Cosmos

In that “Instant Flower Meadow” I found the Cosmos !  

— You may wonder why it makes a news ?  = Cosmos is one of the most

common (wild)flower in Japan, especially in a late summer, even though

it came to Japan about 120 years ago.   (It was originated from the Mexico,  

and taken to the Spain about 230 years ago then spread to everywhere.)

But, in here I’ve  seen  the Cosmos only handful times, and this is the one !

(= It’s a good question why Cosmos got out of favour in England. )

Still, as it spread to the wild in Japan,  if you see a field or disused land, 

the chances are,  you will see either  Cosmos if not Susuki (You may not

think, Susuki is a Flower though)  otherwise a bush of  Yellow rod.    

(Strangely you may think,  that notorious Japanese Knotweed is not

spread in Japan. —– Obviously, they like the England more.   😀 )

When the Cosmos fills a field, they do literally end to end.  

And they are as toll as 1 m, 1.5 m or even taller.  

And this  kind of flower meadow was what I remembered as a child.

(So the photo above shows how the Cosmos field looks like in Japan

—– Photos from Maki Yamamoto’s site)

Their variation of color is from white to deep pink. — There is

also yellow one but, we don’t call it Cosmos.   🙂

On the end of the summer, under the dark blue sky and be in a 

Cosmos field, which seemed to stretch as far as I could see, and

the fragile Cosmos are trembling in the first wind of Autumn.

The field became an Universe. (= Cosmos !)

—– was one of my Proto-image with nostalgia.

(A burnt down city, thanks to American Bombing, Tokyo was

almost a wild field then. —– it’s mean, lots of flowers survived the fire, or

scorched land was quickly covered by the plants from surrounding area. )

 So, for me, the flower photo is not just for a  fun to the eyes, but

a clue to trace back mental landscape as well.

(That’s why they are fuzzy.  🙂 )

—– 

Photos here were taken by the Two Element Homemade Lens

(with or without Extension Ring) on Canon 5D Mk-III

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釈尊の教え — その原形

釈尊の教えの原形を考える上で最も決定的な鍵となるのはその僧伽（サンガ）にカーストは

存在しなかったという事実です。何故カーストという概念が生れたのか？－－－実は

それこそがヒンズー教の根底である輪廻再生の観念で，カーストはその個人の前生の反映，

その結果に外ならないという理屈であったのです。

釈尊の時代はちょうどこのヒンズー思想の勃興期で，儀式的なバラモン教から陰惨な宿命論ヘの

移行期であった訳です。  これはかつて日本にあった『天中殺』の流行のようなもので，

それを真に受けて信じ込んだ人間は恐怖のパニックに陥った。

当時の新興宗教のグルが説く輪廻再生，カーストのくびき説におびえる人々に

“心配するには及ばない，そもそもベーダやヒンズー教で言うような不滅の魂（アートマン）など

と言うものは無い。人の肉体が死ねばそこに宿っていた魂，我と言うものも消滅する。これが

涅槃であり，そもそも我（セルフ）などと言うものは当人の思い込み，妄想以外の何物でもない”

と説かれたのです。つまりこの教えは『輪廻再生を繰返す永遠の苦（娑婆，サムサラ）からの解放』

ではなく『“輪廻再生を繰返す永遠の苦”という誤ったヒンズー説からの解放を説いた訳だったのです。

古典的べーダ以来一般的に信じられていた不滅の魂（アートマン）を否定し，それが輪廻再生して

カーストが現れるとしたヒンズー教の流行思想を否定した

釈尊の説は実に革命的な教えであったと言えるでしょう。(この教えの根底に縁起，

因縁説（肉体と精神，我の相互依存）がありそもそも我などというものは存在し得ないという

考えが包括的空観に発展していった訳です。）  と言う史実を一見するだけで，仏教というものが

いかにヒンズーやタントラと混合され換骨奪胎されて来ていたかを窺い知る事ができます。

つまり人類は実に２０００年以上に渉って釈尊を冒涜し続けていたのです。

___/\___

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Meadow Flower – (2)

Yet another photos from the same flower patch as before.  

And this time, I used the same homemade lens and the Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 lens.

On the photo, if the back ground image was not completely out of focus in a Bokhe,  

such as this one and the top photo, they were taken by 2 element homemade lens.

Other photos, which got strong Bokhe in the back ground, like this one,

it was taken by the Zeiss 85 mm lens with  F1.4  aperture setting.

Not only it is a short telephoto  85 mm,  its extremely bright  1.4 F-aperture gives

very shallow depth of field —– yet still, the image in focus has pretty good details.

(That what this lens was famous for)

The photo Right is in fact the part enlargement of the Left photo.

Likewise, Right photo was a pert enlargement of the photo Left.

When this 85 mm lens was used on the close-up distance, it shows very

soft Bokhe due to the increased Coma aberration, which I like very much. 

Stopped down to a smaller F-aperture, hence increase the depth of field,

photo became like ordinary photo.  🙂

Still, which way to chose is depend on the purpose and the taste.

My original image of the wild flower meadow was in my vague child’s memory,

when the flowers were taller than me, and it was far more than 60 years ago.

There shouldn’t be the same clear images, therefore,  I don’t need to see

the images from a catalog  of a garden-center kind.

(And, I do no longer dealing with the reference book publisher.)

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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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Szondi Test

Those few days, here my blog got sudden

spike of twice as much access. Apparently,

the visitors were coming to see the post

“Szondi Test”.

I don’t know why though, my guess was

that somebody might have talked about

the Szondi Test referring to my post,

somewhere on the SNS.

Though, as I don’t do any SNS (because of

No Face****, I can’t click “Like” and my Twitter accounts were  

created by somebody-else, I have No access) = I can’t check what’s going on there.

So, wondering, is there any talking going on ?  —> I Googled and

realized that now there are iPhone App, Android App of Szondi Test exists ! 

People are always interested in Self Psychological Profiling Test = It is a reflection of

strong Self conscious / Ego and in the same time yet another sign of rack of Confidence.

It is a funny paradox, the stronger the Ego, the Psychological Insecurity is even stronger.

(The trouble is, they don’t know who the Self is ! = therefore, interested in

Psychological Test.)   So, in reality, very few people has strong Ego with firm Confidence !

(save the case of utter idiot. 😀 )

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When Szondi Test was conducted under well controlled environment, and the person

having the test has no priory knowledge of “the Test” = test will show very accurate

assessment of the personality.   Though, as it is the test to chose the faces of Like and

Dislike, once the person become aware what kind of choice would make what result,

it would be easily biased with a pretense.

Originally, Szondi Test was designed based on the phenomenon that the person can

intuitively know the other person who got the same psychological tendency and

prefer the similar person.  (the words [Like] or [Kind] are typically showing this =

“We like similar kind” hence “Feather gathers” 🙂 )

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Whether it is a looks or an inner “Type” they are created by the Gene configuration.

We are seeing the most typical case over the Identical Twin = they are not only

looks the same but also having the same voice, same way of speaking etc etc —–

even the fate is often the same.

Interesting recent study shows that, the married couple, if both of them got the

same type of Gene configuration, is less likely separates or divorce.

And the most intriguing phenomenon must be the “Genetic Sexual Attraction” =

Brother and sister (often the twin) who has been separated on the birth, growing

up not knowing each other’s existence.   Then in a seer coincidence, encounter

each other, and fallen in love and get married without knowing that they were

in fact, a brother and a sister.

= The same type of Gene configuration strongly attract each other and we know it

intuitively.    (In the US, there is an organization of those hundreds of families.)

So does the Szondi Test, it is based on our intuitive sense to distinguish “Like Kind”, 

because our psychological type is also created by the Gene configuration.

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A funny question is, able to sense the other’s invisible Genetic Sign, why the person

couldn’t find who he (she) is ? = Because, the most of us couldn’t assess ourselves

without the Ego and the conscious thinking  (= wishful thinking or self-blame kind

and always try to justify otherwise make an excuse)

= that is where Buddhist’s approach comes in.

To judge the photos of the Szondi Test, there is no information hence, photos has to

be seen purely with intuition alone.

Same to this, to see “Who the Self is ?” the person has to see the self as if it was a

detached landscape.   (I mean, see the self as a visual image, not in a drama of

verbal description = relative position and the posture is more important than the

conversation which has taken place there then — then you may start to see the

pattern of “Who you are” among the thousand of memories.)

Some of the people strongly believe the Free Choice and the dominance of Nurture,

hence against the Determinism though, we all knew, often with almost an annoyance,

how we were caste by the birth = Gene.

We can easily copy or mimic others (as Nurture mean) and speak brah brah, though,

the posture when we try to act still reveal Who I am <— See This !

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Still we also know —– supposed to be the same Gene configuration (as it’s from the

same parents) though, how often the Brothers are so different and argue each other. 🙂

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Wash Grapes

Grape is one of the most ancient fruits recorded in the human history 

though, as it is the cousin of Ivy,  I guess,  in the ancient time its

fruits must be as small as Ivy’s berry.   (about 1/4″ — 6 mm big ?)

Any how, the matter here is not a big (or small) issue at all = the way to serve.

—– In my bad boy’s habit,  there is nothing but a pleasure to steal a fruits.

(Fortunately or unfortunately I didn’t grown up to acquire the pleasure to

steal a woman.   😀  —– before read such menu available

I’ve become a monk (?)  —– how shame,  what a boring life isn’t it ! )

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To pick  and eat a fruit in the (Somebody else’s) garden, I wouldn’t be bothered

to wash it while presuming that the dirt has been washed away by the rain, and

no human hand ever touched it anyway. 

Though, when I bought it from a shop, I suspect it has been handled rather

dusty condition hence they are not clean. —– So, how to wash it ?

Long before,  I was washing the bunch of grapes under a jet of water then later

changed to wash each individual fruits —– I mean one by one,  since when

I noticed some time, some of them were covered with quite stubborn film of dirt.

( Remember, we eat grapes with its skin !  —– Japanese grapes can be skinned !  )

And these days,  I separate each fruit from a bunch and wash them in a plastic

bawl under the running water while make them well rubbing each other.

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Considering the amount of dust we are inhaling and eating, which may consists

sand or dried soil, even dried dog shit etc etc, without  knowing,  some dirt on

the occasional grapes wouldn’t make any concern.  —– So,  is this a matter of

principal or most likely the personality ? —– A kind of contemplation such as

“Resisting the dirt would be useless” may have an effect still,  the sense of 

cleanliness came from one’s up-bringing, and IS the one’s second nature.

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So, as a practice, how about the point of  so-called “Mindfulness” or “Middle way”

= how can we be “single-minded” and in the same time “be tolerant”.

(Is it a funny question ? )

If you think this is a funny question,  your understanding of Buddhism was wrong.

Wrong in the “Thinking” of  both  “Mindfulness” and the ” Middle way”.

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We don’t need to think about how to wash or how to eat grapes.   We should just Do.

= Wash or not wash what so ever you Do, IS a reflection of WHO YOU ARE.   As you

are born to be under the own Karma,  to follow it,  is the most natural way to live.  

And to be natural, need no thinking = just to be the own.  

No thinking or no conscious mean no Self is there.  And no Self,  no conscious mean

no intentional thinking NOR being not natural,  hence no over doing = Middle way.  

Without the Self, still able to do what necessary to Do, IS the Mindful way.

In fact, all the teachings of Buddhism are [ To be done without conscious ].

= Live without a conscious of Self IS Selfless.  Do without thinking IS Mushin.

When you Do the thing, there are no other things in the mind IS Mindfulness.

And when you Do,  no intentional thinking is there, therefore

Do only naturally you need to Do,  IS  Middle way.

If you are Doing something special to be a Buddhist,  IS not Buddhism.

[ Buddhism is Do nothing special, Think nothing as Thinking.

This IS why, Buddhism mean the VOID.  —– And this was what

Lord Buddha taught though, it was not fully understood by even

the author of scripture. ]

___/\___ 

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Snap-shot by DD-Pinhole

All the photos here were taken by my ” Wide-angle Double-density Pinhole” on

Canon 5D Mk-III.  In fact on that day, I went for a walk only with this lens (?)

and the Tamron 500 mm Mirror lens, hoping to see Parakeets.

Original pinhole got about 60 degree of view though, with the additional concave

lens ( from a Canon Zoom lens) the angle was greatly widened to nearly 100 degree.

You may guess that the Pinhole Camera needs to have long exposure though,

with the advantage of Hi-ISO digital camera, such as with ISO 12,500,  the shutter

time can be  1/80~1/8 like this outside shot. —– who care with slightly

blared photo on 1/4 or 1/2 slow shutter any way.  😀

The best thing was,  no visual details were given in the image,  

no further information would be needed.   Photo has atmosphere only.

So, the photography (for me at least) purely a fun.

No complicated notion about the subjects or message in the photo 

= image or the subjects were there just as they are.

To see the world in clear eyes, the world showed its fuzzy nature.

This paradox is what the Dharma is.

 ___/\___

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Leiz 35mm Lens — filter size

A camera shop who noticed me got

a soft spot in the particular number,

sold me a lens, Leiz Elmarit-R 35mm

F2.8 which has been converted to

the Nikon mount.    By doing so, the

lens lost all the communications to

the camera body = it became totally

manual, hence very difficult to sell.  

So, the boss resorted with a pretext as the

lens got the particular  number, I ought to buy.  😀

I don’t mind to have a Leiz lens, anyway in a collection, I have Leica R and Leica C,

and to have one more lens wouldn’t create any trouble.   And my Canon 5D is an

extremely capable camera which can be used with any lens.   THOUGH, Leica is a

notoriously awkward camera company.  = All the system was designed to be unique,

therefore the everything has to be genuine Leica made.  So, even just like a filter = this

lens got a screw size in odd 48mm.  ( Standard filter size is  46mm, 49mm, 52mm, etc.)  

In order to use a filter on this lens, a user has to buy a lens-hood which can hold a filter,

and only  special series filter can go into its gap. —– you might have guessed,

they comes with an extortionately high price ! 

A poor man like me can not afford to buy.      So, the solution is ……… if no matching

filter is in the market, why not to make one myself.

Outer diameter of the lens top is the same as 49mm filter though the internal

screw is for 48mm —– So, I scraped-off the male screw of 49mm filter, down

to 47mm.   Then this filter ring was glued onto the lens top.

So that, the filter size of this lens was converted to the universal 49mm.  

(which even allow the use of humble Tamron lens cap.  🙂 )

(Further screw-on another filter doesn’t cause a corner cut-off. )

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Cause of Broken Zoom

———————— (Photo above, Right — Note a clack in the white nylon gear )

Yet again, this is about the same broken Sigma Zoom Lens.

While examining the mechanism, electronics, I’ve been puzzling why

this lens was not working.   It seems everything are functioning. —– ? ? ?

—– Then I noticed, when the AF motor was connected to the battery

and rotating, focus mechanism only moves a little.  In both direction,

gears rotates only short time even though the motor was kept running.  

—– On the end, I discovered,  a gear connected to the motor has a clack, 

so, it’s loose from the shaft and slipping.

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In theory, it is easy to replace the gear like this, which is not expensive.  

BUT in practice, in order to access this part of the mechanism, the whole

lens has to be disassembled. —– Considering the time and the expertise,

just  change a small gear which cost (to the Sigma) may not be more than 50P,

still the service charge would be more than £100.  

= good second-hand would be even cheaper. 

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In my life, I rarely paid a service charge to the camera company.

 1) I don’t brake a camera.   2) If it started malfunctioning, I repair myself.  

3) If it was beyond repair, I disassemble and use it for experiment. (and have a fun !)  

4) Being as a technical writer, the service engineers are my good friend and to keep

cosy relation, camera company wouldn’t charge us.  (often, broken camera is a bad

news which the company want to keep it  in secret.  

And our feed-back is indispensable for them. )

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In principal, the Gear shouldn’t break, still, as I saw the broken gear like this

only  the second time, it is rare occurrence.  = it should be OK

= and if it happened on you,  you are extremely unlucky.  

Have a pint or two and blame the God.  🙂

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Walk on Greenwich

Together with a friend who started photography, walking 

the Greenwich became rather regular event.

Anyhow, spring has come and the day was so fine.

And a lots of tourists. (Nothing to do with me though.)

No complaint, or comment. —– why do I need.

(Zeiss 18mm, Tamron SP 500mm on Nikon D810 )

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