Test of Selflessness

While looking for a hint to see what was the mind-set of

Lord Buddha, here and there such as in

the Agama Sutra, I stumbled that

Lord Buddha had intentionally not revealing

his intention preventing the followers become

“head big brah brah person”.

[]

An episode in the Argama, which was — In a rainy night

Lord Buddha told a disciple, Ananda that he is going for

a walk. (without telling where or what for.)

To follow him, Ananda came out carrying umbrella and

torch-fire.  Everybody in the sangha followed as well,

each carrying umbrella and a torch, as they have been

accustomed to follow their teacher. —– After a while

walking up a hill, and saw all of his followers were there,

Lord Buddha smiled.   Then Ananda asked him,

“Great Teacher never smiled without a reason. So,why

this time ?” but he received no answer why.

[]

Lord Buddha has, in fact, tested

the followers reaction and their progress.

Even under a condition, not nice for a walk, still all

the followers actually followed him.  Which was an

indication of that, everybody had sublimated his

teachings and able to do it in practice.

—– What was the crux of teaching ?

= Without asking why or what for, despite in a rainy

night, just follow unconditionally, was a proof of that

everybody has reached to the Selfless state of the mind,

hence able to respond the situation as it’s happened.  

(As he saw the sign, that the teachings has

worked perfect, so, smiled.)

[]

Lord Buddha had such a good insight of human mind.

That was why he never explained the intention why,

or the logic behind of it. —– Once he explained and gave

a verbal key, the followers remember it as a buzz-word

and become head-big, then the thinking start to

control their behaviour which is nothing but a

sham or superficial pretence.

Buddhism is not a religion of Dogma of which followers

have to read and remember and recite the words, but the

Buddhism changes one’s psyche down to the subconscious

level through the practice. (= not behave what was told by

the Dogma or Rules, but naturally do it unconsciously)

If followers knew that it is a test to check whether the one

can respond at once without questioning and to follow

in the state of Selflessness. —– it can be mimicked and

easily pretended while competing with others.

(Look at me, I can do this. I’m better than you —–

this arrogance is the most remote from the Buddhist’s mind.)

[]

This episode clearly showed the essence of the Buddhism,

hence it become clear, how unfortunate the followers

of especially Zen Buddhism today.  = Knowing that

the Zen is to get Mushin etc. brah brah, it is 

completely opposite to get Mushin, let alone Zen.

If the one has a conscious of “I’m in Mushin”, it is not

Mushin at all.   It is the same to tell “I’m doing the sitting

in silence” (—– If so, shut up.   Just sit ! :-D)

[]

To master the Zen, you may need to be thrown into a

situation, where you were forced to do something utterly

boring repeating work (as a volunteer ?)

—– after you became able to do the work almost like an

automatic machine (while knowing, it’s useless to complain)

—– then need to realize “Aha, this the Selfless state

of Mushin” ! = So, it is even better if it looks most unlikely

set-up to do Zen, which would prevent to hold any pretence.

(In my case, it has happened while I was working in a

mountain shelter, cutting log, and in Disco dancing. 😀

= I was lucky, similar to Huineng who was placed to work

in the kitchen of the Monastery.)

[]

—– In fact, sitting in a temple to learn Zen is the worst

setting to learn, since such conscious of

“I‘m doing Zen” prevent the person to get rid of

such notion and the thinking.

It’s exactly the same irony = try to get cured in a hospital

where all sorts of infectious germs, viruses has been

brought in and more concentrated than anywhere else.  😀

[]

—– And in the same context, what I’m writing here

could be quite harmful to a novice, as I’m revealing the

trade secret,  while analysing mechanism of

the psyche in the Zen, utterly contrary to

Lord Buddha’s silent smile, aforesaid —– still, this

may be help the people who is studying psychology.

= So, it may need to put a health warning.

“Experienced Adult only” 😀 )

But this is what this Blog is, using my own mind as

a guinea-pig to figure-out what the Zen is. !

(Try to see Zen, objectively is not in Ichijo in Zen,

therefore the most remote from own Enlightenment.)

[]

(And that was why master Kogetsu damned me, that I

can get no Enlightenment ! — but, What’s wrong ? 😀

Get an enlightenment may help mere one person,

but to those millions of the people, who has been

mislead by a mixed-up-Buddhism, to open their eyes

could be a crucial matter.

and that must be the will of

Lord Buddha and the Dharma.)

___/\___

[]

PS :  Friend asked me at once “So, is it useless and

hopeless to attempt to learn ZEN at all now ?”  

“Not at all. Don’t try ZEN but just clean your

room or kitchen.  🙂

Make it perfectly clean and do it everyday”

And read this post.(link)

[]

Reverse Engineering of ZEN

As I often wrote before, my approach to Zen Buddhism is a

way of reverse-engineering = disassembling a product to

analyse the structure and components etc. to find the reason

why it was designed in such a way, for what purpose and for

what advantage.

Then able to see even a philosophy behind of it.

[]

In a case of Zen, to see what sort of practice in such as

Tea-making or Martial-art etc. which were well known to be

a part of Zen culture, and see what is the common factor and

common philosophy, how they are related to Zen teachings.

—– from those observation, it was

easy to see that the key-word was the [Mushin], and

to attain, it was achieved by the years of repeated practice.

—– But, what repeated practice to do with [Mushin] ?

[]

For me, it took many years of search until I connected it to

the neurological phenomenon, which is the threshold of the

perception rose against the same repeated signal, and

become immune to it.

It was almost an Eureka moment to me. —– With this,

how the emotional tension decay after while, or how we get

used and overcome a fear, even become apathetic, all became

clear and able to make straight connection to the Zen.

Then, I realized that this is the reason why all the Buddhism

sects are using the endless repeating practice as a part of their

teachings.  (whether chanting the same or banging the drum,

walking round and round etc etc —–

Lord Buddha said to have used the way of breathing as a practice)

—– All for getting the state of [Mushin]. —– And I realized

that the continuous action such as cutting the log in a mountain

shelter, or even Disco-dancing which automatically reflect to each

element of music I did, had in deed having had the same effects.

[]

Mushin is not only to abandon the thinking process

but more importantly, it disconnects perception 

(coming signal) to the emotion. = This is exactly what

Buddhism says [Detachment] which is behind the

[8 Right path]. (I wouldn’t presume that, it included a

Disco-dancing though. 😀 )

And as a neurological fact, detached emotion cause a

detachment even from a conscious of Self and the own belongings.

= Detachment from primordial Instincts, Ego and

Greed, is exactly the State of [Selflessness] and not 

attached to any fixed tendency is the [Middle-way] = 

Hence, all the peculiar phenomena in the Buddhism became clear.

(In fact, all those [Mushin], [Selflessness], [Middle-way] even

[Mindfulness] are all created by the [Detachment] of the nerve

signal from the Emotion = actually they are the same one

phenomenon, but named it seeing from different angles.)

[]

As all those phenomena was the core of

the Buddhism teachings, it’s mean,

Lord Buddha did know all those mechanism in our mind

though, to trace back all those to his teachings in the scripture

is not straight forward, such as metaphor and his real wording

may not been correctly recorded and translated.

—– A description in the Vimalakirti Sutra “If you have a mind

that you are giving, it is not true giving” or in a typical

Mahayana expression “Giving as not-giving is the giving” are

in fact all meant “Giving in Mushin or in Selflessness”

(without conscious of action).

—– All the religion require the active mind-set, “Complete

attachment to the Belief which was written” but only the

Buddhism teaches [Detachment] = this is the very

distinctive point though, to describe something

which is not there = [Empty mind] is very difficult.

[]

The trouble of the Buddhism is, virtually no reliable written

record exists.   It’s a pile of hearsay after 10^th, 100^th of Chinese

whisper.  🙂   And seemingly, the person, good in writing may

not be the person who actually reached Mushin or Selflessness

— otherwise such as Abidharma-kosa was never been written.

And on top of this, even though the matter is all in the depth

of murky subconsciousness, there was no understanding of

psychology neither a notion or word to describe was existed then.

[]

In such an environment, to pretend to be a Master and boast,

creating yet another Mantras was very easy, but to disprove

it was difficult. = all came down to the political power game of

the sects. Winner takes all and justify their righteousness,

regardless of its authenticity —– hence, created utter

mixed-up-Buddhism (in fact, it was a Tantra mixed Hinduism

with some idea from the Buddhism)

for a sake of populism and a commercial success. =

(It’s easier to sell, “This God would save you” than “Need to

know, Suffering is not exists” —– after a death nobody ever

came back to complain “God wasn’t there”= So, its sale’s point

has never been disproved and able to keep assume that the

dead are in Heaven. 😀 )

[]

Obviously, it is necessary to re-examine and to see what was

the original teachings, even though it might be yet another

guess work. —– Still, my approach, which is based on the

neurological mechanism, can explain all the Buddhism

phenomena. —– If not what else could explain it ?

(Leaving the matter to mythical unknown power and

its blessing ? —– Joking !  We are in the 21^st century ! )

[]

This neurological, psychological response is common to

all human being (hence it was described that everybody

born with it) it is applicable to anybody and many area of

human activities. (In fact it has been used a lot.)

And it will prove that the Buddhism has a tangible substance.

(unlike any other religion, which is based on a fantasy which

is only exists if it was believed) —– As the Buddhism is based

on the tangible substance, not on the imagination or belief,

it was often classified as a philosophy not a religion.

___/\___

[]

Flow-Chart of Buddhism Teachings

Flow-Chart or the Steps in the Pathway

1) Do anything which has a fixed pattern.

2) By doing it repeatedly, 100s, 1000s even million times =

3) Because the nerve signal dealing with its action has

the same pattern, our Perception and Emotion’s threshold

level rose, hence the significance of the signal will be

lost and disregarded.

4) As the action has been repeated, its pattern will be

programmed into Motor-region of the brain and the action

become automatic routine.

5) As the effects of 3) and 4), the action can be carried-out

without thinking, even out of one’s conscious.

6) In the same time of 5), the one doing the action without

one’s conscious mean, it is in the Selfless state of the mind.

7) Once the one is in its Selfless state, the things become

distant objects as if it is somebody-else’s matter, =

Detachment = the one’s Ego or Greed wouldn’t be triggered.

8) To apply the same state of mind to other aspects of the

life, the one can see everything in distance = objectively

= Clear eyes.    (Gradually, the one acquire this, and once

mastered, it become free to control, if detached or not,

or which one to concentrate or ignore.)

9) And the one can see even the Self detached, objectively,

as if it is one of public, the social action start to follow

common-sense, not self-centred. (Centring self isn’t there) 

10) And able to act or help others without Ego and do the

things as much as possible. (Strangely, we instinctively do

it better ! Even if it is not in competition with others and

even to useless things, it’s mean, it’s not for Ego or Greed.

—– Fundamental Pleasure ? 🙂 )

11) From those aspects, it is rational to conclude, Ego itself

is not one’s imperative, so is the Self. = Self is not naturally 

exists but a product of one’s imagination or thinking.

12) Without having the Self, Ego and Greed which tend to

creates trouble and discontent = could any suffering be left ?

[]

It must be clear from this chart, all the process is pretty

natural as it follows the natural mechanism inherent to

our brain which is common to anybody, so that

Lord Buddha concluded that the Dharma which

rules us is Selfless and as it is common to anybody,

in other words, all of us has it within and Selfless.

— And it become clear, the so-called Rules of “Do this and

Don’t Do that” had been written by the person who hadn’t

actually done the practice to reach Selfless state by himself

hence, didn’t have a knowledge how the human mind

naturally works. (Real selfless person need no instruction,

nor such instruction would stay in the mind.  😀 )

[]

It must be clear. —– Is there any argument ?

___/\___

[]

PS : Though, in addition to this Chart, applying the context

of “denial” not only to the Self and suffering life, but to the

“Idea of Denial” itself, therefore, instead of being enlightened,

“being suffering” seems to be more natural = and this idea

became the stance of Mahayana Buddhism. —– Hence, Zen

says “To see NO enlightenment is the Enlightenment”

= (Anyway, no Self, what’s the matter ! )

[]

Tablet ZEN

Last night there was an essay read by a philosopher Julian Benjamin

on BBC Radio 3.   In it, he talked about how our attitude had changed

during the rapid advancement of the technology.

And he typified it in the situation to use a gadget such as a Tablet

saying “Matter of Familiarity taken over the Understanding

or Comprehension” —– we may no longer able to understand

how those quantum theory is working behind the electronics and

its design neither need to be, but have to become familiar

with its touch-pad operation and each function.

[]

He found an interesting talking point though, his thought didn’t

go deep enough that in fact the situation has been always the

same even in the time of our ancestor, Hunter Gatherer’s day.

I don’t think even a good archer did know a theory of

Aerodynamics or effect of air resistance etc yet, as long as familiar

with the use of Bow and Arrow, he could have a good hunting.

= And that was what THE matter for them.

[]

You believe or not, this is exactly the point what

Lord Buddha taught, hence this is the Zen Buddhism.

Even though some of the people loves and attached to their gadget,

say a Tablet so much, and using it all day long for everything, still,

funny to say, virtually all of them are completely detached from

the questions of what this Tablet is and why such thing exists.

They accepted it almost granted as a part of their life.

—– Except the programmer working for App design, very few of us

know the code of its OS, even fewer people know it in the hardware

level, let alone the theory behind of all those micro electronics.

Instead, we just accept it, as it is and just concentrating practical

aspect and try maximise smooth operation and the efficiency,

in order to have own life fulfilled.

To be a master of Tablet, we needed to become a machine 

to operate it. = even finger moves automatic,

without conscious !

[]

As I said, this is not a Tablet phenomenon, but derived

from our inherent processing system in the brain ! =

This is the System to maximise the efficiency of our life.

—– The way to extend and apply this Operating System

to all aspect of the Life, was what

Lord Buddha taught as the Buddhism.

—– (Bemused ? !    Just open your eyes and see it.  😀 )

___/\___ 

[]

Hacking Business

There was an interesting incident targeted to this Yoshizen Blog.

Soon after I’ve put my last post [Three times BUDDHA] somebody

hacked into my account and try to tamper my text.

As always  🙂 when I found a miss-spelling and try to edit my text,

WordPress’ Auto-save told me that there was an auto-saved

another version exists.

Looking into the script, I noticed that somebody had attempted

to delete a part of my text as you can see on the screen shot.

The target was a paragraph “to fabricate so many so-called Buddha

in Mahayana Buddhism”

Lord Buddha has used the words such as [Land Deity] [Moon Deity]

kind of name (may be for a convenience in the conversation) though,

never used such as a Sanskrit Deity, Brahman, because of the only

who, who rules whole universe is the Dharma, nothing else.

And the Dharma was not personified. = It is invisible yet spread

whole universe, down to the inside of ourselves.

That was what he believed and taught. — So, he got angry when a

Disciple couldn’t get correct understanding of the Dharma, saying

“It’s a disgrace to the Dharma” = he was quite serious.

Therefore, under the name of Buddhism, to creates another object

of worship other than the Dharma, especially importing its

figure from Hinduism is nothing but a contempt of

Lord Buddha and the Dharma.

[]

Hacking into well protected WordPress Blog is a serious business.

I wouldn’t assume it was done by a whim of silly individual = got

to be a professional, hired by the organization.

So, who was the one came through a gap of floor board like a

cockroach, instead to put a counter opinion through the front door ?

Is this a mind-set of the organisation or the sect ? — Blime !

[]

My blog is open for anybody to put a comment or two (though, any

spam which is other than a genuine comment has been completely

rejected —– except few exception, who got an interesting family

business to advertise. 🙂 ) hence, if anybody got different view,

to express its view as a comment is welcome, but don’t use

dirty hacking. —– It doesn’t work as the original was

composed on Word, re-load the same can be done in 10 min’.  🙂

And it’s counter productive to the hacker, because it would only create

another funny post like this, and that’s why my blog got 127,000 hits.

—– though, I know, quite few of hits were mislead by a search term

“xxx nude figure” kind, and end-up to see wire sculpture here. 😀

___/\___

[] 

Three times BUDDHA

There is an interesting story in the Agama Sutra

(of Buddhism ! = there are many.) —– one day,

Lord Buddha met a horse trainer (other versin said Village Chief).  

Then asked to the horse-trainer  “How to teach a horse ?”

Horse-trainer replied that there are three ways to teach horse.

Gentle way, Hard way and Gentle / Hard mixed.

Lord Buddha asked him further “If all three ways failed,

what do you do with that horse ?”  

The trainer answered “Kill the horse” and he asked back

“How you teach your follower ?”.

Lord Buddha answered him, “There are three ways to teach,

Gentle way, Hard way and Gentle / Hard mixed, but if all

those teachings failed, kill him”.

Hose-trainer was horrified and shouted “You been telling us Don’t kill,

how dear you kill the follower ?”

Lord Buddha smiled back “Well, I just stop talk to him.

Completely stop talk, is the same to deny his existence,

same as to kill him, isn’t it ?”

[]

This episode sound like just a casual funny story though,

this was the episode which gave the most important clue to the

so-called “Unanswered Questions”  You must be realized that

Lord Buddha’s No-answer was not just a rack of word but it

was the massage as strong as to kill the person !

[]

There is an often used phrase in Japanese “Even Buddha tolerates till

three times” (Hotoke no kao mo sando made. 仏の顏も三度まで)

—– I didn’t know, this phrase was in deed, originated from the Scripture.

—– And this story showed rather realistic attitude of

Lord Buddha, contrary to the popular belief, he was not a

bottomlessly gentle and kind teacher.   As once a hard-core

austere, he was not an optimistic person, as he defined what

the life is, such as in the Four Noble Truth.

From here, in a process to idealize and idolize him, even worse,

to fabricate many so-called Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism,

( in fact, it was the mix-up with Tantrism and Hinduism )

crux of the original teachings was lost.

[]

What Lord Buddha himself taught was, to have the Detached Eyes.

Detached Eyes mean, detached from the Mind / Emotion, hence there

was neither attachment to the subject or person.   In other words,  

there was no attachment even to his followers.   Hence, as long as

Lord Buddha committed to give guidance to the person, he was in deed

committed it to 100% (and try to teach in three different ways) though

if it was failed, he literally ex-communicated the person.

Once excommunicated, the person became invisible.

Even visually saw the person, it wouldn’t connected to any

emotional memories, hence there were no anger or feeling of

disappointment etc. —– Because of there are nothing to cling

past Mind / Emotion, only the matter is what on front of eyes,

on its very Moment. (This IS the very Zen mind-set)

(After you practised long enough, and gained this condition / Mind-set 

then you know what Detached Eyes and Detached Mind can help you.)

(And how to practice to gain Detachment, please read the post under a

category of [Lemon Zen] in the right column.

[]

You may feel, it’s sound very cruel and not-Buddhist like,

it’s because So-called monk or teacher is not really understood, or only

making diplomatic smile and pretending to be friendly, in order to

sell to the mass.

Because of this confusion, one of the greatest novelist, Soseki Natsume

described it in his book, [Mon (門) / Gate], when a priest of Zen temple

has told to him, “Mind of Zen is Hijo (非情) / No Emotion” he felt even

alienated. —– (To describe Mushin (無心) / Mind of No-Mind, this

priest used more realistic word Hijo in stead, because he knew the

Zen Buddhism deeper, and didn’t mind to sell it to the mass.)

[]

Load Buddha didn’t give his teachings to give false optimism,

or fancy dream but the Truth.

In this aspect, he was quite harsh.   Telling the followers to get rid of

their possessions even their family (little consideration to an agony of

the family left behind, not mention to his own Royal lineage).

(This was the reason why

Lord Buddha bared the women to join his follower’s sanga.  

Since, to a woman, to abandon the child is out of question in the

first place = woman may have conflict to follow his teachings.)

[]

—– Still, with detached eyes and the mind, there wouldn’t be

any matter left to worry about, because the psychological

source of worry = emotion itself had been already detached.

The mechanism to feel any suffering has no longer exists.

= Peace of mind !   😀 

—– though, I’m not an enlightened man, hence mixed with

failed person and teasing them or teased by them are fun.

This is what the Life is.      Ha ha ha   😀

___/\___

[]

Last event on Stubnitz

While I’m putting this post, the Ship Stubnitz is leaving  Canary Wharf and taking

a voyage to Normandy, France.

So, the last night, there was a kind of noisy farewell party on the ship.

(I went there with my Sound-reactive Flushing Pendant. = one of my disco regalia.   🙂 )

It was called  Algorave.  And the Info’ here was copied from their web site.

[ Featuring Cursor Miner making dance music in the frequency domain, Ardisson augmenting his tb303

and tr606 acid house with gamelan, Alo Allik twisting his audio/visual algomusic into beat-driven techno,

Alexandra Cárdenas live coding minimal techno from supercollider impulses, Martin Klang making

Euclidean acid with hybrid digital/analogue algorithms, Shelly and some Mandelbrots uniting

Birmingham and Karlsruhe with three-way live coded house, and Meta-eX leading us into the night by

live hacking an extended build up with code and controllers..

plus algorave residents Slub (with guest Elvi$ Ca$h) and Sick Lincoln. ]

Some of their music creation were quite experimental  (hence, not necessary natural to

a body to dance, or even impossible to follow.)  😀   and some were quite aggressive, still

good to dance.  (Loud drumming doesn’t necessary mean strong beat.  The matter is the

syncopation and minute gap, which gives instantaneous tension to the body movement.)

Live means,  lots of adjustments, conjuring, connecting / disconnecting cable,  

moment to moment on the spot, etc. etc.  —– looks messy business.   😀

Any how, it was a very enjoyable vibrant evening. 

(May be I was the one, dancing most.)   😀  

Good luck to Algorave and the ship Stubnitz.

Huineng vs Shenxui — Poetry Contest

Provably the most well known Zen story was a contest to became

6^th Patriarch of the Zen.

For the contest, the most respected top monk in the monastery,

Shenxui wrote a poem as the answer to the 5^th Patriarch, Hongren

who request to show the Zen mind,

“Mind is like a mirror, I polish the mirror diligently for

no dust to settle on it”

When an illiterate low-rank monk Huineng who has been working

in the kitchen of the temple heard this, he asked friend monk to

write his poem contesting Shenxui’s,

“Since Mirror is not exists in the first place,

where dust could settle”

Hongren saw Huineng has much deeper understanding of Zen,

he chose Huineng for his successor.

[]

This story showed what all about the Zen and its pathway

in amazing clarity.

Shenxui was a well educated, well learned monk, hence he must

have read hundreds of scriptures and understood the attitude to be

a good Buddhist. (in this extent, his answer / poem was quite

appropriate and correct though, it was more like a posture of

Theravada monk, still on the way to the enlightenment, in other

words, he hadn’t broken the barrier, or gone to the other side yet. )

In contrast, Huineng had showed exactly what the notion

of Void in Zen Buddhism.

— How Huineng could get this, while working in the kitchen.

[]

As a son of peasant, Huineng had no education and illiterate hence,

he had no chance to read and study Buddhism other than just pick

up the words, what other monks were talking about.

Anyway, he had to work every day as a casual labourer in the temple,

still, those every day’s continuous repeating work gave him to gain

the essential mind-set to be a Zen Buddhist = Unconditionally

accepting (humble) to be a lowest working monk, hence there

couldn’t be any possibility left to have desire or even an Ego.

And as day by day, the same work continues, the mind

became empty = just the hand repeating the work.

Yet still, by keeping eyes clear, he could see the crux of human

existence = how the Life exists = what the World and the Dharma is.

And he was able to make the straight connection of his state of mind

and the observation, to each notion.   In effect, he had mastered the

Zen in DIY.   Zen doesn’t need to be literate but to have clear eyes to

see inside and outside, with the direction of few key-word.

(This straight connection is behind of

“Sudden Enlightenment” and the “Direct Transmission” )

[]

And this observation lead me to see an amazing parallel in

the history of Buddhism.

Founder of Zen, Master Bodhi Dharma had to establish the way

of Zen in DIY, as there was no text book exist then, even worse in

foreign country. And the situation was more or less the same, when

Lord Buddha started his own teachings = NO Buddhism

textbook at all, of cause, let alone whether even Vada was

available to the public in written form. 😀

Shen[]

But this is what the Buddhism is.

Since, it is the matter of one’s mind-set and the programming of

one’s subconscious = the one has to do it by oneself.

It is literally Do It Yourself / DIY = A book might give a hint, still

the one has to DO the work (practice with good insight) =

Book wouldn’t do the work on behalf. 😀

(Put Buddhist book in a memory of “Automatic Voice Generator”

and make voice out-put of script, wouldn’t make

the Machine enlightened — very fancy though. 😀 )

[]

—– Whether the stories (given in the Platform Sutra) has true

historical fact or not, to make the story in this way itself, was the

reflection of their understanding then = and expressing

supremacy over other sect of “Just reading scripture and sitting”

Illiterate Huineng was THE very typical sample in Zen.

___/\___

[]

PS :   Still, there are many questions left.   Zen understanding could

be gained without words, since it is not knowledge based intellectual

understanding but to customising the perception and behavioural

pattern in the subconscious level though, whether to compose

a stanza without having enough knowledge of lexical pattern is

possible or not ?   And the script telling the story, “Platform Sutra”

was written long after with a lots of diviating history.

—– Yet the fact is, the mummified body of Huineng has been kept

in the monastery till today and still sitting there !

(you can see the photo by Googling it) —– If he was not such a

great Master in real life, no such things could ever have happened.

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ZEN Photography

There was a very tricky question, what is Zen Photography.

Before talk about photo, what is Zen is harder enough.

Still, in few occasions, to see a photo — m m m ? !

THIS must be the Zen !

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The Matter is, how the visible image contains beyond of what it shows.

= How invisible, unknowable element has been captured in the photo !  

Not a mere suggestive image but has overwhelming power of existence !

Which has been seen by the clear-eyes of Zen, and captured in Mushin.

= Mushin mean without a manipulative intention.  

It is even better if it was in Ichijo with the subject, or the photographer

was completely absorbed by the subject.

And such photo starts to shows its own “raison d’ etre” as strong as the

existence of the subject itself, because the Dharma of the subject and

the Dharma of the photographer has been fused together, or in Ichijo.

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There are some different approach among the so-called Zen paintings.

Some did symbolical approach, such as a drawing of a Potato.

—– Humble, ubiquitous, utterly insignificant object, still, because it is

utterly insignificant, this could be the Universe or the Dharma.

But this is a very intellectual approach, expecting the viewer to see it

in Zen context. —– To convey this concept, may be it’s even better to

leave a paper blanc, hence, [nothing] could mean everything =

the whole Universe.   

In the same time it would save a ink and a time, bother to draw anything. 😀

—– Something similar but different approach is, just one straight line or

a circle on the paper = in this case, it is not only a superimposed idea in

a drawn-line but the action to draw it, was the Zen.

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In the photography, the same symbolical approach wouldn’t necessary work.

A photo of one potato would leave little imagination of anything else.

It is just a potato = “Is this a symbol of Universe ? You got to be Joking” 😀

In the other-hand, photography is very easy to make an ambiguous

confusing image, by just make it out of focus, burred image or almost

disappearing over-exposure, under-exposure, even with multiple exposure,

and those vague image makes our brain to abandon to read the

meaning of the image,  we were left in the blanc mind, wordless.

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Intellectual symbolism works in a way = “It shouldn’t be just a boring

Potato. It must be something behind, otherwise the painter wouldn’t have

worked to draw this”

In contrast, it is very difficult to see a meaning from a photograph,

since even in a photo with intentionally placed potato looks the same as

an accidental photo of potato.   (Drawing wouldn’t be made without

intention, still, even an accidental click makes one photo. :-))

Unless the meaning was clear, we wouldn’t go behind and the graphical

digital manipulation of a photo would rarely convey this meaning,

because we see it only as a graphical purpose in after process, not in an

original meaning, unless the effect match the subject naturally.

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—– in the time of film photography, high-temperature development of

high-speed film created rough-grain photo which showed harsh reality such

as in Sebastiao Salgado’s photo, though, to mimicking the effect with digital

manipulation in high-contrast only creates irritating harsh image =

photo looks harsh but not necessary make the reality looks harsh !

In other words, superficial graphical effect doesn’t affect much to the

meaning of the photo, let alone in its spirituality.  (In Paintings, spirituality

is relying on mostly in its narrative subject and our subconscious connect 

it to a spiritual legend or feeling of owe = it’s in our imagination.  

But in photography, it also emanated from its atmosphere or enigmatic

air which makes our perception suspicious.)  

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Spirituality in the photography lies in either overwhelmingly

strong reality of the subject which provoke our imagination, or

ambiguous depth of air in the image which strikes our emotion.

Therefore, the Zen photography (visual, not a wishful conceptual photo,

which can hit a subconscious of the viewer, before reading brah brah)

exists in two different direction.

One is finely detailed photo of overwhelmingly heavy subject.

Other is a hint of rather humble object still having full of

ambiguous air. —– Either case, the photo will hit the viewer

straight, with the former, facing with overwhelming reality, owe

to the Dharma, the later, with its unknowable field of infinity.

In either case, we just abandon the thinking,  standing alone

naked,  dumbstruck.

This is the Zen Direct transmission. 

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Spoooooky !

Last night I was invited to see huge art event somewhere in the south London

though, I can’t give any detail or location.

I only know this installation was created by an artist called Tea.  

—— may be  I can show a bit more photos and the details some time in future.  🙂

As a big event, many familiar faces are there.    And an added surprise, I bumped a man

and a woman after 20 years rasp !    He was yet another disco-king in a local night club

where I was dubbed as ” Dancer  in residents”  😀

And I knew the woman, also in there.   They are married and now they are the mum and

dad of three boys —– It’s 20 years !    (So, they are the people who knows my dancing and

with an admiration to the Japanese spirit, they have chosen the name of their kids  after

Japanese words ! )   —– I like this kind of sheer coincidence, with a smell of spookiness,

which can be described as an intervention of the Karma.  🙂

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