Healing POWER

There is a widely believed healing effect to stay in the nature, especially wooded forest.

And, I just picked up interesting news about another way to get Healing —– 🙂

An American Holly Wood actress, Helena Bonham Carter said that she found, to cleaning her kitchen

having good healing power, hence she stopped to go healing session as cleaning has even better effect.

On this news program, two psychologists gave their responses.

One was very negative, saying don’t believe, cleaning the kitchen is nothing but a chore.

And the other was much more positive and said, to have nice clean kitchen is a pleasure and it can be a

good exercise too.

—–

Very interesting, —– because, provably the purpose of this blog is all condensed in here.

In the Buddhism, related story is in Churi Pantac ( in Japanese Shuri Bantok ) the one who was

directed by Buddha to sweep the ground of Deer Park, and his Enlightenment 10 years later.

On the beginning, he might not like to sweep the garden while other disciples are in the session to

listen the Buddha’s teachings. ( He had learning difficulty )

So, he might have started his work as a hated chore with frustration and a resentment though.

Five years later, he might be even tired to think about his complaint and became humble.

Nine years later, he might have become expert to sweep the garden and even able to do all the

task while eyes closed, as all the works became almost automatic.

Then, ten years later, he became aware, he is the man to make the garden spotlessly clean,

where the greatest Teacher, Buddha to walk.

What is the honor and the pleasure !

With this deep satisfaction and the dedication to the Buddha, what else of the

Nirvana will be awarded to him ?   And Buddha knew him reached the enlightenment.

—–

A question to you.  Why you are here in this world, and happen reading this ?

Did you expect to find smart short-cut to get enlightenment here ?

Do you think you can live while picking a cherry avoiding anything else ?

Still, you must know there are lots of burdens in the life, troubles, pains—– and is this

the reason why you want to pick a cherry as much as possible for your pleasure ?

—— Does it mean, you are having two lives, one is in pain and the other with pleasure ?

And is this alienation, double faced life is the reality of the life, you think ?

You are totally wrong.  Where is your true self and the totality ?

For some, cooking is a pleasure and for most of them eating is pleasure, but never the cleaning.

Though, other than few millionaire, doing shopping, cooking, eating, then cleaning is the part of the life.

As long as the one is thinking to pick a cherry, the one can not get the totality / wholeness of the life,

not mention piece or happiness.  In fact such life is one part entangled  by the vicious Karma and

other part is drowned in the hunger of the desire to have pleasure.

This is why the woman (in this case, its happen to be an actress Helen ) found to regain the totality of

the life —— makes her feel healing.

It is the same kitchen, the same cups, same dishes, same washing basin —— do the same every time

every day is exactly the practice of the Buddhism.  Soon, the one can learn the way to be in Mushin,

and the kitchen get clean, ready for next comfortable cooking. —— what anyone want more pleasure.

Who can  expect a peace-full happy life living in a dirty chaos, let alone to reach enlightenment.

Because of the deep psychological / spiritual meaning behind, the superficial description “cleaning”

may give wrong impression, the core matter is all those processes in the mind or in the brain.

To start with cleaning, she gain the state of the mind, Mushin, and gain the understanding of

the totality of her life and her state of existence —– she is fulfilling the given roll to be Helen,

and becoming a part of the Dharma.

To be in this pathway, hence she can feel be in the right way, What more of healing the one needs.

And to follow Buddha’s pathway what more confidence and the pleasure there.

I guess, this actress may have some Buddhist’s guidance in her previous healing session, hence

it was not difficult for her to find the way —– Which, I may say ” Cleaning Zen ”  🙂

—– So, you may see, to have clean kitchen, a pleasure to have clean life and the comfortable cooking

is not just a chore,—— far from it, it can be a good pathway to the enlightenment. This is true.

You can start the same in New Year. ( Begin with clean-up New Year’s eve party’s mess  😀  )

___/\___

—

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   😀 )

___/\___

—–

Sound of BACH

One of the reader left a comment, ” the post should have more media ” —– Yes, I’m well aware of it.

And the post shouldn’t be longer than 140 words otherwise no one would read  😀

In fact I got many plan to put a photo or video image into the post, such as ” I should put my Ancient Yoga

dancing video image into  Most Bizarre Story in Zen :-D”  or a photo of frosted leaves

into  Cold Blow — ( I’ve seen the frost in the night ) but  when I went to the same place next day,

frost wasn’t there. 😀 — It’s a bad tendency of ex-photographer, don’t want to settle with casual photo or

somebody else’s photo found in the Net.  😉

Anyhow,  while searching a music sample to talk about with my friend,  I stumbled a Youtube

image which I should have put into my BACH post —— ;

This is a part of J.S.Bach’s  Art of Fugue which I’ve talked about, but not from the beginning yet still

it may give some idea.  This musician / programmer, SMALIN having 200 or more music videos there.

And I found his graphical representation of the music is very effective as we can see the structure

of it in one glance.  Especially, the graphical patterns are much easier to distinguish than hear in sound.

To make the image,  may be the Midi cord is directly triggering the position and the length of each note,

therefore it is rather simple but very clear.  Same tonal information is in the music score, graphically

though, I found this is the simplest and more effective demonstration.

t—–

Then what I found the next to above clip was —— jaw dropping funny music video.

As a matter of fact this (yet another ) Japanese phenomena [ Miku Hatsune ] was totally new to me

until only few weeks ago.  This music animation program was created by YAMAHA as an open-source.

Anybody input the phonetic note, it will be played in synthesized voice, and the character Miku Hatsune

will sing as the user programmed, so that, anybody can produce a music anime of female singer, free.

There said to be half million Miku Hatsune video clip in the Net. ( search them, if you are interested in )

——- In 60~70th, there were two memorable musicians played BACH in new sounds.

One was the Swingle Singers. They played Bach’s polyphonic music purely by a jazz scat like voices.

And another was a French pianist Jacque Lucie and he played or improvised  Bach in Jazz.

Both sound are still in the bottom of my music memories, alongside the more traditional classic musician,

Jazz musician and they formed the music culture of my life.

Between Jazz and Baroque music, there is a common character of the improvisation —– spontaneous

on the spot creation.

Very interesting fact is, when musician is improvising the phrase, frontal lobe of the brain

became inactive. Frontal robe is the place, where rational thinking or process of causation is taking place.

This is the exact parallel to the Buddhism teaching  Mushin.— To be creative, don’t think.

Open mind mean, don’t impose a preconceived idea or judgement —– or Thinking.

You may wonder, ” Without knowing the passage, how musician can improvise ?  With the intelligence

shut down, how musician can control music making ?” —— may be you are not a musician.  That’s why

you ask this question.  If you still need to think about This Music, you can not improvise it on the spot.

When you became This Music or This Music became You, and you can play it without reading score,

without thinking —– then you can improvise it in total freedom.  Zen Buddhism call it Ichijo / Oneness.

So, with open mind, see and listen this  BACH sang by  Miku Hatsune —– It’s not too bad 😀  Ha ha ha.

Did you enjoyed ?  Or is it gone too far you think ?

Some irritating noise and instability of the sound there, still, considering it was created by an ordinary

person, using freely available open source, —— it is pretty impressive.  I like it. Thanks to the creator.

___/\___

—-

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 )

___/\___

—-

ABOUT this BLOG

The inherent shortcoming of this blog site is, as it having reverse order, the earliest, hence most

crucial posts are situated in the bottom.

Who is the author, what is his stance, what is the point unique to this BLOG are all buried  long long

scrolled down bottom.  Even worse, now the posts became too many —— and some are not necessary

very relevant to the point. ( I’m well aware.  Yet, they are fun to read jokes. 🙂  )

Originally this site should have had ” ABOUT ” though, may be with my mis-click, it has disappeared.

Hence, often I got the same question, and needed to explain  What is my point again and again.

So, this is the summary of the POINT of this BLOG. (Yet it became rather long —— so, to a busy

person, just hop bold paragraphs to grasp summary of summary)

—

I’m not talking DOGMA. I only talk the observed FACTS of which the Buddha’s teachings

based on it.  As Buddha ordered ” Don’t believe. Think yourself ” Buddhism is not about what

you believe but the fact you found and came to your own conclusion.

If there wasn’t the fact,  Buddha wouldn’t have taught.  That’s why he kept silence where he

couldn’t find the facts. —— So, I follow him in the same way.

—–

ZEN Buddhism is a peculiar teaching, probably the most strange teaching in the human history.

It doesn’t teach Dogma or knowledges but only vague direction and resulting outcome would be.

At least, the outcome is impressive and they are not a tricked belief, just the factual results.

It is the teachings to make a person actually able to do.—— Yet still, no explanation of how, why.

A person has to try and do it again and again. —— (The secret is hidden in this process itself)

This BLOG is the attempt to find out its HOW and WHY by the own experiment, and its findings.

Hence, this BLOG can be cited as a DIY ZEN BLOG.

—–

In my view, the Buddhism especially the Zen teachings are the way to re-program the human

subconsciousness. The all the creatures live and behave according to their behavioral pattern or

tendency which were programmed in their brain.

Though, in the case of human, we have the consciousness and self-awareness which over-ride

the basic subconscious such as so-called instincts.

Subconscious is not just the genetically inherited instincts, far from it, most of them are the

burnt into pattern which we learned and accumulated from the early experiences.

The basis of those experiences may not from the experience which we experienced or observed

consciously. ——- burst amount of our experiences and the knowledges were imprinted even

without our conscious. Yet still, the experience is one’s hard evidence / and reliable knowledge base.

So that, to live and behave according to those knowledge base,  would be the safest choice.

As it was actually happened on front of him, and repeated again, it could happen yet again.

Therefore, it would be the Truth or most likely and pragmatically most viable answer.

( So, our brain burn this Data into a permanent memory and create a link to react automatically)

We are thinking, deciding and acting unconsciously —– conscious verification follows afterward.

As the one’s knowledge-base is the reflection of one’s grown-up and its environment, hence it is

unique to the person and form the so-called one’s second-nature —– and this second-nature

is the core of the deep hidden SELF.

The self what the one is imagining is not  this SELF but the self what the one wished to have, since

the one’s second nature (and of cause the First Nature too  🙂  ) is in one’s subconsciousness and

in the unconsciousness —— they are invisible or unnoticeable —– therefore hard to configure,

then, the conveniently made up self is filling the gap for one’s own explanation or for a pretext.

—–

Buddhism is not necessary attempting to define this SELF but to define at least the imagined

self is the false imagination / delusion, hence it is the subject to remove from one’s mind, saying

” No such things (self) is there “. —– yet to advising the one to become aware that

the SELF which is a part of the Dharma, is there since when the one was born. Therefore,

all about the Buddhism is to remove this self and attain the MUSHIN (the Mind of No-Mind /

No-self ) and  become aware of the SELF / a part of the Dharma, by the repeating practice.

( Since, to burn the Knowledge / Pattern / Data Memory  into one’s subconsciousness, needs to

have either almost traumatic experience or repeating the same experience or the thought ( Teaching ),

then it become a long-term memory and a part of one’s subconsciousness ).

Once the one’s subconscious was reprogrammed / reconditioned, and the biasing wishful thinking,

egoistic desire which has been nested in the so-called self  were removed, ( ideally ) there wouldn’t be

any delusion or egoistic view, hence acquiring clear eyes and able to see the prevailing Dharma

which is inherently having harmony with all the existences.

( Since, the existences itself is the Dharma ).

—–

Living with or accordance with the Dharma, one’s life become harmonized with all the existences

and its flow of the occurrences (which is constantly changing, reflecting the dynamics of the Karma),

one’s life wouldn’t go against or aggravating the Karma, —– as the result, one’s life become smooth

and peaceful.  And it would lead to the peaceful Nirvana.

—–

Though, as it would be easily observed by anybody’s eyes, The Dharma is not operating  for

the convenience of the human alone. — It is the rules of the Universe.

Often, the convenience of somebody is the inconvenience to other’s.  Tiger need to kill a deer to feed her cab.

Her success is a misfortune of the deer.  It would be no use to have sentimental emotion.  If it comes, it comes.

Same apply to our human life, to have silly desire is our nature, which was designed by the Dharma too.

Therefore the occurrence of silly Karma is also the nature of the Dharma. —— on the surface,

it may seems silly or unjust, though as the one was placed here to fill the role, by the Dharma,

in long-term, its appearance of the Dharma is the sign of one’s direction.

Therefore, to fight against the Dharma is the silliest things as we can’t see the full extent of

the implication of the Dharma, but better follow the direction and to fill the role what the one

was assigned to do.  Therefore, What left in our hand is, to do the task as best as we can. ——

Hence, on the end, as the result, we live of the life to its optimum and  its maximum potential.

( Does anybody want more ?  Or want to complain ——- saying too much ?   Oh, get lost  😀 )

( By the way, this “maximum potential” doesn’t include money, fame or power.  If anyone seek it, you

came to wrong place.  You got to go to Mammon, not Buddha.   😀  )

—–

So, the above is my explanation of How the teachings of the Buddhism works.

And,  the Posts in this BLOG are my each experiences and findings, How Zen works and in deed

worked, and the resulting effects, what is the out come / how I am living.

—— I’ve made a link of  this Post connecting to a Category,  001-ABOUT the BLOG.

So that if anybody need to come back here or directing others, just click a category  please  🙂

___/\___

—-

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.   🙂

___/\___

—–

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 😀

___/\___

—

Hygiene of MIND

It seems the explanation of the Self : True Self in the previous post was not enough or messy.

So, I need to clear the mess in the better metaphor. 🙂

Looking through the Buddha’s teachings, long since I’ve been thinking the Psychological profile

of Buddha and realized, to think Buddha as a Guru of religion will miss the point.

If we think his mind-set like  a scientist or physician, it would be

far easier to understand what he taught.

And it would explain more, why the Buddhism having such character, not like a religion nor philosophy.

Just see the very blunt words of his Four noble truths ” Life is suffering —-” are not a kind of words from

would be a savior trying to be very popular,  but more like a doctor diagnosed a cancer, telling the truth.

Why ? —– Because in his Enlightenment, Buddha saw the Dharma is the rational mechanism,

like the Science, not a mythical mambo-jumbo. —

And he was able to see even the invisible. (Say, Micro Karma inside of our subconscious and unconscious

physiological dynamics reacting to the given environment / stimruos, moment by moment.  So that, his

teachings of the Noble Eight fold Path are to curb the possible cause and environment in the first place ).

This was the reason Why Buddha ordered his disciples to see the things include the Self and

think by themselves, not blindly follow what others say (its mean even the word of Buddha,

teacher, scripts).   Buddha’s contemplation to settle middle way, away from the extreme, such as

extreme austerity was simply based on his experience.   It wouldn’t give any Enlightenment but

the illusion, bore out of tortured body and the mind   ( he didn’t take those illusion as a super

natural vision like his teacher ——- he was a cool headed man = like a scientist or surgeon).

(Though, the disciples and later followers  who couldn’t understand the invisible, just named it as the

” Pannya Paramita”  / Supreme Wisdom, and put it in the shelf without touching since,  and created

numerous fancy mumbo-jumbo story which took the idea of Hindu myth into the Buddhism. )  🙂

—–

Think, Buddha was talking about the hygiene of the MIND.

Talking about the cause of illness, and the germs, how to keep cleanness to avoid the infection.

His eyes are very analytical, and thinking based on the observed facts, in very rational way.

(This was the reason, why I even felt it was the psycho–engineering.)

We ordinary folks can’t see and couldn’t guess what lies behind and causing the pain from illness.

The medical scientist knows which germs infects where and how, but not us.

Buddha saw the cause of our sufferings are lay in the infection of our Mind / the infected Self.

Since we couldn’t see the germ,  it is very difficult to see how this Self was infected.

Buddha explained the cause of disorder of our Mind, like a system how the lung exchange the oxygen

and the carbon-dioxide, which we only know the superficial phenomena / breeding.

So, he explained the mechanism of Karma —– cause and the effect, which is constantly taking place

and never stop, affecting our Mind too.  Hence he saw, attempt to imagine it as the static entity is wrong.

—–

Without knowing it was the science, and without knowing the existence of germ which

we can’t see, the past monks tried to explain what the meaning of Buddha’s teachings are.

And messed up.

The Mind looks the same but it was infected, hence the patient is suffering without knowing the cause.

So, Buddha explained the cause and taught how to cure the infection and regain the clean and

sound Mind which we were born with it on the beginning.

—-

Mind is the center topics in our life and the Buddhism, hence, it is having so many implications.

In relation to the Karma “static Mind couldn’t exist” and in relation to the repeating practice ( practice

is the vessel to sublimate the teachings into subconsciousness) but subconsciousness is invisible,

“hence hard to know its existence”, and in the Epistemology and the Ontology front, what is really

existing —– is it only in our Mind / or Mind itself is reliable —— is a perpetual question.

Above all, as Buddha established his view against the Vedic idea of Atman, which says

that the soul exists and remained after death, he took the firm stance, the Atman / Mind is not exists.

In deed, the idea and effect of Mushin / No-mind and its power is the center of the Buddhism.

And the Self which was imagined by such Mind couldn’t be there neither.

What really exists is the pure Mind which is in fact the Dharma, and the true Self which is

in fact a part of the Dharma too ——— they are no longer called Mind nor Self,  that all.

Yet in the same time it is undeniable, whether it was deluded / infected or not,  without having

the Self and the Mind’s existence, the Self and the Mind couldn’t be enlightened. ——- so,

with pragmatic reason, they are just called Mind and the Self,  for convenience.  😀

——– We have to see, the Mind and the Self —— which looks the same though, what the Buddhists

talking about has the invisible difference, either it was germ infected one, or the clean one. 😀

( Trouble is, we can not see the Clean one —— because it is not existing / in theory.  Ha ha ha 😀 )

———-

It is the same Mind, same Self though, its change the state,  just like riding a bicycle,  the person

suddenly become able to ride and gain the freedom. No one can explain why but it just happen.

In the same manner, suddenly the eyes open, and the conscious of Mind and the Self disappear,

or its become irrelevant —– effectively clear the infection  🙂

The task is in your hand, clean your Mind, and your Self germ free. (or Hinayana approach

would say, don’t bother the germ or Mind /  Self all together, just get on your life ! )

This is the very path way of the Buddhism.

___/\___

PS: This wouldn’t devalue the Buddha at all ( — may demystify him a bit though ).

——I only add a line, Buddha had the eyes and the Mind of the Scientist.

——Look, all through the human history, who else could see and explain the human life

——like Buddha.  He is the only Buddha.  Greatest teacher to the human being in the history.

—-

Which DIRECTION ?

Time to time I was asked to give an advice to a friend or friend of friend etc, in all sorts ——

Some time, how to deal with family or woman to electronic circuit ——- 🙂

While talking with computer programmer, a man (say Mr.A ) told me the pressure he is feeling from

the family or relatives who expecting he should be a genius and become a millionaire.

After that meeting, while dealing with Emails I just got a thought, why not Mr.A develop an  App

for mass user of such as iPhone etc —— may make him quite rich as his concept to deal with programing

is rather novel.  Market system, whether its got bad name of capitalism or not, it is quite democratic,

if it is good for the people it sell.   Not Mr.A  not me having wishful thinking —— let the people to decide.

So, I send him short Email saying  ” How about, to develop App for iPhone kind”.

Soon after,  I received his reply in which he explained this and that, and mentioned  ” By the way I just

have  received an Email from Intel’s development director, asking whether am I interesting to take part of

their development project ” —— then I realized the time-record of his Email was —2010  8:15 — M m m ?

( I hope I’m not paranoia though, as it happened in the same time of me to suggest him, and it must be a

peculiar coincidence )  I took this as a sign and Email backed him mentioning this number

” Be honest, do what you want.  Dharma is watching you “)

As he knew about this number, read of my post / 8150 Story,  he replied  ” Oh, dear God,  SCARY !”

Exchanging the mail with Intel, he found he is not very keen with their business, and found his

direction —— not the money but to keep what he really want to do.

Which he said ” Keep my path is what Dharma directed”

—

Despite popular misconception, DIRECTION is not an external menu which we can choose by will.

It is what we ourselves having in us.  It is in fact synonym of the self.

Here, the source of all the misconception and confusion lies, to be true to yourself, reset your mind

to the default state, have a blank space in your mind is in fact Just to be yourself.

In most of the case, what we are thinking This is Me ——– is in fact The imaginary Self, the Role to

play or the tactical Pretence to chase a goal (such as power, fortune  or delusion to be a Macho Man).

This is why, the Buddhism says, There is no such thing like the SELF ——– so-called Self is not

there, yet Buddha taught Watch it by yourself.  Watch who you are. ——- If the self is not there,

Who is watching ? —— What Buddha meant was, not by such imaginary fixed figure of the Self

(as the Self is continuously changing with Karma, no still photograph exist —– You can’t capture an

image of running horse / still horse is a dead horse.(forget hi-speed camera which Buddha didn’t have   😀 )

but by the eyes, free from the conscious of self.——simply, just who you are.

—-

Unlike awkwardly dressed masquerade, the person inside is the real self who can spontaneously

respond the Situation and the feeling (unconsciously) like natural Flow.  Buddha saw this ability

to respond the Karma is, it is because of the fundamental rule / Dharma.

Hence it is not the SELF but the Dharma. ——- of which everybody has inside and born with.

( As you are born with it, it is easy to be, though, strangely it is a hardest thing ——- so that, when it was

achieved it was described as a Dog Shit )

So, I’m watching what next move Mr.A will takes.

___/\___

—