ZEN in PRACTICE

There was an interesting experience lately.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

exchange and join the conversation.

—–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

which  I  myself had proposed to set-up”

—–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

amount of continuous mail occupying the forum” 😀

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

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

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

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

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

—–

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

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

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

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

—–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___/\___

—

Fantasy WORLD

In my life, I was asked to give the technical advice or help to build a Perpetual Motion Mechanism or

the device to create an energy out of nothing ( or that kind  😀  ) three times.

The person who asked me were not an idiot or uneducated at all,  they are well aware of

the Fundamental Principle of Preservation of Energy —— yet still, strangely they  were convinced,

their invention can defy the popular belief and able to create or achieve ultra efficiency hence

able to harvests far grater energy which would benefits the human being.( is what they said, not me  😀  )

The first one which I encountered 30 years or so ago, was a design of Ultra Efficient Bicycle Mechanism

which can produce more power than a rider’s muscle-power, utilizing the earth’s gravity,  by

” Cleverly positioned the center of gravity of the rider and synchronizing its movement to an oval-shaped

pedal gear etc brah, brah ——- “.

Second invention was (yet another) ,Anti-Gravity Device of which the person got the idea from Internet.

A man himself was a qualified architect and got enough knowledge of the engineering, and many

knowledgable friends and having a taste of posh life —— .

I guess, it is a (Masonic) belief of some architects,  which is a certain kind of mythical numerology such as,

what mathematical proportion was used for the Old Temple’s design etc, which connect to the cosmic power.

It was not my business to argue with his belief,  I was asked to deal with electronic control of the motor etc.

The third invention was an idea to extract 3.5 times more power from a battery using fancy transformer.

I explained many fundamental rules and physical, electrical limitations, not only the Principle of Energy

Preservation but the limitation of efficiency in an electro-magnetic device etc. ( Even with best designed

electric generator, the efficiency to convert force to electric energy is less than 30 % )

A guy’s explanation was, “Because of those FREE ENERGY idea is a threat to this Oil based

Socio-Economical System of the establishment, the development has been hindered and kept the people

ignorant” —— m m m ?—- Kind of tongue, sound familiar. I’ve heard many times !

A guy who was expecting to become millionaire with his invention, was very secretive on the beginning

though, in order to argue with my explanation  “This is based on the respectable scientific research,

published in the Internet” and revealed the Net-site ——- It was an Anarchist’s propaganda site.

( So, the site was successfully brain washed a man to become anti-establishment  😀  )

Idea itself was based on 10 years old experiment and done by not a scientist ( I’m even dubious whether

an inventor used decent electronic measuring instrument) and I could not believe any of its data. Bollocks.

Just take a common sense, —— in past 10 years, thousand of the people may have seen the article and

some of them must have built the device and tested —— If the claim has any shred of truth, why it didn’t

make a news, or fancy Chinese device didn’t appear on the market — or iPod with 1/3 battery size.? ? ?

To make and sell highly crowded competitive market, such as ATX computer power supply, many

manufacturers spending so much money and effort to develop more efficient design or higher power

from the same size of foot-print,  therefore if any good idea is there, they are the first people to test

the theory, as they got all the necessary materials and the expertise, not an amateur on the street.

——

Yet still, even in Japan,  there said to be about 1,000 new Patent application of Perpetual Movement in year.

It may be an exercise of creativity and to make (at least on the paper) beautiful drawing and description,

it needs a dedication and mindful attention —— though, what went wrong ? ? ?

Not all the applicant were blinded by their greed, some enthusiasts are having fun with their joke.

One of the very famous comedian  Kingorou Yanagiya  had 3,000 patents granted, and one of the best idea

was actually made to a commercial product called  Laughing Head-band  which has tail-dropped eyebrows

printed on it, and make the people to laugh, while singing comic song  for Karaoke  😀

—— Instead of clinging own obsession and blaming the company, other people who didn’t believe and

take their idea, look into a mirror, pull the eyes-tail drop, make a smile —– and make a joke, may make

one’s life much easier and happier.  😀

___/\___

___

PS :

Following the previous Post, there was some exchange of opinion in Emails.

And this is the extract  in which,  I found,  it is highlighting the point of

” How to make a perfect music piece which will hit the guts of others “

————-

Though, important point is, —- What  are the guts.

Everybody got more or less the same guts, having it

tens of thousands of years.

Its mean, what will hit it, has been tried and sorted out

spending thousands of years of time, by millions of people.

That is how most of the culture in the world came to

have pentatonic —– same conclusion.

The reason is, it was written in the Dharma. ( Ref; Harmony

in Dharma )

And the guts is ruled by the Dharma, not by one’s brain.

Deviate from the Dharma, yet make perfect one is hard,

if not impossible. ——–

—–

Equidistant Tonal system was perfected in the time of  J.S. Bach, though it has been only utilized for

the convenience of key-tone change.   And its use became universal, despite of the existence of some

discord (which has been simply avoided to occur as Taboo, by the composer.)

So that,  Arnold  Schoenberg is the first one to fully explore the musical possibility of its system.

But, big but, do you or anybody on the street, ever listen, let alone remember his music ?

Some (very rare person, may be a student / ex-student in classic music) may say

“How about his organ music [ The Ascension ] it is spiritually very striking isn’t it ?”.

I can agree, its sound very spiritual though,  as I wrote in ” Blank Space ” it is because of slow-moving,

continuous high tone, which is vague and undefinable,  hence our brain abandon to define its

meanings,  then start to feel  ” Something Unknown there”.

This very feeling, “abandon to impose own thinking, and leave the Mind open” is happen to be

the same to Buddhist’s Mushin —— we describe it  Spiritual.——- All of us share more or less

the same perception and the same guts.  Simple  😀

—– So, departing  from the tradition, and explore complete freedom in sound making,  is a good attempt,

though,  better not forget, we and yourself are still within the Dharma’s  rule.

Other’s guts is under this Dharma too, so that better chose the direction accordingly.

( The Expression —– which is also common with others, mean Communicable, has to be

emanated from own guts” Blank Space ” too —— not from the thinking or technical possibility )

Please read the Post ” Freedom in Restriction “. (Under a category [Music] )

___/\___

—

London Marathon

Last weekend I’ve joined an invigoration party for a runner of London Marathon, went to the

course side in  Dock Land in the morning, taking my camera with me.

Captured top runners, few Japanese runners and fun-runners. ——- then, I waited and waited for our

hero to come, while watching and clicking tens of thousands of the fun-runners photos for many hours.

The trouble was, I didn’t know what kind of guise he is wearing.    Apparently we had phone

communication with him which saying ” I’ll be there in 10 minutes” again and again, always

another 10 minutes. ? ? ? ——- May be the time was kept stretching ahead of him as Einstein predicted.

This must be the revers of  Xenon’s  Paradox ( Arrow never able to hit Achilles)     😀

————————–

While waiting him, a pretty young lady spoke to me saying, she wants to see my dancing as she is a dancer

herself—— it seemed she hard the rumor from her friend who has seen my dancing in somewhere.

I told her to contact me through my blog, as this blog will come up on top of Google search, just by typing

“yoshizen”——it must be the easiest way to remember. ——- May be I should have talked her more, and

pay more attention to the pretty lady though, I had a task to take picture of my friend running, who may

appear in any moment  (and needs to find him among the crowd, in distance)——– m m m.

———————–

Zen works only to the task on front of the eyes or a thing in the hand.

Other than that, which exist in the mind should be treated as a delusion or a noise.

And I was in the fully minded state of capturing the runner—— not a young lady.  (How shame !   😀 )

Someone may say ” What happened the Open-mind” or  ” Just receive it, what so ever comes—– which

could be a crossing point of the Karma” ——- well  well  well,  I may say,  ” As it’s happened when I was

in the fully minded state in photography, but as it happened in not very convenient time —— its mean

the Dharma was not very keen to this. ———(so-called not very promising encounter).Any how, at last our man David has come with 50 kg load of back-pack. (seems car battery etc was loaded)

———- Why needed to carry 50 kg on the back to run 26 miles marathon ?

No reason.  It’s like an engagement of 60th  Existentialist.  This is the Absurd theater.

Most of the people just run and it is hard enough.  Though, in the same time “Why not with 50 kg on the back”

( heavier lord than the Army runners carrying).   Still, Just Do It.  Don’t think too much.

Without reason, someone may born in a remote corner of Africa, and may need to fetch 20 kg of water

every day while walking 10 miles bare foot.   This is the life there, the one has to accept, without choice.

So, we in the middle of  Stone age London, invent something out of any rationality, and do it as imperative.

( You know, 50 kg is pretty heavy and 26 miles is quite a distance ——– how nice  😀  )

This is why I like this group of people / Spacehijackers.

As soon as he appeared in sight, he was sieged by the members and bathed by beers, fed pizza ——-

and went on yet another 6 miles.  Good boy,  Good boy !

(Though, I haven’t heard the news, he got the finishing line. ——- Has anybody seen him collapsed

on the side of the road  ? )   Ha Ha Ha  😀                ( ——->   PS:  Please see the comment)

My Starting point (2)

” What made me to go into the Buddhism “

( Sorry, the order of writing is not necessary follows  what you may expect, I just write about

the subject when / suddenly / its shape comes up ——To structuring  and make it solid is

the more logical,  intellectual process than the intuition of the Zen ——–Zen follows flash )

——————–

Strangely you might think, I spent 3 years of my High school time to read a book of

French Poet, Jean Arthur Rimbaud. (along side of mountain climbing, skiing and photos of  flowers)

Since, his symbolism poetry needed to be read 100 times to understand what he meant

but, his poems carries the deadly virus of self-destruction too.   Rimbaud was doing his

” Alchemy of Life ” (which is the analysis of his life’s journey and who he is ) which was depicted

in his poem “A season in hell” or ” Drunken Boat ” it led to the inevitable wreck,  which he

actuary got and end up in Abyssinia.

—– (After 3 years, I became a copy of him, seeing in his way and thinking like him )  I completely lost

the certainty of who I am. ( Later I found, anybody who was infected by this virus experienced the same )

—– From this experience, now I confidently say  “Anyone who read the same Mantra 1000 

times, it would be embedded into your subconscious and become the base of who you are”

—– so, be careful which one to read 😀

—————————-

What makes the 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 as 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)

—————————

It was in the late 60th.  In order to re-construct myself, I resorted to Jean-Paul Sartre’s  Existentialism

and later, then popular  Structuralism  ( I liked this more than  Carl Jung as the theory extended to the

society )

The Sartre’s idea of  “The self defined by the self”, shifted to  “The self defined by other’s eyes”,   then to

“The self defined by the History”  was smoothly evolved to the  “self in the structure” in my eyes.

But in hindsight, I was more influenced by the Max Weber’s idea of Ethos. (as I was studying

Sociology for my degree )

Weber’s theory was, such as the Ethos of the self devoting Protestantism created the self-enterprise

of the own business and hard-working attitude, which led to the development of the Capitalism.

Yet, my eyes was a bit more afar, not just each profession or race, there must be more universal,

fundamental Ethos of Human being.—— My eyes turned to the Buddhism.

——- So that my starting point was more intellectual than the spiritual, and not because of my

farther’s influence. (though, the Ethos and the way of thinking of the Buddhism was THE environment)

——– ( Yet still, to cast the eyes to such direction instead of Technology or Art in my case,  it must be

driven by the deep spirituality,  which I can say only now, it must be the way  how the Dharma works.)

And this was the very timing of my  Karmic encounter to Master Kogetsu.

[]

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.

[]