Passive or Active

Somebody who has read my Blog questioned me  ” Hey Yoshi, So, you mean to live reactive,  Passive Life ?

Where is your independence or individuality and its own active choice ?”

The one’s own individuality or So-called Self is an imaginary notion.  It is an abstracted idea.

You have to see it in reality in clear eyes.

——————–

OK, so, if you want to create something new as an artistic creation (or new technological invention, what

so ever )—– what is the resources you got and the origin of the idea or imagination ?

Are they purely your own creation / invention ?

—– The seeds of the idea or concepts were given and placed long time ago, even unconsciously.

We are just picking  one or two of them and re-arranging (in what we believe) in our logics.

But those idea, logics themselves are also the result of the accumulated wisdom.  They are not our

invention.—— In fact, this is the way what we are processing our thinking, nothing new there.

When we suddenly struck by  !!! and get superb idea, it might be triggered by the particular

external situation or internal re-arrangement / configuration of the knowledges which  were

already there too.   And this is how we inspire.

So that,  re-configure all the resources in one’s unique way, we like to think

” It was my invention / creation ” —– though it was in fact, only a given opportunity.

———- And we Buddhist understand or interpret it,  It was given by the Dharma,  since those

mechanisms are almost invisible and beyond the human comprehension therefore it must be

placed by the supreme power, the wisdom of the Universe.

The one’s seemingly active creativity is nothing other than  passively receiving and accept the

Dharma’s suggestion and its rules.  (Divine inspiration works far better.  Have look around  😀  )

——————–

When I got the idea ” I should go west and listen organ music ” was not my idea but the order of the Dharma.

And I just accepted as an imperative and diligently followed it.

——— Do you think was that wrong ?     Did I wasted my time or lost anything ?

Far from it,  I learned and gained unmeasurable  value of experience.

Pay enough effort while expect nothing (by  Mushin ), would bring unexpected reword

I like this Paradox in Buddhism. This is the way, we can achieve the life’s maximum Potential.

Mushin ( No Mind )

While looking back and analyzing the circumstances of the extremely lucky coincidence

which I described in the post “J, S, Bach”, how I was given the chance to meet the organist,

Prof; Helmut Walcha, I came to the conclusion, the contributory fact seemed to be my very attitude

for that organ pilgrimage.

I did the said pilgrimage absolutely no purpose, or for any personal gain.   So that, other than

few  photos of the organs, there wasn’t any attempt to make such as the sound recordings.

I bumped a Japanese Radio Producer working in NHK (Japanese equivalent of BBC) at a church in Paris

who said ” It shame if you had made sound recordings, it would make good music program” though

such idea was completely out of the scope.   I just wanted to listen the music, that’s all.

Its mean,  there was no Ego,  only the Music of  J,S,Bach existed there.

——————–

This absolute Mushin (since as I have distinguished the difference between Mushin and

the misconceived  idea of so-called Selflessness,  I’ll use this word instead ) was the very distinctive,

peculiar state of the mind then, and it must be the reason why the Dharma rewarded me with good luck,

otherwise such coincidence was too good to be true.

This must be the reason why Zen never ask the followers to believe any story or even the teachings

itself but just achieve the Mushin and live  with absolutely no intentional thought, even a conscious

of ” I’m doing Zen” — only in such Ego less state of the mind and the life, the Dharma prevail itself.

( If I resort that idea of Double Layer,  of cause my upper Layer, Rational Thinking was working, as I had to

find the train to go to particular town and the Church etc,  I needed to deal with all the task though,

the Deeper Layer, fundamental drive ” Why Do I need to Do”  had no Ego,  took as imperative and

automatic.  It was the same situation like in the mountain,  we need to keep walking without question)

——————–

When I did that Pilgrimage, I didn’t have enough understanding of  Zen, let alone any belief of the Dharma.

(I was still a young man.  Only few months after I met Master Kogetsu in the Eihei-ji Temple )

But I can definitely say , there was no purpose or any special intention behind of my journey ——- it

happened almost by chance, and this completely open, Mushin was able to touch with the Dharma and

invited the good coincidence to meet Prof; Walcha.

This is the very Panja Paramita of the Buddhism, hidden mechanism of the Dharma.

J. S. Bach — Helmut Walcha

One morning,  when I was drifting, I heard a pipe organ music of  J.S. Bach, in the back of a TV drama.

Then,  I decided to go west to listen the sound of original instrument in the original acoustic environment.

Before, I was an enthusiast of  Baroque music, especially Bach’s organ Music.  So, I made a long list of the church and the name of the town where the recording was made for the German Gramophone Archive Record.

Then I took a ship to Siberia, Russia.  When the ship left Yokohama Port, I saw off  Japan  with my eyes getting fuzzier as it may be the last time to see her ever again.

——————–

After long journey through frozen land scape of Russia, I reached to  Helsinki, Finland.  The Helsinki Cathedral was my starting point of 100 of the church organ pilgrimage, covering many famous Alp Schnitger, Silbermann organs etc.    (The beauty of this plan was, if we go to the Church on  Sunday, there is the organ music played on, could be 300 years old original instrument, in the unique acoustic of the church. Free of charge.—- On top of this, many organ concerts, festivals held there)

——————–

Then I came across a charity concert of  Bach’s organ music to help restoration of old organ in Frankfurt.  The Organist was the most famous organist Prof; Helmut Walcha,  whose recording captured me into Bach’s organ music. (Prof; Walcha is a blind man, thus he played hundreds of organ music just from his memory)

Before concert start I was talking with a man sat next of me, about the different sound of each organ all over the Europe, since it was nearly the end of my journey,  I had covered most of the famous organs already.

The man was rather surprised of my journey, and he took me up  to organ booth and introduced me to the organist, Prof; Walcha  himself. ——- the man was the Manager of  Prof; Walcha.  ( Can you believe such a lucky coincidence.  ! )

Prof; Walcha talked about a tour of Japan and his friend, Musicologist Keisei Sakka.   And I had happened to attend a special  lecture by Prof; Sakka about the evolution of  Music Tonal System as a part of my Sociological study.  ( Tonal System evolved under the Christian monastic life and their Protestant Ethos of the devotion of the own life to perfect it — unlike a superficial glorification in the Catholic church, where how much gold was used to decorate the organ was the matter, but in the Protestant church, how three sounds of Trinity harmonize perfect was the matter. ) —– (I wrote about how Natural Tonal System was created.)

———-It was the incredibly lucky coincidence to fulfill my pilgrimage.

And it made one of the best moment of my whole life. What I could ask more.

——————–

Some ignorant criticize Bach’s music, saying that they are too abstract, even mechanical.   In fact it was the self confession of how he is ignorant and having no ear to appreciate the music.  Under the most strict rules of such as the Fugue, still able to create such soul-shaking striking music is the work of nothing but the genius. ——– Achieve  total freedom under the strict rules, is the Zen.

Unlike Romantic School’s sticky emotional melody,  Polyphonic Baroque Music, especially Bach’s music can eliminate the thought.  (Rather constant rhythm / no syncopation, and three-part polyphonic keeps waving complex tonal pictures,  which  refuses our own imagination —– makes us just listen the sound, not a story or any notion—– yet it gave us very comfortable relaxed feeling)

It’s suite to the Zenist.

.

Direct Transmission at work

Something amazed me is, soon after I put the words

” Spread your hands wide, embrace the world”  This is the Dharma. (at [ Selfless —What ?] )

I started to receive Emails which saying  ” This is the best / most impressive expression you ever made

in your blog “——— m m m.  (what about another 50 odd posts ? ——Ha Ha Ha, I should be humble )

I know many of my  friends are quietly reading my blog without putting comment publicly still

advising me to correct my pigeon English.

Yet I didn’t know they are reading my blog in such timing,  soon after I have put it up.

——————–

What impressed me even more is, the response from those readers.

The expression  ” Spread your hands—”  was the  Zen Direct Transmission.

( It is only the Action.  No Notion contained there.  Yet, it conveys direct Message to strike subconscious)

If you read that  paragraph in the post, you may find,  I was rather tired to write in the words, as I was

the one kept saying ” Stop talking, stop thinking, just do it —-” , so I changed the tact at that moment.

———- And it worked straight.

Non of those friends are practicing Buddhist,  and if they know anything about the Zen, it may only learned

from my blog,  yet still they grasped the meaning of the Dharma straight.

Yes,  Direct  Transmission does  work. —– This is the living sample.

——————–

Learning from the suggestion ” Detached from Emotion “, ” Apathetic ” etc,  some  people could  reach to

the deep understanding.——-By this Detachment, it exposes the soft tissue of  Subconscious.

Let the most sensitive sensory to work, (Zen Master called this Shin-gan / Eyes of Heart) ——and able to see

the meaning behind.  Like them, even non  Zenist could  able to notice the significance of that expression 

spread the hands, and  able to respond to it at once.  This is the Zen.

By the Apathetic eyes and the mind,  they could open their deepest Pathos.  ( Paradox again )

This is the Buddhism and  Zen at work.

East and West ( 2 )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————–

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

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

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

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

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

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

speak same language,  hence he could answer your call.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

——————-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harmony in Dharma / Origin of TONAL SYSTEM

When I was small, long before the school, I made the most Fundamental discovery,

“ Fundamental Element of the matter is the ASH “- – – – that’s what I thought.   Though, nobody was

impressed, despite this is the unquestionable FACT.    Look,  To burn anything, Wood, Grass, Coal, Charcoal,

Fish bone, Paper, Cotton, Woolly things —— what ever they are, all burn to the ASH.

And even burn  ASH  further,  still it  remains as the ASH. —— This is the Truth, isn’t it ?

But I only got the words ” Silly boy ”  without any explanation.

(World is twisted,  they are blind and rotten ! ! !   😦  )

——————–

Another question which captured me ——in fact many years, was “Why all the music were composed

in the same Do, Re, Mi, Fa  scale, and can be played on the same simple instrument ? ? ?”

On that time, one of my pass time was to listen the radio VOA ( Voice of America Far-East Netwok/

American propaganda, aiming to the communist Russia and China ) and listening latest American

Hit-Chart.  And I was writing down the short passage of each tune to music score.

( Regardless,  whether the tune is A or C—– the matter is just relative scale of the note )

( And this interest led me start to listen many ethnic, such as Indian Music — It was the time of Ravi Shankar)

——————–

German Sociologist  Max Weber wrote a book about the evolution of the music scale,

from  Natural Tonal Scale to Equi-distant Tonal Scale ——– etc, kept my question alive and so on.

Many years later, when I needed to design electronic tone generator,  and while watching the frequency

table of music tones, such as  A=440 Hz,  E=660 Hz  etc—— I realized, all the tones in the music scale

are having 1:1.5 ratio, which can create Pentatonic easily. ( This is why Pentatonic is so common in

any folk cultures in the world )

1 :1.5 ratio mean, if you shorten the length of the String  ( if it was C / Do ) to 2/3rd,

the tone become 1.5 times higher to the 5th (E / So) and so on.

(Press a string and play, if the shorter side sound octave higher than the other side, it’s the 2/3rd point)

In short, Do (524 Hz)—> So (786 Hz)—> Re (1179/ Octave high of  589 Hz)—> Ra (880/ 440 Hz)

—> Mi (660 Hz) ( Save, few Hz deviation,  which wouldn’t  make audible differences)

Here all the Pentatonic Notes of  Do, Re, Mi, So, Ra  were created. ! ! !

——–Much more interesting Phenomena is, those tones are not human invention.

They are naturally existing.

All the materials vibrates.  (If you hit, they makes a sound, except shock absorbing soft material)

They vibrate not only in its fundamental frequency, but also all the harmonic frequencies of x2, x3, x4, x5 etc.

(Though even number of the harmonics are in the Octave, and its sound is indistinguishable.)

So that, those odd numbered harmonics are   524 Hz (C / Do) x3 /2 = 784 (G / So),     x 5 / 4 = 654 (E / Mi),

x7 / 8 = 457 (A / Ra),    x9 / 8 = 588 (D / Re) —-> Do, Re, Mi, So, Ra —– Pentatonic in the Nature. ! ! !

This is the reason why the  Dominant Harmony is [ Do, Mi, So ],  as they are naturally there, and

sounding in perfect Harmony.

——————–

The Nature having such amazing structure,  Isn’t this the beauty of the Dharma and the Rules within ?

——–When I realized this, I thought ” Eureka ” then noticed, this is what Pythagoras found 3000 years ago.

My brain was 3000 years slow.

—

Compassion

Summer Visitor / May Fly on piece of Plum

Compassion is, as the word suggest,  it’s the

matter of the passion and the deep feeling.

It is not in the domain of consciously operated

logics or like a coöperation  which need to have

a lots of intellectual deliberation in the brain.

It seems there is a kind of invisible

communications operating behind.

Strange fact is,  as every body knows,  we

still able to distinguish if nice smile,  sweet words are genuine.

Even just looking a face we can see the character and what kind of the person.

I collected  20,000 faces found in the Net, and analyzing such as, why those looks  same 2 faces give

different impression.——- It may emanated from a dormant memory in the Subconscious Data Bank,

even from a genetic memory.  And this invisible communication making us almost automatic reaction,

when someone need a help  we give a hand.

I don’t think this is from the emotion which is entwaind with Ego,  but from much dark depth of the

Spirit ( in fact I don’t like this convenient word —– but as we don’t have suitable word, I just use it

for a convenience) it is like a respect or awesome feeling as to be in kinship of a life form, as its apply

to even to a small insect.  ( Except cockroach !—– they are the evil. —–Without our compassion,

they can thrive and survive even after the extinction of human )  😀

Direct Transmission

Direct transmission is the way to communicate using purely in one’s sensory and put the signal

straight into one’s subconscious / old layer of the data process system, without relying on the word / notion.

(Though this signal can be just a sign.  And this sign trigger the feeling, dormant memory in the spirit).

Especially if the subject is too ambiguous or too complexed, too big to convert to the notion or

even the word is not existing.——( like a word / notion of  Subconscious in the time of Buddha )

Buddhism is the teachings, challenged to tackle such subject, Dharma.

Superficially the meaning of the Dharma has been explained though, it contains too many meanings

and notions therefore too complexed to define,  and its deep meaning in its totality is almost unknowable.

Still, funnily enough, it’s everywhere, hence it is on front of you as everybody is seeing it

and you are a part of it.  This is not an invisible Atomic Sub-particle’s theory.

So that the Buddhist spend hundreds of years to analyzing and trying to define it,  resulting the

mountain of Abidharma Mantras.

——————–

Buddha himself didn’t explain it,  since it is on front of our eyes and can be seen by anybody, yet

unexplainable by the words.—–And make the people to discover its deep meaning by themselves

through the practice, is what he was teaching.———-There was, and still is, no short cut.

So that,  the famous ” Flower Summon ” comes in, ( though, this story only appeared in the

Chinese Mantra ——since they are pretty good in this kind of symbolic expression originated

from the Taoism,  such as the huge blanc space express the rich notion of “Wu” (Mu in Japanese))

———- if you see the Dharma there, this is the Dharma what Buddha meant.

( If you see ” Oh, Master, you decapitated poor flower. You killed it”——– you see a dead flower.  😀 )

———- It is like your stomach up-set.  You know it but you can’t explain exactly what it is in the word.

And only the other who got the same, may know it.  So, to know it you have to bite  onion, plenty of it.

( In  Zen term, blanc white paper may be the expression of the whole Universe,—- or Nothing.

Therefore “Noting” can be the whole existence / the Dharma )——so that,

a small room in the Vimarakirti’s house can accommodate 3000 bikkus. )

Voice of Dharma

The reader who has been kept reading this Blog may have now realized

What is the Buddhism and the function of its practice.

——————–

The fanction of the practice is to remove the noise of the activities of Notion ( Conscious Thinking )

which is masking the inner layer,  Raw Data Processing System or Old System ( Subconscious ).

Since the Old System has been evolved with the history of the Life, its memories retains the

billion of years wisdom and still retains the ear to hear the signals of the Pineal Grand, which

seemingly able to sense the signals from the Earth and the Universe.

Therefore,  in the state of absolute passiveness / Selflessness,  we may able to receive those signals

through the Old System.( even Unconsciously )

———- What is the signal ?

When asked, Buddha didn’t give answer.

Hence in the Buddhism tradition,  it can not be taught neither described in the word.

(Obviously it is the Voice of the Dharma, though the deepest meaning of the Dharma is not explanable

which the one has to see by himself,  thus Buddha didn’t explain.  His action itself was the teaching.)

So that, when we meditate,  first, silence the thought,  then expose the sense of the inner

layer, Old System in the absolute passiveness——-so, you may feel even the flow of dead still air.

This is the way,  we might be able to hear the voice of the Dharma.

(But mind you, Dharma doesn’t speak  English. Its a sign.    Ha Ha Ha   😀  )

——————–

( As I wrote before it can be done not only by the sitting,  but also even by cutting a lemon.

So,  it is your turn, try, just do it. ——- It is just a matter of you to open your Subconscious in

absolute passiveness.)

Is Dharma Directing Us ? / 8150 Story

By writing this I might be punished though, as Buddha himself said to have prohibited

(in one of the earliest Scripture which was apparently written down from the memories of his words) saying, Never show off,  Never show any Miracle or Magic.

Miracle mean a kind of phenomenon demonstrating a super natural power. —– Though, my parents had been giving the advises to the others,  predicting what would happen over them and advising what to prepare.—— Incredibly those predictions were so accurate, and even a MP had been asking the advice such as the result of the Election, when my mother told, it will succeed, he succeeded and told, it will fail, he lost the seat of the Parliament. ——Funnily enough,  they didn’t use this practice to predict like a lottery win saying, it will not work to anything for an own gain as it got be done in absolute selfless state, its only works to help others.  The prediction to my exams of the Hi-school and Universities were all spot on.  Still I thought it is a mambo-jumbo and it driven me to the science and technology side where everything is visible and logical.

——————–

After left Japan I didn’t communicate with my family 2 years, drifting east to west following the wind, as I thought I was a free agent.  Though, when I happened to return Japan, and heard from my brother ( who believed, I was already dead ) that my mother did know and told him, time to time, where I was and doing what, with incredible accuracy,  I was utterly horrified,  as somebody is watching from above and know everything, even reaching to the other side of the world,

we are inside of the Shakyamuni’s palm,  we can never been a free agent.

——————–

Even though demonstrating those powers,  it seemed my parents were not punished.

So, it would be safe to tell even my story. —–(Still, if this blog suddenly stopped, you know I was dead)  Though, my stories together with so much so FACT, could still be a sheer coincidence, as it couldn’t be replicated or statistically scrutinized,  since the life is only once and couldn’t repeat the same again though, in order to avoid any doubt I’ve been keeping all the facts  with the original exhibits.    🙂

——————–

As I wrote before,  this Blog started in the chain of sheer coincidences,  I realized it must be directed by the power over there, which the Buddhist call  Dharma.   I thought, this might be the time I should  write about what I found in the Buddhism.

But in the same time I had a hidden hope, as the nature of the Internet,  I may able to ask the reader who practicing  Zen, to report me their opinion if they too witnessing the same phenomenon, which may prove in numbers of facts, that the Dharma is indeed there and working.

——————–

To my fellow Zenist.

Please look around your life and check the numbers where ever they appeared.

Bank account, Card No’  Phone No’  Friend’s Phone No’  even a No’ on a shopping Receipt, etc etc.   Is there any pattern of the combination of numbers repeated ?   Such as in my case,  they are the 8150 but in any order, like 8510, 5801- – – – all 24 combinations.

For instance,

* My Bank Account is;  0518xxxx

* My Transport Pass:  xxxx1508xxxxx

* Voda Phone Topup Card; xxxxxx0185 xxxxx

* My subscription number of Electronics Magazine Elektor is  118056

* When I wanted to buy DSLR, I noticed the Post Code of Canon Japan is  146-8051

And the Lens No’ of the Macro lens I bought together is  41805 – – –

* And an Electronic Component Manufacturer  ALPS  who I’ve kept using as they are

pretty close to my family home,  their Post Code is  145-8051

* A  Japano-Brazilian guy who stayed in my place before he went to Japan.

He sent me a letter from  Iga-City  which Post Code was  5180834

* When I needed to buy a Printer, Epson R300, I found the Algos Catalog No’ having this 8150,  so instead I bought Canon, then I found the Box sorting Code of this Printer was 5108

– – – – – – – – I can continue this even hundreds more.

(Since I found the production No’  1058- – – – – on the sugar packet,  I reduced its intake to a half)   😀

——————–

This number follows me where ever I go.

——( I’m not necessary feel comfortable, it’s a real Big Brother )

It is not  simply a good or bad Omen  though, it may indicate  ” I need a lot to do with this, Be careful.”

I have number of friends who got this in Phone No’—-they are very good friend and having contact many years and I’m keep giving advise, still never too close,  and strangely they are all left over f the group once I was associated with (such as the art group).

———- So far I never found any another set of the number repeatedly appear as a pattern.

——————–

A man who  said to be a Numerologist saw this number and told me

” In Japanese reading [ 8150 ] can be pronounced as  Ha-I-Go-Rei 背後霊——Its mean The Spirit Behind.

Spirit is communicating you”—–m m m, Sound pretty spooky !—–(you can search < Haigorei > in the Net)

———I wondered, am I obsessed, or Nuts ?   But I didn’t choose the Number, they just came and happened.

The local Iceland shop having their shop code  0158 —–if it was the case, it seems Dharma did know that I’m moving into this town before I did. ——–Yet still, can such things exist ?  Or is this happening to anybody who is living selflessly ?

If this is the case,  The Dharma is with us or we can not escape, as we are the part of it.

———-

So, if anyone noticed the same kind of phenomenon in your life please tell me.

(Of cause, it doesn’t necessary to be a number game, could be anything peculiar caught in your eyes, as Buddha found this Dharma  without seeing Phone No’ Account No’  there must be another clue)  Of cause, the one would say “Dharma is on front of you, To see it, is the matter of your eyes”

———- though it wouldn’t make the very answer.

———–

PS : In addition, I put two more very clear cases happened since after I put this post.

<<    https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/cupidon-by-kinetorori/  

<<    https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/99th-post-seal-of-approval/ 

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