Early Cherry Blossom

In order to put  [ An-Mochi Cooking ] post, I needed to have a photo of Plum Blossom. 

Though I couldn’t find it in time of the 3rd of March, Japanese Hina-Matsuri (ひな祭り／Girls Festival )

Then few days ago, I saw a Pink Blossom from a bus window.  But when I went back there with my camera,  tree was

turned out to be a  Mountain Cherry  ( we call Yama-zakura/山桜 ) = the origin of  Somei-Yoshino variety.

Despite of normally rather small Mountain Cherry,  this tree was a quite hefty big tree of 5~6 m tall which

I can even climb up. ( Though, as a good citizen, I didn’t  😀 )   As it spreading the branches wide, it

convinced me to use Fisheye lens ( again )  😀

In the western tastes, the more the flowers, mean “Gorgeous” !

So, enjoy the view.  Gorgeous isn’t it.  — though, if I may a bit sarcastic, this psyche and its tendency

might be related to the birth of the Capitalism.  ( In its endless greed —– though, don’t ask me

how about the psyche of tremendously rich eastern industrialists  😀 )

So, it might be only a fig-leaf of yet another greed, still this kind of rather reserved decency, originated from

the Confucians philosophy is more appreciated in the east as it often appeared in the Chinese paintings.

Coinciding with Confucians, Taoism has been teaching

the virtue of  living with the rules of the nature.

 Be humble and live as an anonymous small person

 = This is the idea of Minimalism.

This minimalism has been reflected into Zen philosophy.

So that even in poetry, such as in Haiku/俳句, it is not just

short,but the strict rules limiting the use of the word  = only one word indicates the season/季語 = it must be

there, but another word doubling it is regarded to be superfluous, hence illegal = it got to be strictly minimal.

[]

So, in photography, in order to show the full bloom of cherry,  some time photographer only showed a fallen

petal or two on the ground, or floating in the stream.  ( Though, in real life, to create this image, photographer

remove all the petals on the ground before, and places the best look flower petal in the most effective,

looks natural position = it is a staged photo  😀 ) —– I don’t have any editor to please = I’ve just clicked

a photo above.   If you find the flowers in full bloom and its end of the life = temporariness of

the life,  it is what this photo meant to be.  ( Click on the photo to enlarge, and click it again for further

enlargement = it become about the life-size.   Put your lap-top or tablet on the floor.   Kneel down as if you

are  looking into the fallen petals on the real ground.  Give a thought.  =  It would make you feel a bit humble. 

—– Take this as a Buddhist’s practice in Direct Transmission. )

( Camera used was a very humble Canon EOS 5D Mk-II,  8~15 mm Fisheye Zoom, 24~70 F2.8 Zoom Lens )

___/\___

[]

WRONG ? — or Just don’t LIKE it ?

While fallen leaves are disappearing from the street and the trees are getting naked,

I encountered the Cherry blossoms in a small green space.

Since this unusually warm autumn, many reports saying the flowers are opening

as they mistook it as this is already a spring.

In a normal condition, when the flowers open, many honey bee etc. are there

to pollinate the flowers, hence the fruits and the seeds would be developed.

But this is a dark, cold November. Even a single creeping insect is not in sight.

It’s mean all the energy and the effort to produce the flowers would be wasted.

—– presuming, the flowers are there only for the reproduction of the species.

Is it true ?  In fact, many garden variety of the Cherry tree having their flower in the winter time.

In Japan, they are called  Kan-zakura (Winter cherry) and quite few famous tourist spot to see the blossoms

even in February.  As they don’t have cherry fruits, they are propagated by grafting.  It’s mean, they

couldn’t exist without having human intervention = not natural =  is it wrong ? —– I’m not sure.

[]

Value system is a human invention.  To appreciate cherry blossom in the winter is one view and judging

it unnatural is the another. —— Once we go into this area, it would open a can of worm = as we human created

so many [not necessary natural practice] —— such as sexuality, even a religious practice etc.

( Just think about the stance of the Afghan Tariban and the women’s right there)

Then give a thought or two —— [Normal] or not, is a matter of statistic = though, larger number doesn’t

mean they are right.  [Right] or wrong —– WHO said so and in WHAT context.  [Rational] or not, still having

uncertainty = even the science doesn’t know whole truth yet.

—– so, we settle most primitive and cheapest mean [Like or Not] = emotion and instinct based judgement.

This judgement is the most reliable judgement to the person though, in the same time it is

notoriously easily biased, and often confused with wishful thinking.

That is why, the Buddhists are saying [see it without the Self] = [eyes of Mushin] = absolutely

detached objective view though, if only you can do this.

(Trouble is HOW do others know and convinced,  that the person did it in Mushin )

If you are a Buddhist, try this and think ” Was it any different from Just Like it ? ” )

I myself is doing this, because it is easiest and quickest.  (I’m lazy to think too much,

hence giving no second thought though, others often complain   😀  )

___/\___

—

Dead Leaves ?

By seeing this, what you perceive about it ?

Is this a representation of the Fall and the indication of the end of era or even a shadow of death ?

Or you think, this is their loudest final fanfare, show-off the completion of their duty = their

most glorious moment,  hence it got brighter golden color ?

If you are a type of the person to feel the former, you may need to chin-up —– or are you indulging a

self-consoling emotional memories or rather sentimental [soul-searching] !

If you are the type to see it like the later, you are a person most likely to reach to the Nirvana.

[]

In the medieval time, Japanese are pretty sombre Buddhists.

Like the plague ravaged European medieval time, japan was in the constant battle between warlords.

People thought this is the end of the world, hence Pureland Buddhism with their longing to reborn in

the Heaven became very popular.

As peaceful life was out of question, people’s mind was focused to how to die.

So that they appreciated even a cherry blossom in its moment of the end of flower, when their

flower petals are fallen like a snow is the best.   (It got a dedicated word Hana-fubuki / 花吹雪)

(Hence, cherry blossoms are connoted as the symbol of the Samurai and the Kamikaze fighters, because of

their beauty in its moment of the death — I mean their mind, not a bloody scene.   😀 )

—– since then, in Japan, Buddhism was assigned to deal with the death. —– With this misconception,

Buddhism became a formality to take care of the funeral, and not a guiding light to live positive life.

Yet still at least, it made them the most docile, decent people in the world.   😀

(But, with their suppressed psych, some time it erupt to utterly crazy creation of Manga or Cos-play kind

of culture — and it became another tradition called Kabuki / 傾き then 歌舞伎)

[]

In reality, the tree has no such mind = when the sun light dropped below the productive level and the air

temperature become too low, the green color = Chlorophyle became redundant = then another chemical such

as Carotene which happen to have red or orange color which has been masked by the green color become

visible = hence the leaf looks changed its color, and then they fall.

It is nothing to do with the life or death to them as they got the buds of yet another leaves

prepared for the next spring = it is just their cycle of the life.

[]

—– still, we give plenty thought when we see the  Autumn leaves in its red color.

Lots of thoughts, memories, regrets etc etc —– all just in the mind.

To the clear eyes, they are just the Fallen Leaves.   (Zen often spoil the fun.   Sorry guys.   :-D)

___/\___

 —

Search Term

Like real life, there always is something unexpected, or couldn’t anticipate.

This Yoshizen’s blog was started just as a coincidence, hence no clear structure or design exist.

And it has been went on and on, resulted utterly assorted 260 posts now, and having total hit of 57,000 (!).

(I have no idea how many people — if 10 persons read 10 posts each, it would be counted as 100 hits)

In fact, it’s gave me a puzzle “How come” ? And I’m still puzzling, such as an occasion soon after it was posted,

suddenly it gone to popular arena and receiving amazing responses, —– How it happened  ?

There seems something strange communication exist among the readers of which I’m not fully understood.

How the readers able to know something interesting in here, before hand ?

Is it all because of the Google’s search engine ?  Or a kind of network of the readers, Emailing

the link each other, saying have look this one ?

[]

And pretty interesting to me is, I can see the search term which people used —– and end-up here 🙂

—– I don’t know whether a person expected to come here or somewhere else.

Some search terms such as [Make rice cake in 15 minutes], [Da vinch penis drawing] are most likely from

the memory of my old post, and wanted to find the same, probably to show others as a talking piece.

But some of them are utterly incomprehensible —– How it came to here ? Some are a term to look for a

porno site = when I tested the same, such as [female nude 3D] [japanese wife nude] it went into a sea

(million items) of Google lists.   So the question is,  how the person could manage to reach here without

leaving a Google foot-print ? Is there special access code to write Search Term into my Stats’ ?

—– What ever, it must be a great effort to achieve it.

[]

The terms which people has used, such as [Bodhitree in Japanese], [story+of+bodhidarma]

[Walking and not thinking the leg movement] — may originated from this blog though, the

person didn’t remember the name of the site = name is not the matter but the contents.

A flower rising from the water may teach a person what is the Dharma,  but the matter is

the way of its existence,  not the name = Lotus.

This blog might have inspired the readers and some may find the right direction of

their Pathway. = is what all about the role of this blog.   And the very reason to be here.

___/\___

—

Hydrangea Otaksa

Mag

Early summer or before a summer starts,  Japan has a rainy season

(middle of June to middle of July) somewhat akin to the monsoon.

Every day is a rainy day.  And under the rain, it is the time to appreciate

pale blue Hydrangea flowers = 紫陽花 アジサイ.

There are many famous Hydrangea　Garden arround Tokyo, especially

in Kamakura city (one hour from Tokyo),　Meigetsu-in Temple, Hase-dera

Temple, Jyoju-in Temple are only name　but few.   

Why Hydrangea in the Temple  is because of its meditative blue color.

Buddhist monks are the sombre  people.  😀  — I’m just kidding.  😀

non

You might have heard that the Hydrangea flower originated from

Japan.  It was brought back to the Netherlands and spread to the

Europe in late 19^th century and since then many horticultural

varieties were created especially in England.

The person who introduced it to the west was a German Doctor working

in the Dutch mercantile, in Nagasaki, Philip Franz von Siebold.

( In fact, he came  Japan twice, and for the second time he acted as a

foreign affair adviser for the Shogun )

While he was in Japan, along side working as a doctor and teaching

western medicine, he studied Japanese Flora and Fauna, and collected

vast amount of botanical specimen as well.  From this study and the

research, worked together with a Botanist J.G. Zuccarini, a book

[Japanese Flora] was published.   In this book, one of the native plant

was named as Hydrangea Otaksa.  ( though, it has been renamed to

Hydrangea macropylla (Thunb) seringe f. macropylla )

Shy Siebold himself made an excuse that the name Otakusa came  

from local name though, a Japanese Botanist, Tomitaro Makino

later traced back its origin to his Japanese wife Otaki-san.

 

The name he put, Otaksa came from non other than his Japanese wife

Otaki-san in deed. (Incidentally, a daughter he made to Otaki-san,

the Oine = 楠本イネ, became the first female doctor, gynecologist in the

Japanese Medical history.)

He must loved her so much, as he even taught his Parrot to repeat her

name “Otaki-san” —– and a funny story was that since then it became

a custom to teach a Parrot to call the name ”Otake-san” in Japan.

( Similar to a custom in Japan, a lots of dog has their name “Pochi”

—– originally it was copied from the call for a dog “Pooch” in

English or American.)   😀

 

nonBotanical research institutes in the world exchanges their collection

each other.  When I was in my Uni’, my part-time work was taking

botanical photos and making the specimen in the Makino Herbarium＝

牧野植物標本館 (a part of the Science Dept’ )

One day, the Herbarium received a parcel from the Science Dept’ of

the Leiden University, Netherlands.

It was the very botanical specimen which  Siebold had taken to 

the Netherlands.    And 110 years later, they were returned to Japan.

As I happened to have best dexterity, I was asked to stick those old

fragile specimen onto the card paper, then labelling them.

It was an extremely delicate work.   Not only the specimen were

completely dry old plants, but the paper base is not solid board.

Any bending force to the base paper would crumble the specimen.

Hence the binding tape need to have some margin of gap to allow

the specimen to move, while securely holding it.

The specimen itself were nothing special —– they are quite

common (to Japanese eyes)  plants, such as cherry blossoms etc.

(though, Hydrangea wasn’t included)  but the matter was its

association with historical figure Siebold who taught the Japanese

herbalists to sort the plants in real scientific way first time.

Non

While making those specimen I’ve put a plank — I wrote my name

under the label with thin pencil. It is not visible though, if anybody

see through the label against the light, the name may be seen.

( This is the first time I revealed such mischief to the others.)  😀

Few years ago, I heard from a retired Professor of Makino Herbarium,

the portable specimen dryers powered by mobile electric generator

which I designed and made for the Ogasawara expedition ( I made its

metal work  in the Technology Dept’s work shop) were still there and

nearly 40 years later they are still working !

— its funny to think the staff of the herbarium might be wondering

to see the name on the dryer’s label “Who the hell, this guy ?”

(A facility in a big institute show no personal name as a manufacturer)

And in the Japanese practice, the photos taken by the staff doesn’t

show the photographer’s name. So, my name only remains on member

list of the expedition and behind the labels of Siebold collection.

—– it’s a hidden joke.    😀

 

PS: The Hydrangea in the Photo above is rather primitive type

( I couldn’t find the exact name of it though) unlike the common

types, this flower showed the real flower in the centre of sepal.

The common horticultural variety has atrophied flower  (in fact, 

it is not a flower but just the sepals)

I rather like to see the flowers in its natural form than in

an artificially created “gorgeous” style.

*****

Hydrangea Otakusa / Makino / Ogasawara Expedition

Bodhi-Tree / Bodai-ju

You believe or not, this is the tree what Japanese believes as the Boddhi-Tree.

My parents believed and explained to me, “This is the tree which Buddha said to have enlightened while sitting under this tree.  Therefore it got the name BODAI-Ju.   Since, a flower blooms as if it is standing in a palm.”

Yes, it looks uniquely strange flower.   So, I believed its story.  Anyhow, I was a small boy —– no argument 🙂

non

Not only a boy, everybody in Japan believed that this is the Boddhi Tree,  hence a  German song composed by Franz Schubert  about this particular tree and its title  [Der Lindenbaum]  was translated into Japanese as [ BODAI-Ju ] — of cause, in this case, the tree was a tree known as a Lime tree in the west.

—– (Strangely, this [Bodai-ju] has another name which has Ainu tribe origin [Shina-no-ki] and from its shape of the false leaf under a flower, the another name was [Hera-no-ki] —– so, the name [Bodai-ju] was only after the time when Japanese got Buddhism)

Non

When the Buddhism was brought to Japan,  the India [Tenjiku] was in the another planet, even to the Chinese monks who travelled over there and studied Buddhism, it was a distance needed to take years of journey.

Hence, to read the scriptures was just a guess work,  let alone to distinguish what was the historical truth or even chronological order among the jumbled scriptures.

Therefore, to have mistaken Lime tree as to the Boddhi tree was not a big crime   🙂

(I haven’t found what Chinese people were understanding about Boddhi Tree, yet.    So, any Chinese reader who knows about it,  please leave a comment herein after)

In comparison,  we now can have amazing amount of informations and even a photo of a real Boddhi Tree ( Ficus religiosa )  while sitting in a room thousands of miles away from India —– still, we are not sure, 

whether we are any wiser than a monk thousand years ago. —– yet still, the reason why we can get the same understanding of the teachings is, Buddhism is not based on the knowledges but on its practice.    Like riding a bicycle —– no one can explain how to ride it, but by the practice you can get to know how by yourself.

( So,  there is no problem whether it was [Boddhi tree] or [Bodai-ju] to get enlightenment  😀 )

___/\___

non

TOMATO is DHARMA

A reader sent me a link of a page of Wikipedia [Dharma]  to educate me. 😀

Thank you very much though,  I might have seen this page before but didn’t like it.

The author of the page surely knew the meanings of the Dharma contains

mere things and phenomenon as well.

But he might wanted to make up the story looks more authoritative,  he emphasized more in the Rules side,

and only mentioned “Things”  and  “Phenomenon” just like an addition.

—– ” It was his Arrogance sir ” 😀

——

Don’t make the things and the life even more complicated with useless thinking.

Just open your eyes and look at a Tomato plant.(Provided if you have one. If not, anything would do the same)

—— Its green shoot, leaves, and although it’s under a soil and can’t be seen  but its root is there.

It’s just grow.  And going to yield beautiful red Tomato fruits (or vegetable ? —– you argue, not me  😀 )

( If you ever eaten  fully ripen real tomato in the sun drenched field,  you know how sweet its fruits is ! )

With your fresh eyes, just feel again.  Isn’t this amazing ?   How it’s grow ? How it’s exist here ?

To maintain its shape as a Tomato plant,  there is a complicated biological mechanism, —– determination

by its genetics, and the botanical, agricultural aspects such as the species, variety etc,  the growth

mechanism,  monocular-biology,  what nutrition,  what substance goes into their roots and converted into

what and makes its leaves etc etc.   It is a conglomerate of existence with rules and phenomenon.

—-

Without having this Tomato plant itself,  all those phenomena never taking place there.

So, why the Tomato exists in the first place and who is and why, you happened to watching this Tomato.

All together,  this,  before your eyes —– is The Dharma. (Which you need to pay a respect as well)

—– But, if you don’t have the eyes and the mind to feel it is amazing,  you may need to reset your mind

and the perception once, and start again to see the world, like a child saw it first time ever.

You may not as bad as the people believing that the Tomato comes from Tesco. 😀

This is why Buddha ordered  ” Think yourself ” —— refresh your perception.

To see the Dharma in its shape of a Tomato is the starting point of the Buddhism.

___/\___

—

I hate Plants

Well, it is ” I hate to have plants in the house” more precisely.

When I was a boy, I didn’t believe Harry Potter kind of magic, instead I was more fancied  Ninja.

And fascinated by the poisonous plants.  Instead dreaming with magic, I chose much more

feasible practical plot using a root of such as Aconite (Monks Hood)

—— (What a dangerous evil boy !  😀 )

Fortunately or unfortunately I couldn’t have an opportunity to test its magic portion  😀

So, I did make hundreds of pressed plants specimen along side the insects specimen.

Naturally, when I found rare specimen, I was so grad and delighted to pick it up —– then one day,

suddenly I realized that the one, I just picked up (and killed ) might be the very last one.

I changed to take photo of them instead of killing.

So that, when I was in the Uni’, as a member of the Alpine Club and has been doing Botanical Photography

often I was asked to help the botanist to go to the remote mountain or remote islands as a mountain guide.

—–

Though, when I witnessed those top academic people collecting the rare species in the industrial scale,

not one or two but hundreds in one-go, I really annoyed.  We are the one pushing the species to extinct.

( Botanical research institutes all over the world, exchange the specimen each other, therefore needs

to collect hundreds, as there may not be another chance to go such remote place, and the next time, that

species would have extinct then —– collect as much while you can ) —— m m m ? ? ?

—–

Since then, I stopped to pick a flower.  As a specimen, to have a flower is crucial though, it is just before

them to produce seeds, it’s a disaster for the flower and for the survival of its species.

And stopped to buy  potted plant, as I realized, I’m not entitled to have another life in my hand.

—– except a discarded dying plant I found on the street. Like a half-dried stem of a Cheese Plant.

Soak its stem in the water until its root and a bud appeared, then put it into a pot and let it grow.

—— To watch it revived and grow big, is an exciting pleasure — (on the beginning  😀 )

I don’t think I got green-finger as others say.  I just give a necessary care that’s all —– though, the plant

grow and grow —– Once before I had to (forcibly) give a Cheese Plant to my friend ( which was started

to grow from 10″ bare stem to 10 feet big )  when I suddenly needed to move out a big house.

A person who was  wealthy enough to have a space to accommodate 10 feet big plant, tend to have long

holiday —– long enough to dry up all the house plant ( —– its mean not wealthy enough to have

a butler to take care of the empty house  😀 )

—–

The Photo above is the plants I got in my kitchen window.   The left is a Sycad plant, dubbed as a living fossil

ancient species I found on the street.  Next is a Ginger plant which was started to shoot before I eat, so,

I had to put it in a pot.  And next two pot are so-called Money-plant, came from a friend’s place in miserable

state.  Then last long one is a kind of Cacti from the street.  Now I know why this Cacti was thrown out.

It just grow and grow,  3 feet long now. (not cute at all, and its thorn is very sharp  😀  )

Rescuing Plant —– its intention may not bad though, the window of my flat are all eastward, therefore

the sun light hit there only on morning,  not enough to the plants.  And the windowsill is not big enough

for the plant to grow big.  When it grow, I had to change the pot larger with pigeon dropping in the bottom,

—– with good fertilizer, it grow even more  😀   Head heavy plant fallen from windowsill, then I needed

to tie the blanches —– what the troubles.  People says ” Just chop them smaller ” which I don’t want to do,

since I had to put those chopped blanches into another pot to have the roots, then more and more plants.

To see a poor dying plant, it got to be rescued —– but,don’t expect rescued-plant is any docile-plant  😀

Plants got their own rationals / Dharma to live.

To give an adequate environment for the plants to grow,  I should move to much larger sunny place ?

( It must be the same headache to have a wife and a family )

—– I’m not sure what is the best.  Should I left the dying plant in her Karma.  Interfare it and try to rescue it,

was not a too simple emotion ?     This is why, I hate to have plants.  Ha ha ha 😀

___/\___

—

Four-Leaf Clover

I know, everybody have a memory, once (or many times) looked for the four-leaf clover when we

saw the patch of ground covered by the clover.  Of cause I have, and in deed I found few of them in my life.

Yet, I don’t think it brought me any better luck —— and I’m not talking about the good luck here.

( Still, this post deserve to have a title of  Four-leave Clover —– you will find it  🙂  )

——

When you were looking for the clover, do you remember what you were thinking ?   Kind of play to the God ?

“Oh my Load, please give me a Four-Leaf Clover” —— I don’t think so.  😀

(May be you were thinking of your girl friend or boy friend —- to present the precious findings. How sweet ! )

When you are scanning the field with your eyes, I don’t think any thought was in the brain.

Eyes were just scanning and just concentrating for the task.  In fact any thought would be a distraction.

And, do you believe the concentrated effort, will power would help to find it ?   I don’t think so neither  😀

And if you lucky to find one, was it in the center of your eyes ?  —— it doesn’t necessary so.

Quite often we find the intended object somewhere periphery of our vision.

We read the small letters in the center of our eyes, other than the center, we can’t read and understand

what was written there.  So that,  when we need to find a file name in the list, we have to concentrate

and pick the pattern of the word in the file name.  It need to have a will to read.

In comparison  we can detect the pattern which we know already in the periphery of eye field.

But this vision were controlled by our subconscious,  not by our conscious  will.  When  noticed

it’s there,  we move eye-ball and capture it in the center of vision,  then confirm it,  Gotcha !

___

When I was in my Uni’ I was asked to join the research expedition to the remote corner of Japan or pacific

islands, to help the botanist.  ( As I was a member of Alpine Club, specialized in yet traced area or jungle

kind of terrain and doing botanical photography as well —– despite of I was a student of Sociology.  🙂  )

Strangely, in those occasions,  many times I was the first or only one to find out the specific plant, while

going through the field or jungle.  I have enough knowledge of botany but, professors knows a similar type

and so on far better,  and the information I had,  was only a line drawing of the plant from the botanical book,

encyclopedia etc otherwise 70-year-old dry specimen, of which the plant haven’t been seen 50 years,

kind of rare species.   Everybody was amazed  ” How you could see this.  You must got very good eyes ”

( Though, I’m heavily short eye-sighted )  “No no, I just noticed, it looked different ”  ” In 10m away ? ”

Of cause, the plant didn’t come on front of us.  I had to catch it in my peripheral view.

——- In deed,  our eyes or cognitive function of our brain is possessing remarkable ability.

Just learned  from 2″ size line drawing to distinguish real plant ( which is not necessary having flower to

stand out )  might be akin to a Policeman to apprehend a suspect, from a vague photo-fit.

It must have a very intuitive creative work to fill a gap.

—-

But before work out to reconstruct the image,  we need to catch it in the first place.

So,  how our eyes can catch the Four Leaf Clover in distance,  even by the peripheral vision.

In fact, the answer lies in this peripheral vision, and its subconscious process.

It’s all came down to the same paradox ” When you want to see, you can’t.  When you abandon  to

search, you start to see”.  And here, the same Blanc Space in the Mind is playing the role. (Refer the Post)

If you don’t know about the Zen, you might think this is contradictive though,  this is how our brain works.

Expose the perception in open-minded way,  which Zenist call  Mushin (Mind of no mind),  the brain can

receive far more information / visual signal,  and able to process them far more efficient way.

( Many years ago,  I met a man who is working as a railway station staff told me “How to find a railway pass

cheat” saying ” Standing and checking the passes one by one by reading the date on the pass is impossible.

So, we just standing watching the incoming passengers.  Then anyone caught eyes,  we look at his / her

pass and read the date.  We are reading the behavior and the mind of the passengers.  Standing and just

seeing the flow of the people, still we can distinguish who is cheating, far more accurate” —– Well said  :-))

——- This is why I wrote in the earliest post,  ” Just walking the street. Just looking forward without focusing

any point or taking any notice of street scene,  open and spread your vision from the side to side.

This is the Zen ” ( in easiest way —- called Walking  Zen   😀 —– The advantage in Walking Zen is, you

can observe your state of mind from your Peripheral Vision  (able to notice, both end of images are keep

moving while you walk) —– though, tricky part is, you only have to feel them without the conscious mind.

Still it is easier than to observe the state of mind of  Sitting / Meditating without Thinking —–

Thinking the state of Not Thinking is pretty hard to achieve —— Make your subconscious to observe

your conscious mind which supposed  to be not thinking = This is the nut-shell of  Zen training —- Training

because the aim is to achieve Let the subconscious to think and deal with the life —– Because of the

subconscious is thinking but you do not notice it = Hence you are not consciously Thinking.

—– Most important point to remember is, All the thinking process was actually done

subconsciously, then, conscious consideration such as tactical maneuver, social pretence  etc

intervene and mess-up the decision-making and push the life into unnecessary trouble.

Buddha’s suggestion was simple, Be straight and simple, don’t make a life complicated by

being messed up by unnecessary thought.  This is what the Buddhism all about.)

So, why not try your Zenist eyes by looking for the four-leaved Clover.  (Provided, if it’s there at all.  😀

Zen can not create something out of nothing.  Zen can only help you to see it )   Good luck !

___/\___

—-

Nature = Dharma

–

—————————————–It’s a summer, have a brake, have a kitcat.

—-Photo by :  Canon 5D Mk-II  ( It’s a good Camera)  /  Nikon Fish-eye 16mm  ( It’s a good lens ) 😀

Talking blah blha, typing tick tick —– is a tiring business.  It’s nice to be in the nature.  Its teaches us more.  🙂

Please click the image to enlarge, and click again even larger.  Nature is not necessary posing us in orderly

esthetically pleasing alignment —– they can be just wild —– yet this is still their equilibrium / harmony.

Try to see them in esthetically orderly frame is our Ego.  Mahayana accept its disorder as it is.

This is the Dharma.   ___/\___—-