Wao ! — Jaw Dropping ?

When we encounter something  utterly new or strange, there are two distinctive reaction.

Wao, and  Jaw Dropping.—- You may think they are the same.  No they are not.

Wao is a part of the thinking process,  intellectual activity.  When it was somewhat new but still within

the anticipation,  such as a technological advancement,  we express Wao ! with some admiration.

In contrast,  when we encounter utterly unexpected and beyond the comprehension —– since, we

can’t find any related notion or idea,  we lose a word.

So,  only a reaction was to drop the jaw. —– ! ? ? ? —– as the jaw dropped, only a sound

came out of the mouth is, — Haaaaa.  🙂

This is the moment our mind / thinking  become completely blanc.

—-

Why I started to talk about this is, I met a person stubbornly

refuse to accept the mental state of Mushin ever existed.

His stance was,  as we have a self-conscious and the awareness of our state, which is independent

to our thinking therefore it is persistently there,  so that it exists even a moment when the one is

in the mental state of so-called Mushin.

So,  I asked him,  when he was damn struck,  completely taken aback in a Jaw dropping situation,  how long

it took him to came back his own sense ?  And at the very moment he was Dropping the Jaw, had he got

awareness  ” I’m dropping my jaw ” ?  —– m m m —– —– after long silence,  he seemed to have

convinced that  ” the complete blanc moment of self-conscious is exists “.—- You see ?  The Mushin is

not a fancy invention of the Zen Buddhists,  it is the one of a definite state of the human mind.

And it is inherently exists in the mind or brain function.  As the higher brain function is a later addition

in the evolution process,  there is a state without self-conscious —– it is the default state of the mind.

Most important key is even one’s MIND is in its blank state, all the physiological body function,

and the activities which is under the control of subconscious are fully functioning ——– in

other words, anything sublimated into the subconsciousness can act in its maximum potential

since it having no interference of the thoughts / hindrance. ——- This is the ZEN.

—-

Buddhism is a teaching which utilizing this state of the mind,  and the practice to gain the

control of the mind to get this mental state by will.

( Without waiting a Jaw Dropping moment to come  🙂  )

—-

Walking ZEN

Under financial strain and adding to it, the heavy freezing weather —— it could be the shortage, price up

—– so, I found some items in the shop are already sold out —– etc.  And only few days left to the Xmas,

the mind of the people walking on the street are a bit tense. —– isn’t this a symptom in your mind too ?

Are you bumping to others or nearly so while walking on the busy street ?

Then think and reflect a bit —– ? ? ?

I know, you have or feel some pressure in your mind or in your subconsciousness, —– a tension

of ” Have to do, and I’m in hurry ” list of tasks to your job or to your family, kids etc.

Though, when you have a task in your hand, but for walking, do you think, to have such tension,

would it help you to walk any quicker ? —— I don’t think so.

Far from it, as your mind is stack and lost the flow, flow of mind, flow of smooth movement, you tend

to bump or come too close to other people,  while feeling “Who the devil,can’t you see the others”.

———- The remedies is in your mind.

Just rise your eyes and see  5m away. —–See all the people walking toward you just as

the moving objects, not take notice of each individual.

In this view,  you can see the direction where moving objects flow,  which one is coming

toward you and which one is swaying ——- then you can see where the gap would be.

So, you can freely sway and able to navigate and able to walk much quicker.

( Though, if you are believing, it is the other’s fault not to open the way for you —–>  forget this blog

and buy  Body-armour  😉  )

——

Our  Peripheral Vision can sense the object’s movement very well.  And when one’s vision was spread

wide,  having no center weighted attention,  it can see the flow of movement all over the visual field.

This diffused vision without having any concentrated mind / attention is nothing but the

Eyes of Mushin / Mind of No-Mind  in the Zen Buddhism.

Without any projected attention / absolute passiveness / open-minded,  we can see which person is

going to right or left, hence we can see where the gap of flow would be, and the best direction to walk,

ahead of moment = able to fore-see = predict what would be, so that we can minimise the trouble and

maximise the smoothness and the speed of walking.

———- I know, most of you know this already.  Yet still in a daily life we are entwined with silly mind

and eyes would be caught by big boobs etc, and too many congested thoughts obstructing and blinding

our eyes or making us short-eye-sighted —— then bump to others.

That’s why, ” Get rid of the thoughts and open your eyes wide ” —–

You see, this is the Zen teachings and it is just there on the street.  Zen is, in fact easy and simple practice.

The matter is only you, just open your eyes.

—– So,  I hope you able to walk smooth and able to do all the shopping quick in optimum efficiency

for the coming festive season. 🙂  ( Though, I’m already a bit tired for too many parties —– parties for

a person who doesn’t drink is not very much a fun, unless the music is German-Base or Jungle   😀 )

___/\___

—–

A Dirt for Health ? ? ?

A woman who is an ex-direct action activist and having quite open-minded thinking said to me,

” A scientist said, the reason why the kids these days are so allergic to everything,  is because the sterile

city environment,  and on top of it,  the attitude of the mothers became dirt-phobia,  hence the kids life

became hygienically too clean and depriving the opportunity of them to build up the resistance and

immunity against the germs and toxic substances.”  ” So that our family is drinking a tea with a pinch

of dirt in the pot” —— m m m.

” I think, in certain extent, it is true, but I don’t think you are right ”  ” Along side, did you teach them

to wash their hand and washing them in the bath ? “

” Yes of cause ”

” The teaching and the message of washing the hand having two meanings, one is in hygienic implication

and the other is the spiritual teaching to observe the one’s cleanness in the life.  If the kids sees you to put

dirt in the drink,  the consistency of the message is completely break down. For a teaching become

sublimated and became a part of one’s spirituality,  its need to have absolute consistency. ——do you

know, a dog-poo on the street, where does it goes and disappearing ?

It dried up and ground by the shoes, blown away by the wind.  So, the air we are breeding  having the

powdered dust of the dog-poo as well.  Without noticing, we are taking enough dirt into the body.

So that, there is no point intentionally put a dirt into a tea,  it wouldn’t do any good but spiritually it is

the dreadful act.  In worst case, your kids may get wrong message and think ” I am safe to do dirty act,

as I got immunity or strong enough to defy even STD ” —– It’s an awful situation ”

” Oh, you are very opinionated person ”

” Bloody hell, it is not an opinion.  This is the common sense ”

——- oh, dear  🙂

—–

Unconscious ~ Subconscious ?

“There must be an unlimited possibility beyond the boundary of human consciousness”.

But there is a strange myth ” We human is only using 20% (?) of our brain,  hence to develop its hidden

potential is limitless,  blah blah ” —— according to the Guru. —- What a beautiful dream.

( With the observation by the PET Scanner, no such hidden or inactive region of brain exists)

Since it is a myth, nobody know who said it or where its original research has come from.

And such myth has been used by ignorant youth to justify the experiment to the drugs and even many

grown ups is using it as an excuse to smoke cannabis,  saying ” This is to touch my Spirituality ”

I know a lots of 19 century poets, novelists and artists were the addict of opium when it was not a banned

substance and quite a lot of their works were said to be contributed by its influence etc etc. — THOUGH,

—– Really ?  The question is even though their poems, stories were written when they were under

the influence of the drugs, their works and the imaginations couldn’t be existed without it ?

And the drugs DID OPEN any unknown horizon ?

Did, LSD actually created anything new, unknown to human culture, other than colorful

so-called psychedelic paintings or rather dull monotonous, endless music ?

——

The surrealism poet / artists, Andre Burton, Poul Eluard tried the mescaline, alkaloid  from cactus

to have a hallucinated state of the mind and produced  poetries or so-called  Automatism scripts.

I spent quite a money to buy this expensive book and looked their creation or the description of

unknown ! (?)  when I was a poor student of the Uni’.   Though, there was nothing in it.

Just the meaningless, endless continuation of the words and words —– yet more words.

( Still, it was better than  Dadaism poetry  ( Ha ha ha  😀  ) as they are at least the words ).

—-

We, some times, speak or utter a word without conscious.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the word came out of the mouth disappear at once.

What ?  What did you say ? —– What ? Did I say anything ?   I don’t know,  I don’t remember.

( It could have been a Truth ! )

Though, it is almost impossible to write unconsciously.  Yet, in the written words, our subconscious

may show up without our intention, so the skillful writer could write hidden meaning using utterly different

description —– lots of poetry, especially  Symbolism Poetry is using this technique. ( Since, it is stronger )

Our vague inspiration would take a form of concept and then converted into the word or words, using

the notion or meaning of the word to carry and to express what was the original feelings or inspiration.

Therefore, it is often the process of the compromise.  Just borrow the meaning of the word which is likely

fit to the original inspiration, but not necessary exact.  (—– Some time, a  rigid meaning of the particular

word itself may give the inspiration as a trigger )

Unlike the spoken words, the writing leaves visible evidence, which can be objectively read

again and again.  As the written letters has to be visually read and its pattern has to be configured

as the word, then converted to the notion or meaning,  it is impossible to avoid the thinking process.

So, no unconscious writing could exist, hence  Automatism couldn’t produce anything significant to

the human creativity at all. —– ( finger itself may move unconsciously though, it would be hard to create

legible letter without having visual feedback of the graphic positioning ).

_____

So,  there is a funny misconception,  lots of people thinking as if there is a secret garden in our brain where

the treasure was hidden. And suddenly its door would be opened by the drug or meditation,  and make

us a genius or superman. 😀 —– Though as I wrote in many of my early posts, there is no such magic, but

we are living with unconscious / subconsciousness as a part of our life in every moment.

We are thinking unconsciously, —— and  when we converted  its result to visible or noticeable form as in

the last process in the brain, we start to feel ” Thinking “.

Our eyes are seeing the scenery mostly  without noticing anything —– until something trigger the attention.

Then, conscious process of  WATCHING starts.  Still, during this unconscious seeing, some of the images go

to unconscious memory and  its data process is taking place. ( Some of them may come back in a dream )

So, all about the matters of unconscious / subconsciousness are how to deal with those invisible animals. 😀

How to know or see its tendency,  and to know how to control them.

—— and this is what all about the Buddhism.

—–

When I was in my junior school,  we were taught to keep the school tidy and clean.

So too, pick up the trash on the floor.  Teachers told us ” Picking it up, while you are thinking ” This is a trash,

I have to pick up” is not good enough yet.  Pick it up without thinking is what you have to do “.

In fact, effectively  we were taught Zen practice in the junior school. ( Whether a teacher was

aware, this is the Zen Practice or not —– such Ethos has been  so deeply embedded in the Japanese culture,

people are no longer bother to distinguish its origin )

Picking up a trash without thinking ( ie; in Mushin )and put it into a bin,  how many second does it need ?

And living in a clean environment all day without bothered by dirt ( ie; in Peace of Mind ). Who needs more ?

So,  we were taught and learned the way to live in the clean environment.

And this Ethos and the Practice has been  embedded into our deep subconsciousness as a habit.

—— therefore one’s room would be clean,  not mention his (her) own life.  ( Well, ideally  😀  )

You may say ” What ?  Is this All about the Buddhism ?”—–Yes it is. It’s a Dog shit isn’t it.  😀

Yet this Dog Shit would clean up your life and give you a Peace of Mind and the Nirvana.  That’s

why ” Every body was born with Dharma and anybody can get Nirvana “

( Of cause, Buddhism and the Zen practice will not end with picking up a trash.

It is a start and it is a metaphor  😀 )

And how to utilize those mechanism of subconsciousness to more proactive situations, such as

in the creative front is what I wrote before —– ( Please refer to Category / Art )

___/\___

—-

Cold blow / Wistle blow ?

Its getting pretty cold.  I saw beautifully frosted  decorated leaves.

It said to be the coldest in 17 years, and some says the ill effect of the climate shift caused by  El Nino

or La Nana kind —–. (To know the detail, go to Wikipedia please  🙂  )

On my previous post I wrote  “To know the Truth wouldn’t change our life” ——- then, the conflicting

question arose.

In the Hinayana Buddhist’s view,  an attitude “When its cold, just feel the chill and shiver with

other people who is suffering” —— this is correct.

Or, stand up and shout, telling the people  “What is causing the climate change, and the cause

of appearance of El Nino, in order to save the suffering of the people”——- this is correct too, save

the possibility he might be barking wrong tree.

So, one sect might go out and walking in a chilling wind. ( Don’t catch cold or even worse, pneumonia )

And another sect may go to a demonstration banging their symbolic flat drams on the front line.  (Though,

I haven’t seen them these days —— are they still alive ?    Do you know ? )

It’s better know the fact, better still the Truth. —– the one might be placed there to know and shout as

he (she) might be born for its purpose. —– though it may not be a license to become arrogant or snobbish.

——– And my answer ?

I would stick with Buddha’s teachings “Don’t torture yourself. Don’t go extreme” therefore

sitting next to a heater. (How convenient  🙂 )

——- Environment or external occurrence may give you a jolt to your unprepared mind

as it has been in the blank state.   Its jolt may give you a sudden enlightenment, though,

if it was expected or a prolonged same condition, mind couldn’t be fresh and naked

—— nothing would happen  /  it’s a same cold day)

Better make a hot tea with honey and lemon  😀  ( The truth is in the cup.  Honest, I can taste it.)

___/\___–

——

PS :  It seems the world was so disturbed by the exposure of the confidential US diplomatic correspondences

by Wikileak. —— how silly.

Every body knows, politics, diplomacy, economics, even so-called big charities are dirty business and

having dirty linen and utter hypocrisy,  tons of it,  exactly same to everybody’s private life.  Yet still

we pretend to be clean face and  talking with others with sweet words.

Sneaking behind, and suddenly pull-down somebody else’s trouser and to expose dirty pants,  then

shouting  “Have look this is the truth” —–So, what ?   It wouldn’t help anybody.  History will tell.

It just filling the arrogant dirty satisfaction of  Wikileak’s  founder.  Much worse than a scavenger.

Because, if it was a whistle blow,  what the blower want to resolve or change and to which direction.

There is non. Could he expect the politics can change ? ( In any system or ideology —– because the

environment and the contents / human is the same —– no utopia nor ideal man exists)

It would only push the politics even more murkier business, deleting all the traces at once.  That all.

Since, clean man (and woman) wouldn’t become politician.

Since, ambition to the power and to become famous is the synonym of self-centered arrogance and the

manipulation of the others by deception as an effective means. ——- Hence it can not be clean by nature.

Still, we could have wiser life, accommodating and concealing smelly guts inside.  😀

(You are well aware this hidden truth  😀  )

The Truth of the life was clearly elucidated by Buddha as the Four Noble Truth —— and

its Fourth is the direction How to live DESPITE of Those TRUTH / Reality.

Exposing smelly guts wouldn’t help anything.  The MATTER is how to live with it.

This is the Buddhism.

___/\___

Life in GREEN

I’m a Green mountain person rather than Blue mariner.

So that, ever I know great deep Blue sea looks awesome and beautiful to see, though —— imagine,

if I were left in the middle of infinite sea, —– m m m, — may be I can’t survive.  It’s awful isn’t it  😀

But if it was in the mountain or even in the great expanse of field, I may able to survive with some bush crafts.

—–

Any how, its nice to be in the Green, and this is almost genetically programmed basic emotion / instinct.

( This is why, we feel and praised the courage of the great navigator set sailed to the unknown horizon ).

So, we have an  idiosyncratic idea, the Green is the symbol of the life, therefore we feel

the most comfort and peace.

So that, it is strange to know, this color Green, the color of the trees and grasses is the most useless

element to the plant life. —– They themselves don’t appreciate Green light at all.

Their most fundamental  life activity / Photosynthesis  is in fact relying on other than this, very Green.

As the Photosynthesis is only using Violet to Blue light (and Red ) the Green light was thrown out or

reflected away —– hence we are seeing its reflected colored light, which  made us to believe, grass is green.

Literally superficially, as we are seeing the plant looks green,  we were planted the idea,  Life = Green

—– even though, we are seeing their rejected waste / no use to their life.

It’s very very funny in deed.

I don’t think Buddha ever thought of this —— because its wouldn’t make

any difference to our life at all (other than the biologist who is studying this biochemistry).

This is definitely the Truth and a part of the Dharma, though we are living on the false impression.

Whether the stars are the holes on the ceiling above the earth or the another sun in a universe

far away in the space, it wouldn’t change our dairy life at all.  (Astrologer may say otherwise.  🙂  )

We may never know all the Truth.  But this is what we are.  The matter is not what we know,

but the awareness, what we don’t know.  Leave the space to hear, see the otherwise.  Open mind.

–So, on the end, —

—— One of my friend made a lamp to illuminate his room plant with 50 Green LEDs —– its made

the plant leaves shining green and looks vibrant —— though, I advised him to change them with

40 Blue and 10 Red LEDs —— the result ?   You may guessed it, it looks very harsh and dreadful  😀

So, on the end, living on the false comfort such as, so-called ” Healing —, Soothing comfort —, sweet words,

enlightenment, — be green ,  etc etc ”   may not necessary be a bad thing.

After all, important thing in life is Be happy. ( and Be pragmatic, in other word Be flexible. 😀  )

___/\___

—

Standard VIEW

You may know there is the camera lens called standard lens (and the wide-angle lens, tele-photo lens etc).

Is it a kind of lens, camera manufacturer arbitrarily named it, just for a convenience ?

Or, is there any standard of vision exists ?

Whether you aware or not, you are looking an image, photo or painting  with standard view.

You may not believe it —— so, just try, and find it.

Look at a cover photo on the magazine and a poster on the wall ——- have you done ?

Do you noticed,  when you see a cover photo of a magazine,  with  what distance did you look at it.

The distance from your eyes to the magazine was about 12″~14″ (30cm ~ 35cm) as this distance gives

the most clear vision. (unless you got short or far eye-sighted)

Closer than this, you can’t see whole picture. Further than this, it’s too far to see the details.

And if the image you looked at was about A4, the diagonal size was 14″, and the eyes to cover this size

of image, the angle of view  was about 45 degrees.

When you see a big poster, you don’t look at in this distance, unless you need to see the detail. —– you

step back and see it from a distance.  Then you may realized, in fact you are looking the image always

in the same scale —— if it was small, you give a close look, and see a big image from the distance.

The reason is, our vision in our eyes can see this size of image most clear and reasonably in detail.

If the image spread much wider, like a land-scape,  to see the whole detail we have to look around.

And if we need to see more detail such as to read the letters, we need to capture the image, in the

center of eyes,  within the angle of about 18 degrees.

So that, to see the image of 14″ size, in distance of 14″  which is about 45 degree of vision, gives best image.

Best image is in the vision of not too wide or narrowly concentrated just in the middle.  Middle way in vision.

Therefore the photographic lens which can produce this angle of view  has been  named ” Standard Lens “.

Before the digital revolution, the camera meant 35mm camera.  And the lens which gives this angle of

view was happened to be about 50mm, hence 50mm lens was accustomed to call, Standard Lens.

A photo image taken by a standard lens and printed to about 9″x 12″, viewed from 14″ away,  it looks

most natural and having the same perspective. (If the same photo was enlarged to twice big, then look it

from the twice distance, it will give the same perspective —– angle of view is still 45 degree)

—— With this reason, the great photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson was using only standard lens

(wide angle lens was for land scape only ) saying ” My lens is my eyes ” and only shot

from the normal eye level.  Because, to do his photography, he didn’t want to rely on the optical

effect but the natural way to see the life, just as an ordinary man.

So, the standard view is not only with a camera lens but our eyes having the same standard.

And this standard view, not too wide, not too narrow, just in the middle was what

the Dharma gave us.—— Therefore, this is the visual equivalent of the Middle Way.

—— Though, I hate standard lens. 😀

___/\___

—

Fantasy WORLD

In my life, I was asked to give the technical advice or help to build a Perpetual Motion Mechanism or

the device to create an energy out of nothing ( or that kind  😀  ) three times.

The person who asked me were not an idiot or uneducated at all,  they are well aware of

the Fundamental Principle of Preservation of Energy —— yet still, strangely they  were convinced,

their invention can defy the popular belief and able to create or achieve ultra efficiency hence

able to harvests far grater energy which would benefits the human being.( is what they said, not me  😀  )

The first one which I encountered 30 years or so ago, was a design of Ultra Efficient Bicycle Mechanism

which can produce more power than a rider’s muscle-power, utilizing the earth’s gravity,  by

” Cleverly positioned the center of gravity of the rider and synchronizing its movement to an oval-shaped

pedal gear etc brah, brah ——- “.

Second invention was (yet another) ,Anti-Gravity Device of which the person got the idea from Internet.

A man himself was a qualified architect and got enough knowledge of the engineering, and many

knowledgable friends and having a taste of posh life —— .

I guess, it is a (Masonic) belief of some architects,  which is a certain kind of mythical numerology such as,

what mathematical proportion was used for the Old Temple’s design etc, which connect to the cosmic power.

It was not my business to argue with his belief,  I was asked to deal with electronic control of the motor etc.

The third invention was an idea to extract 3.5 times more power from a battery using fancy transformer.

I explained many fundamental rules and physical, electrical limitations, not only the Principle of Energy

Preservation but the limitation of efficiency in an electro-magnetic device etc. ( Even with best designed

electric generator, the efficiency to convert force to electric energy is less than 30 % )

A guy’s explanation was, “Because of those FREE ENERGY idea is a threat to this Oil based

Socio-Economical System of the establishment, the development has been hindered and kept the people

ignorant” —— m m m ?—- Kind of tongue, sound familiar. I’ve heard many times !

A guy who was expecting to become millionaire with his invention, was very secretive on the beginning

though, in order to argue with my explanation  “This is based on the respectable scientific research,

published in the Internet” and revealed the Net-site ——- It was an Anarchist’s propaganda site.

( So, the site was successfully brain washed a man to become anti-establishment  😀  )

Idea itself was based on 10 years old experiment and done by not a scientist ( I’m even dubious whether

an inventor used decent electronic measuring instrument) and I could not believe any of its data. Bollocks.

Just take a common sense, —— in past 10 years, thousand of the people may have seen the article and

some of them must have built the device and tested —— If the claim has any shred of truth, why it didn’t

make a news, or fancy Chinese device didn’t appear on the market — or iPod with 1/3 battery size.? ? ?

To make and sell highly crowded competitive market, such as ATX computer power supply, many

manufacturers spending so much money and effort to develop more efficient design or higher power

from the same size of foot-print,  therefore if any good idea is there, they are the first people to test

the theory, as they got all the necessary materials and the expertise, not an amateur on the street.

——

Yet still, even in Japan,  there said to be about 1,000 new Patent application of Perpetual Movement in year.

It may be an exercise of creativity and to make (at least on the paper) beautiful drawing and description,

it needs a dedication and mindful attention —— though, what went wrong ? ? ?

Not all the applicant were blinded by their greed, some enthusiasts are having fun with their joke.

One of the very famous comedian  Kingorou Yanagiya  had 3,000 patents granted, and one of the best idea

was actually made to a commercial product called  Laughing Head-band  which has tail-dropped eyebrows

printed on it, and make the people to laugh, while singing comic song  for Karaoke  😀

—— Instead of clinging own obsession and blaming the company, other people who didn’t believe and

take their idea, look into a mirror, pull the eyes-tail drop, make a smile —– and make a joke, may make

one’s life much easier and happier.  😀

___/\___

___

Obsession – Mindfulness – Middle way

Anybody who try to learn / practice Buddhism by oneself, to find the measure of Middle way

while committing so-called  Mindfulness, but not in obsessive extreme,  is not easy.

To biggin with Mindfulness, to learn what is the Mindfulness is hard enough, —— in fact, to understand

what is Mindfulness —— is already somewhere middle of the way reaching to the Enlightenment !

Most obvious and common mistake to learn Mindfulness is, to mix-up it with the concentration.

Concentration with passion and enthusiasm.( in another word, with Emotion )

Far from it, it is the result / even a by-product of the Mushin ——Once the Mind has gone, so nothing to

think about though, something left in the hand or very front of you—— so, just do it.

Mindfulness is not the concentration of the mind, but simply nothing else is there.

It may look utterly strange though, to learn Mindfulness, first, start to do a boring useless

practice, repeat and repeat again until your mind become insensitive and able to do it without

thinking —–> and able to see the task with completely emptied brain / Blank Space ——-

The task may seem something foreign or looks even first time to see  ( by the newly acquired

Open–eyes / Dispassionate eyes ) —–> as nothing else is in your mind,so

just deal with  ” this, only the Task.”

Hence, nothing else there, the eyes, attention everything  goes into it, down to the minute details.

( Eyes sees what you want to see, but Dispassionate eyes sees everything on front, as it is )

To somebody-else’s eyes, it may seem too much.    To clean the kitchen down to a minute water-mark

may seem to be a  Compulsive cleanness Obsession / Mental Disorder though, never mind, as long

as it wouldn’t take more than 10 minutes after a cooking or eating,  it is just a normal practice.

If it goes hours everyday —— m m m ?

What is extreme, where is the Middle way is just an arbitrary view. Often, the cleanness obsession

of Japanese frighten the westerners, (you may not know, they carry a wet tissue with disinfectant to clean

their hand after shake hand with unknown person.  They are only the people using disposal toilet seat cover)

but it is normal, among the Japanese.  This is the reason why they are even reluctant to shake hand, or

share the bottle and drink direct from it (touch somebody-else’s saliva ) let alone kissing to other person !

( It is originated from deep sublimated  Japanese Shinto ” Avoid the foreign dirt and keep you clean “)

—–

Where to draw the line and stay in Middle way, is not rigidly fixed.  Since, the fundamentals of the Buddhism

is not torment you  with complicated rules, but to liberate your mind.  Try extreme will definitely taxing your

body and mind, but obviously dirty kitchen would cause your ill-health.  So, here is clear Middle ground.

Do what you think appropriate. Observe who you are, and if it is acceptable for you, do your best.

( So, to a Japanese, Clean it when it was soiled may be a Middle way,  and to a Hippie guy clean the

kitchen once in a week may be his Middle way —- though it’s a huge leap to clean it first time ever.   🙂  )

—-

While observing your own tasks, re-arrange the order, or a  way to sort the memos, even the position

to stick those memo, or the way to respond the Emails etc, and making it easier and  smoother  to

deal,  —— if the situation is getting better,  its mean your Mindful approach is working.

And when you established a system to deal with those tasks, and able to sort them quite business-like,

almost automatic way, in fact you are processing it, in the Mushin manner. —Why not it is efficient.

Difference of the Mushin to machine is, as the eyes is completely open, it is possible to spot

anything peculiar or the point to pay attention.  This is what makes the human different from a machine.

—– So, keep you busy.   🙂

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—–

Observation of FACT

( In the context following previous Post /   Hygiene of  MIND )

Over the years, some questions I was asked about the cleanness are :

One occasion a woman asked me ” Do you wash the outside of cooking pan in the same time or occasionally

polishing it ? ” ( Despite I have mountain of junk,  my kitchen is spakling clean.  Work-top is as clean as

edible standard —— a food dropped on there should be still safe to eat  🙂  )

My answer was  ” Of cause, when I wash, I also wash its out side every time “.

In another occasion,  ” How many times you rinse the cups and dishes ? ” —— ” How many times ? —– It is

not the matter of number, but until it become perfectly clean ”  ( Unlike western people,

We Japanese don’t put the cups into bowl  / sink of water to rinse but rinse them under running water,

because stagnant water accumulate dart.  It may takes a minute longer for washing-up though what this

one minute mean for you ? ).

From those words, you may feel strange though, I don’t use so much washing-up liquid.  Since I moved

to this flat 9 years ago, I consumed  3 (yes three) bottles of washing liquid.  I’m sure as I’ve used the emptied

bottles to another purpose and still have them. —— How is it possible ?

First, I dilute the liquid twice and put it into another ( for hair conditioner ? ) bottle

which spit only one small drop in one push.  And I only use it if the dish or pan is oily.

Second, I don’t waste even a single grain of rice and eat all the food I’ve cooked, literally completely.

Hence it isn’t much to wash.  🙂

Third, I don’t buy cooking oil, hence my cooking leaves little oil residue —– oil comes from the ingredients

such as chicken.  Though, I buy batter to make toast and prefer cream to put into a tea. (not just lemon  🙂 )

—–

——- Some people may feel ” Isn’t this paranoia ? ”  or  ” Why fuss about so much ? ”

I’m not fussing about at all.  They are just a life style and accustomed and refined practice,

over the years. Buddhism is not pretentious abstract brah-brah talking.

It is literally the practice.—– Do the practice / life in general, in Mushin —— hence achieving

maximum efficiency and having smooth life, is what all about the Buddhism.

Abstract talking may make one feel somewhat noble and satisfy snobbery though it is exactly

the arrogance and the ignorance what Buddha despised.

Observe cups and dishes and if not perfect, feed–back and refine the practice —– is what Mindfullness

mean.  And able to do it without thinking almost like a machine —— is what Mushin mean.

And apply this principle to all aspects of the life.

Only the Fact and the end–result count.  This is the Buddhism.

If not Happy still —– it is not Buddhism yet   😀

Do you know, the Enlightenment is in a nice cup of tea which is perfectly clean —– Ha ha ha 😀

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