JOKE

One of the most cynical joke toward the Buddhism is

—– If there is no Self, where is the one who get enlightened ?

In fact, I’ve seen this joke also in a famous book written by one of the most prominent Buddhism

scholar in Japan.    He translated many important Buddhism scriptures into modern Japanese.

Which book,  I might have read 100 times ?

(so, I’ve read this joke 100 times) — Ha ha ha —– very funny 😀

And it took me more than 20 years to realize the hidden truth —–

Ah’ because, he hasn’t enlightened yet then !

Non

As long as the one is entwined with the Self —– no enlightenment. (It is self-evident)

And the moment, when the one got enlightened —– it is the same moment as the Self disappeared.

Or, the moment when the Self disappeared, it’s mean the one was enlightened.

The Self and the Enlightenment never exist in the same time.

Therefore, to make the joke has no point —– and the author of the book hasn’t realized it by

himself —– its mean he didn’t know what is the enlightenment. Yet still, he is a professor teaching

about the Buddhism. —– knowing the words and teaching them is different from Buddhism itself.

One could get enlightened in direct transmission in one day, still the other who studied

hundreds of scriptures are not necessary guaranteed to achieve enlightenment or nirvana.

Never mind, we all are still Buddhist. Ha ha ha 😀

___/\___

non

Cheap or HUMBLE ?

These days, every corner of the town, there is yet another so-called

pound shop.  At one of them I found rather surprising item on the shelf.

—– Six energy-saving light bulbs for 99 pence.

Alternative to traditional incandescent light, those miniaturized fluorescent

light are everywhere. I’ve seen three bulbs for 2 pounds, then 1 pound, but

I couldn’t anticipate six for less than 1 pound. Those light bulb having rather

complicated electronic control circuit inside of its socket base and

regulating the current go through the tube to about 50 mili ampea level

—- hence, 240 V x 0.05 A = 12 W. And to do it, the circuit is switching the

current in pretty high frequency using high voltage Power Field-effect Transistor.

If I buy this kind of transistor which I can use in another electronic switching circuit, it may cost me

a pound each. So, I thought, even if the bulb is not perfect, still I can take the component out of it and the glass

tube can be used to make a kind of sculpture.

non

So, I bought, and tested them in my place.

—– The bulb worked as it is. Though, I wouldn’t know whether they last only 500 hours or

3000 hours. —– But, what I found peculiar was, the socket base of the bulb, its metal fitting is

slightly out of the standard. In fact, they are a bit larger, therefore very tight to insert to

the socket.     Think about, when you change the light bulb on the ceiling, stretch the hands while

standing on a wobbly chair, and struggling to insert or removing the bulb gripping the glass tube,

—– what would likely happen is, the thin glass tube may break, while sprinkling the toxic white

powder on your eyes,  if not cut your fingers.

My guess is, those bulb has been rejected by the dealer / importer as they are not meet the British standard —–

hence end up to the warehouse clearance sale,  then came to a pound shop.

The people who buy those products may not realize it is out of standard, even not able to speak in English, therefore

least likely to complain, not mention to take the matter to the Trade Standard Authority kind.

Anyhow, 16 pence each —– who bother to complain. 😀

non

As a matter of fact, this kind of trouble is nothing new.  I’ve bought rechargeable battery from the Lidle.

The 4 x AA type 2500mAH rechargeable battery £2.99 looked very very cheap —– on the face.

What I found was, they are slightly big.   In fact, they are 0.3 mm longer, which is in most of the case imposes no

trouble at all.  Though, I’ve built many home-made devices which is not necessary using ordinary battery case, but

having battery housing tightly placed in the device, hence the larger battery is harder to insert and remove. 😀

( With my test, they hardly show the proclaimed capacity of 2500 mAH nor having consistency —– and one of

them deteriorate quicker. —– its mean, set of four became useless  /  We can’t mix this kind of battery with others)

These days, those small and cheap products are all coming from China. Though China having their own measuring

unit, hence having the complication like a conversion between metric and imperial unit, therefore prone

to make a mistake to produce in wrong size.

Once before, I found a kind of toy from China which got two bearings inside, for one pound each.

Bearing is not a cheap item if we buy from engineering shop.   So, I thought if it is 50 pence each, it would be useful

for somewhere —– and I bought ten of them. ( got lots of bearings 😀 )

Then with my annoyance, I found their internal diameter is odd 7.5 mm and realized, this must be the common size

in China. —– So, I bought big screwdriver (of cause, also made in China ) —– and my guess was spot on,

its shaft diameter was also 7.5 mm.  I got shaft as well.  ( Best matched them are happy ever after   😀 )

—– To deal with cheap goods, we need to use our brain more.

A funny question is,  to buy those cheap goods,  is it a sign of  humbleness ?  

Or is it peny pinching greed ? —– I think,  I leave this question to you   🙂

___/\___  ( Yes, this is the Zen question,  Ha ha ha  😀  )

—

Landscape — or Memory-scape ?

Landscape ? — or Memory-scape ?

I don’t know. It’s a photograph. Sir.

Where the IMAGE came from ?

It came from a memory-card of my camera.

So, you photographed this, what was the subject ? Was that a Landscape or Abstract ?

What you mean Abstract ? Abstract of WHAT ?

That is what I’m asking.

Ask the Camera please. 😀 —– It might be De-ja-Vu. Sir.

So, your camera can take picture of your mind inside ?

What a fancy imagination you got. Sir. When we faced the situation, what I can do is

either press the button —– or not. I have only two choice.

So, you are doing Zombie photography. 😀

How nice. Very funny. This is Zen Photography   Sir.

That’s why I’m saying Zen is Dog Shit.

Dog Shit or not, can’t you see the scape somewhere where ever, not remember when but

far far away, long long time ago or in a future, we might have seen or may see one day.

You don’t need to think What is this about, but as long as the image absorbs your feeling,

and make your mouth shut, it’s all what needed.

—– But obviously this one didn’t make my mouth shut.

So I say.  Shut your mouth.  Just look it.  You are thinking too much.

You are violating my fundamental human right of Freedom of Expression.

Oh, bollocks. Preach to the camera.

What a dog shit.

———- Not much peace here. Ha ha ha 😀

___/\___

non

DETACHMENT and Rule of only ONCE

This Blog started two years ago just by accident. Because of it started, it started.

Not with any specific reason or purpose. And as its number of the readers grow, in my honest

feeling, I felt a kind of pressure to continue.

In my mind, say in that blank space, there seems to be a designated receptacle for Blog theme.

Therefore, the topics good for this Blog has been saved and it has been actually wrote down to post here.

But, since the day this Blog disappeared from the Syber-space once, on that

moment I thought “It is the sign for me to move this Blog to independent site”, though,

the receptacle for the post or something to write about, has disappeared too.

non

Zen mind is , fundamentally detached from any purpose or aim, it is only there as a product

of needs of the moment and the situation.

When the moment has gone and the situation is no longer there, there can’t be any product.

This is the same reason of me to have [Rule of only ONCE] —– if any short coming has

taken place in a situation, it is the end.

The file dilated. Hence no file to refer, nothing to think or cling.

Any how from the beginning, there was no reason the existence of the file in the first place

—– it was only a product of the moment.

Clinging the same idea or thinking which no longer exists or has a reason to be there, is a delusion.

non

May be the purpose of me to write Blog and to expose the idea under the light had a function to

solidify the vague idea then rationalize it—– and its process was finished.

As a name, DIY Zen suggest, this is a report of one attempt to decipher the Zen mind. It didn’t

follow any traditional method or teaching of a sect.  Hence there is no established authority.

Nor me to sell the idea or to organize a group.  This Blog was only a sample to see, whether it

is useful to others or not.

non

There is a hilarious story of Zen monks.  On the practice of silence, a monk fed up and murmured

“What a hell” so that, another monk shouted  “Shut up, don’t you know what we are doing”—– the

third monk quietly said “I’m the only one still in silence”.

To write about “There is nothing to write about” —– Ha ha ha.

Yet, this is the funniest part of the DIY Zen Blog.

Since it is the live report of what is the Zen in practice, this is a real report from the front line.

As there is nothing to write about,  there is nothing —– how peaceful !  😀

—– may be now on, I have to write a topics which I’ve made a memo before.

___/\___

non

DHARMA is Everywhere

Since I wrote and explained the Dharma in relation to spontaneous compassionate cases in

Japanese Disaster, a reader asked me “Is the Dharma prevails only in such special occasion ?”

—– Of cause not. Dharma is everywhere, where ever you go, always with you.

Simply because, that is how we exist and live.

===

In the sea, there is the Phytoplankton which is fixing solar-energy with their photosynthesis.

(I have no idea how many billions of tons of them all together there.) They are the most fundamental

organism to form the food chain, and they are eaten by the small fishes etc.

And the small fishes were eaten by the larger fishes and so on —–.(And on top of the chain, we eat

them large or small and in fact we are pushing many of them to their extinction )

On the land, the Plants are doing the same, creating themselves, looks out of nothing ( in fact, using

solar energy and the water + somewhat 10 materials ) —– then Herbivorous eat them.

—– In the Yellowstone Park US, now the re-introduced Wolves are regulating the population of

Elk ( kind of Reindeer ). ( When the man hunted down the Wolf, the Elk’s population exploded and

the vegetation has been devastated by the over grazing Elk —– So, man needed to put it back )

===

Those mechanism, so-called Ecosystem and its balance is the part of the Dharma,

so that some people call them as the Natural Law. Of cause, those mechanism are even inside of our

physiology as well, such as called Homoeostasis which controlling and keep the body condition constant.

The Dharma is not just a part of the science BUT crucially it is also a kind of will or direction

to over-see the EXISTENCES.

Why the Nature needs to have the balance ?   Or man’s body needs to be kept consistent ?

Because it is the will or direction of the Dharma to the Nature to BE HERE,

and the HUMAN BEING to EXIST. —– Rules / The Dharma couldn’t be explained  just with the

Science. Such as The Second law of the Entropy is a direct contradiction to the Creation of the Life. 

Why the particular atoms were INTENTIONALLY combined, not dispersed by the Entropy and

became to the Amino Acid and to a Life-form.—– ( It couldn’t be explained just with the Gravity )

( Yet, it doesn’t mean Human being got blank cheque. Since, we are only a small PART of the NATURE )

===

—– So, when we need,we eat we drink, we do the business etc etc —– on top of those fundamental

life’s activities, we form the society, we think and invent and so on, which we calls Culture and the

Civilization.   Still we are a part of the Dharma which is inherently keeping the things in balance.

To keep-up and follow those rules of the Dharma, we don’t need to even think about —– even if we

are asleep we still continue to breathe, heart keeps working.   So that, even with those very very inventive

Civilization and the incredible level of the Technology, we were still bound to keep fundamental rules

—– we still need to breathe Oxygen not CO2 or any fancy gas.

===

The Human being is, as it is an artificially modified version of the Ape ( generally called Evolved )

having fundamental paradox within.

Basic aspect and the function is still remained as it was originally designed as a part of the Dharma.

Though, the Culture and the Civilization, not mention the Technology which changed the condition and

the environment within few thousands years, are not necessary following the Dharma.

In other words, what Human being invented or created out of their over sized brain –— the result

of their thinking, is often contradictory to the Dharma. ( Imagination can start from purely

imagined base or abstractive idea, hence it can be an utter delusion )

===

As a matter of fact, we Human being is a compound of contradiction and the Paradox.

Therefore, it is having the inherent stress even for Just to be Here. —— ( So that, we are

having unconscious feeling of doubt or question, “ Something wrong. There must be answer

to make the things clear “ which has been driving a man to seek What is the TRUTH )

And this is what Buddha pointed out and taught. —– Better to live humble, simple life, even though

it is effectively the denial of the fruits of Civilization and the Technology.

And to eliminate the useless, trouble making thinking and to live in Mushin, hence able to

see and live with the Dharma.

___/\___

===

SINSAI . INFO — A Website to Help Others

—

Only four hours after the Japanese Disaster, an information website called SINSAI.INFO started.

The site is giving the extracted information of what people tweeted or the report to tell what is the

situation there or needs of help in the Geological, Graphical framework.

On the beginning it was started by a small group of the IT engineers lead by Haruyuki Seki, though soon

many more volunteers joined through internet while communicating each other by the Skype Chat and

became a formidable volunteer work force.

And the persons who did similar work for Christ Church Earthquake Relief project, using

[Ushahidi Feed] open-source program which organizing and displays the information on the map

has joined, and the top expert of the web design, top expert to organize the information as the geomedia and

top expert for interfacing to other system by designing applications hence able to provide the information

through mobile-phone or to use with Android etc has all joined together.

It became a working group, almost a dream team, no commercial project can ever dreamt of, or

no commercial project can afford to employ them.

—

What was the key, How and Why, the activity like this started ?

Everybody wanted to do something to help, the sense of duty told them “Have to do something”

It was a spontaneous fundamental urge of the human psyche to help others, unconscious sense of duty,

when someone faced the situation which needs the help.

The situation  itself has driven the people —– not one’s intention or will, neither ideology.

This was a situation where the Dharma worked. And the people who is connected to the Dharma

spontaneously reacted. —– Since it was the Dharma, it was not an individual mind or intention.

This is the Selflessness of the Dharma.   And as the people having and following the Dharma,

every person worked selfless —– or it must be said, in their default state as a part of the Dharma.

—

( I doubt, if it was a commercial project, they would not have worked together in such selfless

manner.   In a commercial project, there are certain work convention exist, which limits what

the one should do —– what you ought to do must be compatible to what you were paid, and

within a reasonable working schedule —– it became a subject of relative assessment.

It mean, The Person is seeing the Work in distance / as an object = It is not in ICHIJO ( Oneness )

In contrast, free voluntary work has no limit —– free mean, no price =  priceless mean it can be

infinitum hence the quality has to be absolute and there wouldn’t be any limit of working time.

This is the condition of WHAT the MUSHIN meant and WHAT the MINDFULLNESS appeared.

The crucial point here is, they did this spontaneously / nobody asked them BUT they did

almost automatically —– How and Why ? —– Dharma inside of them, has DRIVEN them )

On top of it, the program system they have based on, Ushahidi ( Meaning “Testimony” in Swahili ) is

an open-source program. There is no monopoly or copyright control. Open-source is selfless.

And this program was best suited to organize the information in geological order.

—

The drive to start a voluntary work to set-up and run SINSAI. INFO Website was purely came from

its situation.   Dynamics was there in the Dharma and the Dharma has no self.

The situation, a phenomena of the Earth, cracked open.

As the drifting earth’s Tectonics plate collide and the stress increased, it had to be adjusted = then

the plates has moved causing big earthquake and its movement caused the huge movement of the

sea water as well, created huge Tsunami.

The movement of the plates followed the Dharma, in its Earth level action to regain the balance.

It was simply unfortunate to the human-being happened to be there.

—

Then, seeing the situation, the Dharma in Human level responded, since some of the people

were born to be good in their IT skill, for them to react in the aspect and the possibility in IT field was

their second nature.  They found the way to help the victims in their natural capabilities.

So that, their solution was the Information website [ SINSAI . INFO Ushahidi Feed ].

Since its starting point was the fundamental compassion, therefore Ego, Greed etc has no place

and the task and the requirement is Just Do the Best.

There was no place to accommodate useless thought.

In fact, they had barely enough time to set-up and made it functioning.

They frantically worked some time all through the night.

Yet still, their action has been following the Selfless Dharma, it was the right action, destined to succeed.

( Otherwise why the Dharma made them to start in the first place . And of cause,

the Dharma is the Universal force, it covers the Buddhists, and non Buddhists all alike).

This is really the Dharma at work.

___/\___

—

ZEN in PHOTOGRAPHY

A PHOTO. —– is it ?

Looks like a reflection —– isn’t it ?

If it was the case,  what is the original object ? —– I don’t care. 🙂

Somewhat definable is a water-plant — isn’t it ?

Is it ?

It’s a corner of this world  just round a corner, nothing there.   Sir.

Is it ?    I thought it’s the Universe.

—– ? ? ?   How do you know ?

Because it looks like a floating  Dog Shit, like a rock garden in Kyoto !

How nice !   It’s supposed to be a visualization of Claude Debussy Sir.

So, that’s why it sound Dog Shit.

Absolutely Correct. ( Don’t be serious, this is a joke  😀  )

___/\___

PS :  Clicking photo, you can enlarge it.  And even larger by clicking again.

—

MOUSE !

Some days ago, I suddenly noticed something

a fluffy blob on the floor, between my foot.

Bending myself down and with close-look, I realized

its hairy tear-drop shaped blob was a Mouse.

Even with my movement he (she ?) didn’t run.

Stayed there with crouching posture, both hand

on the floor. ( well, like all the four-leg animals do naturally 🙂 ) as if he is begging me something.

I scooped him up on a cardboard paper.   Look into his tiny eyes, he gave me rather drowsy look.

I put the cardboard paper on the kitchen table and gave small piece of  tissue-paper

soaked with water and small crumble of biscuit. —– he only touched a water.

He just staid there almost motionless, and two hours later when I looked him again,

he was laying on his side —– He was dead.

—-

Next day I took his dead body to a nearby park and buried him under a blossoming cherry tree.

—– A council flat I’m living, the building has been poisoned by the council pest-controller.

These day’s rat-poison is not like an old-day’s nasty Arsenic, but very sophisticated nerve-agent.

It interferes a mouse’s nerve system and also deteriorate his eye sight.

So, a mouse coming out to a brighter open space and die,   preventing a rotten smell coming from deep,

dark corner. —– how clever and well-designed killing system.

—

Since then a thought to that mouse remained me and made me wondering.

What a hell,  how on he came to me to DIE.     I’m not a funeral director or priest.

And, how he knew I would bury him under a tree —— ? ? ?

If there is such a reputation among the mice community in this area, am I going to have hundreds

of dying mice queuing here ?    Oh, no please.

When I was young, I was a notorious insect terminator, making hundreds of Insects specimen.

———- ? ? ?

Any how, I know at least that mouse got a peace under a cherry tree, away from harsh rat (?) race.

Yet still, as it happened, it happened.    It’s not my remit to guess whether there was a kind of

intervention by the Dharma —– or else ?

What so ever happened, what I can do —– is my best and I think, I paid enough respect to him.

( Don’t ask me to make a golden coffin to him )

—– One day,  if I were attacked by a swarm of grudged insects in the Hell, an army of mice

suddenly appeared and fight off the insects. —– How sweet children’s tale isn’t it ! 😀

___/\___

—

TOMATO is DHARMA

A reader sent me a link of a page of Wikipedia [Dharma]  to educate me. 😀

Thank you very much though,  I might have seen this page before but didn’t like it.

The author of the page surely knew the meanings of the Dharma contains

mere things and phenomenon as well.

But he might wanted to make up the story looks more authoritative,  he emphasized more in the Rules side,

and only mentioned “Things”  and  “Phenomenon” just like an addition.

—– ” It was his Arrogance sir ” 😀

——

Don’t make the things and the life even more complicated with useless thinking.

Just open your eyes and look at a Tomato plant.(Provided if you have one. If not, anything would do the same)

—— Its green shoot, leaves, and although it’s under a soil and can’t be seen  but its root is there.

It’s just grow.  And going to yield beautiful red Tomato fruits (or vegetable ? —– you argue, not me  😀 )

( If you ever eaten  fully ripen real tomato in the sun drenched field,  you know how sweet its fruits is ! )

With your fresh eyes, just feel again.  Isn’t this amazing ?   How it’s grow ? How it’s exist here ?

To maintain its shape as a Tomato plant,  there is a complicated biological mechanism, —– determination

by its genetics, and the botanical, agricultural aspects such as the species, variety etc,  the growth

mechanism,  monocular-biology,  what nutrition,  what substance goes into their roots and converted into

what and makes its leaves etc etc.   It is a conglomerate of existence with rules and phenomenon.

—-

Without having this Tomato plant itself,  all those phenomena never taking place there.

So, why the Tomato exists in the first place and who is and why, you happened to watching this Tomato.

All together,  this,  before your eyes —– is The Dharma. (Which you need to pay a respect as well)

—– But, if you don’t have the eyes and the mind to feel it is amazing,  you may need to reset your mind

and the perception once, and start again to see the world, like a child saw it first time ever.

You may not as bad as the people believing that the Tomato comes from Tesco. 😀

This is why Buddha ordered  ” Think yourself ” —— refresh your perception.

To see the Dharma in its shape of a Tomato is the starting point of the Buddhism.

___/\___

—

ZEN in PRACTICE

There was an interesting experience lately.

A Chairman of an Internet Talking Shop asked me to join their mailing-list to invigorate the activity.

It was a small group of University alumni of which the members used to play a sports together, hence

the members consists of their 30^th to 70~80^th old-boy.

The mailing-list was said to be proposed and set-up by the core member of the group a year ago to

facilitate vibrant communication among the members, as the members live scattered all over the country

over a years, and not necessary knows each other in their different generations.

With a kind of marketing research considerations, I saw the characters of the group and their needs.

I found this is in fact a retired old boy’s talking shop.    Since, younger members are too busy

in their job and the family —– they may not have much leisure time left, and busy talking with

their colleagues etc. So that the real aim is to create the environment for the old members to

exchange and join the conversation.

—–

Zen is a way of the life to live the situation in 100% commitment. (So-called Mindfulness )

When the situation required to ply a role or to carry-out the task, to become the Role itself or

the expert of the task,  and Just Do It,  is the speciality of the Zen.

As my role is to invigorate the conversation, I started to talk as many as possible number of the

members I know before, while inventing all sorts of excuse or pretext of talking piece, in order to draw

them into the forum. Within a month the forum became pretty busy and started to have many new talkers.

As each member has graduated in each faculty and the specialized subject, they got their expert view

and the unique opinion, some time it went pretty deep in its subject and turned  out to be a very interesting

exchange of two different view etc etc. While receiving a congratulation mail from the other side of the

world as this member is working over there, which said “It is a great pleasure to see the forum invigorated

which  I  myself had proposed to set-up”

—–

Journalist ( or Ex-photojournalist precisely ) as I am, I was in certain extent, well suited to the role as I can

deal with many subjects ( like interviewer has to know the subjects, despite every time the subject

could be different ) —– though, the core members who proclaims they set-up the forum started to feel

the forum has been Hijacked by somebody unknown ( since I’ve been out of communication with them

40 years 😀 ).   And they started to say this is not YOUR blog site.  😀

Of cause, to draw somebody into the forum, I had to send the mile and when somebody sent a mail

with unfamiliar subject, still somebody has to answer, and many cases it happened me to reply.

When I gave an answer and sent PS: soon after, it was accused “from the same person, enormous

amount of continuous mail occupying the forum” 😀

It was exactly like a Hen’s chorus in the Animal Farm, even a man who congratulated the

invigorated forum, changed his colour and joined the chorus.   And a funny opinion to design a special

sports shoes talked  by other member which I just responded was still attributed as my fault   😀

When the attack came, it need to hit back like the sword master Musashi was also a Zen master.

But, if this is the situation. That is it.—– I’ve been there to talk not waste the time to argue with.

—–

Zen react to the situation Just as it is, like just handling a small thing, therefore no emotion or

personal interest involved.   As there is no notion of possession ( like, this forum is mine or I AM

the man in charge with )  when the requirement or the situation changes,  the commitment or

duty evaporate at once as if there was no such things ever existed.

—–

This mind-set, Full Commitment but without Emotional Involvement ( Ego, Greed, Arrogance)

and Instant Dissociate with no mind to cringe, is a typical Zen Practice.

( Fundamentally, member of 150 people’s Talking Shop, most of whom I don’t know and 40 years

out of communication, what anyone can expect from them ?    And what to lose by stopping it, if any ?

It is like a chess game on the street cafe table. Once join, still have to use full extent of the brain to win.

Yet it is just for a small fun.  Nothing to gain but nothing to lose.  Just Do it and Just Stop it.

This is the mind-set of the Mushin which respond to the situation which keeps changing.

—– And this is the Zen in Practice in the real life,  not in sitting.

___/\___

—