LISTEN, LISTEN

I saw somebody shouting in his blog  ” Listen ” ” Listen”.

Yah,  I can see what he meant.   But,  Hang on Mate,  we had in deed listened.

We born as a virtually blank sheet of paper.   And while growing up, we have listened and listened,

and learned and seen , learned, listened ——– then here I am.

Listened the same thing again and again,  it became ” A Type”——- and imprinted as the commonsense.

Once the one acquired  A Type, he start to pick up only the information fit to A Type, because any

other Type hadn’t heard often before ——- such rare exception is irrelevant to the life.

The people shouting a minority opinion still want  “Them” to listen, but ” Them” belong to the  majority.

Majority share their commonsense. And it is imprinted in Subconsciousness.

———- though, it is not necessary the truth.

To see the truth, the one has to get rid of the filter of  A Type, and open the mind.

NATURE and NURTURE

When people talk about  Nature and  Nurture,  those notions are regarded to be the counter idea.

But in reality,  they are entwined  inseparable factors.

Now a day,  nobody denies  the fact  that the Gene combination affect one’s development which even

include the one’s psychological disposition and behaviour pattern.

——————–

The most obvious but most overlooked fact in this field is, ——— that the Child is Nurtured by

the Parent who is having the same Gene like  their  Child.

Except the adopted child,  a half of the boy’s Gene come from the Father,  and the Gene which makes

a baby to a man, came from the Father’s  Y-Chromosome which is identical to the one  the boy got.

———- Assuming the Father behave under the tendency of the Gene set,  and the boy is growing up

seeing his ( Role Model’s ) behaviour pattern,  while boy himself having  (at least half of )  the same Gene

which giving the same drive to behave in the same way.

So that the reproductive process’ two key factors,  Nature and  Nurture are working toward same direction.

—————— I’m certain,  this is the common knowledge,  when the person reached to the age of 40th

everybody discover (whether the one feel comfortable or not ) how he (her) is a faithful reproduction of

his Father or Mother,  not only the physical appearance or voice but also the posture and the mannerism

or the way to think and handle the things as well.——- ( Rough Father’s Child tend to be rough too )

Even if you are not aware of this,  your wife or member of family knows this.

Which part is Genetic and other came from unconscious learning is hard to tell —– since it is entwined.

(So,  the scientists are studying hard for the Identical Twin,  but the one was grown up in the foster family

—— it is in deed, very interesting field )——- So far, mostly peculiar story of the twin come up to the news

such as, the twin grown up different family without knowing each other,  yet still having had identical life.

It seems, The Karma is a part of the Nature——- fixed on the time of the birth. ——- Does this mean,

CAN’T WE escape from the KARMA ?

DELUSION — is it a Face ?

This is a funny photo.  It supposed to have a face there.

Can you see it ? —–( it is the pattern on the cushion )

It was one of the ” face” picked up by the Google Picasa,

Face Recognition Program.

——————–

As I’ve collected 20,000 photo of faces ( well, lots of them came

together with legs, boobs etc) and I’m sorting them by the

type of face and eyes, ears etc.

( Incidentally, to see the person changing  the face, body shape,

in spate of  4~5 (?) years,  giving me a chilling feeling of harsh reality,

Nothing stays the Same—— and think, what will they do next, after 5 years time  ? ? ? )

To have the Face Recognition Program was not my choice.  It came automatic as an up-date. Though, it is

using my CPU without my permission.  I’ve tried to remove it though, it is a part of Picasa 3 (and old version

had gone ) and I couldn’t pinpoint which part of program file is doing this.—– ( Google may planning to create

another  Social  Net-working  System to compete  with  Facebook  ( which I hate most )  in the near future ).

Anyhow,  as they cropped  faces and asking me to name the person,  I clicked (may be ) 30,000 times

” Ignore ” and deleted all of them except about 30 ” faces ” which is a sheer mistake such as the one here.

In certain extent, this program was well designed as it made only  0.1% mistakes.—– Beyond here, its

needs to have a human brain ——- though, wait a moment, our brain makes as much as mistakes.

——- When I was small, I was disturbed by a pattern of knot on a wooden panel of the ceiling, as it looks

a man’s fearsome face.    Once an image was registered in the brain as a face, it always looks as a face.

———- It is interesting to see, even an artificial digital image processing makes same kind of mistakes.

In Buddhist term, this is the Delusion and a cause of paranoia though, as it was a very useful brain function

of data integration / filling the gap of information by fuzzy logic —— not exact but somewhat likely

judgement —– this kind of mistakes are inevitable.

Most of the case, it is just ” Ha, Ha, Funny ” but time to time, it might led to a serious consequence.

Stay cool, stay objective is the secret to stay in Peace.

As the mater of fact, more than half of the personal trouble was caused by oneself and one’s mind.

PRECONCEPTION

This is the another Wire Figure,  Damsel in Distress.

I don’t know the detail of her story though,  she is in deep trouble and in agony.

——————–

Beauty of wire sculpture is,  it is the 3D equivalent of line drawing,  with added surprise of changing

shape by the view from different angle.  So that the same piece could give different impression to

person to person,  and the impression which people received from such piece could be very deceptive,

since the people can adjust the view according to their preconception, and reconstruct the

image in the brain. ———-( All the 3D images  were the Re-Construction in the brain, anyway )

The figure here is very narrative, so you might be well convinced,  this is a lady in deep grief,

thrown her body on the ground and scratching the mud ——— is she ? ? ?

———- A matter of fact,  you saw the photo in wrong angle.    Look the photo again in vertical angle.

The truth is,  she is a Kung-Fu Killer.  She is the Emperor’s special body-guard,  and it is the moment,

she is launching a lethal flying kick.——–m m m ? ! ! !   ( Now your brain is re-configuring the visual

signal and re-construct the image of the fighter jumped in mid-air —— She looks fearsome isn’t she ! ! !)

( Imagining her setting in horizontal or vertical, will create completely different impression of dynamism)

( Movement / feeling of dynamism was induced by the anticipation—– if you believe it’s move, it’s looks move)

——————–

Seeing is believing.   Yet our eyes are not necessary seeing the truth.  They could be easily fooled by

a suggestion,  planted preconception and its bias.

Buddhism calls this preconception as  Delusion by which people see the same object in

utterly wrong context.  Negative view often create monster and create vicious circle.

—– See the things in detached eyes is better than to have a wishful thinking. 

So, what’s the truth ? —– Oh, it’s a  twisted wire Sir.   😀

[]

NUDE 4×4+1

As a mean of communication, the Art has very peculiar property.       Since when I was doing photography, this

peculiarity is one of my conundrum. Some photos are the Art, but most of them are just a flat copy of the object.

But, strangely, anybody can distinguish a good photo in

one glance.      And anybody can also distinguish good art

as The Art at one glance.——– (so, conceptual art is not art,

but it is only an intellectual concept, as the name indicates)

With my artist friends, photographer friends discussed together

in many occasions, still we never found a good explanation

in the words,  why and how do we know, is it the Art or not.

Because ART is a communication between  Subconscious

to Subconscious / one’s inspiration to the other’s feeling

without involving the conversion to the linguistic Notion.

(Its mean, the ART strikes the EMOTION straight, not the intelligence)

So that even if we found the typical sample, it is impossible to

describe it in the words, instead, just point the very sample and say  ” You see this is it “.

——————–

Something similar phenomenon is in the artistic expression such as in the abstract figure.

This is the matter of cognitive ability. —— How simple and even simpler, we still able to recognize as it is.

———- The photo above is, some said,  the most simplest and cheapest nude sculpture in the history.

It is just a twisted wire though, even 5 years old kids instantly recognized it ” Ah, it’s a  woman “.

This Wire Nude was made by just twisting a wire 4 times clockwise for right-hand side, and 4 times

anti-clockwise for left-hand side, plus one for the head.  ( Hence the title 4×4+1 )

I experimented many design and simplified further and further.  This seems the minimalist’s limit.

(Sitting woman putting both hands to her head—— in case, if you couldn’t make sense from flat photo)

It is impossible to describe exact shape in the words,  still it convey the message, ” This is the Woman”

and people can see and feel straight, this is the woman. ——— and makes them smile  🙂

——————–

Our brain, Deep Layer / Subconscious System has remarkable ability to capture the meaning beyond

the ordinary intellectual logics. ———-( I’m still puzzling, is it Pattern Recognition or something else ? )

And this is the way, how direct transmission of  Zen  works.  ” You see, this is it”

Passive or Active

Somebody who has read my Blog questioned me  ” Hey Yoshi, So, you mean to live reactive,  Passive Life ?

Where is your independence or individuality and its own active choice ?”

The one’s own individuality or So-called Self is an imaginary notion.  It is an abstracted idea.

You have to see it in reality in clear eyes.

——————–

OK, so, if you want to create something new as an artistic creation (or new technological invention, what

so ever )—– what is the resources you got and the origin of the idea or imagination ?

Are they purely your own creation / invention ?

—– The seeds of the idea or concepts were given and placed long time ago, even unconsciously.

We are just picking  one or two of them and re-arranging (in what we believe) in our logics.

But those idea, logics themselves are also the result of the accumulated wisdom.  They are not our

invention.—— In fact, this is the way what we are processing our thinking, nothing new there.

When we suddenly struck by  !!! and get superb idea, it might be triggered by the particular

external situation or internal re-arrangement / configuration of the knowledges which  were

already there too.   And this is how we inspire.

So that,  re-configure all the resources in one’s unique way, we like to think

” It was my invention / creation ” —– though it was in fact, only a given opportunity.

———- And we Buddhist understand or interpret it,  It was given by the Dharma,  since those

mechanisms are almost invisible and beyond the human comprehension therefore it must be

placed by the supreme power, the wisdom of the Universe.

The one’s seemingly active creativity is nothing other than  passively receiving and accept the

Dharma’s suggestion and its rules.  (Divine inspiration works far better.  Have look around  😀  )

——————–

When I got the idea ” I should go west and listen organ music ” was not my idea but the order of the Dharma.

And I just accepted as an imperative and diligently followed it.

——— Do you think was that wrong ?     Did I wasted my time or lost anything ?

Far from it,  I learned and gained unmeasurable  value of experience.

Pay enough effort while expect nothing (by  Mushin ), would bring unexpected reword

I like this Paradox in Buddhism. This is the way, we can achieve the life’s maximum Potential.

Compassion

Summer Visitor / May Fly on piece of Plum

Compassion is, as the word suggest,  it’s the

matter of the passion and the deep feeling.

It is not in the domain of consciously operated

logics or like a coöperation  which need to have

a lots of intellectual deliberation in the brain.

It seems there is a kind of invisible

communications operating behind.

Strange fact is,  as every body knows,  we

still able to distinguish if nice smile,  sweet words are genuine.

Even just looking a face we can see the character and what kind of the person.

I collected  20,000 faces found in the Net, and analyzing such as, why those looks  same 2 faces give

different impression.——- It may emanated from a dormant memory in the Subconscious Data Bank,

even from a genetic memory.  And this invisible communication making us almost automatic reaction,

when someone need a help  we give a hand.

I don’t think this is from the emotion which is entwaind with Ego,  but from much dark depth of the

Spirit ( in fact I don’t like this convenient word —– but as we don’t have suitable word, I just use it

for a convenience) it is like a respect or awesome feeling as to be in kinship of a life form, as its apply

to even to a small insect.  ( Except cockroach !—– they are the evil. —–Without our compassion,

they can thrive and survive even after the extinction of human )  😀

Subconscious Data Bank

Are we the conscious owner of our-self ?

I remember the stir and the annoyances among the scientists and philosophers

when they faced with the first ever report of the live brain scan.

It was the discovery of the fact, we are not consciously thinking.

The thinking process was being done unconsciously.

Naturally it lead to the most fundamental question, If not consciously thinking

who made this decision ?

If am not I, who is the one consciously aware I am ?

——Thinking process does not needs to be conscious.

Make an analogy in the computer.

Even though we program it in a kind of English (only after the computer became

able to be programed in higher language —– before it, all had to be done in

Hex or binary number ) computer is not operating in English. And even in

the out put sage, unless the signal was not decoded in ASCII it wouldn’t become

readable in A B C.

Exactly same as this, our thought, especially such as deep feeling, vague idea etc

has to be first categorized in the pattern and converted into own language,

otherwise we can not consciously process it in English.

In every-days life we are reading numerous signs and even a hint without converting

them to the words.

——————

In a latest development of the Honda Asimo Humanoid Robot, Honda created

” Thought controlling System ” using a geographical pattern of the activity in

the brain , picked up by the sensors in a helmet, and enabled to move the

Asimo’s right hand left hand and so on.

This experiment demonstrating the fact, to think something, we don’t nee to

have linguistic conversion.

And without conscious, the process in the brain is still taking place.

I also recall a funny quote ” The bathroom is where most of the important

invention was conceived”. I know lots of people would agree with this.

Why bathroom ? The answer is very simple. All of us do the business as

a routine and we have done the same, hundreds of thousands of times.

We don’t need to think about and do it unconsciously.

And the bathroom is where our brain has a moment of brake in the busy life.

Once our brain was vacated empty (some may describe it, completely open

minded) it is easier to sense and locate a faint image or vague idea, when it came

up from the depth of unconscious darkness. Then you might shout ” Eureka”

The original concept, conceived in the unconscious process having much grater

freedom of the creativity than the ordinary rational thinking.

Zen meditation is the way to create this condition of the brain, in a bit more

comfortable, less smelly environment.

( If possible, under a Bodhi tree. Ha Ha Ha 🙂 )

Koan ? ? ?

Quite awhile, I was haunted by the Ontology and the Epistemology in the Buddhism.

On the surface, its definition is different in a Mantra to Mantra, and even worse in the

Mahayana Mantra, the description such as “Exist as not exist” kind appeared so often.

——–? ? ? Then oneday, I suddenly realized, the matter is not on the superficial words,

BUT in the intention behind of such expression.

At the teaching, Buddha wanted to show how uncertain the existences are, let alone

unreliability of our own perception, which supposed to observe and sense the objects.

Especially in the bottom line of the idea “Karma”, everything, include our 5 senses

are the relative phenomenon. Both observer and the observed.

Nothing can be certain.

——- In order to make Disciples to contemplate this, by themselves,

the Buddha must have used quite mind boggling, puzzling analogy.

YET, the understanding of the uncertainty itself, even the Self is exist or not was

not the main issue.

(Then I realized, this is the very situation which 1000 years old cliche has mocked

about while describing  ” See the finger, but not the moon “.

And, mocking the novice who is trapped into arguing the shape of the finger

such as ” Who is watching ” or ” Where they are ” kind, as ” Trying to catch Namazu

(slippery, slimy Cat-fish) by Hyotan (equivalent of smooth glass bottle).

——This is the very reason why all the famous answer to the  Koan  is, in fact,

mocking back to the question. )

What Buddha wanted to teach was, to brake the attitude of the people who

tend to cling or obsessed with the things or ideas.

Buddha wanted the people to have clear eyes to see the truth of the life.

Imposing self or distorting vision of the ego is the main obstacle to see

the truth.