Virture of DHARMA (2)

When I was a small boy, my brother showed me an electric trick

of a small light bulb connected to a battery with thin wire,  and light

it on and off, which he learned in the school on the day.

I learned the trick and improvised it further and made a model of

town (?) which having street with electric-poles carrying supply cable

and street-light,  a house with a light inside etc etc.

—

Then a question arose —– ? ? ?

Why electric power goes every where,  where ever the wire was

connected.  And regardless how many light bulbs or length of the wire connected.

( Well, anyhow they are only few bulbs and few meters of wire —– it was a kid’s play )

Why the power doesn’t refuse to go one place or why a bulb some meters away, light up in the same instant

with another bulb. —– If we are walking on the street, it takes longer to get far, and not necessary go all the

places.  That was a  COMMON SENSE  I have acquired so far until then.

So that, I had to learn  “Incredible, Invisible Phenomena” and its rules ! 

(It was my start for the unknown frontier 🙂 )

———- Strangely, even though I’m using pretty big IC etc, to build electronic circuits these days, still  I’m

not necessary sure, why electron has to go just because it is conductive, in more or less in the same speed ?

( Ultimately still there is no explanation Why a material such as lead gives positive voltage and lead oxide

gives negative voltage in a lead accumulator, and electron start to move when they are connected with wire ! )

The same can be said, why the light has to go even the end of the universe, just because it is an open space ?

———- Why they never refuse TO GO THERE saying I DON’T WANT.  😀

You may say, simply it is just an emission of energy —– ?   Really ?

Those seemingly imperative phenomena are still puzzles to me.  Why the light which got no fuel can travel

to infinity ? —– is it a kind of inertia ?  But a Photon which got no mass can have inertia ?  And why it bend

a course when it go through near heavy star while having no mass —– how gravity can affect it ?

—– Anyhow, it seems everything spread and try to get the state of even balance. (Light brighten the dark. :-))

So, it is safe to say, the basic tendency of the Dharma is to gain an equilibrium with its  perpetual

spreading dynamism, which keeps changing moment to moment.

In fact this is one of the fundamentals of the Physics called Entropy.

( Hence, even a culture, knowledge, technology spread  (so does the MacDonald  😀 )—– and applying

this view may explain the Democracy —– Dharma hate the concentration of the power,  Dictator  😀 )

—

Contrasting to this, the existence and its activities of the Life-form is having different principle.

As I wrote before, the Dharma also support the Life-form to exists.

To create the Life,  it is necessary to configure the selected atoms and molecules to combine

in specific order and create a pattern, as organic matter —— and ultimately the DNA.

So that the Dharma having two-way process, one is out-warding dispersing process, and the other is

centripetal combining process. —– Any Life-form has to go through those two-way process.

This is the Life’s fundamental Karma.  The Wheel of the Life. ——– Process of configuring

the matter and the structure, then its destruction / disintegration.

This is the reincarnation in the Buddha’s teachings. ( It is nothing to do with Vedic Atoman and their

idea of reincarnation of perpetual soul,—– which is the idea Buddha rejected )

—

Life’s centripetal process and its tendency is the self-replication of the pattern (DNA) and the self-preservation,

in another word, it is self-centered.  Though, Life-form is only a very peculiar small part of the Dharma,

naturally Dharma is dominated by the wider rules which is out-warding dynamism —– spread and

gain  the equilibrium.  So that, even the inside of our body, chemical exchange such as Oxygen and CO2 or

balance of Hormone etc or even the communication of Nerve signal are all following the dispersing principle.

And  remarkably  the breeding, as its name Propagation suggests, is the activity to spread the species

as wide as possible, and to fertilize as many as possible.

Inevitably such as mankind’s existence is heavily entwined those conflicting principles / Dharma.

Therefore pushing one aspect too far always create fatal stress / unbalance with external wider world.

So that, to keep a good balance with the environment and the society is the crucial matter

for the survival.

Too much exploitation of the Nature, let alone destroying  the Nature, would lead to a heavy repercussion.

( Which we mankind is facing this very moment )

——- Interesting point is, as we are having the Operation System  which follows the principle of

the Dharma inside of us, and the sensing mechanism of those operation in our Feeling /

Subconsciousness as the Default, some of the very sensitive people can see or sens those balances.

— For instance, an inherent feeling of compassion and the drive for the Charity is one of its manifestation

of the internal Dharma —– to help or spread the  wealth to others, is a psychological  mechanism to lessen

the unevenness of the society.    If the wealth and the power is evenly spread, there wouldn’t be a conflict, and

it would be a Peace and a Harmony in its society and with the environment. — unless somebody with Ego and

Greed want to have all for him (her ?) self. ( Unfortunately this is the case too often )

—

If you know the Buddhism, you may found the description here is somewhat familiar.

As a matter of fact, I thought I was approaching from the scientific observation. —– then  realized,

it is nothing new. —– They are all what Buddha found and taught then.

But this fact indicates, this is not a fancy observation or theory of today.   They are the same findings and

the insight, by the man of 2500 years ago, who had no modern scientific knowledges.

Simply because the Dharma is the same Dharma.

—

Too much centripetal, selfish mind / Ego and Greed invites heavy repercussion and would lead to

the Self destruction. Therefore, be charitable and share the compassion with others.

Too extreme is also detrimental.  Better stay humble and in the Middle way.

And above all, as the Dharma is, open your eyes wide  and spread your view.  Don’t get stuck

with your narrow view and narrow thinking or cling to a fixed idea. —– Be flexible to the changes

as the world is changing with its dynamism and the flow, every moment to moment.

As our thinking is emanated from our centripetal mind or Ego, better be detached from it and

embrace the Dharma.  Stay in Mushin.  Spread and fuse your mind to the Nature / Dharma.

—-

You must be amazed, all those Virtue and Virtues wisdom are not deduced from the concept, but they are

the inherent Rules or tendency of the Dharma itself.  This is the Default settings you can see !

And this is the proof of the greatness of the Buddha’s teachings.

What Buddha did was,  just pointed the Dharma with his finger.  That all.

( But funnily enough, in 2500 years, so-called Buddhists have been gazing at his finger )

We need to see the Dharma with our own eyes.  Which is on front of us.

___/\___

—

PAIN CLINIQUE

HEALTH  WARNING : In this post, some description may give you a distress.

———————————-Anybody squeamish, may better avoid reading this.

With a release of a film depicting a man cut off his own arm to survive, when he was trapped under fallen rock

—– many more stories of the people who did the same has been appearing in the media.

To face such dreadful incredible situation, how human psyche works, became a topics of the neuroscientists

and the pain researchers.

And the scientists discovered an interesting phenomenon that the mind-set can control the pain.

—-

The man actually cut off his arm and  freed himself described the moment  ” There was amazingly not

much feeling or pain, hence able to sever the fresh and the bone with cool conscious,  as if it was just a

preparation of meat for a BBQ ”

A pain research lab did an experiment and found how human brain process the pain signals with heavy

involvement of the emotion, and found the emotional preconception influence the intensity of the pain.

If the emotion was cut off, in another word, dispassionate, even a pain signal doesn’t reach to the Brain.

( As a matter of fact, I did this to deal with my toothache.  Since I don’t take any medication, neither Dentist’s.

I just accepted the pain as if I were born with it.  So, there wasn’t a pain.

But able to do this resulted, no teeth left. —– sound awful isn’t it   You may say, it’s not Middle Way though,

it was not any extreme.  Simply there wasn’t a pain to endure.  It was just another day. 😀  )

But with exaggerated emotion and the fear, even the same stimuli can give far more pain.

———- These facts signify and prove the Phenomenon in the Zen Buddhism.

Preconception adjust the body’s physiology, such as rising Adrenalin level, hence heart rate etc, ready to

encounter the critical situation, but so often the case, it over shoots, setting the tension too high and making

a feeling and sensitivity to the pain even higher, then even creating an exaggerated image to be a miserable

victim etc, and making the life even more dreadful.

In the opposite case, if a man contemplated the situation and totally accept it and able to see that

” There is no way left and it is no use to complain or fight against it “ —– This absolute mind-set

(in Buddhist term, Mindfulness ) and absolute dispassion ( Mushin ), would even block the pain, and makes

the man to see the situation in cool head.    ( Because no emotion clouding the eyes )

—

This mind-set is —– as it involves the control of the emotion, it situated in the Old-Cortex deep in the brain,

right next to the Hippocampus, Limbic System, with its close proximity, it affects the physiology too.

The mind makes you to get ill, but in the other hand, it can alleviate your pain and misery as well.

—– Repeated Buddhism practice will make you to get lid of useless thoughts, and

the state of the no mind = Mushin  makes you to do the job dispassionately and efficiently.

—– Once you master this, you can free your mind in any situation.  You are no longer a prisoner of  Emotion.

You don’t need to learn this when you are facing life or death situation. —– So, buy Buddhism now, while

you can, while you are in Peace. —– It never cost you  for your arms and legs  😀

___/\___

PS:  No,no. The photo above is nothing to do with the story.  The beautifully tattooed DNA pattern is

—-–my  friend  Michael’s very active healthy arm.  Photo was just happened to be in my album and

—-–going to be published in a book, collection of the Scientific Tattoo.

—-–I haven’t asked him how much pain he had to endure though, I think it wasn’t much anyway  😀

—- ( It only scratched the skin, —–  never went to the bone ! )

—

Why SUPERMAN Fly — not Japanese ROBOT ?

You know,  the Super Hero has Super Power which is beyond of human imagination.

—– well, it is in a case of Western Hero such as Superman, even Harry Potter kind.

And did you notice,  Japanese equivalent of them are often the Super Robot. — In old days, it was like

Astro Boy (鉄晼アトム), IronMan 28 (鉄人２８号 )and then Gandam etc who needs to charge-up or inject

the energy fuel —– doesn’t look like having super natural power.  No, they are not super natural Hero.

Strangely you may think, Japanese Super Hero is a variant of Ninja / Extreme Human. ! ! !

The origin of those Super Hero came from the Ethos and the Myth of each culture.

The Western God is the Almighty.  You can’t count what power he got.  It is unknowable.

And the same apply to the counter part, the Devil.    So that, they fight using super natural power.

In western tradition, to have a supernatural power is the norm to a Hero, Anti-Hero, Witch or Sorcerer.

But in the East, only the people in the Hades use supernatural power, and it is evil.

Hence, a Hero in the Eastern film, fight with his almost superhuman power and skill, yet it is still human skill.

Chinese Kong-Fu Hero, Japanese Sward Master, Ninja —– are all Hero in this category.

In a film, those Hero does incredible jump, still they never fly.

—

In order to spread the kids’ fantasy, a new type of Hero started to appear in the Japanese comics in 50th.

They are the Robot,  as it becoming within technological feasibility and reality.

So that, starting in my generation, the Japanese kids were growing up with Robot stories.

In tradition, Japanese Hero has to remain to be a human, regardless whether he got superhuman like power.

If not human, it’s a monster and never be a Hero.   And this principle applies to a Robot Hero too !

Japanese Robot has to be not only realistic but also Scientifically rational, even in a comic story.

If the energy run-out, even a super Robot needs to fill.  They are not a product of Myth or wild fantasy.

When those Comic Robot Hero fly, they open the exhaust of small jet engine, then blasted to the sky.

Hence they are realistic and scientifically rational, it made the kids to think its structure or mechanism.

Which lead those boys (and girls) to study science or technology —– and created today’s Robot on the end.

This is the reason why, they like to create Humanoid. —— still couldn’t forget their Hero.

If their Hero / Robot Hero was irrational and operated by the magic,  kids would just grown up

and forget a childish silly story —— nothing to do with science in their future life.

——–

It is showing remarkable contrast of  Eastern and Western psyche.

But a question here, is, have any of you ever seen flying-man, let alone any super natural act,

not mention the super natural power of The God and The Devil ? ? ?

There is no such things in the Buddhism.

Buddhism is in the Dharma which inherently follow the rationality.  Or, by observing the

manifestation of the Dharma, people found and learned, What the Rule of Rationality is.

( Rationality is not an invention of the man )

Therefore the Dharma having no magic.  Hence, Buddha himself prohibited to practice magic.

( Of cause, there is certain unknowable in the Dharma, but it is invisible any way,

and nobody can touch it.  Therefore even Buddha didn’t  answer for this question )

___/\___

—-

My HEALTHY LIFE

Ha ha ha ,  I know it is utterly misleading. 00 Because I don’t have a notion of Healthy Life.

I am just living as I am. —– and just happen to be healthy   ( apparently  🙂  )

If I have to analyze any peculiar practice  which might be related to my health is ——

I’m keeping my hands, nose and throat as clean as possible —– or just wash them very often.

To keep the hands clean was especially essential to handle photographic films.

But to keep the nose clean was taught by a teacher in my junior school.  Which was to take water in

the hands and suck it in the nose, then blow it out three times ! —– All the pupils in the class were

horrified, saying it’s too dirty though I convinced at once —– it’s a good idea and very rational, why not. 🙂

So that, when ever I came back to my place, like take off shoes, to wash hand, nose and gurgle are

the automatic routine.  Though, it might be related to a sublimated Japanese Shinto Custom — keep clean.

And there is no such thinking which relate this practice to health matter exists.— Just doing it.

It is not possible to have objective comparative test of  IF-NOT.    We got only one life and I couldn’t

replicate my same life, but only having NOT washed hands, and see what would  happen.

Simple fact is I rarely get ill, nor catching Cold, Flu.  Still, I don’t know whether washing hands are anything

to do with my health.  —– very funny you may think though, I rarely use soap ! —– same as, I don’t

use washing-up liquid.   I have one in the bath-room and another in the kitchen though they last—-may be

six months or more ?   My view of the soap is —– mankind is using soap not more than one or two hundred

years.  Removing our own natural oil, then applying pig-oil with artificial fragrance, is not a good

idea and the waste of the money. —– If I were ever smelly soapless person, still  it’s not a problem at all,

since I wouldn’t come closer to others less than an arm’s length  😀

So is a shampoo, I just shower the hair removing a salt in the sweat and use a shampoo less than once in

a month.  The shampoo is notoriously bad to the head,  the reason why I still have full head of hair, in more

than three feet long  pony-tale might be because of  not using shampoo. (So, one bottle of it last years  😀  )

—-

I eat anything though, the amount has been reduced in comparison to when I was young.

( I still have the same body weight 60 Kg / 9.5 stone,since when I was 15 years old ! —– When I was

physically very active, such as climbing the mountain , eat twice amount was no wonder though, sitting on

front of key-board  blogging or making electronic circuit needs to eat less —– and I never eat chips)

For my cooking, generally I use one carrot, one onion, a grab of green or green pepper etc and 150g~ 200g

of protein, meat, chicken, fish or egg etc everything from fresh ingredients, except  fish-tin (tinned fish has

no artificial preservatives) and smoked fish or bacon (to make bacon soup ) tofu or fried tofu are the rare

processed food.  And cooking them in many different way (by the way, I don’t buy cooking oil —– oil comes

from ingredients such as chicken naturally) and eat them with rice, pasta, noodle  etc.

So, I’m eating more or less the same food every day with my own cooking —– in past 25 years ?

Buying fresh ingredients is the cheapest, but I buy a lots of not cheap fruits as well.

And cooking from the fresh ingredient may take a bit longer cooking time still, my electricity bill

for a quarter is only £40~£50  (I don’t have gas —- I knew it become expensive ) 1/3 of other people.

——

This is literally, humble life —– or some said almost a life in poverty  😀

And I don’t take any drag, never do gamble, stopped to drink alcohol , never eat junk-food nor buy

fizzy drink but drink 1.5 ~ 2 litter of the tea —– hence there may not be any cause to get ill.

( Arh, no chocolate !  😀  )

In addition,  I gave-up woman 25 years ago.  So, no psychological up and down. —– Peace ! ! !

On top of this life style,  I used to have very vigorous exercise  (which looks like dancing  😀  )

once in every week, and these days I’m still doing it, may be once twice a month.

—-

It is hard to define a reason  why  I live  without getting ill — was it thanks to my  food life, exercise regime?

But, one thing I can definitely sure is, not to ever think or worrying about it.

If there is no crime, there is no criminal law or such concept at all.  Once if somebody start to think about it

then the notion of such activity teaches the possibility or another menu to the mind.  Shall I try ?

In a same way, a notion of illness trigger the imaginal symptoms and it become noticeable.

(Noticing ? Feeling ? —– isn’t it just in the Mind ? )

Even an intellectual medical information, once it caught your attention, it remains in your mind.  And as

often you think it,  it become your long-term memory and the memory / mind deepen and goes into your

subconscious —– as subconscious is in the old cortex in the brain, with its close proximity, it start to give

an influence to hippocampus / limbic system of the brain,  where the physiological control of the body

is taking place —–> hence stress and imbalance of the hormones —–> real illness !

Mind makes people becoming ill. —– It is a vicious circle and the domino-effects.

Here the Paradox of the Buddhism again, as long as the one is bothering with the notion of Health

or Illness, no healthy life ever come.  Here require the teaching of Mishin again.

So, better start Healthy Life when you are healthy and having full of vigor, and make it routine.

To keep the same healthy routine is far easier than to change a bad habit or regime.

___/\___

—

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 😀

___/\___

—

SUBCONSCIOUS again ? — is it a Face ?

Collection of images here are supposed to be a face, picked up by the Google Picasa Face-recognition

program.  Google is expecting us to make up a Web-album —– effectively  my own facebook.

Obviously Google want to tap-into the social-networking market therefore,  listing up the faces appeared

in my cyberspace —— then connecting the face to my Email etc by the name, to utilize their vast amount of

the information about my contacts, my interests, my search records, which they accumulated over the years.

So, Google can sell the AD ” Not just personally targeted, but also to their contacts / friends too ”

—— though, I’m not interested in that kind at all, yet still Google is keep scanning and making a face

collection without my permission ( I can’t remove this program —– do you know how ? ) while making

a number of mis-recognitions.—– So, I got an opportunity to collect ” False images”. 🙂

Some of those are looks like faces —– I can see too, though some are not at all, and puzzling how on earth

this image could be mistaken as a human face  / what made a computer to think this is ?

—-

I don’t remember the detail of  whose report though, there was a psychologist’s experiment, which showed

even a few months old baby can react to the photographic image of such as a tiger, and came to a

conclusion that the human has genetic memory of dangerous predator. We do not expect that a small

baby has learned knowledge of tiger yet—– its mean the reaction has to came from instinct, in another word,

its visual memory / basis of reference information is in our subconsciousness.

——– Whether it was a Genetic memory, Proto-image or just a mistake, we are very responsive to

the image of the face. And the Face recognition program which the human possess, seems to be a

very old / primordial program in the Old Cortex, hence it can function even a time of newborn baby.

——

In this blog, you might thought, I am using the word ” Subconsciousness ” as if it is a magic keyword.

But how do we know, such invisible, therefore unaccountable memories and the process can be reliable,

let alone a myth of Dharma is there or not. (Please read “Mistake in Philosophy — Answer in Zen” together )

——- The reason why I picked up Google Picasa program was, —– at least it is a rigid visible

counter reference. — In comparison,we don’t remember how many times ever mistook an image as a face,

let alone to know what % of probability.   So, this program showed a counter sample of the case when the

recognition was done by an artificial intelligence / computer automatic pattern, face recognition without

having any cross-reference (such as a flow of logic ” If it is a face, where is the body —-> false or true ).

So that it would show the worst case as a bottom line <—- Human got to do the better.  🙂

So far, Google Picasa picked up about 40 false images of faces out of 50,000 facial photos ( plus, may be

twice as much number of the graphic images in the saved Net files)—— 0.08% ~ 0.03% of False rate.

Statistically negligible figure ? —– still, one mistake could change one’s life, therefore significant ?

This is a very rough science or one might say, it is not even a science at all though, this is a DIY  Zen Blog,

hence, I would say, it is convincing enough to conclude, human can sense and able to accumulate

quite accurate information of the surroundings / environment. (Even a machine can do with

negligible false rate, why not a human)

—– Are you bemused ?   But this is the situation in our mind.

___/\___

—

日本の読者に ( To Japanese Readers )

ネットの片隅、ヨシ禅ブログにようこそ。

このサイトは褝仏教を全く新しいアプローチ、人間の神経生理、心理作用の角度から、三十余年に

渡って実験した結果を考察したものです。

しかし、せっかく御足労いただいておいて、しょぱなからー発かませるようですが、

ここにはキリスト教で言う福音のようなもの、俗に言ふ瘉しの甘言のようなものはー切登場して来ません。

読み進めるうちに明らかになりますが、仏教は救済幻想を語るものではなく現実に人間の心理生理を変え、

人を積極的な人生にかり立てる動因に外ならないというが当ブログの立場です。

－ーー　とにかく、やってみなさい。やってみない事には始まらない。やったらやったなりの事が在る。

ただしそれをやるのはアナタ本人－－－ホトケじゃないよ。

（そもそも禅つうものは自助に任せるので人に媚ない。）

日本で何故曹洞宗の寺がー番多いかと言えば、単純にお布施が少くて

すむからで、坊主自身あまり金集めに熱心でない。信者をたらし込んで金集めをする気も無いから逆に

甘く美味しいハナシでケムに巻く必要もないと言うのと同様です。

———-

どうせ誰もが死んでいく事だし、地獄も無い代りに極楽なんて逃げ場もない。つまり唯ーの問題は

苛烈なこの現世　（仏教では娑婆と申しますが)　をいかにスムースかつ積極的に生きるかに尽きる。

ーーーで、仏教史２５００年も経ちながら誰も気がつかなかったそのコツを只で書いてしまおうと言うのだから

逆に、それ以上のサービスはない。　ここに在るのはその発見記録、テストレポートであり、もし読者が

同様なアプローチを試みるとしたらそれなりのガイドにはなるというもの。

それにしては変な英語だと？ーーー黙らっしゃい！古人は教えを求めて遥々印度くんだりまで旅し、

聞いた事も無いパーリ語だサンスクリット語だというのをその場で学び、苦心惨たん教えを受けたものですぞ。

クリックするだけでブログを読んで、英語の訓練にもなるならマジ、ケッコウなハナシと思われよ。

ハッハッハ。（時間のムダにならないというのは保証しますよ)

Believe me  🙂

___/\___

［］

追記　：これは　右ｺﾗﾑ　The　Pages　［About　This　Blog］の日文の抜粋です。　しかし不思議なコトに私本人が

独立したポストに作った訳では無い。　（誰がやってくれたのかね？？？）

－－－で，どうせならと，元のポストに付けてあった　日文ポストヘのリンクを追加します。

法／ダルマと仏教の構造

 

禅の源流

 

 

–

Mistake in Philosophy

The most fundamental and fatal mistake of the western Philosophy lies in their basis of Dualism,

and seemingly it is originated from their notion of the God.

Against this notion, the SELF = ME became its counter notion as rigid as the God.

As the concept of Self is there, the Self is the one who see the subject ( of cause, you may say, who else

saw and talked about the subject in his book, in his philosophy.  And say, Is this a Zen Mondo ?  🙂 )

( Shut up  🙂 )  As long as the subject is somebody else, there is no problem, hence scientific, objective

rationality works well and yelled this impressive western technological civilization.

Because of the objectivity is Selfless in its definition. Anyhow, the nature and its phenomena,

physics are there before human existence. We are just the observer regardless whoever the Self.

—

But when the Self try to see the Self ( or True Self what so ever the context ) and the phenomena around it.

The perpetual question of  Who is the Self came into the play. Therefore, the matter related to

themselves, psychology, human science, social phenomena, etc, it always plagued by its view-point = Self.

In fact, from ancient Plato to modern Phenomenology etc, they misbelieved that they can objectively see

the human affair and able to construct the philosophy as well.  And they stuck in the cul-de-sac.

Because even an  Atheist, started exactly the same stance, The Dualism. —– God and Me / Me and

the Subject / Observer and be Observed,  the uncertainty of the Self is still persistent,

hence its stance of view point,  reliability itself is in doubt.

The fundamental trouble of this stance is, we can’t objectively observe the Self or the phenomena

attributed by ourself. —–  we always end-up in unseeable and unknowable.

On the end everybody just resigned to say  ” Don’t bother, there are thousands of truth ”   🙂

So that, some Philosopher try to grasp this unknowable with the notion of  Transcendental though, made

further  mistake try to convert it to explanatory words by thinking. ( You may say, What else ?  😀  )

This was the very situation, which Buddha encountered soon after he got his enlightenment,

Should I teach this to others or not.  Can this be transmittable by the words ?

( This is why, the Buddha’s teaching has been conveyed by the practice and metaphor )

—

While we are thinking, most of its process ( some says 90% of it ) are taking place in our

subconsciousness. —– And so-called Self is a mere temporally mock-up model by guess-work, since it

never stays the same, moment to moment and never rationally configurable like our thinking process.

Hence True Self which reside in our subconscious is ever invisible and remained undefinable.

This was the reason why Buddha said  ” Don’t bother there is no such thing like Self exists”  :-D.

The situation was made even harder, as the basis of our thinking are also contained in the immense

amount of the Data or information which we accumulated without aware of its existence.

—– so, am I talking hopeless ?  Am I giving cold water to the Philosopher’s pleasure to express themselves ?

The answer is again in the Buddha’s words ” Don’t take a word, think yourself “

And to against the fundamental flaw of Dualism, the Zen giving the answer ” Ichijo ”  Oneness.

In Ichijo we can overcome the alienation of the subject, alienation of the Self.

The barrier between observer and be observed disappear.

( Which I’m going to talk further in the next post )

___/\___

—

Proto-IMAGE

Most of the optical vision in human eyes had been well researched

and we believe ” Seeing is believing”

despite of nobody knows what the others are actually seeing it,  in absolute term.

( You may already know or you can find hundreds of false-vision, illusion trick samples in the Net.

What we believe, we are seeing is the mare reconstructed image in the brain, which may be a false. )

—

I used to have a friend who was a color-blind.  When he told me at an art class, while painting a land-scape,

he is painting a tree as green by the color name written on the paint tube.

He couldn’t see green or red,  neither he can describe whether those green and red looks like gray or

another color what so ever.  Since nobody taught him what it is, so, he couldn’t have a word to describe it.

—– and we, lucky to have Pan-chromatic vision couldn’t guess or imagine how the world looks to him.

Our eyes itself are rather simple optical device, there is no color filter hence the image projected to the

retina is in full color though, the sensors, nerves and the visual cortex in the brain are too complexed,

far beyond the today’s science and the technology.  So that we can’t tap-into the brain and extract

an image what color blind is actually seeing the world.

With the same reason, a topics what I’m going to write here may not able to give an objective proof

or to give a demonstration to others though, if anybody else can find the same phenomenon,  soon

or later it would be recognized as a common phenomenon.

—–

Once before, when I went back Japan, I found the mountains of duster-cloth (which we call  Zoukin)

piled up in my family house.  Each of them, the old cloth has been cut to the size and hand stitched.

They were made by my mother.  When she faced the condition of her hand became stiff and feel a pain

with her age,  she decided to fight back.  Instead to have a medication or pain-killer kind, she started to

make Zoukin by hand stitching them, using old cloths she had been accumulated over the years.

—– Among such Zoukin, I found the one I know very well.  I knew it, but not in my ordinary memory.

—– Time to time, I give a massage to my eyes,  by lightly pressing the eye-balls with my finger.

(While eyes closed, of cause  😀  )

Under light pressure, in the dark field of my vision, the same image of distinct pattern always appears.

The pattern is like a line print of four petals flower.  It appear only first moment, a second or two and

dissolved into the dark.

Astonished to see the very pattern on the cloth,  I asked my mother, what was it ?

She told me, that cloth was a Yukata ( thin, light Kimono) she used to wear when I was a new-born baby.

The pattern appearing in my eyes was the printed pattern on the Yukata which I saw when I was a baby.

The first image I saw, has been burnt into my eyes.

This is the Proto-Image of my life.

—

For a new-born baby animal,  to recognize and register  who is the mother, into their brain

is the most crucial matter in their survival. (If it was the case of Zebra / the black stripe pattern,

and the Penguin / the voice, and so on)

Likewise,  we human has the same instinct —– we capture the image of the first sight, assuming

the person whom the baby saw, is the mother, and the key image was literally burnt into the vision.

—–

As I wrote in an early post [ Subconscious Data Bank ], we are accumulating a loads of information

without even aware of it.  And the Data Bank in our Subconscious may contain even the Genetically

implanted information. ( Experiment of the psychologist found that even the few months old baby showed

the reaction of alert when he (she) saw the image of tiger (not a toy but real one)—–only the explanation

is, it must be a genetically implanted memory )

—— and those information is affecting our way of thinking, decision-making or preference etc.

But, how about this Proto-Image ?   Would this one image, direct the one’s life ?

May be the image of four petals flower made me to pay more attention to the flower —— yet it need to

have more research.  And the Internet must be a good forum to exchange the information.

—– So, if you were intrigued, just try to see whether you have the same kind of burnt into image

in the bottom of your eyes. ( It takes only few second to test.  🙂  )

And if you found one, please post a comment here.

—

Make Rice-Cake in 15 Min’

O-Mochi, Japanese Rice-Cake is an essential ingredient in the Japanese New Year.

Without eating it cooked in O-Zouni, we don’t feel New Year has arrived.

As it is deeply imprinted to us with the strongest memory, the taste, it makes a part of the

fundamental Ethos to be a Japanese.  It is in deed, a part of the Collective Subconsciousness.

Imprinted into the subconsciousness almost a hard-wired program, it is the imperative.

( So, the Buddhism is relying on this mechanism of the human psyche )

A matter of fact, Rice-Cake is common in throughout southeast Asia.  Essentially it is a pounded

glutinous rice, hence it is a very very sticky soft cake and some time it was made sweet.

( By the way, when the cell of starch was pounded and broken, the gluten will be released and the long

chain of protein entangled and it become sticky, so that if you pound even baked potato, it

will become very sticky. —- try this in your home  🙂  )

When this rice-cake was dried and baked with soy-source flavor, it become rice-cracker, O-Senbei.

—–

Since I arrived to this country,  I tried to make rice-cake myself. —— I’ve steamed glutinous rice,

or boiled it and try to pound etc etc without success.

Every year when the season came,  I tried different way and on the end,   with a feeling of defeat and

resignation,  I did the most inconceivable cheat (to the Japanese psyche) —– use a glutinous rice powder

just mixed with water and heated in a microwave cooker. —- m m m, wao !  ( not Jaw-Dropping  😀  )

I found supplely sexy white body laying in a rice bowl and she was so soft and sticky  😀 —

She was a perfect Mochi  😀 ( In reality, I’ve experimented the amount of water and the setting of the

cooker from the Mochi to completely dried up and burned into the rice bowl to a soggy gluey staff)

Since I found this technique,  I accustomed to make the Mochi in a square plastic food container, or make

a mix in a bowl then cover it with prepared Red-bean sweet paste and heat it —- to make an  An-Mochi  🙂

Traditionalist would say, it is a dreadful cheat though —- so far non of the Japanese ever noticed

difference and didn’t aware it until I told them.  ( Anyhow it is the genuine glutinous rice  😀  )

So,  If anybody want to try,  here is the suggestion. You need to get Glutinous Rice Powder from Chinese shop.  One pound bag ( would be about £1 ) may

make more than two-pound ( 1 Kg ) of  Rice-cake.  The size of a cake in the top photo is 2″x1.5″x 0.5″ —–

half of a bag may make 9 of such cakes ( Using 4.5″x 6.5″ food container ) and it would be a good

amount for 3 to 4 people’s meal.  ( One such cake is equivalent to one bowl of a boiled rice ).

To start, mix the powder with small amount of water, then gradually adding the water to make proper mix.

It should be more soggy than a bread making dough.  Still, the mix shouldn’t run down even if the

container was hold 45 degree but it allow the air bubble to come up slowly when you hit the bottom.

( You need to hit many times, and pierce the bubbles —— or it will blow-up when heated  🙂  )

The mix should be less than 1/2″ deep in a container.  Never attempt to make thick big one  😀

( Instead,  you can stuck together many pieces of cooked  Mochi to make it big —->Kagami-Mochi )

When the mix is ready, put a cover and put into Microwave cooker,  Med’ High —– 5 minutes.

( You may better watching inside of cooker —– if the rid of container

was blow up, Switch off. )

When it was cooked, then have a good use of your brain to take the

cake out of container.  Use of potato starch would save the stickiness.

Cut the cake in your taste.  And it is good to eat straight. —— wrap up

with Sea-Weed (Nori ) with a cake a bit wet with Soy-source.

Or put into a  Soy-source based soup ( with chicken what so ever)

like dumpling.  It called O-Zouni.

Which ever the cooking,  it’s better to give a bit of baked skin which

would enhance crispy flavor.  Japanese use charcoal fire to bake them,

though,  I found a use of gas-torch is pretty handy and effective too.  Ha ha ha  😀

( The truth is, my electric grill has been used for storage of food staff, and full-up —– sorry )

To make O-Mochi from the Glutinous rice powder is, not only it is much cheaper but unlike

plastic wrapped Japanese Kiri-Mochi, it is free from any artificial additives and white breach

——- since, dry powder needs no preservatives.

Once you found your formula,  mixing and cooking wouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

So, try O-Zouni.  And have a flavor and taste of Japanese New Year.

___/\___

—-