YOU or Potato ?

Have you ever seen a bean or maze seed dropped to the garden, sprout.

Or did you ever planted vegetable such as potato, even a carrot in a soil and see them

shoot up. — Yes they are alive in deed.   Still, we do fly, boiled alive and eat them.

Don’t make an excuse, they don’t have a sense, intelligence or feel pain = who knows.

(Have you ever been a Potato to make a first-hand report of being cooked alive. 😀 )

[]

We are all living on a margin of thin blue line of compromise and

dependency.  We are just be here on borrowed time on probation.

So, don’t preach others with smug face, for conservation or environment what so ever.

= (Before preach, get rid of your cotton pants which was made by forcibly cultivated,

harvested and processed cotton flower,  and stop eating vegetable which was grown for

money in a field where tree has been uprooted. )  = Guilty party keeps mouth shat  😀

In other words, there couldn’t be any quiet peaceful life = life is inherently noisy and

filled with all sorts of bothersome trouble.  That’s what the life in Samsara is.

[]

Zen wouldn’t make you noble.

Zen teach you how to cut onion, potato (not mention Lemon :-)) efficiently without any

hesitation or wobble.  (So does to do the business.  Make you Just Do It.  🙂 )

And the Buddhism teachs you who you are = no different from a potato, yet still very

unique one.   (I didn’t say you ARE Potato if not very close — a man of half potato must

be genetically very very unique = I never seen one though.  :-D)

Therefore, Buddhism makes you absolutely humble and absolutely confident to be YOU.

(as one of guilty party which is natural.)  No one is perfect or innocent = What’s wrong?

Wrong is, to imagine you are right, while wearing cotton pants and live in this world

still believing that you are right,  is only in your imagination which is called delusion. 

—– By the way, I didn’t say if it was a sheen nylon French-nicker, it would be OK,

though I don’t mind to see one.  (As I’m one of the guilty)    Ha ha ha  😀

(To live in Samsara is heavy enough, yet still, how heavy unnecessary load called Pretense we are carrying.

Still, some people preaching, wearing a mask of Pretense is they called Decency, and keep Pretending it  😀 ))

Let all those heavy load to go, is what Buddhists call  [Enlightenment] !

(Its mean, if you are a Potato, DO live a life of proud POTATO

IS the Enlightenment ! ! !

= Even a Potato can get Enlightenment,

why not an ordinary man on the street.

___/\___

[]

Sea-Otter’s Valentine Heart !

I just found this photo in the Net.  He is (or said to be = I didn’t ask him) an Alaskan Sea Otter

called Yu-tan lives in the Sea-Paradise of Hakkei-island, Yokohama, Japan.  When a keeper

gave him a Heart shaped ice, he just carry it on his chest while swimming as they do as their

natural habit. —– What a performance !  Cute.    

I like this joke.  (Though, some may say It’s a bad-joke — I like Bad-joke = I don’t want to be

pretending decent man. Anyhow I’m not such noble man but killing vegetables boiled alive )

It’s THE good imagination of the keeper !

—– So, if you plan good fun in your Valentin,  have words  ” Even an Otter has his fun”  😀

(Photo from Jiji-Press  =  http://www.jiji.com/jc/p?id=20130209164425-0014024070&j3  )

[]

Ugandan Gathering

London is a strange place.  You may not know the nationality of the person sitting

next to you, let alone to know what the person is.

Years ago, I happened to became a friend of an Afghan Mojahedine, a brother of

Ahmad Shah Masud who became the Defense Minister of the Afghan Government. 

After the victory against Russia, my friend Walli became the Charge-d-affair and

moved from a small room in Wimbledon to the Afgan Embassy.  (I’ve acted as a

go-between to Japanese media and a technical, electronic helper to them  🙂 )

[]

A black guy, I acquainted, was happen to be an Ugandan Politician, who is organizing

a movement of the Ugandan expatriates for Democratize their home country.

–—- from those activists, next leader of their country might be born.

Expatriates (he calls Diaspora) here consists the refugee from Idi Amin’s suppression

to all sorts of immigrants, and their mission is “Reclaim and Free Uganda Now” though,

I leave the matter to talk about their issue, to my friend and his web-site.

So, I just show the portraits of the people I met in there gathering.

—– ( Click the photo to enlarge and click again even larger  🙂 )

Their National Anthem.

Among their supporters, many of Doctors, Proffesors as well as the business people —–.

When it’s came to the matter of their lost Mother Land, it is an emotional matter.

—– (The Green and Red-cast of those photos above showed erratic response of the Canon

—– 5D Mk3’s AWB = its color balance changes frame to frame —– what a nightmare  😦  )

—– Young talented singer sang the Anthem for Uganda ~ ~ ~ Uganda ! 

—– (In fact all those images were cropped out small part of the original photo  🙂 )

—– ( I know, fish-eye lens is not suit for a portrait  😀 ) 

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM  😀

[]

Growing Ideas Exhibition

There is a small exhibition titled  [Growing Ideas]  at  272 High Holborn WC1V , LONDON

(it’s  UAL building) which will run until 4th April.

It is a nice place to pop in and take a rest  🙂    And PV will be 14th Feb’ evening = to have a

drink or two served in a edible sugar Glass (or Cup ?)

(I guess, the slower you drink, it’s taste becoming the sweeter  🙂 )

Exhibited works are mostly salable Product Designs and “Make things” video, ETC and

“Interactive Communicative Telephone” (I think this was what Telephone designed for  🙂 )

(I modified the Phone to work with computer system for the artist Francesco Pastori )

(I suppose to download their flier and post here but what was copied was only those two lines)                                                         

“The evening includes free cocktails served in Sugar Glasses by exhibitor Fernando Laposse

and music by exhibitor BeatWoven.”

—– So, come and have a fun on their party.  🙂

[]

Hut Albireo in YASHIGA-MINE

Gosh, I found the Web-site and a photo of the Hut Albireo （八子ヶ峰ヒュッテ，アルビレオ）

(When I searched in English before, I couldn’t find —– I got Japanese typing program only few years ago )

Hut Albireo (its name from a star in the Cygnus )  was a sister Hut of a mountain shelter Takami-ishi Goya (高見石小屋) in Kita-Yatsu-ga-take（北八ヶ岳）, in japan.

—– (Until now I didn’t reveal the name of the mountain shelter I talked, because of my stories often goes too far, I thought, unless the people can verify it with the first-hand independent source, I didn’t like to do name-dropping).

[]Both Takami-ishi Goya and Hut Albireo were originally built by Mr. Satta but later they were taken over by the another hotel, Honzawa-Onsen.  And the Hut Albireo was bought by one of keeper, Mr.Kaji who was the chief volunteer of us.  In fact it was in a financial mess  we keepers were involved in a nightmare as Mr.Satta lost a lots of money in betting.   (Not very mountain like peaceful stories  🙂 )

( So, I learned a man’s life’s up and down entwined with a silly money affair, rather early stages of my life, fortunately or unfortunately. —– Since I hate money and gamble  :-D)

[] To build the Hut Albireo, we keepers were also worked hard from digging the ground works, to carry-up the building materials  (all worked for free though  😀 )  —– coming to the age of stock takings of the life, and looking back to those life I spent in the mountain (from 15 years to 27 years), I convinced that it formed my base of  Zen Buddhism.

In fact, I’ve learned the Buddhism in hardest way in the harshest condition   😀 After all, the matter is just do the work regardless even if it is for others. =  No Ego required.  So, I’m very grateful I did it.  Ha ha ha  😀  —– (Such as a work in a building site in Okinawa while I was a drifter, the work in 30 m high was not too high for a rock climber, and the work was paid ! = In comparison to the unpaid work, such as carrying  the 50 kg of fire log 20 times everyday (its mean one ton everyday and continued one week ) any other work is easier =  who complains =only thankful to be alive = this must be the best lesson and the contemplation for one’s life.  Ha ha ha  😀 )

[] So that, to find the Hut Albireo is still there, and the same owner Mr.Kaji is still alive, was the greatest news to me.  (He was the keeper who carried 15 ton of log together every year. — the question is whether he became a Zen Buddhist or not  ? ) = I need to phone him ! —– Since then, what I found through phone was a bit spooky story that the volunteers, worked together with us (me and Mr.Kaji) around the same time, me and Mr.Kaji are the only surviving member now = rest of 5 were all dead.  What ? ? ? —– (I don’t miss them. Any how they didn’t work for cutting log, or carrying up the food staff = all the heavy work. — They did just disappeared.  😀 )

( Incidentally, when I had my wedding, the Ceremony was conducted in the Shinto Shirline  Suwa-taisha (諏訪大社) and we had wedding party in this very Hut = it was my biggest folly of my whole life.   😀 ) 

［］

Foreign Notion

 —————-          — Tsurugi-dake 剱岳（富山県) (2999 m high)in Winter.

Among the old members of our Alpine Club, since one of member lost 4 of her friends in

avalanche in the Tsurugi mountain —– some Email conversation has been taking place.

In there, famous words of George Mallory = “Why you go to mountain ?”

“ Because it’s there” quoted again.

Though, the nuance in Japanese is slightly different. = It has been treated somewhat

special philosophical words   🙂

[]

—– If there is a field near house, kids or whoever walk into the field. If a river running,

kids or adults alike may jump into and have a fun, swim or even fishing.

—– Is it anything special ? = Mallory meant exactly the same. He meant,

it is nothing special even goes to mountain is just another activity of the

daily life = why not   🙂

But, when it was translated into Japanese “何故なら,山がそこに在るからだ/ Naze-nara,

Yama ga soko-ni arukara da” it started to have (or misunderstood) something special.

(One of the reason was, as the translator configured the words in formal “Translation style”

and no Japanese says like it in a casual conversation = more likely they say

“Datte, soko-ni aru ja nai ?” or “Soko-ni arukara sa”

—– from its style and a heavy connotation (because, Mallory was a famous man = not

a man on the street) the people took “It should have something heavy extra meaning” 😀

[]

When I read the English translation of [Heart Mantra] in the first time, it

literally astonished me how it was simple and plain.

No ghost, no mambo-jumbo left there at all. —– In certain extent,

Buddhism seemed to have lost its mythical connotation to me.

Japanese read Buddhist’s mantras in Chinese written form (with a lots of unfamiliar

complicated characters :-)) therefore the word itself sound literally foreign, not

mention the vagueness of its meanings => giving very mythical connotation.

[]

The situation is the same in most of the foreign cultures, even in a cooking.

= Western people complains, when Japanese boils pasta, it was over boiled to too soft.

In the same time, eastern people complains “Why westerner cook noodle so soft and

make it soggy” —– as they didn’t know what it should be in the original form, they

tend to think “If it was still raw, it must be awful, so that it is safer to cook longer”

and end-up eating quite unlikely food   😀 

Mimic the action is easy though, to know where to stop the action needs

to be grown-up in its culture. 

(I’ve learned this while clapping the hand in the Flamenco-dance Music  😀 )

[]

On the time of Lord Buddha, I don’t think the most of his followers were literate. And

Lord Buddha didn’t teach them in sophisticated Sanskrit but in colloquial Pari.

And, I don’t think it was a complicated philosophical or mythical thought but more likely

plain wisdom in the daily life. —– it’s mean, when the teachings were written down

after 200 years lapse, it is easy to guess, the teachings were much more formalized and

glorified by the person who were well educated (hence familiar with Sanskrit = Vedic

notions) while following the Sanskrit literature and its notions as a model.

This must be the reason why even in the earliest scriptures still having many

contradictory descriptions especially in the point,

Lord Buddha has denied the existence of the perpetual soul (Atman in Vedic belief) why

the past or future life exists = Mix-up with Brahmanism (Hindu) occurred in very early stage.

[]

It happens even within the same culture, it would be inevitable between foreign culture.

To drink a tea with different mix of formula, such as in India, garlic in a tea believed to be

good to cure the cold.   Chinese treat the tea as a herbal drink, though to make it as a level

of Ceremony seems to be an over-boiled pasta 😀

So, I wouldn’t go to the idea if Mallory believed that the mountain has

a holy spirit.—– “It’s just there” 

(The reason why the Buddhists treat the Dharma mythical is because

the most of it is unknowable and invisible to our humble eyes.)

___/\___

[]

Being Natural or Be Artful Perfection — Which is Zen ?

—— Left Mug is the one I’m using now.  Right is the one I brought from Japan 33 years ago

and served me till 1992 and since it got hole on the bottom, it became a pen stand  🙂

Once, my tea drinking was a kind of Art = as I’ve been drinking 1.5 ~ 2 liters

(3 ~ 4 pints) of tea everyday, to make it, was not just a daily routine, it was

a refined flow of the action.

To begin with, the way to put a water into a kettle ~ ~ ~ to pour the tea into a cup then

drop one or two slices of the lemon etc etc.

As all the actions has been repeated everyday (I don’t know how many thousands times

I did ) naturally each action has been rationalized to the most efficient smooth manner.

So that, once a person who observed this process summed up, “It’s formalized to the

almost tea ceremony like process isn’t it”. Of cause, it was not intended to be a ceremony

but just doing it in quickest and smoothest way. As it is always the same action, it has

no dither or need any thinking, let alone any emotion.

May be this is the way what Master Dogen (道元 / Founder of the Soto-Zen)

has taught = to become perfect to be “who I am and what I’m doing”.

(= Nobody else.  Nothing else = this is what Mindfulness meant !)

[]

Sound so far so good isn’t it ?   But wait a moment —– ?

To be “WHO I am” = the very one who has been born under own Karma, hence grown-up

according to the occurrences given next by next.

The result is the only one, “me” = To be my own is nothing but to be Natural

(but not necessary perfect), still, “to be perfect” mean the person has to be

refined to be pure = eliminate all the imperfection and the foreign substance

(imported idea or pretense).

This is quite an artful existence isn’t it ? ? ?

[]

Making and drinking my tea, I’ve refined its process to the art level though, one-day in

the last Summer, I couldn’t bother to make a tea as I was too thirsty, instead

I just filled my cup with a tap-water and a slice of lemon. ————

Since then, I stop to make a tea but just drink a tap-water. (I don’t buy any bottled drink).

—- Am I lost an art and the mindfulness, while becoming lazy ?

OR, was that an Enlightenment ? —– Good, good question 🙂

To drink a water instead of tea —– It is obvious, which is simpler and natural.

[]

Tea-making started in the Rinzai Zen temple as Master Yousai (栄西) brought it from China.

Hence, Tea-making is a part of Zen teachings. In comparison, Soto Zen tend to remain much

humble and simple. ( = So that, I’m a simple poor man 😀 )

Therefore, isn’t it to drink water instead of Tea, is more Soto Zen ?

Not lazy isn’t it ?

[]

My answer is = I don’t care. As long as something to sip in the cup, it’s enough.

(with its consequence to drink 2 litres of water and going to a toilet every 2 hours =

flushing out any toxins in the body = no need to have doctor or any medicine

—– it may be true :-))

As I don’t need to bother buying tea any more, this is even more peaceful Life and the Mind.

(and cost less 😀 ) —– After all, I don’t think I was born for tea making.

This is my Zen as I’m nobody else of simple yoshizen 😀

[]

In fact, here lies very interesting question.

The ideal early Buddhists were the one who forsaken all the ordinary life to

pursuit Enlightenment, namely Bhikku and Arakhan though, the Buddhism

took the direction to more inclusive Mahayana = while living in the ordinary

life, still maintaining the Mind-set to be a Buddhist = more Natural life style.

My position is, the matter is not a superficial life style but the Mind-set since

the  Mind-set such as Mushin, Ichijo, Mindfulness , Selflessness are naturally

in our subconsciousness, in other words Natural Life-style is not a hindrance

to achieve its refinement, ultimately to reach Enlightenment.

(By the way, me doing something utterly useless, is for fun = Do something on

the hand and creating something new with good laugh is better than just

being passive, such as watching TV or Inter-netting.  😀 )

___/\___

[]

Capricorns Ball

Last night, there was a party [Capricorns Ball] held in a Pub in Brixton.  In fact this party

started as a birthday party of the Capricorn people among the staffs or ex-staffs of the

Fridge Night Club,  and as a regular I was invited every year —– in the past 15 years or so !

May be an excuse to get together and get drank or annual reunion of the people who had

their youth in the Club  (I mean, while working —– I was only dancing though)   😀

And all the photos here were intended for the guest to download and copy,  if they want.

It’s nice to see the old faces, even though everybody is getting a bit older and having

different kind of life. (It’s really amazing, I acquainted many of them 20 years ago ! ! ! )

As a party in a pub,  Pub-quiz is in a menu—– this time, about the Capricorns  🙂

( I didn’t know our Emperor, I mean Japanese, is also Capricorns.)

And a birthday cake  🙂

The top two Quiz winner received Trophy = they are ecstatic with a joy  😀 

The each candle on the cake was blown by each Capricorns one by one.

Then, live gig. (Not necessary my kind of music —– still it’s OK )

I think it’s a nice photo !  (or, at least they think I’m a nice man. —– mind you, the camera

was only 10″  away from their faces)

The Capricorn Short cake was made by a young lady and the piece here said to be an

art installation created by another young lady = happen to be a Japanese though, too

young to know what the Fridge Club was  😀

This is not intended for a self portrait but a demonstration of how the lighting of those

photos were done. (Hand aimed bounce lighting).  By the way, something hang  from my

neck is one of my Disco Pendant = Sound-activated Flashing Pendant, I made 20 years ago

and been used in the Club almost every week. (I’ll talk about this design, in here soon)

Then, let’s dance  🙂

Despite the London having quite a snow and pretty cold though, number of people turned up. 

And it was a fabulous joyful night. 

Thanks to the Ex-Fridge Capricorns, work hard to organize this.

[]

Ikkyu story (2)

Ikkyu Sojun (一休宗純) was the most famous Zen monk in Japanese history,

especially with his hundreds of quick witty stories to deal with the situations or gave an

answer though, as so many books has been written much later, we don’t know which story

was true and which one was a fanciful invention.

—– I read this story in a cartoon comics when I was a child, so that it could be a nice

invention of comic writer, still, this story had such a drastic twist of rhetoric

therefore showing quite Zen like jump of wit, this one could be a real story,

if not, it might be written by another accomplished Zen monk.

[]

The Abbot of the temple where Ikkyu was staying, had a secret pleasure to lick a honey

kept in a jar.   When young novice asked him what is it, the Abbot told him that it is a

medicine of wisdom though, as it is so potent, only a learned elderly person can take.

Otherwise, it is deadly poisonous to a young brain. But novices, Ikkyu and others did know,

it was a lie and what in the jar was a honey.

[]

One day, when Abbot was out for a day, Ikkyu gave his drastic answer.

He took an old ceramic vase, which the Abbot was most treasured, and smashed it to the floor.

Then took the honey jar, and started licking honey with other novices.

Soon, the honey was emptied.

When Abbot came back in the evening, he found all the novices were in the crying state.

When he asked what has happened, Ikkyu replied that while cleaning the room,

they accidentally drop the vase and it was completely smashed.   As the vase

has such irreplaceable value, there was no way else to repay but with own life.

“So that, in order to commit suicide, all of us took that poison in your jar.

But, even after swallowed all the poison, we still couldn’t die and this is why

we are so ashamed and feel dreadful. ~ ~ ~ cry cry cry !”

—– Abbot had no word to return.

[]

😀 😀 this was the revolution. Face to face, asking the truth what is in the jar —– is

a democratic approach of dialogue   (provided if the Abbot treats them as equal and tell the

truth) though the Abbot was just a tyrant = there couldn’t be any fair negotiation => only

insurgence is the remedy = revolution, hence some casualties were unavoidable.

The ceramic vase could be worth million though, Ikkyu didn’t gave even a hint of hesitation.

= He just smashed it.   On the end, his revel exposed the fraud in the temple =

Abbot lost his credibility and the priceless ceramic vase —– even honey too 😀

But, what Ikkyu and the novices got — not much, just a taste of honey and a good laugh.

—– most of Ikkyu stories are for good laugh, not much else.

(Anyhow, they were aimed to the children )

[]

Still, real Ikkyu was a serious Zen monk.

As one of his Short-Poem (Kyoka 狂歌) for New-year said ;

門松は，冥土の旅の一里塚 (Kado-matsu wa, Meido no Tabi no Ichiri-zuka)　

馬，かごも無し,宿も無し(Uma, Kago mo nashi, Yado mo nashi)

New-year’s (Ever green) Pine branch is a mile-stone to the Nether world.

No Horse or Palanquin (for the journey), even no inn (to stay for a night).

= there is no celebratory mood at all.      Ha ha ha 😀

That was quite Ikkyu-san.   (He had no illusion to the life, neither to New-year,

though in reality unlike any other meek monk, he had very active eventful life,

all because of his completely liberated mind and the eyes. 

No illusion mean no emotional blockage neither  = This is the Zen )

___/\___

[]

Nattou (納豆) = Japanese food, others dread !

 

(Photo left ;  Nattou I found in a Japanese food shop = £1.5 for 3~4 packages. 

It comes with light colored soy-source and mustard. 

Photo right ; Mixed all together with added spring onion = just in a minute, it’s ready to eat  )

You know, Nattou is the most popular food in Japan —– still, so far, I never seen

any westerner ever eat,  let alone liked it.  😀

Nattou is a fermented soy-bean.  To make it, soy-bean was just boiled and placed between a

straw-mat and kept overnight, that’s all, nothing else.   No trick, no additive, even no need to put

yeast kind of bacteria = in fact, the bacteria  [Bactillus Subtilis var. natto] naturally comes from the

straw or any kind of dried grass hence fermentation will be naturally taking place.

( —– though, today the production was automatized in the factory where no straw

in sight = using cultivated pure bacteria instead, still some enthusiast making it

in traditional way   )

[]

In nature, bacteria are everywhere, include inside of our body and some are doing pretty good

job helping digestion etc, but others are not necessary so, and cause illness.

Some are working to decompose the milk to make it a cheese, or to make a wine etc etc =

as long as it works useful to us, it is called fermentation otherwise called rotten.

So, fermented soy-bean is = to Japanese, it is a great fermentation but to rest of

the world, it is nothing but rotten. 😀

Rotten, because it smells like rotten and the bean became covered with sticky slime.

(In the same context, many of cheese here smells nothing but awfully rotten to the Japanese)

[]

To eat Nattou, Japanese are mixing it with soy-source, generally with mustard

and finely chopped spring onion — some people even prefer to add raw egg-yolk

to make it more slimy. (how delicious !  😀 )

As the protein of soy-bean has been decomposed by the bacteria, it is much more digestible and

nutritional value is much higher than just boiled soy-bean. = Hence, Nattou is an indispensable

part of healthier Japanese food life.

And an interesting point is, as Japanese are familiar with slimy Nattou, they also

eat many slimy food such as Okra, name but few.

—– You may not think,  Okra is slimy food because you eat them boiled.

But, Japanese eat it raw by cutting it into thin slices and mixed with dried fish flaks and drip of

soy-source = if you cut, you will notice, it got slimy mucilage =this texture is what

Japanese are after.   ( I’ll write about this kind of cooking more on a coming post 🙂

[]

Incidentally, Okra is a sister of Hollyhock or Marshmallow, and a cousin of

Hibiscus = all in the same Malvaceae family hence if you clash those plant between your

fingers you will feel it has slimy texture inside = using this slimy mucilage property,

a soft sweets  [Marshmallow] was originally created, as its name suggests.

(But today’s Marshmallow is an almost artificial sponge made by substitute) 

And using its slimy substance as a fiber-bonding glue, Malveceae plants has been used for the

paper making —– you believe or not 🙂 )   As a matter of fact, lots of food such as cheap

Ice-cream couldn’t keep its soft creamy texture without having those slimy additives.  

So, you may read a name of  Zantan-gum on a food packages, it’s a slime created

by the rotten Cabbage ! —– horrified ?  — Or you accept your unavoidable fate,

and start eating Nattou ? 😀

[]

—– thanks to its pure vegetarian contents, Nattou is very popular in the

Buddhist’s temple menu hence if any westerner had a chance to stay in a temple

= it would be a real dread as well, to face Nattou.  😀

But, I know, to get know to eat Nattou would be rewarded by really healthy life.

To open your mind (and the Mouth), it is the Zen —– ? —– really ?

Yah, —– may be. —- Ha ha ha 😀

___/\___

[]