now look around and check so-called books about the Buddhism.

How many this kind of absurdities you can find ?

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Pear Skin

In this post, I’m talking about completely different several topics. 

To start, all of those are the photos of peeled skin of a pear.  

— peeled and dried skin.     The photo, top photo was taken by

the 4th version of Double-Density Pinhole. (Shutter speed was 1/30th)

And this photo was taken by the Two Elements Homemade Lens.

(Equivalent of  F4.5  and 1/250th)

Then this is the normal kind of photo taken by the Canon EF 40 mm F2.8.  

(at F11 and  1/100th)     Something special was that all those three photos

were taken on the ISO 25,600 setting !  —– Even with such high ISO setting,

the color and the smooth tonal character wasn’t too bad though, very peculiar

point was that the rough grain appeared only on the top (pinhole) photo.

 = a sort of common knowledge,  the rough grain appears on high ISO setting

= if that was the case, why other two photos doesn’t show the grain at all  ? ? ?

The another matter here was,

why drying the fruits peel ?

Well, in order to prevent the fruits Fly

appear, I decided not to make a wet 

garbage in a bin, but first dry them 

spread next to the window.

(Fly doesn’t come to the exposed, half dry skin)

Once, fruits skin, orange peel etc were dried, they never attract fly = it’s mean

there wouldn’t be any conflict.  (may looks a bit messy though, nobody sees it.)

I think this is the Buddhist like solution — remove the cause, resulting no conflict,

fight or killing = What a peaceful solution.  Don’t you agree ?   🙂

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Fantasy of Mahayana Buddhism

There was a reason how the fantasy of Mahayana Buddhism was invented.   

It was because the most of the people include the monks couldn’t get Selfless 

state ( hence not able to eliminate the cause of the trouble), therefore needed to

have an excuse = which was that having the sufferings is the enlightenment too.

(You have to accept the sufferings, and believe that you are still a happy person ! 

= if not happy, you are not believing strong enough.)  😀

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Lord Buddha’s teachings was, that the deluded idea of Self is the root cause of

all the sufferings.  So that, if the Self which creates delusion was not there in

the first place, sufferings wouldn’t be there neither.

When Kisa Gotami’s “SELF” which had been grieving the loss of her child has

evaporated through the “running practice” the suffering was disappeared,

even though the fact of the death was still there.

When the “SELF” which was filled with doubt and perplexity of Churi Pantac

(Shuri Bantoku) was eliminated through 10 years work, sweeping the garden,

there no longer be any doubt or hindrance in his life, hence it was

his Enlightenment.

= Essentially, to eliminate the subject, the “SELF” which suffers with sufferings,

the sufferings would no longer be existed.   But not everybody can achieve this.

So that, the Mahayana invented an easy solution to change the story

 “to have sufferings is also the Enlightenment” =

this is a religion, based on the belief and the blah blah not the concrete truth.

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Instead to do the actual mental training (desensitize the perception),

it was substituted by the fancy belief.  = Glorious stories were invented and

the Mantra with magic power (said to have :-D) was imported from Tantrism.

Many new Buddha styled god were invented not mention a lords of divine

figures from Hinduism. It was a clear departure from a fact based teachings of

Lord Buddha to a fantasy based mythical religion.

In metaphor, the teachings to swim across the river was substituted by the

fantastic stories and the pictures of Heaven on the other side of the river, with

a sales caption “Just come on board, this big ship will take you there”.

While abandon the practice to save oneself, instead, to sell the ticket of the ship,

using the same Buddha’s name is a fraud.

What a history.

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Yet more Impressionists Photos (2)-B

With much of annoyance of the regular reader, I put yet another

fuzzy pictures — but with added “academic” ( 🙂 ) interest !

The pinhole which I’ve called 3rd version, used in the previous post

and “Quest for Fuzziness” post etc was the one gone too far, hence the

image has very little informations.  

So, I made the 4th version which gives less halation and a bit sharper image.  

(outer hole is still the same 1 mm though, the inner hole was much smaller.)

So, here is a comparison. (Photo above was by the 4th version)

And this was taken by the 3rd version. = Difference is too clear.

 Those white halation can be reduced by darkening  (shadowing) though,

by doing so, the color contrast also increase = higher color saturation.

This was the reason why the images in the previous post looked like

a copy of old cine-film.  (It is a contradiction, supporsed to be a soft image

end up with strong color.  😦  )

Outer 1 mm hole was made on the thin aluminium panel (from beer can)

though, the inner pinhole was made on the thin plastic (from a cap of yogurt)

therefore it is very easy to make another one in 10 seconds,

and thanks to the DSLR, the effect can be tested at once.  

So, the Pinhole photography suits for a DSLR camera and really a fun.  🙂

(Especially in the case of Canon DSLR —–

Nikon needs to have Non-CPU lens set-up. (See the end of the Post)

—– I haven’t tested with other camera though)

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Yet more Impressionists Photos (2)-A

The pictures in this post were also taken by the 3rd version of  

Concentric Double Density Pinhole which was the same one I used

for the previous post.  And the one giving the most drastic Bokhe.

Outer hole is 1 mm though the center Pinhole was comparatively large and

the material filling the gap is rather clear plastic. (it was a cap of yogurt .  🙂 )  

So that, it wouldn’t give so much details of the subject.

So to say, they are somewhat the equivalent of rough oil paintings by large blush.

So, the use of this Pinhole is a matter of the taste and the subject.

= Sometime it creates nice picture but not always.  😀

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Yet more Impressionists Photos (1)

I guess, to the regular reader who followed past few posts, those photos must be

looks very familiar.   Yes, they were taken by the Concentric Double Density

Pinhole but this time it was by the (say) 4th model.   (In fact I don’t know

whether it was 10th or 20th —– I’ve tried so many minute variations.) 

Still, this time the diameter of outer hole was smallest 1 mm and the image was

a bit sharper than the one on the post “Quest for Fuzziness”   🙂

They may looks the same though, where “Fuzzy enough, but still show

the identity of what” lies somewhat critical.  😀 

When the picture become more and more like a painting, it’s need to

have “likely stage-up” — like this picture, it may need to have

a man and the dogs (if not a peasant) near the foreground.  🙂 

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Magnolia in the Park

When I moved in this area, this park was named as the most derelict park

in London by a popular newspaper.  In fact, this local council was the

most mismanaged council in London.  And for such council, the Park kind

has the least priority in their spending list.

So, it looked more like a disused land with over grown grass and the weed and  

the grown trees showed no order (why this tree was here ?  kind of situation.)

But I liked its wild growth,  much better than the trimmed grass.

Make the story short,  I have discovered a Magnolia Grandiflora in this park

= while coming here over ten years, I didn’t know it was here and blooming.  

Because, the tree was hidden behind the many other tall trees.  

I discoved its flower by chance, from the distance.

To take picture of this big flower (often more than 10″ big = hence the name

Grandiflora) it needs to see the flower from above.  It’s mean, unless having

a flower on a cutted branch,  photographer got to be very lucky.

— But I wasn’t.   😦

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Park after the Rain

Following those photos were taken by the same Pinhole as in the previous post.

(This top photo was by the two element homemade lens.)

Unlike the Homemade Lens, in order to use pinhole which is equivalent of  F125

on hand-held, it is necessary to use very high ISO setting = tonal character etc

became unnatural and have Magenta color cast.  —– but it’s a part of the game.

Of course, you may say, why photography needed to be like oil paintings ? 

Only the answer is,  why not.

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Quest for Fuzziness

Well, a word Quest might be an over statement and others may say,

it is more like my obsession.  😀

 “Concentric double Density Pinhole” 

 which I invented, is using metallic film

 for larger Pinhole though, it has a

 dreadful character to create a funny

 spark like halo around a bright spot,

 as you can see in the

 Photo here.

—– Metallic Film was used as a substitute for a Neutral Density Filter though,

the metal coating is far from even and  showing lots of hole like pattern and it may

causing that spark like halo. —– I’ve tested with a ND Filter like plastic film, but

it didn’t make a good halo.    So, while testing with numerous different materials,

I found a thin plastic film with uneven surface can make a good halo, and

I smeared it with a black soft pen  to reduce the light ( = ND Filter effect )

then,  made a pinhole on its center. (hence Double Density Pinhole)

The result was —–  a soft imaging pinhole which can produce the

almost unusable image.  😀

Still, they ARE a kind of image.

In some taste, it might not too bad. (I would say.)  🙂

Image like this, is like a painting —– and I like it.  

(The photo right was illuminated by a LED lamp =

there could be lots more interesting field of possibilities.)

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