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 )

___/\___

—-

Mistake in Philosophy — Answer in ZEN

You might heard a story to extract latent memory from a witness or surviving  victim, by way of hypnotism,

such as a profile of assailant or even from pass-by, the car number parked on the street then.

The car number may be utterly trivial and useless to a pass-by, still we may remember surprising detail.

They are the Subconscious Memory or our Hidden Data bank.

When we consciously watch the scene, we only pick up the information which we got interest.

And this selection is not consistent.  It will be biased by the preceding event, experience or a suggestion.

If you are interested in fashion, you may pay great deal of attention to the shop windows and

somebody’s style, but remember nothing else, as the mind was just stuck there.

But when our mind is free and open we can see the scene as it is, and able to memorize everything.

Of cause those data are not just visual, but also the information from other sensors, and the internal feeling,

subconscious thoughts as well, which has been accumulated since you are born.

From those immense amount of data, only minute part of them, which  matches to the precast category or

notion, it become conscious memory and it can be transferred to higher legion of the brain (New Cortex)

to be used for the conscious thinking process.

—– Hence, the data available to such as the linguistic, logical thinking process, are only a miniscule part of

the whole data bank, the answer or conclusion we make is always inadequate and ” Not the exact Truth ”

which we knew it. —–  So. we always say ” Don’t think in your head. Find the answer in your heart”.

—

It is obvious, our Hidden Memory, Subconscious Data bank retain the whole information of our environment,

and ourself.  In other words, the faithful picture of the world and the information of ourself / True Self.

And they are not just a static images but their dynamism, tendency and the Rules,how the things

work, and how this True Self has been behaving and prefer what etc.

Its mean, The Dharma / The whole existence and its Rules within, are all mirrored  here.

This is the very meaning of ” Everybody possess the Dharma inside”.

And literally the Self is a part of it, the Dharma, and as everything in there are without any

partition, no separate awareness watching the Self or Subject, there is no feeling of alienation.

———- Many years ago, somebody asked me whether a mad-man can have The Dharma in him as well.

I said, yes.  Because, even a mad-man got the same body and its function, feel the same pain,feel the

same hunger, see the same, hear the same, and may have more or less the same emotion — the process

of those information may be different, so that from the same image of black cat,  he may interpret it as

a Devil —– still, his Data bank having much more accurate picture of the world than his twisted thinking.

In the same context, even an idiot who lack the higher process in the brain, still having more or less

the same Data in his subconscious, it is nothing but the Dharma.

—

When we think, quite often we use a notion which we have imported ( in other words not emanated from our

own Data bank, but intellectually learned ), since it didn’t have the original source and the process to

deduce, it couldn’t have an accord to the person.  As a matter of fact, even a notion the person knew well

still,as its using the notion of the words, it is no more than a proxy.  The complexed idea having the situation

even worse.  Even an idea constructed from the own Data bank (which came from own experiences and the

observation) when it was  imposed to the phenomenon, it doubles the uncertainty. —— Observer and

be Observed.—– The word (a notion) HAPPINESS is just a name of category, so that, its realities has

millions of variations, and an observer is just one of 40 billions.

The certainty is only the statistical probability. There can not be any absoluteness exist.  Despite this,

Philosopher often impose his own idea to interpret a phenomenon.  Hoping, his words can covey

what he conceived. (and expecting others can guess the same )

Against this fundamental jeopardy, Zen abandons the conversion to the notion and the words.

( Hence, relying on the Direct Transmission)

And abandons the stance to be an observer, or more precisely, abandon to be an observer as an Ego.—

When facing a phenomenon or others,

Zenist just open his mind in Mushin. (without Ego without Thinking—– hence no conversion)

And leave the matter to the perception in his Subconscious = Dharma’s judgement or reaction.

(As the Observer and be Observed are both naked, both of the Dharma fuse together.

And the equilibrium will be spontaneously prevailed in the accordance of the Dharma)

This is the Ichijo (Oneness) in Zen —— the answer to the jeopardy of the Dualism.

___/\___

—-

日本の読者に ( To Japanese Readers )

ネットの片隅、ヨシ禅ブログにようこそ。

このサイトは褝仏教を全く新しいアプローチ、人間の神経生理、心理作用の角度から、三十余年に

渡って実験した結果を考察したものです。

しかし、せっかく御足労いただいておいて、しょぱなからー発かませるようですが、

ここにはキリスト教で言う福音のようなもの、俗に言ふ瘉しの甘言のようなものはー切登場して来ません。

読み進めるうちに明らかになりますが、仏教は救済幻想を語るものではなく現実に人間の心理生理を変え、

人を積極的な人生にかり立てる動因に外ならないというが当ブログの立場です。

－ーー　とにかく、やってみなさい。やってみない事には始まらない。やったらやったなりの事が在る。

ただしそれをやるのはアナタ本人－－－ホトケじゃないよ。

（そもそも禅つうものは自助に任せるので人に媚ない。）

日本で何故曹洞宗の寺がー番多いかと言えば、単純にお布施が少くて

すむからで、坊主自身あまり金集めに熱心でない。信者をたらし込んで金集めをする気も無いから逆に

甘く美味しいハナシでケムに巻く必要もないと言うのと同様です。

———-

どうせ誰もが死んでいく事だし、地獄も無い代りに極楽なんて逃げ場もない。つまり唯ーの問題は

苛烈なこの現世　（仏教では娑婆と申しますが)　をいかにスムースかつ積極的に生きるかに尽きる。

ーーーで、仏教史２５００年も経ちながら誰も気がつかなかったそのコツを只で書いてしまおうと言うのだから

逆に、それ以上のサービスはない。　ここに在るのはその発見記録、テストレポートであり、もし読者が

同様なアプローチを試みるとしたらそれなりのガイドにはなるというもの。

それにしては変な英語だと？ーーー黙らっしゃい！古人は教えを求めて遥々印度くんだりまで旅し、

聞いた事も無いパーリ語だサンスクリット語だというのをその場で学び、苦心惨たん教えを受けたものですぞ。

クリックするだけでブログを読んで、英語の訓練にもなるならマジ、ケッコウなハナシと思われよ。

ハッハッハ。（時間のムダにならないというのは保証しますよ)

Believe me  🙂

___/\___

［］

追記　：これは　右ｺﾗﾑ　The　Pages　［About　This　Blog］の日文の抜粋です。　しかし不思議なコトに私本人が

独立したポストに作った訳では無い。　（誰がやってくれたのかね？？？）

－－－で，どうせならと，元のポストに付けてあった　日文ポストヘのリンクを追加します。

法／ダルマと仏教の構造

 

禅の源流

 

 

–

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 )

___/\___

—

CLEANING

Currently in Japanese Twit-Sphere, a heated debate for the Cleaning their class-room is going on.

It started by a secondary school boy who is saying ” Its no use to clean the class-room by themselves.

It is not efficient enough.   Why not use the professional cleaning company ? ”

Against this, many people are saying  ” Its only a cheeky excuse, he just want to have a lazy life ” etc.

And others are saying, school is not just for studying knowledges but also for leaning the attitude for

the life, morality.   Some are saying even in religious context.

It is the same tendency, even in the western society, once it was spoken  in a religious context, the others

reacts at once,  in almost in allergic vigor —— saying feel uneasy, or even dubious.

—— It was in an unfortunate history, when a religion was spread, they always take over the morality

and the wisdom as a part of their own teachings, such as ” Thou shalt not kill, is their God’s commandment ”

—– But long before religion was invented, it was an established commonsense in the human society.

And, when a religion became out of fashion, because of even a fundamental  morality was mistaken

as a part of such religion, it became a target of rebellion.

—-

As a matter of fact, the tradition of cleaning their school room was originated from the Buddhist’s temple.

Since the school has started as the monks teaching the reading, writing to the local kids, the tradition

( in fact, it was a part of Buddhism practice ) to clean the room by the kids is an inseparable part of

the school’s teaching.  And by doing so, the kids learn and grown into a person of their own life.

Life is a violent imposition of the tasks to all the living things.

Nobody ever asked and born as it is.  Everybody came to this world,  without any expectation or

preparation at all.——- Somebody may born into a harsh desert country as an ugly boy or a pretty girl

in wealthy western society etc, as in a variation of fifteen billion. ——- Without question, without

complaint, the one has to live or start to live their own life.—– It is the harshest imposition.

So, the kids learn this reality, starting with cleaning the room, without question as everybody is equal.

( To ask somebody else to clean the toilet, always create the seed of discrimination in any society )

By doing so, the kids learn to be humble and to be selfless, and learn to act in equality.

In the same time, to find the best way to clean and master the skill —– it’s a training of the

trouble shooting, practice creativity.  On the end, even a kids can achieve to do the work in

Mushin (Mind of No-mind )

To have a clean class room for comfortable study environment —— is only one of the by-product.

——- Though, this kind of opinion seems not welcomed in today’s Japan —— to have a lecture from

somebody else is an invasion and interference to the individual’s human right. ! ! !

( in the point of political correctness )  Beautiful.   Ha ha ha 😀

—-

Make Rice-Cake in 15 Min’

O-Mochi, Japanese Rice-Cake is an essential ingredient in the Japanese New Year.

Without eating it cooked in O-Zouni, we don’t feel New Year has arrived.

As it is deeply imprinted to us with the strongest memory, the taste, it makes a part of the

fundamental Ethos to be a Japanese.  It is in deed, a part of the Collective Subconsciousness.

Imprinted into the subconsciousness almost a hard-wired program, it is the imperative.

( So, the Buddhism is relying on this mechanism of the human psyche )

A matter of fact, Rice-Cake is common in throughout southeast Asia.  Essentially it is a pounded

glutinous rice, hence it is a very very sticky soft cake and some time it was made sweet.

( By the way, when the cell of starch was pounded and broken, the gluten will be released and the long

chain of protein entangled and it become sticky, so that if you pound even baked potato, it

will become very sticky. —- try this in your home  🙂  )

When this rice-cake was dried and baked with soy-source flavor, it become rice-cracker, O-Senbei.

—–

Since I arrived to this country,  I tried to make rice-cake myself. —— I’ve steamed glutinous rice,

or boiled it and try to pound etc etc without success.

Every year when the season came,  I tried different way and on the end,   with a feeling of defeat and

resignation,  I did the most inconceivable cheat (to the Japanese psyche) —– use a glutinous rice powder

just mixed with water and heated in a microwave cooker. —- m m m, wao !  ( not Jaw-Dropping  😀  )

I found supplely sexy white body laying in a rice bowl and she was so soft and sticky  😀 —

She was a perfect Mochi  😀 ( In reality, I’ve experimented the amount of water and the setting of the

cooker from the Mochi to completely dried up and burned into the rice bowl to a soggy gluey staff)

Since I found this technique,  I accustomed to make the Mochi in a square plastic food container, or make

a mix in a bowl then cover it with prepared Red-bean sweet paste and heat it —- to make an  An-Mochi  🙂

Traditionalist would say, it is a dreadful cheat though —- so far non of the Japanese ever noticed

difference and didn’t aware it until I told them.  ( Anyhow it is the genuine glutinous rice  😀  )

So,  If anybody want to try,  here is the suggestion. You need to get Glutinous Rice Powder from Chinese shop.  One pound bag ( would be about £1 ) may

make more than two-pound ( 1 Kg ) of  Rice-cake.  The size of a cake in the top photo is 2″x1.5″x 0.5″ —–

half of a bag may make 9 of such cakes ( Using 4.5″x 6.5″ food container ) and it would be a good

amount for 3 to 4 people’s meal.  ( One such cake is equivalent to one bowl of a boiled rice ).

To start, mix the powder with small amount of water, then gradually adding the water to make proper mix.

It should be more soggy than a bread making dough.  Still, the mix shouldn’t run down even if the

container was hold 45 degree but it allow the air bubble to come up slowly when you hit the bottom.

( You need to hit many times, and pierce the bubbles —— or it will blow-up when heated  🙂  )

The mix should be less than 1/2″ deep in a container.  Never attempt to make thick big one  😀

( Instead,  you can stuck together many pieces of cooked  Mochi to make it big —->Kagami-Mochi )

When the mix is ready, put a cover and put into Microwave cooker,  Med’ High —– 5 minutes.

( You may better watching inside of cooker —– if the rid of container

was blow up, Switch off. )

When it was cooked, then have a good use of your brain to take the

cake out of container.  Use of potato starch would save the stickiness.

Cut the cake in your taste.  And it is good to eat straight. —— wrap up

with Sea-Weed (Nori ) with a cake a bit wet with Soy-source.

Or put into a  Soy-source based soup ( with chicken what so ever)

like dumpling.  It called O-Zouni.

Which ever the cooking,  it’s better to give a bit of baked skin which

would enhance crispy flavor.  Japanese use charcoal fire to bake them,

though,  I found a use of gas-torch is pretty handy and effective too.  Ha ha ha  😀

( The truth is, my electric grill has been used for storage of food staff, and full-up —– sorry )

To make O-Mochi from the Glutinous rice powder is, not only it is much cheaper but unlike

plastic wrapped Japanese Kiri-Mochi, it is free from any artificial additives and white breach

——- since, dry powder needs no preservatives.

Once you found your formula,  mixing and cooking wouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

So, try O-Zouni.  And have a flavor and taste of Japanese New Year.

___/\___

—-

Calligraphy — Cacography

A friend, who studied Japanese but struggling to write in Japanese asked me about the sample

New Year’s card design I’ve posted here few days ago —– ” Writing  of those card looks terrible.

Is Japanese these days couldn’t write properly because they no longer hand-write but use key-board ?”

” I don’t think so.  Some of them sending me beautifully hand-written letters.  And the writing on the sample

cards may be done by a good professional calligrapher” —— ” What, are they done by professional ?”

” Yes, I’m sure this person can write in  pretty square formal style as well though, —— think,

receiving  New Year’s Greeting from close friends, do they  want to see a card looks like a formal notice

from officials ? —– How relaxed or polite and formal, the commonsense is the same to western culture.

The choice of a birthday card to your friend or to company boss would be different here isn’t it ? ”

———- Give a close look to the sample cards, top one and the bottom card,  you  may realized that

the first three lines on top card and the four lines on the bottom card, the writing is identical.

( By the way, the writing starts from the right to left.  Hence I meant, three vertical lines on the right )

Its indicates, the graphic designer used the same resource of the writing and composed those two

cards —— its mean,  it was not his own casual writing, but it was there as the special resources.

And the calligrapher who did the assignment treated this as an art, hence he did rather funny writing.

It’s not for a solemn occasion but joyful one.  It’s a Happy New Year.  😀

—

Doing artistic calligraphy is a very special skill of the art.  While writing the same letter, the movement

of the blush and the force to push on the paper makes different boldness, etc etc,  million of resulting

differences on the line, hence the written letter gives different impression, on top of the letter’s own

meaning.  When the impression enhancing the meaning of the letter itself,  it makes the art.

A letter of the Grace written in smooth flowing line, or the Power written with bold, and blunt movement

of the blush, will give distinctive impression and it would strike the viewer’s subconsciousness.

———- Around my life, strangely there were many calligrapher. (Though, I was called Kana-kugi  😀  )

My grand father was a calligrapher and having its line of blood, my father and sister had pretty good

hand.  And an  AD / POP planing company where I worked for short time had started by the group of the

calligrapher as a lettering, font design studio , hence I had plenty opportunities to see them at work.

” The requirement of the assignment, the concept in mind, then just face a blank sheet of paper and put

blush on it.  The blush start to run as if he got his own mind.  My hand is just giving a support for his

movement.  And the letter prevailed as if it was there before hand ” —— m m m ?  What an explanation.

I was young (!) and hate irrational magic or mambo-jumbo like my father’s Buddhism then.  It was out of

my comprehension, though after learned what is the structure of the mind and the Zen —— now I know.

The meaning of the letter will be read by the brain, but the style of writing can hit the guts straight.

———- If you have seen a Chinese film ” Hero” you might remember, a master calligrapher wrote

one huge red-letter SWORD which was then hanged behind of the king (who became the Emperor)

the letter  was in the ancient form,  so that the Chinese calligrapher has even more choice to express

the meaning.  It was a very impressive powerful calligraphy. (—- I want to have a poster.   🙂 )

—-

You may feel strange though,  I found the psyche or deep psychology in the Calligraphy and the

Haiku, even the Art of Pablo Picasso are all having the common factor —– Zen.

—– Once Picasso said, art is easy but to stay in the mind of child is not easy.

An episode of Picasso —– One day he asked a carpenter to make a small structure and he drawn a

sketch with each dimensions on it.  When the carpenter measured the sketch, he found the drawing has

the exact dimension down to the mm accuracy.  —— and the Picasso’s blue period paintings are

well-known with its accurate realism.

How the same painter, who got such exact eyes and the skill, could produce notoriously deformed

paintings and especially such as like his last series Las Meninous —– almost like a child’s doodling.

—– Haiku master Basho taught the way to create Haiku, is to capture ” Wabi and Sabi” though,

in his later life, he reached and created the Haiku in ” Karomi ” ( light-heartedness ).

It is exactly the same in calligraphy.  All down to the same matter, liberation of the mind —- freedom

without the impediment of the thinking, mind = Mushin ( mind of no-mind ) in  Zen term.

( In Zen, this freedom of creation was called in the state of Jizai )

Of cause, not all of them even know the Zen, and the creativity is not the monopoly of the Zen.

Zen is only using  the inherent state of the mind or subconscious, common to all the human being.

( Zen is the one who elucidated and established the methodology.  Like a phenomenon of fire —– the

science elucidated the oxidizing mechanism, hence we are able to know how to use and control it now)

—-

Starting with exacting discipline, then free the mind and free the hand to write the letters inspired

by the occasion or the meaning of the letter —– freedom like a child’s imagination.  So, it looks almost

like a scribble of a child —— on the thin line between Calligraphy and the Cacography. 😀

This is the Art.

( Yet, distinguish them, you may need to have seen million letters of good and bad one beforehand )

___/\___

—

Obsession – Mindfulness – Middle way

Anybody who try to learn / practice Buddhism by oneself, to find the measure of Middle way

while committing so-called  Mindfulness, but not in obsessive extreme,  is not easy.

To biggin with Mindfulness, to learn what is the Mindfulness is hard enough, —— in fact, to understand

what is Mindfulness —— is already somewhere middle of the way reaching to the Enlightenment !

Most obvious and common mistake to learn Mindfulness is, to mix-up it with the concentration.

Concentration with passion and enthusiasm.( in another word, with Emotion )

Far from it, it is the result / even a by-product of the Mushin ——Once the Mind has gone, so nothing to

think about though, something left in the hand or very front of you—— so, just do it.

Mindfulness is not the concentration of the mind, but simply nothing else is there.

It may look utterly strange though, to learn Mindfulness, first, start to do a boring useless

practice, repeat and repeat again until your mind become insensitive and able to do it without

thinking —–> and able to see the task with completely emptied brain / Blank Space ——-

The task may seem something foreign or looks even first time to see  ( by the newly acquired

Open–eyes / Dispassionate eyes ) —–> as nothing else is in your mind,so

just deal with  ” this, only the Task.”

Hence, nothing else there, the eyes, attention everything  goes into it, down to the minute details.

( Eyes sees what you want to see, but Dispassionate eyes sees everything on front, as it is )

To somebody-else’s eyes, it may seem too much.    To clean the kitchen down to a minute water-mark

may seem to be a  Compulsive cleanness Obsession / Mental Disorder though, never mind, as long

as it wouldn’t take more than 10 minutes after a cooking or eating,  it is just a normal practice.

If it goes hours everyday —— m m m ?

What is extreme, where is the Middle way is just an arbitrary view. Often, the cleanness obsession

of Japanese frighten the westerners, (you may not know, they carry a wet tissue with disinfectant to clean

their hand after shake hand with unknown person.  They are only the people using disposal toilet seat cover)

but it is normal, among the Japanese.  This is the reason why they are even reluctant to shake hand, or

share the bottle and drink direct from it (touch somebody-else’s saliva ) let alone kissing to other person !

( It is originated from deep sublimated  Japanese Shinto ” Avoid the foreign dirt and keep you clean “)

—–

Where to draw the line and stay in Middle way, is not rigidly fixed.  Since, the fundamentals of the Buddhism

is not torment you  with complicated rules, but to liberate your mind.  Try extreme will definitely taxing your

body and mind, but obviously dirty kitchen would cause your ill-health.  So, here is clear Middle ground.

Do what you think appropriate. Observe who you are, and if it is acceptable for you, do your best.

( So, to a Japanese, Clean it when it was soiled may be a Middle way,  and to a Hippie guy clean the

kitchen once in a week may be his Middle way —- though it’s a huge leap to clean it first time ever.   🙂  )

—-

While observing your own tasks, re-arrange the order, or a  way to sort the memos, even the position

to stick those memo, or the way to respond the Emails etc, and making it easier and  smoother  to

deal,  —— if the situation is getting better,  its mean your Mindful approach is working.

And when you established a system to deal with those tasks, and able to sort them quite business-like,

almost automatic way, in fact you are processing it, in the Mushin manner. —Why not it is efficient.

Difference of the Mushin to machine is, as the eyes is completely open, it is possible to spot

anything peculiar or the point to pay attention.  This is what makes the human different from a machine.

—– So, keep you busy.   🙂

___/\___

—–

Life of ONION

I have used a half of this onion few days ago and kept

the rest wrapped in cling-film, left in the fridge.

Then, when I try to use for cooking, the onion has already

started to shoot.  —— m m m ? ? ?

Should I kill her, boiled alive and eat ?

When an organization of conscientious ” Green Piece ”

appealed the conservation of endangered species,

there were thousand of obviously endangered species

in the world, such as White Rhinoceros or Tasmanian Devil

which was really facing real danger of extinction. —— though,

Tasmanian Devil looks really like a devil, far from photogenic.

——–  So, Seal  was selected for a campaign idle. They looks so cute !

Thus able to sell the posters in millions and created huge profit.  Green Peace’s tactics, just exploit the emotion

was a huge success.  The people mobilized and protested, less than half of them did read the factual figure.

Yet still under the pressure of the campaign,  British and Canadian Government banned  Seal hunting which

cost “Green Peace” nothing.  Only the hunter lost their Job.  But the trouble is, those hunter was not the

sports hunter but the native Inuit,  who has been traditionally hunting and eating, surviving on Seal hunting.

And those native people were forced to abandon their way of life and to buy frozen beef from a super market.

Exactly the same way to convert the barbaric natives into “civilized” people — done by the Conquistador,

but this time not by the Christianity but the another ideology or the pretext of so-called  Animal right.

Still this is the main purpose of the campaign, eye-catching, appearing,  BUT  for quick-money soft target.

———-

Now, only  four  Northern White Rhino were left in the whole world.  Literally one stop before total extinction.

What pushed them to face such situation ? — Its their horn.  Rhino horn is the most prestigious ornament to

make a handle for the Arabic ceremonial dagger, and most sought after Chinese medicine.(after Tiger bone)

As the price of one horn is such high, hence able to make so much profit, now the poacher, dealer,

the gang network is even using their own helicopter to chase the Rhino.

Though, unlike poor Inuit hunter,  Arabic or Chinese dealers, their gang networks are very difficult to

deal, even dangerous —– any obstacle for their lucrative business could be even killed.  Its mean for

the conservationist,  it is a bad business. —– Still, the front line conservationists who is acting almost

their own, with their own money are doing incredibly courageous work.

But, big organization is for money —– the matter is “Money rising potential of the topics” not the seriousness,

or a plight of the last remaining few animals.

—-

So, the value of each life is not the same at all. We are drawing very convenient line between each cases.

And we are changing our own stance / principle case by case.  The same person, happen to be a

farther of a baby boy, pay so much attention to the welfare of the baby, and happen to be an active

member of an animal conservationists group, talking about the preservation of such as Wheal  though

putting blind eyes to the Wheal hunting by the fisherman in the Faroe Island, yet campaigning against

the Japanese hunting.  As he needs to rise the fund in the western society, it is easier to bash Japanese.

People putting blind eyes to such as Korean, Chinese are eating the Dog, other than making a joke.

During the Hindu Diwali Festival, many Awls are sacrificed as the offering to their God, (how many Awl left in

this country ?) though nobody ever talked about it. ( the pitfall of cultural / religious alienation / don’t touch)

Even a human life, before 20 weeks of pregnancy, foetus is not regarded to be a human, hence it will be

lawful to operate an abortion.  Yet still, if the pregnant woman was killed, even if it was only few weeks in

pregnancy, the Court see it as a double murder.

——- So, we are having double, treble, multiple standards.  We are the hypocrite in reality.  Therefore,

Don’t pretend to have a Higher Moral Ground.     Don’t preach others, but just do your best.

And never forget, we are in the system of hideous exploitation of other life, which we never able to justify

or wash off the blood stained hand.

——- After few minutes dithering, I chopped poor onion and made a noodle soup for me to survive.

With thanks to the life of onion, not mention the hundreds of wheat grain who has been ground

alive and made to be the noodle.

___/\___

Dharma and Heaven

( This post may read as an addition to the previous post  Dharma = System )

In the east a word Heaven ( Ten in Japanese, Tien in Chinese ) having somewhat similar meaning like

the word Dharma.  Heaven  can be just a sky above but not necessary a Paradise like in the west.

Heaven is where the invisible but ultimate power,  the Ruler reside.  Or the Rules itself.

As the Heaven cover everything on the earth, there is no escape therefore this notion affects every other

notions and the fundamental philosophy and the ethos.

Unlike under western humanised or personified notion of God, in the east there is no margin of negotiation

to the morality, like the situation of crime and punishment.  There is no such things like ” If the God doesn’t

arrow this I’ll go to another God, or our church justify this killing since enemy is pagan”.  Killing is killing.

( I’m not talking the sheer number of execution in China, or having  sever  punishing flood and earthquake)

Without having the insight of this fundation of ethos,  ” Wrong is wrong. There is no escape” it is hard to

understand the hidden psyche of Fatalism in  Taoism or  Zen Buddhism.

As the basis of the Buddhism lie in the word / notion of the  Dharma which is all the Existence /

Nature and the Rules behind or Existence / Nature itself is the Rules, it is naturalto see why

eastern culture is so well harmonized with the nature,

or to see why the Hinayana Buddhism says The man’s life itself is the Enlightenment —— as

the man born with the Dharma within.

___/\___