Takumi (2)

A guy asked me “So, you say the supreme quality component

could be made by the empty-headed robot ?”

“No, that is not true — I needed to explain more”.

The matter of the use of tool in Mushin is the last stage of

the production. Other issue there (if any) has to be resolved

before hand.

—– There is the fundamental difference of the worker’s

mind-set in Japan.    Western or westernised society, the

people has individualistic mind even on a factory floor,

and in the same time the ways to work in the production

was fixed by the manager down to the small details.

So that the worker’s mind was “Just do what was told and

anything beyond the instruction is not MY business = I only

need to mind my own interest”.

But Japanese worker takes his/her work as a part of his life.

He feels the responsibility and the pride in it.

[]

—– Even on a fully computerised automated CNC machine,

such as the change of the cutting bits and its maintenance

affect the final quality.    And the person working with it

everyday could see the difference but how to deal with this

matter wouldn’t be the same in Japan and the west.

In the west, the worker there may ignore as it is not his

responsibility or just report it to a technical staff.

But in Japan, the person working with it and changing

the cutting bits can give a very deep observation and try

a minute adjustment.   Or, the person working with the

machine many years may have discovered the tendency of the

production, such as the weather condition affect the quality 

= and may have found even a measure to compensate it.

As I said, the Japanese worker has the attachment to the work

= even if it may not as heavy as a “Sense of Duty” still keeps

an eye to the work and able to see what is going on.

And the crucial point IS their mind can see the difference

and conceive “What could be done” because they could see

what would make the work/result better. (Same as Kaizen)

(By the way, I got a Degree in Industrial Sociology and a work

experience in Honda while working with 1000 ton press.)

[]

In Zen Buddhism, this mind-set was called Mindfulness.

(though, this word is the most misunderstood word in the west.

— western people think “Mindfulness is the concentration of

the mind” but in Zen, it is the completely open mind without any

other notion but see the work on front of the eyes. = It’s mean 

when you ARE working with the machine, see that work.  

When you ARE walking, let your body WALK = DON’T think about

the work while you ARE  WALKING. 

— And see you ARE Walking but DON’T think how to walk.  😀  

[]

In Judaeo-Christianity, the followers await the salvation = go to

the Heaven “after the death”.

But the Buddhists hope to reach Enlightenment = get Enlightened

while we live.

Lord Buddha’s teachings was “when you die, it’s the end”

—– so, while we ARE still alive we have to come close to the

Enlightenment as close as possible.  

Therefore, Zen is the way to DO the best, to achieve the best. 

This IS the mind-set of the Zen and this mind-set has been deeply

sublimated to the Japanese  = If you work with CNC machine,

achieve its best.    If you make sword, make strongest sword.

If you are a sword-master be the strongest killer. — and to be

the strongest sword-master, don’t think but JUST  KILL.

—– So, this mind-set IS the mind-set of the TAKUMI and

no wonder why the Japanese Takumi could achieve to produce

the component no one else could.

(Now you might be realised that was why no routing after the

disaster in Japan and having the least crime rate in the world.)

Have look the lotus flower, it IS flowering out of muddy

water NOW = it’s no use, to dream a promise in the heaven.

We have to live best, NOW in this moment.

___/\___

[]

Ephemeral Evanescence

Beauty in Japanese nature and the people’s life style, well

harmonized with its nature is so famous = so, you may think.

And you may think a famous touristic spot of such as the

Cherry Blossom is naturally there from ancient time.

Well, this IS the biggest paradox or contradiction, even

a trick in the Japanese culture.  = Virtually all the famous

Cherry spots are intentionally created by planting the tree

which was artificially grafted and propagated Somei-yoshino. 

—– Cherry tree has limited life about 60~100 years. 

Therefore, those Cherries of the famous places has been

re-planted 2~3 times since the original Somei-yoshino came.

(simply, when the tree became too big,  they brake and fall)

Because of the Somei-yoshino could only be propagated by

grafting,  unless the tree was intentionally planted,

it wouldn’t exist there.  They are the Created Art.

The situation is the same in those Japanese gardens,

even a garden in the Buddhist temple was “created”

= Still they look like a real landscape in great nature.

(I don’t think, you ever imagined that famous Rock Garden

in the Ryoan-ji temple did naturally exists there.  😀  )

It’s like a Bonsai !    Looks like a great tree in the nature —

though, to create those realistic Bonsai tree, the craftsman

spent 10 even 50 years to shape it. = This IS the Zen. 

The most peculiar things in the Japanese culture / Ethos is

such Zen Ethos has been kept not only by the monk or

religious people but by everybody without their conscious.

Zen doesn’t speak. It have to be learned by looking and to

try oneself. Therefore, what learned couldn’t be explained.

(Because they are not aware of it, they don’t talk about,

therefore, foreign journalist could not find and describe it.

= So, the Japanese mind/attitude/Ethos stay in the myth.)

And the Zen Ethos of impermanence/ephemerality, even a

death has been symbolized in the Japanese Cherry Blossom.

( = Beauty in its fall !)

(Hence, lots of Japanese Military establishments having their emblem

with Cherry flower pattern, and their barrack has Cherry garden.  

And the Kamikaze suicidal-rocket-bomb made on the last stage of the

last war was named Ouka = 桜花 = Cherry Blossom )

[]

Zen and its ethos keep driving the Japanese to even more

refinement/improvement = So that, the next generation of

Somei-yoshino is coming as the Jindai-akebono which is

stronger than Somei-yoshino against the virus.

(This new variety of Cherry has been created by crossing the

Edo-higan Zakura and the (almost original) Somei-yoshino

back from Washington USA.  Now the Flower Association of

Japan stop to distribute Somei-yoshino and recommending

to plant Jindai-akebono.)  (The name Jindai =  because it 

was established in the Jindai Botanical Garden in Tokyo)

—– to express the beauty and its ephemerality and the tree

to symbolize it = Cherry = and the quest to develop stronger

tree in order to express ephemerality is a real paradox.  😀

[]

 

 

Wish Better or the Best

Somebody commented “Where the urge to make it better comes from ?”

—– as a reply I wrote “Even a monkey chose a good stone to crack a

hard shell = good choice or not, makes the difference = able to eat or not.

In the worst case, it may cause an injury to the fingers.

It’s mean, it is a key to the own survival= survival instinct.” — yet still,even

if it wasn’t such serious but rather playful situation, we try to do the better.

Just through something, stone, trash — we aim, to a target, bin etc.

—– Why ? —– To satisfy the Ego in a challenge ?  “Hey look I succeeded” or

“I’m better than you” — Was it ?     Not necessary in a serious situation, no

other person around, even trivial small things, such as just put few items

together,  we try to put them tidier way or make the shape easier to handle.

(Then, the personality exposed = somebody pay more attention and make

the things / situations better.    Otherwise, others creates even more havoc !)

If it was an instinct to avoid a pain and to chose the way which needs a least

effort, was based on the learning, why some of us never learn ?  = In the net,

there are endless number of silly stories still, they were produced with the

effort to get an impact and the maximum number of view. 

Have a good fun seems yet another instinct.

[]

After the accumulation of the learning, we human being made up the map

of which can tell General List of Goodies.  Then those would be told by the

old man or wise man as the common sense, moral or social rules still, they

were originated from the human instinct.  Therefore,  the eyes of

Lord Buddha, they were seen as the expression of the Dharma.  And as we

have it in our instinct, it was explained that we were born with the Dharma.

And the Zen is the practice to make it better with thousands times practice.

(If not million times) —– and to learn its mind-set.

So, Zen could (possibly) make a better person (in theory)  😀

I wouldn’t guaranty the better person still, the product produced by the

craftsman with such Zen mind, has been so good, such as the Japanese

cooking knife has become a must have item to the top chef of the world.

___/\___

[]

 

Fate and the Mentality

Few days ago in Japan, one of the busy commuter train breakdown due to

the safety mechanism in their over-head power cable.  Stranded passengers

in the trains were lead to a nearby station, 20 minutes walk on the rail track.

(Japanese train takes the electric power from the over-head cable, not from

the side track, so that, without a danger of electrocution, it is safe to walk

on the track.)  = All 5000 passengers were just walked in orderly manner and

no trouble was ever occurred. 

When this news was reported on the Chinese News Paper, the Net users in

China responded with their astonishment saying such as “If this was happened

in China, within 5 minutes passengers started riot, smashing the windows etc”

“How 5000 Japanese could keep calm and quietly walk for 20 minutes long

without showing any anger or frustration !”

—– And the Japanese Net users responded to those Chinese thread saying 

“It’s no point to make a riot and break the train because it would only cause

even more delay”  “When all the people having the same fate, making trouble

wouldn’t get any situation better”  “Anyhow, the company or school where

people will be late wouldn’t accuse them because it was like an act of God =

It was the fate anybody has to accept”.

[]

They are the two contrasting mentalities = in my view, each mentality

originated from the Chinese Taoism and the Japanese Buddhism.

I quite doubt, in China how many people ever read the Book of Taoism =

Tao Te Ching, still, most of them seemed to visit the temple to read their

fortune = by throwing two wooden sticks six times to find Yin and Yan’s

combination (It is in fact the Ai-Ching).  The funny things were, they keep

doing it again and again until they receive good prediction. (=they would

not accept bad prediction !)    In other words, Chinese doesn’t follow even 

the will of God (or Heaven) or vend it by their Ego).  (China has Confucius 

and Buddhism as well though in mentality, they all got the same.)

—– in contrast, Japanese Buddhist is far more cool, or even cold,(may 

be even Cynical) for not to have a passion for riot.  🙂  = since they know

the situation, what sort of the process would be needed to repair the

breakdown system etc well.  They are far more rational to know

what they can do —– in fact, the situation IS telling them,

Just Walk. = So, they did.

This is the Mentality to accept and follow Dharma and the Karma (or Fate)

and the Wisdom or the Belief, that the end result would be better with this.

[]

Fake Lens ? ? ?

While looking for the items in the ebay, I found a small article “How to spot 

the fake Nikon lens” by gmek111  in which, they says 7 points to check — but 

in fact, it was try to sell their App. —– Think about the “Fake camera lens”

—– on the market, there are thousands of the cheap camera lens though,

I never heard of such as Fake Nikon or Canon lens kind.

[]

In the world, one particular county is notorious for their fake products —– in fact

80% of counterfeits in the world found to be coming from there.  And in there,

such as cooking oil made out of fat from the sewage has been sold and so on, the list

of the scandals were endless.  And their cheap products such as the netphone of

Shaomi sold very well and eating away Samsong’s share. —– Yet still, its  screen

was made by Japan Display, camera sensor was made by Sony etc etc = more than

60% of the component inside were imported from Japan = they can copy the product

using the same components imported from Japan = but they don’t have the

technology to produce those components by themselves.

[]

 

You might have seen a cheaper Memory Card from that country —– half price for

128 GB kind = do you know, only 5 companies in the world having such nano

technology and non in china.  —– So, where those cheap memory came from ?

When those electronic component were produced, there always defective reject

found on the test, which goes to the bin — somebody pick-up those from the dump

and sorting them for such as the one, 90% of memory is still usable —> make a package

and the label then export. The device jump the address of dead memory = still usable.

It may have only 127GB, and due to register dead address and jump = a bit slow for

industrial use though, the amateur on the street wouldn’t notice on their camera.  😀  

—– the reason of defect might be caused by the mis-process and the memory would 

deteriorate further by its heat,  then the photo would be disappeared next by next !

= on the market, you will get what you paid.  There is no such things of good bargain. 

[]

When Contax camera was produced in Japan, their “Carl Zeiss Lens” was said to 

be made by Tomioka-kogaku — though, after the production of Contax camera was 

ended, the rumor said that the Zeiss lens for other DSLR were made by Samyan.

(under license of Zeiss, using their design and microchip — in fact I have one, but

that one says “Made in Japan” and the other rumor says, it was made by Cosina.)

(But I couldn’t find where “Zeiss lens” for Sony camera was produced now.

—- of course, optical part of Sony was former Minolta, they got own production line.

And Minolta was the inventor of the Auto-focus system, = they got top technology.)

[]

To make a fake Rolex watch is easy = it’s a matter of making a copy of its outer case and

put a cheap moving-unit inside. = it shows the time, therefore not much trouble to sell.

Similar situation was such as a fake computer HDD — inside may have just a SD card.   

Though, to make “Convincing, working copy” of the Nikon, Canon lens is very difficult.

Those lenses are as sophisticated as the camera body itself.  In fact, having a Zooming,

auto-focusing drive mechanism, let alone the tricky optical design =

It wouldn’t pay for making counterfeit.    And to defraud the buyer, it doesn’t need to

make a counterfeit —– just show a real photo, then grab the money and disappear.

If the company has such technology and capable production line, the company would

do much more profitable business, instead of taking a risk to commit a police matter.

[]

So, the article in the ebay, “How to spot the fake” is just a scaremongering

only to sell their App.    This article or advertisement itself is the fraud !

I buy small adapter, filter-ring kind, from ebay, but about £2~£7 of cheap products.  

Because, I prepared to lose money = I never trust them.   In fact, I never be successful

with the internet shopping when it was more than £50 price. — Ebay is having useless

“Claim system” — we need to report the transaction-code kind — Type-in — they says

“Code is wrong” — Type again “Code is wrong” repeating for ever.    😦     😀 😀

On the End, sake of security, pay a bit more in the shop would bring more peaceful life.  

Ha ha ha. 

[]

 

Rimbaud and Zen Mind

There was yet another funny coincidence.   At my friend’s party, I met a designer/

planner who happen to know an artist friend who also run a café called

Small White Elephant, which happen to be in my area.

As she suggested, I paid a visit to the café and met a guy, Dale who run it.

Dale was a painter, we got a common talk in the art. — so, while showing my work

in Youtube and the photos in this blog, I talked about what and who influenced me.

As I mentioned my taste of the Surrealism art and the Symbolist poet Arthur

Rimbaud, Dale jumped up, went to his jacket’s pocket to fetch a small book.

It was a Rimbaud’s Poem, [A season in Hell].

[]

When I use the words “funny coincidence” it’s implying “Karmic encounter” =

no rational connection or likely happening situation still, from the hidden history

or life’s context, the pathway got to cross, of which only the heaven knows it.

And my life is having so many of them.  

If not, I’m not in here, or even this blog didn’t exist. —– looking back, have I ever

chased anybody and met ? (I mean, from a reputation, I sought to meet the person.)

NONE. I am completely passive. (of course, it exclude the case on the business =

like interview and photograph somebody = it was for the editor’s needs,

not necessary my interest)

[]

In my teens, I started to read Osamu Dazai = rather popular choice of  “ a kind of

young people then” and I read all of his work include the letters.

In the same time, I also read the books written by the opposing group of Dazai,

critiques, poets etc.   A critic, Hideo Kobayashi and the friend poets were all

influenced by a French Poet Arthur Rimbaud. —– then, I end up with this Poet.

—– I’ve talked about this story in a post. [My starting point (2) ] (I might be the first person

in the history to connect Rimbaud to the Psychological mechanism of Zen mind.   🙂 )

[]

—– (Quote of the post)

< What makes reading of Rimbaud Poems somewhat common with Buddhists Pathway

was, that his approach to be a Boyant (Seer / Watcher) in Alchemy of Life was,

to examine the own mind again and again, deeper and deeper, exposing everything

like a dissected dead body = effectively made his own mind (and the life) a completely

detached dried object.  Detachment while having cut-off the Emotion, will lose 

the tag of the SELF, hence creating a state of mind, similar to the Buddhists’ Selflessness.

(This process is very similar to the Hinayana Buddhists practice  = Process of  Self-denial )

And as Rimbaud’s subject, include his own life became a detached object without the 

emotional attachment, it was described as a metaphorical object or the Symbol =

thence his poetry was called Symbolism.  (This detachment was the self-alienation too, so that

Rimbaud called the state of mind before, as a slumber of the animal

—– he missed it with tears, but it was too late) > 

[]

The modern trend of the art then, Symbolism, Surrealism and Dadaism were all try 

to find the way to express “True reality” of the existence or the human mind.

So that, all of them created uniquely formed style, since they thought that to express

straight as perceived, couldn’t show the reality or truth. —– with the idea of Freud,

they thought, since there was something behind of our mind, there couldn’t be the

straight raw expression (so, they tried autonomous writing “Automatism” etc with

futile results.)   What common in those attempt was that they tried to replace the 

subjects with something related or not so related.  =

Symbolism used the objects somewhat related or looks like, as a metaphor.  

Surrealism tried with unexpected one and Dadaism denied any connection. 

[]

Though, there was an inherent trouble departing with raw expression = as it was

a two-step conversion, first, it needed to observe the feeling, then to find a symbol to

replace it = When the original mind, perception was “observed”, its Subject became

an OBJECT = It mean, he is no longer the innocent author. —– Even if it was the

own mind/perception, it was now the separate entity = OBJECT.

(For instance, even a hot love, when it was observed as an OBJECT and written down

like a stage act, down to the every movements of sexual act, it is no longer the love but

the words in the pages of DOCUMENT. =

That was how Rimbaud’s poem “A season in Hell” was created.  And Rimbaud

described it “Je me vois me voir” = I see myself seeing myself.)

In this process, not only the own mind/perception became separate object, but crucially,

the Mind lost the connection to its “Emotion” therefore, the own mind is no longer

connected to the SELF.   His life became a Puppet show remotely played.

(Self couldn’t define the own place without having tethered to the own Emotion !)

(When Alzheimer sufferer lost the connection to the emotional region of the brain,

his/her identity, the recognition of the family also gone.)

[]

Unlike most of the Surrealists, Dadaists who has been a part-timer = “Pretender” for

the sake of their art,  Rimbaud was a full-time Symbolist, he lost the raw feeling of the

“Live-view”, hence the sizzling excitement of the life.  So, he try to sex-up the life, such

as with absinthe, heroin or to play homo-sexuality etc which didn’t bring any solution.

—– on the end, lured by a false excitement, he left to the Abyssinia.

———- (And the other trouble of the Rimbaud’s poems to a reader was, —– as they

were written as narrations, after a while, his words became the reader’s words and

gradually they seeped into the bottom of the subconscious, then “who I am” would be

slowly eroded. = in the end, we will be left in the middle of nowhere alone, without

identity = it would be our Abyssinia.)

[] * * * * * * *

Fundamental difference of Selflessness and the Detachment of Rimbaud against

the Buddhist was, —– to Rimbaud, it was the unexpected by-product.

But to the Buddhist, it was the requisite way to reach peace of life and ultimately

the Enlightenment.    In contrast, Rimbaud wanted to have a true reality of the life

which should enhance the excitement though, to became Voyant (seer / watcher) 

gave him the opposite effect.

—– ? ? ? to give a thought,  ISN’T IT strange, nobody did gave him an advice or after

100.000 years history of human culture, why such wisdom haven’t been established ?

—– then think more, ? ? ? ? ? —– Have we got a wisdom in the first place at all ?

What is the wisdom ?

—– Very basic morality ? Such as that, DON’T do wrong or bad otherwise the society,

and ultimately you will get a repercussion and suffer. —– And the way to see what is

wrong or bad. —– In reality, the burst majority of the practical detail on the

“life’s how to do” is open to the person to experiment on the spot, and find the answer

by themselves. = It’s mean that existing / ready-made “Wisdom” is not more than an

Opinion, since even the people, so-called “Burst majority”, among them, non of two

Karma is the same, and operating strictly individual base.   This was the reason why,

Lord Buddha ordered to his disciples “Don’t believe what others said. Think yourself”=

Simply because, the answer will be different, person to person.

—– (This was originally intended to be the 700th post —– though, it gone to banana.   😀 )

[]

 

Contradiction in Agama (Nikaya) Sutra

The scripture called Agama (Known as Nikaya in the Theravada sect) is the oldest

group of the Buddhist’s scripture written down from the recited oral heritage

kept mouth to mouth for 200 years.   Since they came from the memories of the

original followers, we should expect that they are the closest to the

Lord Buddha’s real words though —– were they ?

[]

—– Use your common sense and good imagination.

Think about the text, kept purely in the memories, taught mouth to mouth for 200 years

where in the society, everybody else was believing and talking completely different idea.

Lord Buddha was the only one, teaching the impermanence of the soul = or denying the

permanence of the Self (Atoman).  —– Against this, all others were believing the

perpetual soul (Atoman) and believing reincarnation, hence the man is suffering in the

endless cycle of Birth and the Death (of which the Hindu people call Samsara.)

This idea gradually seeped into the original words.

[]

And the time when the oral heritage was written down, the people who took the task 

were the Vedic Brahman. Because, they were the only people who knows write and read, 

and has learned the Veda.   Of course, the Veda teaches the perpetual soul, Atoman and 

its reincarnation.   Therefore for those Brahman, the teachings of No-Self, Anatoman is

nothing but an absurd idea.   Naturally, when they wrote down the recited texts of the

teachings, they couldn’t understand the alien idea, so that they changed it to the words

which made more sense for them.  And to show off their writing skill, they decorated the

text with a lots of glorious addition, such as the name of deities and kings etc not

mention the new fancy stories.

—– As a result, the Scripture Agama or Nikaya ended-up to be a mix-up with Hinduism.

[]

Amazingly, this mess is still continuing today and you can easily see the situation.

The translated script of Agama (Nikaya) is available in the Net, though as you may expect,

they are quite hefty amount.    Such as the one, “here is the link”.

And “this one is an extract” with good commentary and the explanation of the historical

background.   The author of this extract, Dr. Thomas Tam seemed to be a quite profound

scholar of Buddhists scripture though, he was showing the deep spell of the Vedic idea.

So, he was writing “The following passage does not appear to carry any religious message.

It is just a vignette of a moment of the Buddha’s life.

“It was a dark night, raining lightly, with flashes of lightning. The Buddha said to Ananda:

“You can come out with the umbrella over the lamp.” Ananda listened, and walked behind

the Buddha, with an umbrella over the lamp. When they reached a place,

the Buddha smiled.   Ananda said: “The Buddha doesn’t smile without a reason.

What brings the smile today?” The Buddha said: “That’s right!  That’s right!

The Buddha doesn’t smile without a reason. Now you are following me with an umbrella

over a lamp.   I look around, and see everyone doing the same thing.”” [S-1150] “

This was the passage I’ve quoted in the “Test of Selflessness” (though, Since I’ve read it

many years ago, wording of my memory was not exact) — As I said in the post, this was how

Lord Buddha demonstrated what “Selflessness should be”, but Dr.Tam thought it has

religiously no significant. = This is the very situation how “So called” scholar is

understanding  the Buddhism. —– If this passage was seen “No Significant”  how PhD

could talk about the selflessness or the Void in Buddhism. 

[]

There was the another passage the author was saying that “This was the evidence that

Lord Buddha had the concept of reincarnation”

“Did the Buddha talk about reincarnation? In the Diverse Agama Sutra, there are

several passages that the Buddha had referred to it. The following is an example.

The Buddha told the monks: “Let’s say the whole earth becomes a big ocean.

A piece of wood with a hole floats on it, drifting with the waves, and being blown by

winds from all directions.   There is a blind turtle that sticks out its head once every

 hundred years. Will it meet this hole?”

Ananda said: “Not possible, if the blind turtle is in the ocean’s east, the driftwood 

may be in the west, south, north, all directions.   They may not meet.”

The Buddha told Ananda: “Hard as it may for the blind turtle to meet the driftwood,

it may still be possible.  For an ignorant person to regain his human form, however, it

is much more unlikely to happen.   Why? It is because these people don’t follow the

principles of the dharma.   They don’t do good deeds. They kill repeatedly, with the

strong ones bullying the weak, and sinned without end.   That’s why for those who do

not understand the four noble truths, they better start to learn and practice them

diligently…” [S-328]

—– Can you read this in such context ?  

The words “regain human form” did mean reincarnation ?

(wasn’t that meant just “regain sanity to be a human” ? )

Do you agree with his wishful thinking ?

[]

Lord Buddha brought the aspect of the Karma into the Dharma.

By definition of its word, Dharma should be the one which keeps its own attribute

= keeps mean never change.   Though, Karma affects.   And it is the dynamic driving

force.   Therefore the karma in the Dharma mean, it is the constantly changing huge

mechanism hence, there is no permanence. = Non can stay permanent as the 

existence of everything is relying on the others.   And as a soul is dependent to its body,

 no permanent body mean no permanent soul (Self, Atoman).

 And this is the very basis of the teachings of No-Self.   No-Self = No-atoman (Anatman)

mean no remaining soul after death = no possibility of reincarnation.

= No past life which will “Cast” next life could exists = Therefore, there was no “Cast” in

the Lord Buddha’s follower’s sangha. This was why his teachings were so revolutionary.

Though, this idea couldn’t be accepted in the Vedic, Hindu society.

So, they changed the story and started to call

Lord Buddha as one of their Guru.   What a contempt.

[]

Though this tendency is still active today

= insatiable appetite to find an evidence among the scripture, the

Lord Buddha’s words mentioning “Reincarnation”.

Obviously, it is nothing but absurd that if the teachings of the “Impermanence and

the Selflessness” containing “Perpetual Soul reincarnates to the Next Life, hence

having the suffering from the endless cycle of Birth and the Death (Samsara)”.

As a matter of fact, we can see lords of such words in the Agama / Nikaya though

as I aforesaid, they were nothing but the mix-up or expression for a convenience and

Lord Buddha’s stance was still the same “There was absolutely no answer to the

silly question, what would happen after a death”.

This NO answer was not just a rack of word but the strongest denial with despise.

—– You might got your eyes clear.

Now look around and check so-called books about the Buddhism.

How many this kind of absurdities you can find ?

___/\___

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Pear Skin

In this post, I’m talking about completely different several topics. 

To start, all of those are the photos of peeled skin of a pear.  

— peeled and dried skin.     The photo, top photo was taken by

the 4th version of Double-Density Pinhole. (Shutter speed was 1/30th)

And this photo was taken by the Two Elements Homemade Lens.

(Equivalent of  F4.5  and 1/250th)

Then this is the normal kind of photo taken by the Canon EF 40 mm F2.8.  

(at F11 and  1/100th)     Something special was that all those three photos

were taken on the ISO 25,600 setting !  —– Even with such high ISO setting,

the color and the smooth tonal character wasn’t too bad though, very peculiar

point was that the rough grain appeared only on the top (pinhole) photo.

 = a sort of common knowledge,  the rough grain appears on high ISO setting

= if that was the case, why other two photos doesn’t show the grain at all  ? ? ?

The another matter here was,

why drying the fruits peel ?

Well, in order to prevent the fruits Fly

appear, I decided not to make a wet 

garbage in a bin, but first dry them 

spread next to the window.

(Fly doesn’t come to the exposed, half dry skin)

Once, fruits skin, orange peel etc were dried, they never attract fly = it’s mean

there wouldn’t be any conflict.  (may looks a bit messy though, nobody sees it.)

I think this is the Buddhist like solution — remove the cause, resulting no conflict,

fight or killing = What a peaceful solution.  Don’t you agree ?   🙂

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Greenwich Park Flowers

As the instant flower meadow was gone,  I took a journey to

Greenwich Park where ample supply of flowers there.

Those close-up photos following here were taken without the Front Lens.

(It’s mean, just a lens from toy camera) 

In contrast to the almost pan-focus image of Retro-focus two element Lens,

this lens from toy camera shows very clear depth of field and out of focus Bokhe !

Isn’t this Bokhe, fantastic !  🙂

The park got a lots of Cosmos though,  they are a dwarf type

= grow only to 1~1.5′ tall.

—– or, Greenwich Park might be keeping the old taste (to grow Cosmos)  🙂

As a park garden, the flowers here were well kept in order !

It’s mean, when flower was finished, they will be replaced by the other flower.

So the order here was kept by the strict regime.

No luxury to yield a seeds. 

—– though, it’s hard to say, otherwise,  grown to be eaten,  which life is better ?

(So called Human is not necessary acting Humanely = pulled flowers straight

to the compost = buried alive and leave them to rotten !  = hersh isn’t it ? )

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Cherry

One of the most popular tree of Cherry, they got hundred of species and may 

be thousand of garden varieties.    So that, all of their flowers look more or less

the same though, when it came to the fruits, they are amazingly different.  =

Not only the sizes or color —– but only a thing it would be certain, is, the most

of them are not nice to eat at all.   Only an exception I ever encountered was,  

the Cherry trees standing on the road side outskirt of  Wurzburg in Germany.

(Though, I wouldn’t guaranty  you to find the same street and the tree.  😀 )

That cherry was the same kind sold in the shop, the dark colored one.

I guess, the local council just planted the same variety for Cherry fruits.

(But I don’t know how their flowers looks like. )

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Many years ago, once European farmers tried to export their cherries to

Japan though, non was sold.  To the Japanese, Cherry got to have the color

like the one in the top photo and of cause the sweetness with subtle acidity.

So, this Cherry got the right color, the size was somewhat a half of “Salable”

standard in Japan but this one got awful bitter taste.

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Strangely you may think, not so many fruits yelling Cherry in Japan.  

There are hundreds of different Cherries there though, most of the tree

commonly planted there were the variety called  Somei-yoshino, which

was created  in a Somei village somewhere north of Edo (now called Tokyo).

Since it was a specially created hybrid, this Somei-yoshino is infertile ; ie

there is no cherry fruit !  = No seed.   And all the Somei-yoshino in the world

were propagated from single tree by means of grafting = one by one by hand. 

Therefore, thousands cherry trees planted on the bank of Potomac river

Washington, US were all created in the same manner and genetically

they are all identical clones.

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What makes this Somei-yoshino so special was,  when flower is open, there is

no leaves  and when the flower finished, each flower petals falls like a snow.

= Symbolizing the Ethos of Samurai.   The beauty in the death.    ! ! !

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