Dog Shit

After years of practice, when Zen Master found what is the Zen,

—– as it was simply the detached mind, hence selflessness (Mushin ) and

nothing but ” Just Do It ” with no mysterious secret, ALL of them

described  What is Zen  with rather insulting words, such as ” Its a dog shit”

even  ” Toilet Paper ” (well, equivalent of it — real expression  Shiketsu-kan

is not printable ).

They must felt almost the annoyance ” What all those years’ practice for ? ”

——- This is the beauty and the paradox, even an irony of the Buddhism,

as its says ” Everybody has the Dharma with in ”

—— You see ?  I told you !

This is true, and it is so easy as there is no complication. —– Though,

in real life,simplest thing is hardest to understand, especially to the people

who try to understand.

( Hidden secret here is, to attain selflessness, one has to Re-Program

one’s subconscious through repeated practice, not by thinking, because

higher level of the brain activity has less effect to the subconsciousness )

——————

This is the reason, why people see the Buddhism not as a Religion,

or even as a  Philosophy.

There is no Mambo-Jumbo to believe or worship, hence it is not a Religion.

And no systematic structure of the understanding of the Dharma, but

simply just accept it as it is, hence it is not Philosophy.

——–But on the end, Buddha’s teachings freed the people from their

deluded idea  such as a fear to reborn as a dog , and made them to live

their life with firm confidence and able to live quite creatively.

Isn’t this, what Buddha intended with his teaching ?

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.  🙂

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.)

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.