Selfridge’s Xmas decoration for 2014 (it was)

I know, it was a bit (very) slow to upload.  Still, they are the 2014 annual Xmas  

decoration of the Selfridge.  As expected, Oxford Street was very noisy and vibrant.  

—– those Steel band musician were the first people I saw wearing Santa’s

costume on this year.  (As people fed-up, it must be out of fashion.)

Selfridge put an explanation of the concept / story though, — ? ? ? who read it ?

So, I have no idea what about those decoration meant.  😀

And those decorations are quite mysterious and bizarre.   😀

Last one of those circular image was not by fisheye lens.  

It was a reflection of me on a mirror ball.  🙂

I guess, you opened all the presents received. (did you ?)

What ever, enjoy a holiday.

(The lens used were, Canon EF Fisheye Zoom 8-15mm F2.8 , EF Zoom 24-70mm F2.8

on Canon 5D Mk-III )

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Poppy Talk

The regular reader of this blog might have noticed that the talk in the previous post [Poppy Poppy] became increasingly lecturing.  Yes, I know it. The reason was the same why I made an exception to come to a public event and took picture. —– A while ago, I had a chat with a photographer who has just finished the school and learning to become Professional while doing an assistant work.  As she asked me “How to make a good Photograph” I answered ” Just press the button” she stunned and burst into laughing.  “Oh gosh, I never heard such answer”.  

“When you see a beautiful light, press the button. — It’s mean, if you couldn’t see it’s beauty, you don’t have the eyes to see.  And even if you could see it, still not able to press the button,  you don’t have a good reflex, either case, you are hopeless and any sort of advice or knuck to take picture would be useless.  Otherwise, you were lucky enough to take good picture.  Then do it.   

 Anyhow, it is pointless to speak about photography => it’s better  to see the real situation and a way of the photographic approach,  and the captured images —– good or bad. = Everything is  self explanatory.  So, those photos (with the photos of Last  Post) were the finishing part of the chat or the “lecture”.    🙂

 —– Just press the Button, mean, “Just take picture with the own intuition”, but not a theory or special thinking kind.  Still, it is better to know about the  subject, history, episode in  human term (mean, not politics or technology) which did hit  your  emotion, but the most important point is to capture the image,  sweet to your eyes. (it doesn’t mean looks nice, cute person  smiling, but in the image, context and the emotion has settled and balanced) = DON’T chase dramatic image, until you yourself  experienced a drama in your life.) 

So, this is the picture which was not a settled image but make the mind to stray away.  It’s mean, this is not a sweet picture. —– even after 70 years, Poppy field has not settled calm for some people yet.  

Peace to the dead soldier’s Soul.

___/\___

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Autumn Cherry 2014

In a normal sens, it must be crazy to see the cherry blossom in November.

But this cherry tree is not an ordinary cherry.

= This is the Autumn Cherry which I’ve been photographing every Autumn to

Winter in a past few years.    ( I even called her Perpetual Cherry, before.    🙂 )

In the Autumn, when the tree started to change the color, this cherry start to have her

flower bud.  Then one or two bleak open.  — On the beginning, I just bumped to this flower,  and

realized,  it was not an accident or fleak,  this tree has a fixed program to have winter flowers.

Since then, I also made my custom to visit this tree when I see the season.  May be, it is

the similar kind of feeling to see an out wedded daughter come home once a year and find that

she is fine and doing well.    (Only a guess as I don’t have any kids.   🙂  )

Those photos were taken by Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 , with and without

“Homemade Ultra heavy Proxer (close-up lens)” on Canon 5D Mk-III.

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Become Immune or Irritated ?

When you read a post, like Key Mechanism in Zen Buddhists Mind you might have

mistaken that while doing repeated practice and keep receiving repeated same signal,

our brain automatically start ignoring it. —– Really ?      Think it yourself.

In the real situation, such as when you hear the same CM repeating the same name

on the radio or TV, in most of the case you just feel annoyance and irritation =

our brain, our perception couldn’t stand of it. —– So, which is the true.

— the brain become immune or become irritated and mad ?

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My explanation there was

“When a task was given by an order or from a situation in the life, first, it’s needed to

have a “Contemplation” some time interpreted as an acceptance, giving-up (to resist) or

determination to take the task (which ever it was passive or more positive, active way).

—–> And as it was accepted = no way else to go = have to face

the task head-on (this is called “Mindfulness”).

= “needed to have an acceptance” (whether, I’ll do / I have to do / I need to do).

This acceptance or determination, mind-set has to come first, preceding to the act.

And this determination = the conviction “I’ll DO” makes the same task, such as  

sweeping the garden,  from just a task to the practice to reach the Enlightenment.

Lord Buddha did know this from the beginning therefore in his earliest teachings of

“Four Noble Truth” he said

1) The Life is in sufferings.

2) There was the cause of those sufferings. (because of Karma, hence  impermanence)

3) So, it is necessary to (actively) seek the way to escape from the sufferings.

4) And the Buddhism is the way to overcome those sufferings.

Lord Buddha didn’t go any deluded idea, how this world was created by whom kind

of mumbo-jumbo but straight into the reality of the life = It IS the sufferings, and

telling the people to accept it first. 

First to accept, then seek the remedy.  And the way to seek the remedy is the way of

the repeated practice.  So that, the repeated same signal in the brain doesn’t cause

the repulsion but just accepted, then got used => ignored => so, the person become

immune to such signal while carrying out the daily life = => become immune to

the sufferings in the life general => able to live in peace without feel sufferings = is the

Enlightenment.   (What a clever magic or the clever design of the brain mechanism !)

= this is the mechanism (the Dharma) everybody was born to have

= therefore, anybody can get the Enlightenment !

= This is THE beauty of Buddhism.

___/\___

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Autumn Color — in Japan

When this kind of photo is the standard, it’s quite discouraging for me to attempt a

substitute.  😀     This is a photo from one of the climbing club in Japan.

And this is the notorious mountain, Tanigawa-dake, otherwise known as the

Graveyard of the Climber.   When I went there (yet, the easiest rout “Nan-ryo”)

with many  younger members, — then one of them fallen from the face.

 = it was literally free fall of 10 m, while pulling out three anchor-pins.  

I could see him flying down mid air in slow motion.

But miraculously,  the man landed on his Rucksack, and tumbled half on the 

narrow terrace, stopped on its edge with small bruise on his knee ( that’s all ) !

While he was in the air, I was thinking  “Oh dear, I become the first leader to have

a fatality on the history of our club.  So the question is, how to carry his body =

carry him down on the tricky face or carry him up and ask rescue helicopter ?

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—– After thoughts, I realized that, how cold-blooded man I AM !  

While seeing a man going to die,  still able to think how to deal with its body.

(But mind you, I had to take care of other member’s safety as well. — Remember,

Zen is not for shedding a tear but keep clear eyes on even the harshest moment.

—– Can any “Sweet compassionate mind” stop him fall ? — Joking. )

—– We simply gave-up the day’s climb and came down the face. 

It was a beautiful day like this photo of the Ichinokura.    🙂

(The link to the original photo —- http://www.bunanokai.jp )

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3D View ?

On the second previous post, (to those Tri-color Photos) Photographer Karen

(drawandshoot) put a comment wondering what would happen if those picture 

 was seen under a 3D glasses.

—– My understanding of 3D image was, that if our each eyes receives the image

of slightly different viewing angle, our brain Re-configure them into one 3D image.

(but 2 different images has to be the images seen from the position, horizontally 

shifted about 2″ ~ 3″ distance = in short,  like the images seen from our eyes  😀 )  

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So, I tested it —– to see what happened ?    

The crucial point of my Tri-color Pinhole images was, each Pinholes were separated

 less than 2 mm. = It’s mean, the difference of each images in Sky, Pink, Orange 

colors were very small, almost identical. —> therefore they didn’t make 3D.  

Funny thing was, the brain (my brain) seemed to have a big difficulty to comprehend 

the images which got Sky and Pink in the same time.  —> So that, a moment to moment

the dominant vision Left or Right changes = suddenly the images changes Sky to Pink

or visa versa. 

(If you are good in 3D view in aerial photo kind, try the top photo here, = to see

Pink photo by the left eye and Sky photo by the right eye.  Actually, as each eyes seeing

different photo, this color change wouldn’t happen but more likely the brain sees

mixed colored image.    But if you try to see, such as this one with 3D specs (if you have

one, or use color gel) you may seen the phenomenon = dominance of Right or Left brain

changes.  =  This must be our brain’s defensive response.  Like our left eye is connected to

the right brain = a kind of evasive action to limit the damage when our head got injured.  

There couldn’t be a possibility  of one object having two colors in the same time = it’s  

mean, eye could gotten wrong, otherwise visual cortex got wrong —> hence the brain is 

testing the system by rapidly switching and changing the channel.  Interesting isn’t it ?

 

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Morning Sky

Well, most of the morning sky in the Autumn, in London are dull gray.

Still, time to time we can see the sky like this.  This was the sky on 

the 17 Oct’ 2014 / 6: 46 (long before actual sunrise over the roof)

The lens used was Canon EF 40 mm F2.8 on 5D Mk-III.

—————————– 7:17 ——————————————- 7:19 —————————————— 7:24

The photo in the middle was by Tri-color Pinhole.

(Otherwise it looked like next — 7:24 photo)

————- Then, I saw the sun over the roof.   8: 08 ————————————- 9:34

In fact, the last one = 9:34 , the sky was just bright, colorless sky.  

I’ve added the color by  Tri-color Pinhole. (Sky, Pink, Orange)

So, this was the cloudy sky this morning,  8:10  colored by the Tri-color Pinhole.

It’s somewhat convincing isn’t it ? —– it may looks like a Turner’s oil painting.  

I like this as a good joke.   🙂 

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Pale Blue -Pale Red and Orange Tri-Pinhole Pictures

Well, this was a further attempt to create colorful pictures out of otherwise

boring whitish flowers.  The effect of Yellow filter was not strong enough on

the last post, so that, on here I’ve put Orange instead. 

So, white cosmos was tinted with Sky, Pink and Orange ( not so apparent).

Then it was a riot of color Sir !

The flower’s own color such as yellow or pink was retained more or less as it was.

With slight adjustment of White balance, the effect of blue became predominant.

And to have some exercise.

I think, an attempt to have colors out of white was worked — at least.

🙂

PS : Somebody asked me “What Digital Filter / Effect was used to create

those overwhelming reddish color ? ” —– I answered him “In my policy, I don’t

use PS kind of digital manipulation.   I use Picasa to file, which came free with Google.  

So that the photo above were just tinkered (brighten, darken, clopped) by Picasa, still

brighten and darken the same picture repeatedly, the contrast of the picture increases,

in other words, the color would be strongly saturated.   Since the picture having red

element because of the pink and orange filter, they came out quite strongly.  

Reason why the reddish color tend to be in the left hand side was, that’s because

on the three pinhole positions, pink was upper side, orange was left

and blue was right bottom.   (I should make them rotatable.  🙂 )

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Blue-Orange-Red Tri-color Pinhole Pictures

Who said, Tri-color is BGR. —– Tri-color on the French Frag are Blue, Red, White.

Any three colors can be Tri-color.  Why not  🙂

BGR tri-color images on the previous post looks too cold.   I want warmer image. 

(I tested with Green, Red, Yellow though, it looks still too cool.)   

So, I put Blue, Orange, Red. —– Images looks on fire.   I like it.  😀

Mind you, not all the Zennist is pale-faced cool person.  I’m not cool at all.  😀

In fact, only white flower would be rendered into those colors.

(Flower can keep their own color — more or less.)

I think,  direct sun light hitting the pinholes caused those red halation.

Anyhow, it’s a burning color in deed.  (Is there anything wrong ?)

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仏教の行と大脳生理 (Effects of Practice)

 (This is the Japanese version of previous post = Key Mechanism in Zen Buddhists Mind and in its brain function.)

ここまでのいくつかのポストで，原始仏典のアーガマ（阿含）経から大乗仏典のほとんど全てに至る

までがいかにヒンズー教に書変えられていたかを書きましたが，

それにもかかわらずいったいどのようにして

釈尊の無私，無心，空の教えが失なわれること無く２５００年の永きに亘って受け継がれて来てい

たのか？－－－実はここに仏教を仏教たらしめる核心があり，そこに表立って書かれる事の無

かった［行］の問題があったのです。

［］

仏教では宗派にかかわらずどこでも信者や修行僧に延々と続く勤行を勤めさせます。

それは延々と題目を唱えたりあるいは太鼓をたたいたり，ぐるぐる歩き続けたり

（比叡山での修行とはひたすらこれである－－－若い頃禅に傾到したアップルの故スティーブ．

ジョブスが延々と歩かされて頭に来たと言うのは有名な話，

中には水を満した丼を持ってぐるぐる歩くなどという［行］をさせる寺が中国に在る。

あるいは座禅とともに特別な呼吸法を習得させたりもします。

しかし何故このような［行］をさせるのか？－－－実はこうした［行］自体に特別な意味が有るわけ

では無く，それをすることで条件付けされる脳の側に要点が有ったのです。　　　　　　

［］

人の脳は受覚した情報を処理する時，全ての情報を等しく扱う訳ではありません。

間断なく，五感から入力される情報に加え体の内部情報や運動器官からのフィードバックｅｔｃと，

処理せねばならぬ情報は将に膨大でそれの処理をいかに合理化，効率化するかは生体維持の

生理作用同様に極めて重要な問題なのです。（入力される毎秒１１００万ビットに対し脳が取

込める情報はせいぜい毎秒１６〜５０ビットが限界と言われる）

完璧な健康を維持できていても敵の発見が一瞬遅かっただけで全てが無駄になってしまう。

可能な限り自動化，自律化し処理量を減らす事が生存のキーなのです。　従って脳に達する情報

は，その刺激の強度に拘わりなくその重要度（価値観，損得好嫌，危険性など）に応じて処理され

る訳で重要度ナシと分類されたものは完璧に無視される。 　

あるいは同ーの刺激が繰返される場合，それを評価する閾値  (threshold) が高くなりそれに達し

ない強度の情報を無視するという対応も取られます。

（臭いや騒音に慣れたり，毎日見ている物が注意を引かなくなるｅｔｃ）

［］

脳の情報処理で重要な事は，この情報の評価分類は生理作用のコントロールにも関与する

大脳古皮質の情動域で行なわれているという事です。

感情が大脳新皮質での価値評価の思考と決定的に異なる点はそれが『己れ』の利益（損得，

安全，生存）に直結した直観的判断に立つという事と，同時にホルモンの分泌をともなっている事で

す。危険の徴候を目撃し“ヤバイ”と感じた瞬間にアドレナリンが分泌され脈拍，血圧が急上昇，防

御や逃走に即応する。しかし危険性も無くあまり損得に関係の無い，延々と繰返される勤行となる

とその同一パターンの情報は感情的には全く無価値，無害のものとして無視され，情動域を素通り

して処理されるようになります。　一方，体の所作は脳の運動領域にパターンとして刷り込まれ

体は自動的に動くようになる。

［］

＝つまり延々と続く勤行は『己れ』という利害意識に関わる事なく，自動的に処理されるようになる訳で，

実にこれが仏教における勤行の機能だったのです。つまりこれが

釈尊の教えの核であった無私，無心の現象に外ならず長年この勤行を（無条件に受け容れ）

続けるうちに物事を感情抜きに淡々と処理する心理，脳の対応が身に付いていく。　

我執，我欲の源である情動域を素通りしてしまうので我にからんだ妄念に捕われる事も無く，

そもそも執着が無い。 これは元々誰もが脳の中に持って生れている情報処理簡略化のメカニズム

で，何ら特別の現象でも，まして神秘的なものでもありません。  これが，無私が全ての人に普遍で

ある事，かつダルマ（法）が万人に内包されていると言われる根拠に他ならないのです。

この［行］の伝統が保たれていたからこそ，仏教の真髄は今日まで綿々と保たれて来ていた。

つまりその［行］からもたらされる無我無心が実に仏敎の真髄＝空無に外なりません。[行]を経て何か気の利いた観念や思想に到達するのではなく、そうした観念や思想のかけらすらも無い空っぽに至る。これが悟りといふものです。

空無であり、何も存在していないのだからそれを形容描写する事もできない。しかしそれの解っていない坊主が無理をして話を作ったものだから後世の仏教は怪し気なオトギ咄で溢れた。そもそも合理主義者の

釈尊が輪廻転生は元より三千世界などを夢想していた筈が無い。＝だからこそアーガマ経の中には夢想も空想的奇跡も登場して来ないのです。（前世が無いから生来のカ一ストも無く、当然、サンガにカーストの区別は無かった。）

－－－－－

(それでは，同様に万人に共通な感情，情動はどうなのかと言う疑問が出て来ますが，)

単純な因果関係を見ただけで情動域での判断傾向，欲やエゴ，愛憎執着がトラブルの種になる

事は有っても悟りを開き静寂な生を得るには何の足しにもならないと見たのが

釈尊であったのです。（だからこそ情動域の関与抜き、無心に作業する事が教えられた＝キサーゴータミに教えられたのは何の観念でもなく、只走り回る事であった）

（ーーーで，すったもんだの騒々しい人生を送って来た僕個人としては，

騒さいへビーメタルロックも悪くないとは思うのですが） （笑）

___/\___

（必読＝修行での矛盾）

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