Chrysanthemum and Sword

While ago I came across two peculiar quotations both from the same book

“ The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” written by an American Anthropologist Ruth Benedict.

One was made by the ousted Japanese PM Kan saying  [Culture of Shame] out of the book.

Other was,  in reference to my description somewhere [keep one’s place and to do the job which was given]

—- one of my friend asked me “Is that the same, what Ruth Benedict said in her book ?”

non

—– What made me surprise was that this book is not yet dead and still read by the people 🙂

It seems this book is still a distinctive reference when people try to learn the Japanese culture though, shame,

it was hastily written on her misunderstanding of the culture and people’s psychology.

non

As Ruth Benedict’s coined notion of  [Japanese Culture of Shame] against [Western Culture of Sin]

are both based on her miss-observations of both cultures —–

*  If  her observations had even a shred of truth, the fact such as [ 90% of the lost money totalling

£23 millions, found in the disaster zone of Japan, has returned to the rightful owner ] ! ! !

could ever happened.  While nobody was watching, why they bothered to take the money to the police  ?

And why no police man put the money into his pocket,  even in the time of utter chaos  ?

*  And, there were so many excuse or justification of the Riot and the Looting happened in

this country,  expressed even in the comments to my Blog.    Why ? ??

non

The notion of the [Shame] in the Japanese culture is not against other’s eyes but to

the Eyes of the Heaven —– therefore, no escape or excuse.

And this feeling has been so deeply sublimated, even Japanese themselves doesn’t know Why = it is almost

a chemical effect,  like a feeling of  loathe a filth. —– (This is the Ethos originated from the ancient Shinto )

non

In the western culture, the Right or Wrong = Morality is based on the Commandment written and

given by their Judea Christian God —– therefore, how to read it (and how to interpret ) is

depend on the case.

As the God was designed like as a person,  he use the same language and may answer you and

the matter may be negotiable with a sacrificed offering.

So that, with an excuse there is no absolute Morality.   Wrong may be easily changed to Right.

Worse still,  when the influence of the religion evaporated,  there is no basis of  Morality left.

—– yet still, Ruth Benedict thought that the western Morality is absolute and Japanese one is relative   😀

( In the same shoddy eyes,  she couldn’t see the fundamental pattern of the Japanese Ethos is the Zen —– but

she mistook it as the Confucianism)

—

Clockwork DHARMA ?

I just found a good metaphor to explain [What is Dharma] !

It’s a huge gigantic machine !    (No, this is no a joke   😀 )

Gigantic, as its mechanism extend as far as to the end of universe.

And as it is working and ticking,  it’s keep moving,  hence, no same moment ever exists.

But this machine is invisible, except some end-device connected to its mechanism.

Its mean, all the visible existences are the part of this machine.

This machine exists since the start of the universe, long before human kind appeared on the earth.

Therefore, no written specification, operational manual in any language exists, yet still, some part of its

mechanism and the function has been observed and deciphered as a science and chemistry.

As it is a viable working machine, there is certain tendency and the rules of the way how it works,

though, as it is so gigantic and too complicated, it is beyond the capability of the human to know whole function.

—– except Buddha.

Non

While observing the phenomena and its occurrences, Buddha noticed that, this world is a kind of system

which is affecting and reacting to each other. ( This intertwined connection is the Karma )

He found it as the system of infinite size which contains ourselves as a part.

And as it is constantly adjusting and reacting, there can not be a single moment of stillness

—– nothing stays the same.

And as it is a system automatically working like a machine, it doesn’t have human like Ego or its own SELF

—– and the human is its part of mechanism, human has SELF neither.

And this system exists before human and not designed to serve for human, its operation is not necessary

for the benefit of human, therefore to live as a part of this system, occurrences are not centred for human

nor kind to human. —– Hence life is harsh.

—– with those contemplation, Buddha found the wisdom to deal with this system or to live as a

part of the system with minimum aggravation,  hence in peace and the harmony.

And the teaching is —– to know how the mechanism of the system and the mechanism of ourself works.

Only the way to find the function and its internal rules of the unknown mechanism is —– to observe

and find it by oneself.—– (Finding it,  is the Enlightenment)

As the system is working automatic, disregarding the human ego or emotion, to impose or try to understand it,

with human-like mind is pointless —– because the system itself has no such mind.

( You can’t deal with machine with your emotion — you have to do it like handling a machine 😀 )

As the system (include ourself) is operating without the mind, try to think or explaining it with words is

useless.  It needs to observe its function and the results = deeds.   Hence, talking, thinking has no place.

—– This is what the Dharma is.

non

You may not like this description   😀

Especially the western people got used to think the God as a personified figure, as it was imagined as a

super-human,  though,  no such things in the Universe.

Nor so-called great soul, like Brahman or Atman. ( Romanticized idea appeals to the emotion, but

romantic idea is far from the Truth )

The Dharma is the system much more like a huge machine.

That’s why it is operating dispassionately / in Mushin ( Mind of no-mind).

( Financial panic may caused by the fear of speculators which some Buddhist may say “It’s only in the mind”

though, resulting rise of interest will affect all others like a mechanical precision and the force)

 

In fact, human mind is always causing a destruction and a mayhem to the system.

—– that’s why the Buddhism says Mushin, Taoism says Woii —– do nothing intentionally = let the natural

mechanism to take its own course.

( I found this metaphor is the clearest explanation —– in words 😀 —— Convinced ? )

___/\___

non

Shit JOKE

While talking about jokes, my friend suggested me to see the site,

[ If shit happens ] —– Aha !   Its here.   ( You may Google them 🙂 )

I’ve heard some of them before, but didn’t know such comprehensive collection ( a lot of it )

has been circulating among the people. 😀

Basically the say is more or less the same between here and there though, one of the listings are

having pretty comprehensive collection, therefore the one which may noteworthy was :

 [ Close-to-complete Ideology and Religion Shit List ] —–  thejaywalker.co

To quote some from there ; —

• Taoism: Shit happens.
• Confucianism: Confucius say, “Shit happens.”
• Buddhism: If shit happens, it isn’t really shit.
• Zen Buddhism: Shit is, and is not.
• Zen Buddhism #2: What is the sound of shit happening?
• Hinduism: This shit has happened before.
• Islam: If shit happens, it is the will of Allah.
• Islam #2: If shit happens, kill the person responsible.
• Islam #3: If shit happens, blame Israel.
• Catholicism: If shit happens, you deserve it.
• Protestantism: Let shit happen to someone else.
• Presbyterian: This shit was bound to happen.
• Seventh Day Adventism: No shit shall happen on Saturday.
• Creationism: God made all shit.
• Secular Humanism: Shit evolves.
• Quakers: Let us not fight over this shit.
• Utopianism: This shit does not stink.
• Darwinism: This shit was once food.
• Capitalism: That’s MY shit.
• Communism: It’s everybody’s shit.
• Feminism: Men are shit.
• Commercialism: Let’s package this shit.
• Impressionism: From a distance, shit looks like a garden.
• Idolism: Let’s bronze this shit.
• Existentialism: Shit doesn’t happen; shit IS.
• Existentialism #2: What is shit, anyway?
• Stoicism: This shit is good for me.
• Hedonism: There is nothing like a good shit happening!
• Atheism: What shit?
• Atheism #2: I can’t believe this shit!

**********

I don’t know how many people contributed to each Joke and when its became a crèche.

Obviously they were said by the westerner as the list has more of the Christian sect, in comparison

to such as Buddhism, Moslem or even Judaism. ( Buddhism might have more than 50 sects and

Sunni and Shiite Moslem seemed to be quite different, and from moderate to ultra-orthodox, the

Judaism sects might not having the same view —– When it came to the Matter of Shit 😀

non

They are the caricature based on the stereotype —– though, don’t be serious its a joke.

Yet still, to make a caricature funny, it need to have certain resemblance —– That’s why its Joke

makes people realize “ M, m, m, its true 😀 “ —– so, I would say, “ Well said !”

non

Something related to this blog is, there are two entry of the Buddhism.

Buddhism general and the Zen Buddhism. —– m, m, m, interesting.

But, the one quoted  What is the sound of shit happening?  seemed to be a caricature of KOAN,

it’s mean Rinzai Zen sect. ( Soto-Zen doesn’t use the words )

—– If I were there to answer this Koan, I would say

“ It deafening the nose “ 😀

—

TRUTH or is it in the BELIEFE

A while ago I was exchanging the opinion with my friend who started to wonder why the scientists

who supposedly dealing the subjects with fact based rationalism,  still making utterly

dubious explanation to such as the nuclear or environmental issues.

And he said, is there any relation or influence of the persons belief system to even a scientific

research and its conclusion.

—– Well, my answer was,

1)  The science what we ordinary folks generally know is.  only a corner of popular science and there

are many [another kind of] science —– such as creationist’s / Christian science or some pseuedo

sciences etc. etc. —– Even a Black Hole or 4^th Dimension are out of our comprehension still,

they are regarded to be the science.

2)  The science is not an absolute truth.    It is more like a technique of debate.

In one frame-work,  using the fact(s) as the evidence and construct the theory or hypothesis.

Then from the theory, make a model or an expected projection and apply to the other samples.

If its works on the other samples —– the theory is proved to be true.

The matters in the debate is to convince others. = If the others were convinced,  it became an

established or widely accepted theory.  Still, not necessary everybody,  hence it may split the science

community or society general. —– Some are following, others are not.

3)  Discovery of the facts and the technology which can affect  them are changing everyday.

New facts and the new approach and the techniques are keep appearing

and the re-examination of previous results or theories are taking place everyday —– hence,

the truth yesterday is not necessary so tomorrow.

Therefore,  some may convinced but to others,  it may seem to be utterly rubbish and fraud.

( Remember, until 250 years ago,  the lightning was understood to be an anger of the Good,  until

very courageous and lucky Benjamin Franklin catch it into a jar and proved it was electricity.

( I’m puzzling how and why he wasn’t killed  😀 ))

non

I definitely know, the sun is rising every day and goes round in the sky but never noticed

the ground / earth is rotating —– still, I accept the sun is in the centre,  not the earth

—– by the widely accepted science as I got no basis to contest it.  I have no choice but to join 😀

We know what is electricity —– to connect a light bulb to battery,  it would light up thanks to the

flow of electron —– though,  nobody ever seen what is the electron.

All the evidences are circumstantial,  in other words we are seeing only its effects.

Yet still,  we need and use its effect.   We don’t care what is taking place in a coil in the motor —–

as long as it’s rotates.   ( Some of you might remember the Rule of right hand to know the relation of

electric current, magnetic field and the direction of movement —– we can see the fingers, but

rest of the phenomena = we only believe )

Yet, as it explain well and the effects are always consistent,  we convinced it is the TRUTH)

We know thousands, even millions of phenomena in its appearances but need to believe the truth

or the theories behind.   Our imagination is filling the gap by what we call  [intelligence].

non

Unfortunately we human being is still not clever enough to handle vast amount of factors and

the parameters in such as environmental phenomenon though, clever enough to select convenient

facts to construct a model which conveniently conveys the opinion —– regardless

whether it was true or not. ( I’m not suggesting,  I’m odd with conservationists,  but saying how hard

to construct [a model] which is having millions of parameters of which we haven’t even discovered yet)

non

When we handle the matters in the nature or even about ourself we encounter the invisible of

which the whole truth hasn’t been fully discovered,  and there may be the unknowable.

In fact, we know only very little.   So that, even in a critical science we hide the gap of knowledges

behind of such as the statistical numbers —– hence the theory or prediction is only a guess.

If we have to deal with a matter which got too much unknowable, we either construct

metaphysics or myth —– or religion.   If you believe, it is the truth,  hence the belief system.

Non

My friend’s argument was, even a scientist who is having a strong belief system (its might have

hidden deep in their subconscious, due to their up bringing)  may tend to creates a theory

more imaginative (or Dogmatic ) than the facts based objective science.

———- ?— Its might be true.

And they might be believing and aiming the more positive outcome of the theory which would

coherent with the idea of promised land and the harmony —– subconsciously construct the

theory to proof the God was correct and the world is perfect.  Therefore,  such as an

environmental model should have automatic feed-back and self-preservation.

( And they knew the theory of self-destruction is not popular to get a financial support )

 

In fact, the universe would continue to exists even without the notion of the God and its alleged

creation —– practically the system looks to continue  for ever 😀

( Since the geological time scale is too long for us to imagine )

non

We are standing the moment to establish the final General Theory which may proof

the multidimensional world —– we said to be co-existing next to 4^th dimension,

5^th dimension etc,  we might be living with the soul of people in the past. —– really ? ? ?

( I know something there —– but not necessary because of the String Theory —– even if

a fancy subatomic particle or antimatter was found and its trace was recorded in a digital

imaging screen,   how do I know the soul of my friend is there ? )

___/\___

non

DaVinci DELUSION

No one deny the exceptional drawing skill of Leonardo DaVinci, but how about his famous

ingenuity in the inventions, and the scientific thinking and the observation ?

Most of the people believe the reputation of him as a genius —– really ? ? ?

As a matter of fact, what people believe is mere Hear-say or Myth.

At least, anybody can see his superb drawings and the paintings. Though, how many people ever

put close eyes to his invention or anatomical drawings, which purported to be medically,

scientifically true representation of the human anatomy.

non

Utterly against the popular belief, my view of Leonardo DaVinchi is, he was just a trickster with

big mouth. Big mouth but his presentation with realistic superb drawing fooled the people.

Exactly same as a sham Doctor selling beauty portion with beautiful picture on the bottle.

But the people who doesn’t know the science or engineering was just fooled by his big mouth

—– any how they couldn’t understand the significance or implication of the drawings.

non

If you have the basic understanding of the mechanical structure, have look his famous design of

the battle tank. —– ( you can find it in the Wikipedia )

Just look how the wheels to drive the tank was connected. —— You must soon be realized, that the

tank can go nowhere, because the wheels of the tank rotates opposite directions, against each others.

Of cause, if it was actually ever built by the carpenters —– since even ordinary carpenters can see the

direction of rotation, the mistake in the design must be rectified and modified by them on the spot,

therefore the tank could have roll-out for test drive.  But even if it was built and tested, soon they realized

that a block of stone or shallow trench dug on the ground can easily demobilize the tank and it become a

sitting duck.  Oil and fire would burn the soldiers inside alive.   What a useless silly idea  😀

non

And just give a thought to that famous flying machine design —– does anybody possibly imagined,

somebody in the world has the muscle to swing the wings of that huge heavy structure ? 

Was Leonardo DaVinci such ignorant ?    Still, he believed it is a feasible good idea.—– Delusion again.

Despite his big mouth and the pretense, he lack the brain to rationally figured out the possibility and

the feasibility of the mechanism. —– He literally draw the beautiful picture (or dream ? )

He was a man just deluded and intoxicated by his own fancy idea and fooled others with it.

He was only good to copy and draw what he can actually see. —– was that ?   Really ?

Non

There are hundred of the anatomical sketches made by him.

They are no doubt, superb realistic drawings —– except some

unimaginable distortions, which he intentionally put on there.

Leonardo DaVinci was a member of the Free Masons and had profound Masonic

belief, hence he had the belief of the spirit.   He believed the domain of the spirit

is in the brain, and because its spirit was carried in the semen, the child inherit the

spirit from father —– therefore it has been continued from Adam.

Its mean, the sperm has to come from the brain.   And it shouldn’t come

through the same tube sharing with urine, hence having different tube in the penis.

So that he has drawn additional extra tube running from brain to penis, in his anatomical

drawings of the genitals.

—– Obviously he was quite obsessed with this idea,the same man who

could precisely observed and drawn the exact position of the urinary

tube from kidney to bladder still managed to falsify non-existent tube

in the penis.   It’s not scientific at all.  And if he was a believer of

the God’s creation, it is a dreadful fallacy, and contempt of God.

non

There was a strange paradox in his belief. Despite his profound Masonic

belief of spiritualism, he didn’t know what the spiritualism mean, hence

he tried to make-up the materialistic representation of the spirit

—– the semen as the substance of the spirit.  ( Bad tendency of the inventor. 😀 )

( Inventor’s aim is to materialize the idea.  Philosopher accepts first and try to explain  😀  )

Lots of people were mislead by his paintings of Mona Lisa or Madonna kind of images, but it was

just an assignment with money to him, it was nothing to do with his spiritual state of the mind nor Christianity.

Considering many of his drawing of grotesque faces, and above all, a man who got insatiable apatite to

dissect the human body, even a pregnant woman with a foetus inside —– it is not only illegal but

a grotesque feast of insanity.   It was far worse than mental perversion.  He actually took a knife in his

hand to cut open a womb, in order to draw the shape of  foetus.  Under the spooky candle light ! Oh, No.

This is the reason why no spiritual institute gave him any historical significance, other than

dubious DaVinci Code story 😀

Neither no scientific, medical topics or phenomenon was ever named after him. —– scientists, medical

academics never took him anything serious.   Since, he was just a deluded pervert, yet able to get

away, just because of his powerful connection who has been fooled by his big mouth.

DaVinci was the most typical case of  PRECONCEPTION  which I wrote long time ago.

His dreadful gruesome act has been completely masked and forgotten by the smile of Mona Lisa.

And people were made to believe a myth of Genius 😀

( Those drawings are in the Queen’s Collection, Windsor )

—

In REALITY

All over the world, there are kind of Haunting Ghost Stories.

Still, I never heard a Ghost came back to his Priest, complaining a failure of the teachings

to give him a proper Nirvana. ( or reaching to the Heaven ) 😀

As a matter of fact, Nirvana doesn’t necessary mean a Death. Original meaning is “Put-off a Fire”

and the Fire is a metaphor of the Suffering in the Life.

In this context, its metaphor is quite Buddhist-like understanding, still somewhat akin to the Original Sin

of the Christianity.   It is a sale’s tool to sell the religion to unsuspecting innocents —– exactly same tactics

to sell a body-spray saying “You smell” even though the man is having virtually no body odour but simply

because a man himself can’t judge his own smell.

So, a first step, persuade the people to start to feel, his life is not satisfactory and having trouble and the

sufferings —– when they were persuaded “Having something wrong” then start to sell a remedy.

Irony here is, if there is no religion in the first place, there may not be a notion of Sin or Sufferings.

—– Any how non of the Life is perfect as nobody is perfect.

—–

I used to have a friend of the owner of a big department store.

Since he had inherited huge share of the company, automatically he was earning too much amount

of dividend, therefore having even a headache of what to do with that money.

Donating so much so to this and that Conservationist Organization, and others etc while chased by

other organizations who want his money too, etc etc.

He doesn’t want to deal with money, so that his company has appointed another relative to be a executive

to run the business —– though, because of he got so much money, the people coming to him, were all

after his money, include his 6 wives ( of cause, one at the time 😀 )

Women who got tender sensible character were scared off from him, hence he had to live all through

his married life with gold-diggers. ( Once I was asked by him to judge a woman, I instantly told him

“ Never marry her “ but the woman was much more clever than him in the tactics of psychological

warfare, make him to wait too long, away on her holiday, then gave a call from  China, saying

“Government wouldn’t allow me to leave the Country, unless I got British passport “—– its mean

get marry and get nationality. —– as she got what she wants, she divorced him )

—-

He didn’t need to be Greedy, or Egoistic. Very intelligent Cambridge graduate, hence some time

hard to follow his too academical subject (not mention Cambridge accent 🙂 ) still maintain child like

perception and openly cried like a child with his loneliness ( when woman was not there ) —– though,

he couldn’t understand what’s wrong with his life. —– It was his hopeless Karma.

I don’t think he got anywhere near to a Nirvana though, ( still, at least a Greek wife then was his bed

side —–when he passed away ) I don’t think he would come back as a Ghost. ( He needn’t to haunt

anybody ) —– So, what is the Nirvana ? —- Is there anything like a perfect Nirvana exist ?

I don’t think so.

Someone said, the quality of the man will be reviled when how many number of the attendance came to

his funeral. —– ?    Is the quality of famous pop-star higher than the others ?

Anyhow, the deceased wouldn’t know how many people ever came to his funeral.

—-

Here is the another irony, if a man didn’t ever had a notion of the Enlightenment nor Nirvana, he

would just live his life as it is with high and low.—– Though, a Snobb would say, it’s a dog’s life,

man has to aim spiritually higher existence. —– ?   Really ?    Interesting !

—-

If any Buddhist having this kind of snobbish delusion, better read the Books again.

You will find the description such as

“As long as you have the notion of the Enlightenment, it is not the Enlightenment “.

This is the description of ultimate Mushin. If only the accomplished Buddhists reborn to the human again,

and rest of people would reborn to the another creature, human population will be soon dwindled.

Think how many times more number of   Non-Buddhist population in the world.

So that, in reality, there is no problem to re-produce bad boy by the un-enlightened parents. 😀

If this is the reality, what is the point to study and chase the Buddhism.

Because after all, the goal is just carry out ordinary life without having the conscious of own life.

This is the situation, I described long time ago with a metaphor of Room A and Room A’. (Ref: )

—-

Funny Paradox is, in the Mahayana understandings, as every body born with the Dharma within,

there is equal potential for everybody can achieve the Enlightenment and Nirvana.

But in the same time, nobody is the same (even the same person is different, moment to moment),

nobody is perfect, still everybody can get their Enlightenment as his own INPERFECTION, there

can not be any one standard of the LIFE.

Therefore, neither a standard of what the Enlightenment should be.

Only the person who can assess Who I am and the State of the Mind, and the progress to reach

the Enlightenment, is the very person —– might be you who is reading this.

—-

In the fundamental paradox of the Buddhism, as long as a person is thinking about

the Enlightenment, the person will get no Enlightenment. —– in fact,

the Idea of the Enlightenment itself is nothing but a delusion.

“There couldn’t be any Enlightenment exist” —– might be the ultimate Enlightenment.

To see the thing as it is, in reality is the Buddhism.  And to think it by yourself was the Order of

Buddha himself.   And above all have to live in Reality, not waste the time with fantasy. 😀

Is it a daunting task ?   No, I don’t think so neither.

Because, to be a Buddhist is as easy as Just Do It, Just Live.  😀

___/\___

—

DISASTER in Japan

 

–

–

–

–

——————————————————– Here Everything was lost

—————————————————–anything remains is the HOPE

————————————————–and the WILL to Re-build the LIFE.

–

–

–

–

Seeing the Earth Quake and the Tsunami report from Japan is nothing but a heart-braking to me.

To see a photo of a flatten muddy field which caption says, There used be a town, its empty span of

nothingness shocked and made me wordless. Emptiness of almost perfectly flushed-out field.

—

It seemed, the western reporter, photographer prefer to pick up dramatically or even funnily

piled-up devastation. An orgy of destruction. ——— but to Japanese, as I am, it is not funny at all

nor the object to be amazed.

—

Another cultural differences appeared in the western media is, all the report found it is even strange,

the reporters unanimously says ” how Japanese can keep emotion in check and stays calm ?”

The emotion is the default feeling of the human-being, hence it is more or less the same to any

culture. Though, emotional expression is not instinctive, in other words, it is cultural.

Whether it is emotional or not, expression is a way of the communication, therefore even

an emotional expression is dependent on the situation.

—– there was an interesting psychological study and the video images of the small children.

When a small child stumbled and fallen, having a pain the child started to cry. —– You will think it is

a natural emotional reaction.

Though when the same child stumbled and fallen on the empty street where nobody else is in sight

( except a hidden video camera ), child didn’t cry, and stand up by herself.

This is the true nature of the human-being. —– communication is to appeal to others.

Having emotion is one thing. To express is other.

If there is no other person to help, no need to express. —– even small child knows this

and behave accordingly.

AAAAA

In the western culture, where the Ethos and the psyche was shaped in the cast of Judia-Christian religion.

In there, the God is a humanized image or notion. And the relation of the believer to

the God is one-by-one base. You have to stand before the God in person. Hence you have to talk or express

to him — otherwise you can’t to be heard.

Therefore, unless you express and assert your Self, you are not exist. And under this understanding

even a word expressed by a person may not necessary enough. Hence, a written contract became essential.

So that, express and express and make a claim is the basis of the psyche.

And as the relation to the God is one-by-one, when something happened, shout “ Why me “

AAAAA

In comparison, the Eastern God or the place of the mighty power is the Heaven,

or Buddhist’s  explanation is the Dharma. The rules of the Universe.

Regardless, whether you face it or not, believe or express yourself or not, you are under the Dharma.

As all the occurrences and the existences are in this Dharma or under this Dharma, hence even a huge

natural disaster may produced by this same Dharma, hence you can’t argue with it.

Nor there is no use to complain or express your emotion. —–  Shout and cry is no use. The matter is

just think what you can react to the situation. What you have to do the next.

And in the case of huge natural disaster, as the same fate has come to everybody, and as everybody

was created by the same Dharma, everybody has the same feeling and facing the same situation,

one crying wouldn’t make situation any better.

Thanks to Japan has very little foreign element in their psyche, everybody is sharing the same psyche

—– even to the people who was not affected by the disaster, they share the same pain,

hence the help started almost instantly. And no looting at all.

—

In the Buddhist’s explanation, this is the moment when the Dharma prevailed.

As everybody having the Dharma in them, when they sees the situation far beyond the human

comprehension, lost the word, hence lost any thinking, therefore the mind became

blank = blank open space = Mushin —> The Dharma, hence its nature of Charity and compassion prevailed.

And the Dharma is inside,  whether the police is there or not, no looting occure.  Since Dharma knows it.

—-

I only hope the people who had this disaster to recover and able to re-build their life.

( And in this given opportunity, Japanese can root out their rotten government and rotten policy in their

nuclear generating system )

___/\___

—

BURDEN ???

When the Buddhism was introduced to the west, Buddhism  was seen as another alternative to

the bankrupting western philosophy, not as a religion. —– It was a novel, fancy, rather mythical idea to

the intellectuals then.

Anyhow, the Christianity is losing the attraction hence the philosophy based on it was loosing their

credibility as well.  People could see the trouble of the world, political, economical or anything

general are seemingly not caused or related to the God’s act. —— evil communism, capitalism,

dreadful germ etc  has to be dealt with nuclear defence, political movement or science etc etc.

Definitely not with the religion. The poverty etc, the personal trouble has been dealt with social

welfare and for even more personal mental problem, there is the psychiatrist etc etc.

Otherwise just buy Prozac. ( was that ?   I don’t remember, that kind 😀  )

So, the Buddhism was received by the people as yet another intellectual interest, rather like

a party talking piece.

Therefore to sell the product, the same capitalist’s popularism approach was needed.

It was the same market situation, like to sell a freezer to an Alaskan Eskimo. —– smooth tongue

and fancy dream, added value to the life = to be a superior noble existence.

Hence one of the fundamental condition,  a step of the  Self Denial became a burden to sell Buddhism.

—-

Only in one or two century, the life and the situation or environment of the mankind has been changed

so much. —- superficially to the good but fundamentally to the worse.

Until only a century or so ago, humankind was in the hand of element or in the hand of God.

Very few people had their life intact.  If not Dickensian, it might have dreadful grief stricken etc.

( These days, if anybody was lucky enough to have such experience, it would be well entitled to claim a

compensation on  No win No pay based proceedings —– Call now !  😀  )

So that, the people has been living their life embracing big void of grief, loss, failure, regret and quite

few are having even heavy guilty conscience  etc etc.  ( Having had Self Denial done )

—– so the rhetoric of ” It’s because of your original sin ”  did work, and people needed to have a God.

—-

When I wrote the previous post, the reason why I used a word Burden and wrote, it may not

appropriate was, for you to think about.

If you thought, it’s a Burden —– you don’t need a religion or Buddhism, other than an intellectual fancy.

If you felt, or no, no more please —– you haven’t faced your trouble in seriously deep enough.

If you found yourself, familiar with the subject.  Go for walk.  And see the sky, tree etc let the

scenery  passing in your peripheral vision.  And nothing on the street took your attention in

10 minutes.  Back home and do this tomorrow again.

( But don’t hit by a car —– I wouldn’t take responsibility  for your car accident  😀  —– State of Mushin is

not a Trance at all.  All the subconscious is fully receptive, hence automatic body movement as well )

Have a nice day.  Spring is coming.

___/\___

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Why SUPERMAN Fly — not Japanese ROBOT ?

You know,  the Super Hero has Super Power which is beyond of human imagination.

—– well, it is in a case of Western Hero such as Superman, even Harry Potter kind.

And did you notice,  Japanese equivalent of them are often the Super Robot. — In old days, it was like

Astro Boy (鉄晼アトム), IronMan 28 (鉄人２８号 )and then Gandam etc who needs to charge-up or inject

the energy fuel —– doesn’t look like having super natural power.  No, they are not super natural Hero.

Strangely you may think, Japanese Super Hero is a variant of Ninja / Extreme Human. ! ! !

The origin of those Super Hero came from the Ethos and the Myth of each culture.

The Western God is the Almighty.  You can’t count what power he got.  It is unknowable.

And the same apply to the counter part, the Devil.    So that, they fight using super natural power.

In western tradition, to have a supernatural power is the norm to a Hero, Anti-Hero, Witch or Sorcerer.

But in the East, only the people in the Hades use supernatural power, and it is evil.

Hence, a Hero in the Eastern film, fight with his almost superhuman power and skill, yet it is still human skill.

Chinese Kong-Fu Hero, Japanese Sward Master, Ninja —– are all Hero in this category.

In a film, those Hero does incredible jump, still they never fly.

—

In order to spread the kids’ fantasy, a new type of Hero started to appear in the Japanese comics in 50th.

They are the Robot,  as it becoming within technological feasibility and reality.

So that, starting in my generation, the Japanese kids were growing up with Robot stories.

In tradition, Japanese Hero has to remain to be a human, regardless whether he got superhuman like power.

If not human, it’s a monster and never be a Hero.   And this principle applies to a Robot Hero too !

Japanese Robot has to be not only realistic but also Scientifically rational, even in a comic story.

If the energy run-out, even a super Robot needs to fill.  They are not a product of Myth or wild fantasy.

When those Comic Robot Hero fly, they open the exhaust of small jet engine, then blasted to the sky.

Hence they are realistic and scientifically rational, it made the kids to think its structure or mechanism.

Which lead those boys (and girls) to study science or technology —– and created today’s Robot on the end.

This is the reason why, they like to create Humanoid. —— still couldn’t forget their Hero.

If their Hero / Robot Hero was irrational and operated by the magic,  kids would just grown up

and forget a childish silly story —— nothing to do with science in their future life.

——–

It is showing remarkable contrast of  Eastern and Western psyche.

But a question here, is, have any of you ever seen flying-man, let alone any super natural act,

not mention the super natural power of The God and The Devil ? ? ?

There is no such things in the Buddhism.

Buddhism is in the Dharma which inherently follow the rationality.  Or, by observing the

manifestation of the Dharma, people found and learned, What the Rule of Rationality is.

( Rationality is not an invention of the man )

Therefore the Dharma having no magic.  Hence, Buddha himself prohibited to practice magic.

( Of cause, there is certain unknowable in the Dharma, but it is invisible any way,

and nobody can touch it.  Therefore even Buddha didn’t  answer for this question )

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—-

Mistake in Philosophy

The most fundamental and fatal mistake of the western Philosophy lies in their basis of Dualism,

and seemingly it is originated from their notion of the God.

Against this notion, the SELF = ME became its counter notion as rigid as the God.

As the concept of Self is there, the Self is the one who see the subject ( of cause, you may say, who else

saw and talked about the subject in his book, in his philosophy.  And say, Is this a Zen Mondo ?  🙂 )

( Shut up  🙂 )  As long as the subject is somebody else, there is no problem, hence scientific, objective

rationality works well and yelled this impressive western technological civilization.

Because of the objectivity is Selfless in its definition. Anyhow, the nature and its phenomena,

physics are there before human existence. We are just the observer regardless whoever the Self.

—

But when the Self try to see the Self ( or True Self what so ever the context ) and the phenomena around it.

The perpetual question of  Who is the Self came into the play. Therefore, the matter related to

themselves, psychology, human science, social phenomena, etc, it always plagued by its view-point = Self.

In fact, from ancient Plato to modern Phenomenology etc, they misbelieved that they can objectively see

the human affair and able to construct the philosophy as well.  And they stuck in the cul-de-sac.

Because even an  Atheist, started exactly the same stance, The Dualism. —– God and Me / Me and

the Subject / Observer and be Observed,  the uncertainty of the Self is still persistent,

hence its stance of view point,  reliability itself is in doubt.

The fundamental trouble of this stance is, we can’t objectively observe the Self or the phenomena

attributed by ourself. —–  we always end-up in unseeable and unknowable.

On the end everybody just resigned to say  ” Don’t bother, there are thousands of truth ”   🙂

So that, some Philosopher try to grasp this unknowable with the notion of  Transcendental though, made

further  mistake try to convert it to explanatory words by thinking. ( You may say, What else ?  😀  )

This was the very situation, which Buddha encountered soon after he got his enlightenment,

Should I teach this to others or not.  Can this be transmittable by the words ?

( This is why, the Buddha’s teaching has been conveyed by the practice and metaphor )

—

While we are thinking, most of its process ( some says 90% of it ) are taking place in our

subconsciousness. —– And so-called Self is a mere temporally mock-up model by guess-work, since it

never stays the same, moment to moment and never rationally configurable like our thinking process.

Hence True Self which reside in our subconscious is ever invisible and remained undefinable.

This was the reason why Buddha said  ” Don’t bother there is no such thing like Self exists”  :-D.

The situation was made even harder, as the basis of our thinking are also contained in the immense

amount of the Data or information which we accumulated without aware of its existence.

—– so, am I talking hopeless ?  Am I giving cold water to the Philosopher’s pleasure to express themselves ?

The answer is again in the Buddha’s words ” Don’t take a word, think yourself “

And to against the fundamental flaw of Dualism, the Zen giving the answer ” Ichijo ”  Oneness.

In Ichijo we can overcome the alienation of the subject, alienation of the Self.

The barrier between observer and be observed disappear.

( Which I’m going to talk further in the next post )

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