WEDDING

There is a nice Buddhist story ———-

” When two Buddhist monks came to a river crossing they found a woman having difficulty to cross the

rapid water.  One of the monk offered his back to carry her to other side.  After this, another monk started

to accuse him  ” Oh, you have broken the rule.  You touched the woman ”   He replied ” Are you still

carrying the woman in your back ?” ——– ( When you see a woman in trouble, to help her is your task

on front of you.  And when the woman is off your back.  Woman is no longer there.  If not there,  its not there.

Only the mind keep the woman still existing.)

There was my friend’s wedding.  ( So, the man and the woman decided to carry each other in body and the

soul ——- they are not the monk.  They are melting hot  😀 )    To celebrate  I’ve join the Champaign toast.

Then another friend said  ” Hey  Yoshizen,  I saw you have broken all the rules of Holy man ” ——- ?

Generally,  I don’t drink alcohol ( even though I can drink half bottle of spirit in a evening, simply I don’t like it,

as I’ve fed up to take care of drunken guys and anyhow it wouldn’t change me or the world,  nor it brings any

solution to any trouble ——- it’s no use mean,  waste of the time and the money.

To be cheerful and crazy  doesn’t need to be under influence.  I am the living sample.     Ha  Ha  Ha   😀  )

I was there to congratulate my friend ( and take photos ) not for any religious, moral campaign.

I don’t need to be obsessed by alcohol,  but in the same time I don’t need to be obsessed by the mind

of keeping  me perfectly dry. ——– This is,  what  Buddhist calls  MIDDLE WAY.  ——- Why is it the

matter to Buddhist ?     In the Buddhist  teachings, the both obsessions were created by the false

self which has no basis in our mind.  In other words, it is the delusion which shouldn’t be exist.

Anyhow it is not daily or even monthly occurrence, (last Wedding occurred two years ago)

to give a toast to the new couple Why not join.

———————-

Another day,  I took young lady who said never tasted Sushi to a  Japanese restaurant.   The man might have

heard this story as well, hence he teased me. 😀

It’s nice to have good food with pretty woman.   Have a nice meal together doesn’t necessary carrying hidden

agenda.   It’s a clichéd stereotype.   Nice meal is the nice meal.  Enjoy it and bye-bye. ——- What’s wrong ?

Zen Buddhism is (as it stand on the Mahayana philosophy)  to have the freedom of the mind (obsession,

paranoia is the enemy of free mind )  and fulfill the life’s potential to its maximum,

not to miserably vegetated to be a monk’s life.

( So, even a Holy Zenist drunk Champaign,  rest of people, not mention the new couple, are all get drunk )

~~~~~~~It was a superb wedding party.   Congratulation to the newly wed.  ___/\___  🙂

Ikkyu-san

One of the most famous  Zen monk,  Ikkyu  Sojun  is the literally most talked about Buddhist in Japan.

I don’t know how many books tribute to him and even cartoon comics featuring him for the children has been kept coming  to the book shelf, not mention  TV anime. Though, as he got so many legendary stories,  it is hard to tell which story has historical fact behind or it was an invention of novelist.  Yet still, I especially like this story which is so typical in Zen mind.

—————————-

When Ikkyu was exiled to a remote corner of northern Japan by the Shogun,  as he was an out-spoken critics and a pain on the neck,  the local  War-Load who was made responsible to keep him, put a woman to cook and take care of his daily life,  expecting  Ikkyu to have a relation with this woman,  which would give a convenient pretext to kill him.   Which was a hidden intention to isolate and exile him away from the Buddhist’s center of Kyoto.  Though, even a year past, no such relation had ever taken place.

The woman wondered if she is sexy enough to attract him or not.  So that, woman took a drastic action one night,  waited him in his bed  (well, it was a Futon)  naked. When Ikkyu saw her in his bed,  he didn’t show any surprise and get into the bed saying  ” I knew this would happen soon or later.  It’s nice to have human hot water bottle.  Oh good, its warm”  and within few minutes he started snoring. ——– Woman was utterly devastated.

——– Most of  women are having strange belief almost like a religion.

A man will do the business when he saw a woman laying naked.  But it doesn’t apply to a Zenist. 😀     (It exclude sham Zenist ! )

Unless its business is his task,  a naked body is just a naked body,  nothing to do with him and his body doesn’t react with so-called instinct.   Naked body is there just as it is.  Its sexual connotation is in one’s mind.  Without sexual connotation, it’s still beautiful, soft and warm to touch.   No problem to be there.

Unlike popular belief,  being as a monk Ikkyu had a mistress and he was more than capable to do the business until his old age, though unless the woman was the one he committed,  anybody else was the no existence.

In Mushin, if it is the task to take,  commit to it 100 % down to the level of subconscious.  If not, it is 0 % to the level of subconscious,  in deed to the instinct level.

(As the Emotion was detached,  sexual object wouldn’t cause the seclusion of adrenalin or testosterone,  hence so-called instinctive reflection doesn’t occur.)       (There said to be an extreme training to become a Tantra High Priest (Adjari) = While attending an all night sitting, the monk has to keep his penis elected continuously. = keep his mind totally concentrated to sexual arose. —– it’s a hard act for an amateur to try. )

Zen has only 100 % all, or nothing 0 %. ( Incidentally, this would explain Why Japanese tend to go to extreme. As there is nothing between, when it came to the situation of fight such as in war,  it would be either kill or be killed.   Somewhere between,  beaten yet still alive and become Prisoner of War was not acceptable.   It was regarded to be in half minded / coward.

All those psyche were originated from the Zen ethos. ——-  To reconcile with this extremity with Middle Way needs to have a real understanding of the Middle Way. = not a kind of “Somewhere between”. )

___/\___

.

Why not iPod ?

I’ve come across an article analyzing the  Japanese industry.  The author was questioning why Japanese

couldn’t produce really novel product such as like iPod or iPhone.

The author’s view was that the Japanese is reluctant to break the convention and the established frame work,

yet still, good to play within its frame work and able to maximize the quality and its technical possibility.

——————–

In fact this is exactly what I’ve written before ” to achieve the maximum in the restriction, is the Zen”

and this is the evidence of how Japanese psyche is deeply entwined to the Zen tradition. (even today ! )

———- Here the pros and cons of Zen were clearly exposed.    I don’t think any Japanese is aware, this

psyche is originated from the Zen Ethos.  Since Soto Zen prohibit the transmission by the word,  people

learn it through the way to carry out the daily life, and as it is there always and repeating it every day,

it became a subconscious nature——- therefore it is impossible to objectively analyze. —— Hence,

it is very difficult to change.

When this Ethos was directed to one practice, such as particular sports, the dedication of literally

body and the soul, yield fantastic result. Like the performance of the Japanese Figure Skater, Mao Asada.

———- ( though, to my eyes, the performance of  Korean Skater Kim  showed more genetic

feminine and delicate flow of movement—— genetically spontaneous  movement is more natural than

the learned movement, of cause)

——————–

Though, when this Zen effect appeared in the corporate organization, and when they  faced to totally new,

unknown situation, they are slow to adapt and change.    Since everybody, top to bottom are living and

acting according to the same established frame work and the Ethos,  someone’s new idea would be seen as a

crazy delusion and a destruction to the existing business.

So that the revolutionary new idea is only bore out from the new organization which haven’t established their

own frame work and the Ethos yet.   The new idea and the approach of the Sony or Honda  WAS  the typical

sample of this, when they started out of the ash of world war 2.  (Still they had attitude of  Zen tradition )

The trouble of the industry now, the business got to be globally huge, not only the size of capital, but also

the sheer size of bureaucratic system which always tend to resist the change.

When  SONY  faced the end of era of optical disc (CD),  they resisted the trend of the recording media

toward the  Solid Memory , by cringing CD system while trying Mini Disc and their own signal compression

system called Atrack (saying 50 CD musics into one disc) —–  without  success.     As they resisted the

revolution, they completely missed the ship and eat the dust of iPod and new era.

I don’t believe the front line engineers didn’t see the latest development in the technical front and the

management was kept ignorant, though they couldn’t guillotine  the neck of the dieing CD and Mini-Disc.

( It was the complete misjudgment of the new Aristocrat who started from a small work shop of

Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (later Totsu-ko) in Ohsaki, Tokyo. ——–I’ve handled an old tape recorder of

Totsu-ko with its magnetic paper tape when I was in my junior school’s Radio-club)

——- Try to avoid the system drown in the stagnant water,  Honda having the famous ” Proposal Scheme”

which any staff or worker can give a new idea, but the trouble may not just in a small technical

improvement but needs the large-scale system change, which is hard to accept and implement.

( It is  the situation of so-called  ” Paradigm sift “)

It is the demerit to share the same emotion  from the top to bottom, especially as its Ethos is deeply sublimated.

As in the Zen tradition,  this Ethos  was carried by the  “Just Do It”  practice,  as the  Crafts man’s spirit.

Make things / Engineering  of Hardware,  the pride and spirit is entwined with its work,  which can not to be

easily changed.  (Electronical coding / Soft Program can be changed without changing production system )

(Though it was not the problem of ” Concentrate to the Task”  but couldn’t see the direction

which is not exist on front of eyes yet —— direction can only be seen by detached eyes in distance.

But, when the one has been shackled into the system, it is hard to maintain detached eyes.)

——————–

It may seems to be a contradiction from above, though the Zen itself is not straining the creativity, far from

it, the creativity can have even more freedom with the Zen.  And I’ll talk about this in the following post.

DRIVE to attain ENLIGHTENMENT

Human psyche is the complexed awkward animal.  It has too much pretense and the vague drive.

Pretense,  What ?  – – – – – because it is the posture of the idealized image,  not necessary the inherit nature.

——- though,  this is the foundation of the so-called  Spirituality.

And the vague drive  which may even came from the genetic memories are hard to define.

Still, it is not necessary a bad thing.

In my high school time, the talking shop of the left-wing activists ( of its milky junior rank ) concluded

the definition of the human as  ” a man aiming to become the human”. ( Here,  the Vector is the key )

This persistent aim and the tenacious effort is what makes a man as the human.

Actual direction may not necessary clear and it varied person to person,  so that this attempt include

its search as well.

Of cause,  the reason why we do need to search is,  as we are not born to be ——- its mean,  in nature

we are not human yet,  still if we abandon this attempt,  we will sink to the bottom of the stagnant water,

and we lose even a candidacy to be a human.

Even though we are not perfect yet,  the aim or hanger to achieve perfection is hidden in our nature.

Since this is the same Dharma which has given the vector to Mono-cell Organism in the primeval

sea to evolve ultimately to us,  the Mankind now.

Hence,  the aim or attempt and the effort to achieve the better is the Order of the Dharma.

———- and in the Buddhism,  this Drive / Vector is the very cause to attain one’s  Enlightenment

and ultimately  reach to the Nirvana.   And it is the reason why we need to practice, ——- the Drive

is there, but the one who actually work is the oneself.   Just born with Dharma is not enough.

( This continuous drive is the unique key factor of the Buddhism,  never seen in any other belief system

which tells a fixed Genesis story  ought to be believed )

Active / Passive MUSHIN

You may feel this is a strange advice,  though,  as there are many contradictions in the Buddhism,

such as the basic attitude to be a Buddhist is, never interfere somebody else’s life,  since everybody has

one’s own Karma.  You have to respect this.

Though this notion may seemed to contradict the Buddhist’s duty to help others ———— What duty ?

——-Who said so ?     There is no such duty in the Buddhism as you heard or thinking about.

When you encounter the troubled situation,  if you think  ” Shall  I  help ? ” it is not for you to mess up.

But,  if you start to help ( the person(s) or even a cat ) spontaneously without any thought,  this is

the situation you have to act. (To encounter such situation is the cross-point of the two Karma)

Without your thinking ( = MUSHIN ), somebody’s cry touched your subconscious direct  and

trigger your action. ——–  This is the Buddhist compassion.   And the Direct Transmission.

Not because of so-called DUTY, but Compassion is naturally there as a manifestation of  Dharma.

( Duty, Compassion, Selfless, Mushin, Enlightenment ETC ECT are all just the words and the human invention.

Dharma and its compassion is here from the beginning, long long before human existence.  Otherwise

a single cell life-form in the primeval sea could NOT survived and kept evolved to us here today )

——————–

Mushin is not only for the time when you Do.   Mushin is also for when you see or feel the world

( include to see deep inside of yourself ).   So that in Mushin,  you can see,  you can hear the Dharma.

Therefore active Mushin and in the same time Passive Mushin is there.

——————–

If you having a conscious of ” I’m helping ” ——- in fact,  you are only filling your ego and arrogant show-off,

which void all of your ” Good intention “.

” Good intention ” may praised in other religions but it is not in the Buddhism.

Because the Dharma is not in the one’s intention.

Dharma tells you or even without notice, make you, drive you to help others.

That’s why the Duty is there as not there.  (Hence,  it was not such contradiction described above )

And  ” Was that you who helped the others “——– or may not you,  as you even didn’t have a conscious

of helping ——– so, you were there as you were not there.

———- This is the magic of the Buddhism.

This phenomenon couldn’t be explained with the Vedic ( Brahmanism / Hindu ) idea of the Atman, and

this is the very discovery of Buddha, ——- hence this is uniquely the  Buddhism.

—— /\—— 🙂

Starting Point of BUDDHISM / Enlightenment

Well  well  well, this blog is coming to exactly the one year since its started.

So,  I should write something very fundamental.  This is the final piece of the jig-saw.

——————–

Unlike any another religion,  the Buddhism doesn’t have a myth or the story of the creation.

Since,  long before the existence of the human being,  long long before the arrival of Buddha,

the  Dharma  exist from the beginning.   Nobody know why. ( Ask scientists. They don’t know neither.    😀  )

As Buddha had absolute faith and the respect to the Dharma, he refused to give even his

interpretation of it, since it is unknowable to the human being and made up a story is

nothing but a disrespect and a treachery to the Creator / Dharma.

Therefore the Buddhism has to start from here “to unconditionally accept the one’s existence ( as he

or she ) as it is,  and  to see own existence as a part of  the Dharma”.

Therefore,  to give a person’s own  interpretation as a thought of the self, is nothing but an arrogant trespass.

Since,  the self is not definable by the person but only by the Dharma.

——————–

If anybody having an understanding,  that the Buddhism deny the self,  it is utterly wrong.

A person here is the Noble creation of the Dharma,  hence, try to give own interpretation or definition of it, is

a transgression,  therefore such thought has to be denied. ——– (Denying the thought of self,  not

the awareness of the self  itself) ——- In metaphor, ” Appear in person, not by a photograph ”

(a Copy or  Made up Description is not Yourself / its your wishful or distorted imagination)

The person’s  Imaginary Self  is a delusion,  its got to be in flesh as it was created and  it is keep changing.

So that,  to live as the True Yourself,  not as an imaginary fixed self,  is the key.

And this is the meaning of  ” To live in MUSHIN ” and  Just Do It,  Just Live.

So,  this is the starting point of the Buddhism,  and  its  goal.  ( Very simple and easy  isn’t it    😀  )

———- This is the reason,  why it is so simple and ubiquitous like as a dog sit,  but as difficult as

making the people puzzling  2500 years. ( People has been expecting to see glorious secret, Holy Grail   😀 )

As long as a person is puzzling, while expecting to find something over there,  it is not the Buddhism and

far away from the Enlightenment.  Enlightenment is within yourself——- as where the Dharma is.

And when the person abandoned such attempt and start to just live ——- is the Enlightenment.

——————–

But, to learn the way to accept and just do it, the person may need to practice repeating practice.

( I’ve fully explained its effect and the psychological mechanism in the past blog posts —–Please refer them )

LISTEN, LISTEN

I saw somebody shouting in his blog  ” Listen ” ” Listen”.

Yah,  I can see what he meant.   But,  Hang on Mate,  we had in deed listened.

We born as a virtually blank sheet of paper.   And while growing up, we have listened and listened,

and learned and seen , learned, listened ——– then here I am.

Listened the same thing again and again,  it became ” A Type”——- and imprinted as the commonsense.

Once the one acquired  A Type, he start to pick up only the information fit to A Type, because any

other Type hadn’t heard often before ——- such rare exception is irrelevant to the life.

The people shouting a minority opinion still want  “Them” to listen, but ” Them” belong to the  majority.

Majority share their commonsense. And it is imprinted in Subconsciousness.

———- though, it is not necessary the truth.

To see the truth, the one has to get rid of the filter of  A Type, and open the mind.

East and West ( 2 )

To the people in the East,  the huge scale natural disaster is a part of the  Nature.

Even worse, they are coming every year like Hurricane, Typhoon, Earthquake, Land-slide etc.

So that, there is no possibility to conceive a God whose client is the human fork.

—– As far as the eyes can see,  was  their world.  And see the flood of Yellow River as far as the eyes can see,

must be the act of  Supreme Power above there. ———There is no possibility to imagine

any personally accountable,  human shaped  God.  (Who speaks same language !)

If the God created this world,  what is he doing with this devastation,  not once, not twice, but every year !

What is the purpose of this for ?   What a waste.  Isn’t he got a brain ?

—– (Eastern emvilonment is not very good to the Western God )

——————–

Biblical  Grate Flood which story was originated from a legend of a flood happened after the end

of last Ice Age and the rise of sea level,  (So that, such legend / myth exist all over the world.

The Biblical story is the word to word copy of the Gilgamesh Myth of Mesopotamia ) and the earthquake

which was the back ground of the story, demise of Sodom and Gomorrah, such disaster  were not

repeated again and again so, they could be construed as one-off punishment of the angry  God.

So that this God can be imagined as the one who is working together with human —– a friendly type,

speak same language,  hence he could answer your call.

Because of such convenient design, there is the free choice of   ” If this God wouldn’t give me a divorce,

I’ll go to another”  was possible.  ( Free choice is a Western Idea,  which is the basis of so-called

Democracy too,  and that is why a kind of Democracy in the west doesn’t necessary work in the East.)

(A dubious Leader who happen to be elected by a number game, can not to be respected in the Eastern

psyche, though in reality, a politician who managed to fool the people with false Charisma is in power.

Yet still, originally, the Ruler in East was expected to be able to communicate with Heaven,  that is why

the Emperor  was called as the Son of Heaven  in China and in Japan.)

——————-

Therefore,  the Eastern Belief System goes to the abstractic Order of Universe, the Rules of

the Dharma  or the Heaven ( note, Heaven  is not an idea of Paradise.  The Sky and the invisible Power

above there ) and  not a humanized God figure.  (Though, Pure Land Buddhists got different view )

In the same time, by observing the intricacy and the cohesion in the Nature gave the insight,  that is

the Order is perfect, beyond the human comprehension, ” If the power and the wisdom is such superior,

there is no competition,  we have to just accept and follow”.  This the God in the East.   ( The Hindu

idea of the Deity  and  its depiction, might be the Greek influence which came to India after

the Alexander the Grate. —— this must be an interesting field to study)

——- This Eastern God may not even be the religion, but the awareness, where we stand.

Because,even  a non-believer couldn’t escape from this Order.  When ship sunk under a Hurricane even

a Christian sunk too.  It is the Karma affecting everybody, who took that ship, on that Day.

Non-Belief System

It seems the most popular Belief System now,  is the System of Non-Belief.

An absurd contradiction  of those non believers are, they are still saying  “I’m a Spiritual Person”.——-What ?

(He might have meant, I’m a noble person better than you )   😀

——————-

Some years ago there was a very intriguing report  ” The Heart seems to have its own  Mind “ which

was based on the research,  the recipients of the Heart Transplant operations,  had apparently changed

the personality, preference of the food taste, choice of music etc,  to the taste of the donor / previous owner

of the heart,  supported by the another discovery,  the heart is having quite complexed nerve system

far more than the necessity to produce the timing pulse.

——— Heart is one of the earliest organ appeared on the evolutionary history,  long before

the Nerval system,  primitive Brain was developped.

So, it is no wonder,  if its got a kind of controlling system to respond to the environment by its own,

and its legacy is still here in our heart.

Though,  so far I haven’t seen any following research or further discovery.  May be because of the

Belief System of  Non-Belief,  such controversial  ( against the idiosyncratic Belief )  research

was suppressed  by  cut of fundings.

Yet strange facts are,  the Chinese character  which symbolizing the Mind ” Shin “,  its shape was

originated from the pictorial depiction of a Heart organ .  And obviously, the English word ” Heart ”

is the description of an elaborated kind of  Mind, and in the same time, the name of Heart organ.

Its mean, 5000 years ago when Chinese developed their writing system and the characters, they

had the observations  ( remember they are the people who discovered the acupuncture etc without

any help of Medical Technology  we have now ) that the Mind /  Heart is in the Heart organ.

——– Even though,  the society of Non-Belief couldn’t support such research which I said above.

(If Non-Belief couldn’t be an Open-Minded, what is it for ?   They might just got a Cult of Ego,  that all)

Shame.  😦

No Words ?

On the beginning there was no ( written ) words.

After the death of Buddha, this situation continued 200 years.

Its mean the Buddhism continued without having solid dogma or

unified teachings.

Even in the Buddha’s time there were several types of Buddhists exist,

such as Shomon (who is receiving the teaching and following it) and

Dokkaku (practicing and learning by themselves and attain enlightenment).

Dokkaku——–?

How was it possible when there was no book, no instruction manual and

without attending teaching sessions, yet attain the enlightenment ?

Because, in the Buddhism, there is no monopolized secret or exotic

formula to study.

No mysticism, no mumbo jumbo.

Buddha’s teaching was based on his observation of facts and the common

sense which can be understood even by a learning difficulty person.

——- Buddha never demonstrated any miracle as he was not magician or

Devinne figure, and died as mortal with food poisoning of a fish.

( On the death bed, he never said to the disciples  ” I’ll come back ” kind of

the words as he knew and taught that the death is the final end.

What Buddha taught was ( in metaphor ) ” There is a gold mine. Go and

find it.  Where ?  its in you ”

Anyone can find the gold as everybody has, provided if the one keeps

searching it.

So that there is no wonder, even Dokkaku can.  Hence DIY ZEN here.