Compassion

Summer Visitor / May Fly on piece of Plum

Compassion is, as the word suggest,  it’s the

matter of the passion and the deep feeling.

It is not in the domain of consciously operated

logics or like a coöperation  which need to have

a lots of intellectual deliberation in the brain.

It seems there is a kind of invisible

communications operating behind.

Strange fact is,  as every body knows,  we

still able to distinguish if nice smile,  sweet words are genuine.

Even just looking a face we can see the character and what kind of the person.

I collected  20,000 faces found in the Net, and analyzing such as, why those looks  same 2 faces give

different impression.——- It may emanated from a dormant memory in the Subconscious Data Bank,

even from a genetic memory.  And this invisible communication making us almost automatic reaction,

when someone need a help  we give a hand.

I don’t think this is from the emotion which is entwaind with Ego,  but from much dark depth of the

Spirit ( in fact I don’t like this convenient word —– but as we don’t have suitable word, I just use it

for a convenience) it is like a respect or awesome feeling as to be in kinship of a life form, as its apply

to even to a small insect.  ( Except cockroach !—– they are the evil. —–Without our compassion,

they can thrive and survive even after the extinction of human )  😀

Voice of Dharma

The reader who has been kept reading this Blog may have now realized

What is the Buddhism and the function of its practice.

——————–

The fanction of the practice is to remove the noise of the activities of Notion ( Conscious Thinking )

which is masking the inner layer,  Raw Data Processing System or Old System ( Subconscious ).

Since the Old System has been evolved with the history of the Life, its memories retains the

billion of years wisdom and still retains the ear to hear the signals of the Pineal Grand, which

seemingly able to sense the signals from the Earth and the Universe.

Therefore,  in the state of absolute passiveness / Selflessness,  we may able to receive those signals

through the Old System.( even Unconsciously )

———- What is the signal ?

When asked, Buddha didn’t give answer.

Hence in the Buddhism tradition,  it can not be taught neither described in the word.

(Obviously it is the Voice of the Dharma, though the deepest meaning of the Dharma is not explanable

which the one has to see by himself,  thus Buddha didn’t explain.  His action itself was the teaching.)

So that, when we meditate,  first, silence the thought,  then expose the sense of the inner

layer, Old System in the absolute passiveness——-so, you may feel even the flow of dead still air.

This is the way,  we might be able to hear the voice of the Dharma.

(But mind you, Dharma doesn’t speak  English. Its a sign.    Ha Ha Ha   😀  )

——————–

( As I wrote before it can be done not only by the sitting,  but also even by cutting a lemon.

So,  it is your turn, try, just do it. ——- It is just a matter of you to open your Subconscious in

absolute passiveness.)

Non-Belief System

It seems the most popular Belief System now,  is the System of Non-Belief.

An absurd contradiction  of those non believers are, they are still saying  “I’m a Spiritual Person”.——-What ?

(He might have meant, I’m a noble person better than you )   😀

——————-

Some years ago there was a very intriguing report  ” The Heart seems to have its own  Mind “ which

was based on the research,  the recipients of the Heart Transplant operations,  had apparently changed

the personality, preference of the food taste, choice of music etc,  to the taste of the donor / previous owner

of the heart,  supported by the another discovery,  the heart is having quite complexed nerve system

far more than the necessity to produce the timing pulse.

——— Heart is one of the earliest organ appeared on the evolutionary history,  long before

the Nerval system,  primitive Brain was developped.

So, it is no wonder,  if its got a kind of controlling system to respond to the environment by its own,

and its legacy is still here in our heart.

Though,  so far I haven’t seen any following research or further discovery.  May be because of the

Belief System of  Non-Belief,  such controversial  ( against the idiosyncratic Belief )  research

was suppressed  by  cut of fundings.

Yet strange facts are,  the Chinese character  which symbolizing the Mind ” Shin “,  its shape was

originated from the pictorial depiction of a Heart organ .  And obviously, the English word ” Heart ”

is the description of an elaborated kind of  Mind, and in the same time, the name of Heart organ.

Its mean, 5000 years ago when Chinese developed their writing system and the characters, they

had the observations  ( remember they are the people who discovered the acupuncture etc without

any help of Medical Technology  we have now ) that the Mind /  Heart is in the Heart organ.

——– Even though,  the society of Non-Belief couldn’t support such research which I said above.

(If Non-Belief couldn’t be an Open-Minded, what is it for ?   They might just got a Cult of Ego,  that all)

Shame.  😦

Be Objective

( This is a diversion though funnily enough,  I found this is a KEY function of the Buddhism psyche )

I stumbled on a Japanese Website giving a kind of Agony Ante advice which says,

To get rid of the troubled mind of lost love and get on the life is, ——- the best way is to write a letter

to the person telling all the thoughts or explanations etc etc.  (But, not actually send to the lost lover)

Then, soon or later, the agony of lost love will gone and become a history.

——————–

In fact I found this when I was in my love-sick youth (don’t forget, even Yoshizen was

once a pretty baby——- a bit long time ago though   Ha Ha Ha  😀 ) and in that situation,  I found

” Dissect the feeling of the love too much,  it lose a sizzle and became dry “.

———- It is a  well-known fact, mad love is in fact, caused by the unbalance of the hormones,

and this psychological, physiological condition was created by the over stimulated emotion.

Though, once the subject and its feeling in one’s subconscious was brought out under the light

and analyzed and given a written description it became a clear object.

When we see the same object again and again, we lose the interest, so that, once a

such pretty exciting object, become a mediocre. ( Then,  How I could  be such mad   ? ? ? )

——————–

When love-sick person sit down and try to meditate, it is impossible to get rid of love thoughts,

though if the person has to do this every day, not only its hot emotion become clear object

but also, the brain started to have a fatigue of the same subject, then its no longer able to

trigger the emotion——– its mean the person was effectively detached from the subject.

——————–

So, when you sit, but couldn’t get rid of the thought,  it is the indication of

” This is the thought, you have been bothered and need to let it go “——– So, let the thought to

come up again and again.  Don’t fight with this process but give a good analysis, soon or later, the thought

itself become brittle and  wear out, and the interest where the thought was originated, lose significance.

———- Be an ordinary human, and just sit —–( Don’t pretend to be a super human, like Bodhidharma)

( Though, I rather like to cut cucumber for my diner which I can enjoy, than sitting —– 🙂 )

The Natural process will take you to the next stage, step by step.

This is what we call the Dharma.

——————–

( Then sharp-eyed reader may find a contradiction, ” Why repeated analysis of love-sickness can

make it detached, and on the other hand, repeated readings of the Mantra goes down deep ? ? ? ”

Well spotted.

The analysis of the feeling exposes the silliness of the love-sickness, by its objective logical thinking.

But even illogical teachings in the Mantra would gradually makes sense subconsciously, as it was

written to appeal to the deep logics of the spirituality, which we were born with.——- Convinced ?   🙂

I’ve tested as it works, and tested by the people 2500 years of time.  Try and find it by your self. )

Origin of Mind

” Here I’ll explain how the Mind evolved and structured / in my Hypothesis “

My understanding of the structure of the human mind took the form coinciding with

the understanding of  “How Buddhism works”.

So, they were developed in a two-way traffic.  “Assuming, if the Buddhism works, the mind

needs to have such and such structure” in the same time “If the mind have such structure,

Buddhism must be working in this way”.  So that it was like working on a Zigsaw Puzzle

which got the fuzzy pictures on both side.  I might be wrong, hence it is a Hypothesis, yet still

so far the Buddhism picture seemed to fit well, therefore the other side should work as well.

( This is a quick summery of it, as somebody said, a blog got to be in 100 word to be read by others)

——————–

In any life form, selfish Ego is the fundamental of its instinct, to eat, to sleep, avoid the pain are

all for the survival of the Self.   Sex is in its extension toward the extended time scale.

In the simple organism, those activities was often programmed chemically, so that in that level,

the boundary between physiology  and the instinctive activity is rather vague, still  its indicate

the deepest origin of even highly developed organism, like a  mind of humankind today.

When the life form evolved and started to have a complexed behaviour, more than an instant reaction,

(with supporting nervous system and information process power,  which we call intelligence )

even a simple animal start to have each distinctive behavioral pattern.

——————–

In order to make sure own survival, they start to act more proactive, selecting suitable environment,

seeking better hunting ground, picking the sign of danger and avoid a direct encounter etc by fully

utilizing its  intelligence—– in other words, use memories and the knowledges for the necessary decision.

And this decision can be projected in the time scale as well, to the future, such as to avoid possible

danger or wait a play to come, even sense the change of  weather from the sign to seek the shelter.

Its mean, they not only see an object in their front but also able to imagine which has not appeared  yet.

( Incidentally,  I used this idea to define the level of life organism to social organization, how high it is evolved,

by measuring the length of the projected time scale, such as an action to catch a play with a fraction of a

second projection,  to years long development plan of the Government —— in the Thesis for my Degree)

So, it is safe to say, even a simple animal having abstracted cognitive  notion and its future projection.

——————–

In my view,  originally the emotion seems to have developed to support this projection by preparing the

physiological condition of the body with the appropriate hormone balance.——- (Since it is a chemical

based effect, it last longer and deep.  And hard to control by any logical persuasion.  Therefore

it may need to remove the cause in the first place ——and this is what the Buddhism is doing)

——————–

During the process of evolution, the human brain not only increased its size but also the amount of

informations stored, and more importantly, it acquired the sorting and filing systems as well.

Same kind of informations or data will be filed in close association or as a group.

And later, each group started to have an own  [Tag ] which is the abstract notion of the contents,

such as fish, bird, hot or color red (which include 100s of hue) etc.  (note; it’s not yet by the word)

This abstracted  notion was the essential for the omnivores mankind’s survival, for them

to know which is the kind to chase, otherwise run for life, before actuary encounter face to face.

And with the development of the notion, it enabled the brain to have a process of the information purely

from the memory with its own cause, and also give the category to each vague feelings.

Those ability lead to the development of the internally generated signal flow and the process.

—–This is the birth of the Mind.

( On this stage, it would be functioning like, the one came across a dead snake, first alerted with fear,

then moment later, as realizing it is dead, start to play it with stick,  even try to carry back.——this is a

highly complexed behavior involving inference, further observation,  judgement—-there is the Mind )

——————–

When the human brain further evolved and acquired the language, those Notion [ Tag ] was

given each Name or the Word such as Fish or Bird, Good, Cold, etc etc.

And with further development, when human started to form social system, the linguistic

communication become the essential  tool for the survival.

On the end, the human intellectual system, based on the linguistic Notion ( Thinking ) started to

have the dominance in their Mind, and even created purely abstructic System of Notion, such as

Idearism, Metaphysical Notion, the God, even a Deluded Idea. etc etc.

(Which may completely remote from the life’s reality —-and the two systems started to alienate )

In the same time, this Notion based system has masked all the original information system which

had been evolved from the time of primitive life and containing most of the fundamental rules of the life.

Which is Buddhist calls as the Dharma. —– And this hidden [ Primary  System ] is the Subconscious.

——————–

The paradox is, even though most of the mental process was carried out subconsciously, as the

neural net work such as sensory nerve are connected to the [ Primary System ] first, yet still, as

the display unit is the very [ Conscious System ] we wrongly believe that the Mind is in our Conscious.

It is exactly the same misunderstanding that the display or monitor screen is the TV.    🙂

(As the Mind has such multilayered structure, we need to uncover layer by layer to find the Dharma.

——and this is what the Buddhism’s practice for)

In the same historical origin, the Self having multi layered structure too.  (such as Ego, inner Self )

——————–

(Copy righted by Yoshi Imamura / 2010 )

Selflessness demonstated

” This is the Demonstration you can discover the Selflessness On The Spot “

In this post I’m going to demonstrate what is the Selflessness and

what is the Meditation should be in the simplest and clearest term.

—— m m m ?      Interested ?

Until here, to read those lines, did you noticed, your eyes has been reading this ?

I don’t think so.

Unless you got poor eye sight and struggling to read the screen, your eyes is

out of your scope, out of your mind. ————-(So, the Mantra says, Its exist as not exist)

When we read, we just read without noticing the existence of the eyes, let alone

a knowledge how visual signal running and processed in the brain etc etc.

——————-

Until you have read and get the meaning of what I am talking about,

your eyes is just taking the pattern of letters.  You are not thinking.

Neither you are noticing who is reading this.

———-As I asked you and you were alerted, then you start

to think ” I AM reading this, who else ”

(so there was a Zen Mondo ” Who was reading this, minute ago ? “)

——————–

Then, try reading a line of words alphabet by alphabet.

In this input your brain has to work harder to make sense of the word, what was written here.

As you try to think and process the word, it takes much longer time.

Here, you must be convinced, the automatic process of the Reading Routine is much quicker.

——————–

Now you must be convinced, how most of our activity was carried

out without we are noticing it. We are doing it unconsciously,

and because of the teachings of Buddhism is based on this subconscious activities,

the argument of ” Who did this without my conscious ” is

persistent all through the history. (And some are doing even today  😀 )

——————–

When you read those first few lines, YOU were just reading, nothing else,

otherwise you couldn’t concentrate to read—— its mean you were in the

Mindfull state.

As you been doing this without even noticing that the eyes are reading NOR

having the conscious of  ” I AM reading “.  This is the Selfless state.

———-Do you think is this too simplified and lost the glory of Holy Grail ?

Don’t over glorify.   It is your arrogance and the delusions.  Truth is always simple.

——————–

To apply this condition to the sitting, as sitting is supposed to be just sitting nothing else,

(in Theory  :-)), it must be the best practice to practice not thinking

or selflessness——– so the ancient Guru thought.

But we are here in such noisy destruction full world, it is very hard

to vacate the brain.  Even worse, we are accustomed to sit to think.

——– So, if you are struggling to attain selfless meditation, don’t worry, relax, sit on

a sofa, forget the Notion of meditation and play a non-vocal  slow music to just fill the atmosphere.

Keep you eyes open and fix it on something, insignificant object on front of you.

(As the visual signal of insignificant object stays the same, the brain start to ignore the signal all together)

But as your eyes has been fixed to the object, brain couldn’t visualize anything else, and soon

it become empty. (but don’t fallen asleep  😀 ) ——But ! getting sleepy is not necessary bad, it is

the sign of your brain found nothing to do, its mean its empty ——though, if you fallen asleep,

you lose the opportunity to see the Dharma of which you may only able to see it in this state.

It is the Paradoxical state, almost sleep but fully awake, without even knowing you are awake.

This is the reason why many of the primitive religion (?) resorted with hallucinogenic drug.

Any how, have the emptied brain  is more important than the posture.

——–Don’t torture your legs. It’s no good to your body which was given by the Dharma.

If you happen to live near the sea or river, go there and absorbed by

the atmosphere and the sound of water which is persistent but not

in the exact pattern. (So, the Brain wouldn’t bother to decipher the meaning—–its just the noise)

Or the woods is also good to be there in the same effect.

The Nature is where we came from.  So, just relax.

——————–

Don’t struggle to attain something in the Buddhism. Intention itself is bad.

Don’t worry , there is nothing there.   So that you don’t need to even

boast that you are The Buddhist, just be it.  Never think you are anything special.

If you are born to go to the Hell, go to the Hell.

Once you accept this, you don’t need to worry anymore while you are still alive.

The matters in the Buddhism is to live now in peace and with confidence.

So that, struggle to find something in the Buddhism is the silliest thing.

Since, as long as you  want to do intentionally, its mean you are THINKING.

When you sit, without noticing even you are sitting, this is THE sitting without thought.

Forget Buddhism, forget Enlightenment, forget the notion of Meditation. Just sit.

——– Use the words from Michael  ” Let it go ”

When you let it go, you will get whole of your life.(strangely ! )

This is the Paradox in the Buddhism.

Subconscious Data Bank

Are we the conscious owner of our-self ?

I remember the stir and the annoyances among the scientists and philosophers

when they faced with the first ever report of the live brain scan.

It was the discovery of the fact, we are not consciously thinking.

The thinking process was being done unconsciously.

Naturally it lead to the most fundamental question, If not consciously thinking

who made this decision ?

If am not I, who is the one consciously aware I am ?

——Thinking process does not needs to be conscious.

Make an analogy in the computer.

Even though we program it in a kind of English (only after the computer became

able to be programed in higher language —– before it, all had to be done in

Hex or binary number ) computer is not operating in English. And even in

the out put sage, unless the signal was not decoded in ASCII it wouldn’t become

readable in A B C.

Exactly same as this, our thought, especially such as deep feeling, vague idea etc

has to be first categorized in the pattern and converted into own language,

otherwise we can not consciously process it in English.

In every-days life we are reading numerous signs and even a hint without converting

them to the words.

——————

In a latest development of the Honda Asimo Humanoid Robot, Honda created

” Thought controlling System ” using a geographical pattern of the activity in

the brain , picked up by the sensors in a helmet, and enabled to move the

Asimo’s right hand left hand and so on.

This experiment demonstrating the fact, to think something, we don’t nee to

have linguistic conversion.

And without conscious, the process in the brain is still taking place.

I also recall a funny quote ” The bathroom is where most of the important

invention was conceived”. I know lots of people would agree with this.

Why bathroom ? The answer is very simple. All of us do the business as

a routine and we have done the same, hundreds of thousands of times.

We don’t need to think about and do it unconsciously.

And the bathroom is where our brain has a moment of brake in the busy life.

Once our brain was vacated empty (some may describe it, completely open

minded) it is easier to sense and locate a faint image or vague idea, when it came

up from the depth of unconscious darkness. Then you might shout ” Eureka”

The original concept, conceived in the unconscious process having much grater

freedom of the creativity than the ordinary rational thinking.

Zen meditation is the way to create this condition of the brain, in a bit more

comfortable, less smelly environment.

( If possible, under a Bodhi tree. Ha Ha Ha 🙂 )

Koan ? ? ?

Quite awhile, I was haunted by the Ontology and the Epistemology in the Buddhism.

On the surface, its definition is different in a Mantra to Mantra, and even worse in the

Mahayana Mantra, the description such as “Exist as not exist” kind appeared so often.

——–? ? ? Then oneday, I suddenly realized, the matter is not on the superficial words,

BUT in the intention behind of such expression.

At the teaching, Buddha wanted to show how uncertain the existences are, let alone

unreliability of our own perception, which supposed to observe and sense the objects.

Especially in the bottom line of the idea “Karma”, everything, include our 5 senses

are the relative phenomenon. Both observer and the observed.

Nothing can be certain.

——- In order to make Disciples to contemplate this, by themselves,

the Buddha must have used quite mind boggling, puzzling analogy.

YET, the understanding of the uncertainty itself, even the Self is exist or not was

not the main issue.

(Then I realized, this is the very situation which 1000 years old cliche has mocked

about while describing  ” See the finger, but not the moon “.

And, mocking the novice who is trapped into arguing the shape of the finger

such as ” Who is watching ” or ” Where they are ” kind, as ” Trying to catch Namazu

(slippery, slimy Cat-fish) by Hyotan (equivalent of smooth glass bottle).

——This is the very reason why all the famous answer to the  Koan  is, in fact,

mocking back to the question. )

What Buddha wanted to teach was, to brake the attitude of the people who

tend to cling or obsessed with the things or ideas.

Buddha wanted the people to have clear eyes to see the truth of the life.

Imposing self or distorting vision of the ego is the main obstacle to see

the truth.

Starting point of Yoshizen

It was the last moment as I was leaving the temple, when Master Kogetsu stopped me at the gate and asked me,

“I’ve been wondering since I saw you on the first day. Who the devil this guy ?

Have a tea and talk before you go”

While receiving his tea I told him who I am.

Finding my father’s name in the Soto Temples Directory and heard that I was a veteran mountain climber,

he understood why he felt me as if I were a seasoned monk.

It was the time soon after the collapse of the 70th students’ uprise (lots of ex-activist left Japan then) and

my Degree was in Sociology, I had enough ammunition to ask him about the viability of the Buddhism

in the aspect of the society and human existence.

His answer was what I wrote before, still I promised him I’ll see him again.

I’m afraid it must be too late to report him back, still I feel my duty to tell his tombstone what I found.

——Since, without encountering Master Kogetsu, Yoshizen couldn’t exist today and I believe it was

the destined Karma.

And me to encounter a new friend who directed me to Zen blog site, and me to start blogging was

also a pre-destined Karma which meant me, the time is ripe.

[]

PS :  To follow-up this, you may read a post “Tiny Comment” which would explain the point best.

[]

Who is Yoshizen?

I’ve born in a Zen temple, as my farther happen to be a priest there, though I’m not a

monk yet, since I still have a lots of hair on the top.        Ha Ha Ha.

Before I left Japan, I spent a time in the Eihei-ji Tmple, where Master Kogetsu sentenced me

“You never get enlightenment, since you know too much which keep you

away from the Enlightenment”——it was nearly 40 years ago.

Yet still, I used my damned knowledge, science, history of human evolution,

neuroscience, psychology, etc, above all common sense,  to evaluate Zen phenomenon,

while actually testing the many different practices and body action.

My question was, What is Zen, and why and how the Zen created and shaped the human

activity, such as Ethics, Tea ceremony, Martial art— down to all aspects of daily life

(of Japanese especially).   And I went back to the most likely original form of the

Lord Buddha’s teachings, not necessary from the Scriptures which seems to be heavily

re-written for the sake of glorifying the Lord Buddha,

but followed the likely psyche of the Lord Buddha himself then.

The best sample is, whether the Spirit remain after a person’s death and the Heaven or

Hell exist ?  — When the Disciples asked this question, the Lord Buddha said to be kept silent.

Such an enlightened man who dare to utter, “The life is to get ill, suffering, get old and die”

could  mislead the followers by giving an illusion of the paradise ? ——- I don’t think so.

(The idea of the Mahayana Buddhism, the Heaven, the Savior, the Supreme God, came from

the influence of the teachings of a Christian Apostle Tomas who came to the southern India

and built / opened number of churches 2000 years ago, not from the Brahmanism / Hinduism.)

If the Lord Buddha could accept the idea of perpetual sou Atomanl, which is the idea of Brahmanism,

he could choose to be a Brahman high priest as he was the Royal Prince.

Since he rejected Brahmanism and the existence of perpetual soul or reincarnation, while saying

“When you die, it will be the end of all the sufferings, this is the Nirvana”,

it was really the revolutionary idea then.

—–To be continued—–

( this is the first time I ever expressed my view of the Buddhism in a public arena

and I would like to hear what you say)