Try Bicycle

What the Buddhism teaching is, its behaviour pattern to be a Buddhist or

the way of thinking.

In the way of thinking, thinking itself or notion is not a goal.

A type of behaviour which reflects the way of thinking is the matter.

The way of thinking, which is totally detached from the subject, even

oneself is the matter.

——–Why detached ? Because there is nothing which is reliable,

certain existence exists, include the one who is thinking, the Self.

Without attached to anything or anyone, in other words, without

clinging any idea or delusion, open the eyes and expose all the sense

to the Dharma, and live.

——–In this way you can live as a part of the Dharma or you are

the Dharma.

Because the Buddhism is the way of the life, there is no golden words

to worship but only  the guide lines how to live.  Rest is, one has to learn.

Because of the way of life is not possible to learn by the words, the one

has to learn only by the try or practice.

——- Same to learn riding bicycle.

There is no word ever explained how to ride it.  The one has to try to master.

——————-

To the people who is ” thinking the Buddhism ”  the hardest part  to understand

is, ” One has to be immersed to do the subject wholeheartedly ” in the same time,

” Completely detached from it ”

It looks utterly contradictory for the person sitting in a comfortable room,

though a person in the arctic weather, under a snow blizzard, there is

no choice.

The one might succumbed to the situation with the fear of the own life.

But the other may able to hear the rhythm of the wind, and walked

farther to find a rock to shelter —— and survived.

( Overcome a fear is not come from a confidence,  but accepting

the death ——- detached from the life and the self )

——- You may drink a cup of Hot Honey Lemon with the intensity

to hear the snow blizzard.

This is why the great Tea Master Rikyu described ” Take it as if

it is the occasion only once in your life “

—————–

Absolute concentration to the subject, in the same time to see the

subject clear detached eyes,  this apparently paradoxical practice

lead to the ultimate refinement of it.

It was the quest to the Dharma and the way how such as Shaolin

Martial Art or Japanese Sward  etc has been perfected in its ultimate form.

——— By the way, the expression ” Storm in a tea-cup ” is nothing

to do with this subject.  🙂

Lemon Zen

To start the Zen practice, you have to forget all the blah blah— so called Zen talk.

Such as the question of whether Self is exist or not.

The question only arise when you reach the state of the mind which you can

do the task without thinking or able to do it unconsciously.

——– Before this stage, you haven’t seen the situation neither need

to make this question.

——– And when you reached this stage, you must be aware it is no point

to make this question because you are already in this selfless state.

A person, who couldn’t get this stage keep messing around those questions.

As those people had to do the guess work, they have to keep asking what

is Zen. Though, as long as talking continues, the Brain is fully occupied to

process the logics and the words, there is no chance to vacate the Brain

and attain selfless, subconscious state.

The more struggle in the puzzle, the farther stray away.

——————–

Zen practice can be anything, say cutting a lemon or cucumber into thin slices.

If you find your knife is too dull, start sharpening it with a good oil stone.

( Few pounds Chinese stone is not good—– you can use one good stone all your life)

Knife has to be as sharp as cut through a news paper held in air in ease, without

making any tear.)

Then slice a lemon to somewhat 1mm thin.

(You may start from 3mm thick, then improve it )

While doing this you have to repeatedly or continuously think ” I’m doing the Zen ”

( You don’t need to know what is the Zen theory—– what you are doing is the Zen )

——-When you finished slicing, you may make a cup of Hot Honey Drink.

Enjoy it and do this every day.

( In fact you may end up drinking a lots of cups—- with lots of Vitamin C)

——-After a while, you may achieved to make perfect 50 slices or so from

one lemon.

Its mean, your hand holding a knife has gained the absolute steadiness

which mean you have gained the absolute calmness and concentration

of the mind.

—— Here you are in the crucial point.

Once you managed to make 50 slices you might think, you have achieved

and reached to the goal, though you have to keep doing farther, like a

dairy routine. When it became routine your hand is accustomed to do

the work almost automatic and able to do all the preparation and after

clean up as one flow of the process.

—————-

In the same time, you must be noticed, your observation and attentions are

so refined and goes into the minute details, such as the position of cutting

board is exactly the same every day or found the way to move the knife to

avoiding the juice drips. etc etc.

——And you might be noticed you can hear the faint sound of the wind

out side or even a flower in the garden, which one is the one opened today.

Now you are in the Selfless state of the mind.

( Some may says, even the mind is not there and only sight and sound

surrounding you )

——————-

On the beginning, you might feel something strange in your sight.

Everything looks somewhat foreign and distanced, and looks fresh as if

it was the first time you see it. And it looks so clear.

And strangely, it spread the corner to corner of your eyes 140 degree wide

and still able to see the details all in the same time.

You can see even the small things move in the 140 degree view and still able

to respond instantly if it is necessary, like when you are on the road, you

almost see a coming car behind on the corner of your eyes.

( This is the way how Martial artist see the attack from behind )

——————

In the Brain term , now your brain is scanning all the visual signals from the

corner of peripheral vision to other corner without weighing the information.

Just see as it was seen.

Because of your mind is detached from even your SELF , what you see is

also looks like foreign land scape.

But it shouldn’t cause any trouble, since if it is necessary you can go into a

subject at once even deeper than before.

——- Though some of your associate might feel, you lost a passion and got

quieter, as you no longer have obsession.

———————-

I agree with the view, blood and thunder excitement of the obsession is also

very exciting on the life, though it comes with quite high cost.

And obsessive approach doesn’t have high success rate, as it is prone to

brake down. Dramatic success looks grate and exciting though, step by

step improvement and refinement would produce more reliable result.

——Quiet, tenacious Zen approach seems to achieve more in the end.

As a humble man, I took the way of the Zen Buddhist.

You also have the choice.

————————–

PS: We only see the world as we wanted to see.

Anything we don’t know already, we don’t notice. ( as its visual pattern has

not been registered in our data bank.) Such as, if you are not familiar with

plant, all of them looks same, and foreign language is just a noise.

And anything we don’t want to see or want to know , we refuse to take its

signal in. We just filter them out.

——

In the same time, we see a preferred subject with photoshoped image.

In the dark, all the women looks beautiful since the visual information

is not complete, we fill the gap with ideal image.

——

So that, when your mind is clear and open, without your wishful selective

view, world looks different as its shows true image.

And you may first ever see a lots of things you haven’t noticed before.

That is why, the world looks foreign and fresh.

——- Able to see the world as it is, with selfless eyes is the one thing,

and what to do with this, is the another matter.

——-( I’ll talk about this later in the other post )

Perfect Circle

One of the Zen priest in Japan was well known to draw near perfect circle free hand.

—- Just to make a tea, tea master spend 10, 20 years, even all his life

perfecting its procedure down to the minute details.

—- In Internet, you may find rather peculiar  site to make a perfect

sphere of mud ball.     < google  to    dorodango   >

——— ?      What is the point to draw perfect circle, or to make perfect

mud ball, or perfect tea ?

To achieve perfection is the Buddhism.     It is the way to reach  Nirvana.

—————

To practice this path-way  by doing utterly useless, repeating action is

the Zen practice.  (sitting is one of the popular method )

Because of its useless, valuelessness, it is free from any greed

and vain arrogance.

And as it is purposeless, it is no use anything other than for Zen.

Useless, purposeless act couldn’t nest any idea or thought of ego or greed,

therefore it is a very effective way  to empty the mind and achieve Selflessness.

————

Many years of practice in selfless,  Zatsunen-less concentration and perfecting

a dairy subjects on the front one by one, will lead to the perfection of

the life in total.     Thus, ultimately it lead to a peaceful  Nirvana.

————-

When you see an extremely detailed fine carving of Japanese Netsuke,  you

might think  ” It is mare stopper of a string, what is such an over quality for ? ”

—Wrong.

What you are seeing is just a by-product.

By making it, the craftsman achieved his perfection and achieved his Nirvana.

This is the secrets behind of intricacy of the Japanese Art.

——– ( In reality though, as Japanese society was a tight feudal society,

there was no chance to move up in the social system even for a top craftsman

and little financial reward for even to the best art.

The pride and the spiritual achievement was only the way out for those people )

—– Sound pathetic ?    Wrong again.

Have look.    Even though, it was a by-product of his life, a beautiful  Netsuke

is still appreciated by people even hundred of years after his death.

His signature art achieved the eternal life.

This is not a belief or rhetoric, this is a fact.

Confidence to be here

Living as a Buddhist many years, what I found something peculiar was its

paradoxical psyche, the co-existence of the humbleness and the absolute

confidence.

If the cosmic creation was the creation of all the matters, we have to see,

ultimately it created myself as well, as I am the compound of those matters

which are ruled by all level of physics.

Buddha called those rules and entwined relations as Karma and the Dharma.

————

Whether it was by intention or natural consequence, I was created here and

others too.  Therefore, there is no superiority between me and any other

creatures.

————

But in the same time, there must be a certain will or reason or condition in

physics or bio-chemistry to create me as I am.

Whether myself here, is a solid existence or just a superficial phenomenon,

I have to see the peculiarity of me as I am.

This peculiarity includes my charactor and my role in the life as well.

——- to use a metaphor,  Me to exist here and to perform my role,

might be expected and designed by the Dharma, unless otherwise

Dharma must have created somebody else

In other words, there was a needs or rationale of me to exist here and

me to fulfill my expected duty in my life.

This is the ultimate confidence of the Buddhists, which you can have

the same too, as you are.

( This is the reason why the Buddhism asking the people to have

self-awareness, and find one’s own peculiarity and the role to play.)

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.

Why Practice ?

Once Master Dogen wrote ” If we were born with the Dharma, why all the

Holy Masters in the history needed to practice hard to attain Enlightenment ?”

——-well, he was young then.

Has been born with Dharma, but to able to see it, is the different matter.

We still need to practice to eliminate all sorts of destructive delusions and

thoughts, in order  to see invisible Dharma.

——-in here, me to use the word ” see ” was a metaphor.

We never able to see the Dharma itself. Like the gravity, we see

an apple falling but not the gravity itself. What we can see is only in

its effect, as a revelation.

So far, what I found other than intricacy of the existences but something

peculiar is, when something completely out of blue, with a sheer coincidence,

yet still it could affect one’s life has happened, I believe it is an

intervention of the Dharma.

——– If you reading this just by chance, you to encounter this, could be

the intervention of the Dharma, by which you might have crucial study

of the Buddhism by seeing the Truth, otherwise a sample of sheer Misunderstanding.

( which ever the case you may find)

———————

Me to start this blog site was a pure coincidence.

I didn’t have such intention at all.

On the beginning, I met a man working for BBC at an art exhibition , who

suggested me to see a Buddhist blog site which I did..

And, in order to put my comment, I needed to register to the WordPress.

By doing so just lightheartedly, my blog site was created in the same time.

( I don’t have web-site to publicize, and never joined Facebook, Myspace

kind of SNS, even though I was a well known photographer before)

Once it was created, I have to take care of it in my best.

What ever happened or who ever comes, I have to deal with it as a duty

without any thought, since it was not my plan, but it was given.

As I don’t think about too much to start, neither think about its

consequence. Since it was given by the Dharma, it must be a

part of my fate.

So that, if its turned out to be good, Congratulation, if not, cry.

( But so far I only having had very interesting kind of life, without getting

any ill / I still don’t have GP even after 34 years in England. —–whether

it was thanks to the Buddhism or just lucky, I don’t know, neither care )

—— In this aspect, Buddhist is a fatalist (or at least I am )

ICHIJO / Fuji (oneness)

The truth what Buddha taught was, there is no barrier or separation between

the self and other existences.

Because the both are the part of one Dharma.

And everybody born, has the Dharma within.

————-

The teachings of the Brahmanism defines the one’s soul / Atman and

the universal supreme soul / Brahman as a separate entity. And says

the goal of the life is to make one’s Atman to reach or fuse with Brahman.

In contrast, Buddha said, there is no such separation of two from the

beginning though, one has to find this only one Dharma within, which

is invisible.

Anyone who believes the separate entity of self is having misunderstanding

caused by the delusion of ego.

—— From this simple, clear teachings, big debate started after the

Buddha’s death, whether the self is not really exist or what is the self,what are

the definition of the existences. Because, most of followers grown up with

the popular belief of the Atman, it was rather hard to change.

————

This is the reason why in the Zen books, they are filled with the explanation of

such as ” Ichijo “(oneness) or ” Fuji ” (non two) from the top to bottom.

Or such as the stories of how sward master achieved the ultimate skill by

fusing himself to the sward,

———It took more than 10 years for me to realize that the Key behind of those

stories is the matter of subconsciousness.

So that, the practice adopted by each Buddhist schools are, to carry the

teachings deep into the one’s subconsciousness.

———( Following 10 years or so, I tested all sorts of practices and

tried to find the effect to the body and the brain, as I thought if I could

open the door of subconscious, I may able to see the Holy secret of

the Anuttara Samyk-Sanbodi )

(I’ll talk about those try later)

Selfless Love

Among the human psyche, love and charity are the most strange phenomenon.

Love (and the base of the charity which is also love ) is only the phenomenon

which occurs without a cause (which mean out of Karma ).

All the notorious troubles associated with love are in fact caused by the attachment,

its mean the possessive ego.

Love itself is the causeless phenomenon.

—– Only possible explanation to this phenomenon is, it must be a fundamental

character of the Dharma, of which we are the part of it.

One of the peculiarity of the love is its selflessness.

While observing a selfless love of the mothers, and the charitable people,

Buddha must have conceived the original concept which is, selflessness is

a part of the Dharma though, the selfish ego always throw a spanner

( I’m not implying there was the spanner and screw in Buddha’s time)

to this act of love.

Since the Dharma is fundamentally selfless, its mean the ego is a human

invention driven by one’s obsessive delusion.

Therefore, the man to believe and clings the existence of self is fundamentally wrong.

The belief of the perpetual soul, Atman is nothing but a greed to keep the attachment

even after the death.

—————-

What Buddha wanted, was to save the people suffering in misery and in poverty.

They need to have the food to eat, help to alleviate their misery, not just

inedible holy enlightenment.

—————-

Following Buddha’s teaching, such as King Asoka spread the Buddhism and

organised the charity to save the needy and sufferers.

——- Though the professional scholar of the Buddhist Temple, who

couldn’t understand the teaching of the Buddha went into a cul-de-sac of

the ” definition of what is the self ” —-and lost.

Subconscious Data Bank

Are we the conscious owner of our-self ?

I remember the stir and the annoyances among the scientists and philosophers

when they faced with the first ever report of the live brain scan.

It was the discovery of the fact, we are not consciously thinking.

The thinking process was being done unconsciously.

Naturally it lead to the most fundamental question, If not consciously thinking

who made this decision ?

If am not I, who is the one consciously aware I am ?

——Thinking process does not needs to be conscious.

Make an analogy in the computer.

Even though we program it in a kind of English (only after the computer became

able to be programed in higher language —– before it, all had to be done in

Hex or binary number ) computer is not operating in English. And even in

the out put sage, unless the signal was not decoded in ASCII it wouldn’t become

readable in A B C.

Exactly same as this, our thought, especially such as deep feeling, vague idea etc

has to be first categorized in the pattern and converted into own language,

otherwise we can not consciously process it in English.

In every-days life we are reading numerous signs and even a hint without converting

them to the words.

——————

In a latest development of the Honda Asimo Humanoid Robot, Honda created

” Thought controlling System ” using a geographical pattern of the activity in

the brain , picked up by the sensors in a helmet, and enabled to move the

Asimo’s right hand left hand and so on.

This experiment demonstrating the fact, to think something, we don’t nee to

have linguistic conversion.

And without conscious, the process in the brain is still taking place.

I also recall a funny quote ” The bathroom is where most of the important

invention was conceived”. I know lots of people would agree with this.

Why bathroom ? The answer is very simple. All of us do the business as

a routine and we have done the same, hundreds of thousands of times.

We don’t need to think about and do it unconsciously.

And the bathroom is where our brain has a moment of brake in the busy life.

Once our brain was vacated empty (some may describe it, completely open

minded) it is easier to sense and locate a faint image or vague idea, when it came

up from the depth of unconscious darkness. Then you might shout ” Eureka”

The original concept, conceived in the unconscious process having much grater

freedom of the creativity than the ordinary rational thinking.

Zen meditation is the way to create this condition of the brain, in a bit more

comfortable, less smelly environment.

( If possible, under a Bodhi tree. Ha Ha Ha 🙂 )

Koan ? ? ?

Quite awhile, I was haunted by the Ontology and the Epistemology in the Buddhism.

On the surface, its definition is different in a Mantra to Mantra, and even worse in the

Mahayana Mantra, the description such as “Exist as not exist” kind appeared so often.

——–? ? ? Then oneday, I suddenly realized, the matter is not on the superficial words,

BUT in the intention behind of such expression.

At the teaching, Buddha wanted to show how uncertain the existences are, let alone

unreliability of our own perception, which supposed to observe and sense the objects.

Especially in the bottom line of the idea “Karma”, everything, include our 5 senses

are the relative phenomenon. Both observer and the observed.

Nothing can be certain.

——- In order to make Disciples to contemplate this, by themselves,

the Buddha must have used quite mind boggling, puzzling analogy.

YET, the understanding of the uncertainty itself, even the Self is exist or not was

not the main issue.

(Then I realized, this is the very situation which 1000 years old cliche has mocked

about while describing  ” See the finger, but not the moon “.

And, mocking the novice who is trapped into arguing the shape of the finger

such as ” Who is watching ” or ” Where they are ” kind, as ” Trying to catch Namazu

(slippery, slimy Cat-fish) by Hyotan (equivalent of smooth glass bottle).

——This is the very reason why all the famous answer to the  Koan  is, in fact,

mocking back to the question. )

What Buddha wanted to teach was, to brake the attitude of the people who

tend to cling or obsessed with the things or ideas.

Buddha wanted the people to have clear eyes to see the truth of the life.

Imposing self or distorting vision of the ego is the main obstacle to see

the truth.