Spiritual Sounds

While ago I talked about the sounds which gave us a spiritual feeling.

In there, I wrote ” Something slowly moving continuous rather hi-pitch tone make us feel spiritual.”

And long time ago, when I talked about J.S.Bach and Baroque music —– not melodic but continuously

changing polyphonic sound makes our brain to stop thinking / abandon the thinking process =

attempt to figure out what this sounds mean ——- is good for the Zenist to empty the mind.  😀

——–

Unlike a visual signal, sound signal is a basic stimulus, goes directly into the subconscious.

If you encountered a scene in a huge Buddhist Temple, hundreds of monks chanting a Mantra in unison,

( I’ve listened it at Eihei-ji and Daitoku-ji.  You may find a recordings of Tendai-shormyo of  Enryaku-ji )

you might have felt its low voice is more of a demonic and gave awesome impact to your perception.

The Gregorian Chant in a monastery gives similar feelings but the sound is less demonic.

Then somebody suggested, how about the Gospel Song ? ——- Those musics are surely Religious but

not necessary sound spiritual as its use of normal voices range and the meanings of words’ limit the mind

to be open. One of rare exception might be the back-ground hi-pitch humming of a Gospel group Take6.

(In  purely sound term, not the connotation of the songs).

————————

When we hear roar or beating drone like low sound, it resemble the sound of earth before an eruption

of volcano or a big predator / lion, tiger etc,  we feel a fear ( instinctively ). ( Huge fearsome body

never chirp, as the resonance of big body cavity is pretty low / earth’s magma chamber is huge  😀 )

So that the lower sound is the sign of larger and more powerful body,  hence used to appeal to the female

who is seeking stronger gene —— from flog to golilla.  (and some human as well  😀  )

Since the lower roaring sound gives the feeling of awe and  hi-pitch slow-moving tone gives

spiritual feeling, the religious organ music utilising those effect very effectively in its three-part

polyphonic composition.

So,  why hi-pitch tone (when its sound slowly moves but not too melodic way) gave us spiritual feelings ?

Try this by yourself now. —– Make high-tone on your mouth, pieeeee —– then, booooo —– you must be

noticed, high-tone resonate in your head / nose cavity,  but low sound resonate in your lung cavity.

Lower base sound shake your body,  but hi-tone hit your head / brain though, if the sound is not

comprehensible —– not a whistle of train or alarm sound, nor soprano song —— something unknown

but as it keep hitting the brain,  we just open the perception and we were nailed down just to listen.

As we couldn’t figure it out, our confidence in our ego melt away, and the mind evaporate into air.

With completely open mind and the naked perception, we started to feel, something is there.

You are standing on the edge of spiritual world.

—

Just open the perception / mind, and become totally passive without attempting to give

any own thought / thinking,  is nothing but the state of Mushin in the Buddhism.

Of cause, Hi-pitched tone itself has no spirituality, it was just happened to be a typical sample

to make us feel the uncertainty which forced to open our mind / key to see the function of our mind.

And this key is showing us, No-thinking/No-mind/Mushin is the pathway toward the spirituality.

Buddha, in his ultimate wisdom, decipher this phenomenon and gave the explanation. 

What beyond there is, the Dharma. —— As everybody can be hit by this spiritual sound,

its indicates the fact, everybody has its perception, and the Dharma is not beyond the sky, but

in front of us.  In fact we ourself is a part of it, that’s why everybody got this perception.

Unlike the Gregorian Chant of Gospel Song which needs to know beforehand and learn what it is,

the perception toward the spirituality is inherent to all the human,  Buddhism is teaching how to open

the perception/mind, and see the Dharma through its practice. ( without listening a hi-pitch tone  😀  )

—— still, one of the Zen sect Fuke-shu use the sound of Shakuhach / Bamboo pipe  to reach  Mushin.

—— ( though, to master this instrument is as hard as to get enlightenment ). ( Still, sound is good  😀 )

In fact, to some people, it is not necessary a hi-pitch tone, but it can be a sound of the running water,

wave sound of the sea, wind through the tree  though, those sound sources are surrounded by too many

visual signals too.  We may not able to just listen the sound of wave —— mind might be destructed

by a passing nice Bikini Bottom.    ( Ha ha ha  😀  —– In fact, Bottom is a part of the Dharma, so, nothing

wrong with it though, if the mind was stuck with it, it break off the  Mushin and stray away.

You can deal with it in Mushin,  but on a bed,  not on the beach.   Ha ha ha   😀 )

—— Still, once got know how, it can be done in any way.

Just open the mind and perceive the Dharma.  ( People describes this as Meditation )

___/\___

—-

Life to be Artists

I’ve received a question from a keen reader of this blog / Jaganathan, who is

creating / developing  fancy program of creating even fancier sound, out of computer.

————

anyway id like your thoughts or a blog post 🙂 Why do many artists end

up depressed, do drugs, kill themselves.  And how to keep doing good

work irrespective of whether it is a success or failure.  How do

continue doing sincere work even if nobody gives a sit.

—————–

In anyone’s life,  to see what is the success, having many facets —— Financial ?, Social recognition ?,

Historical importance ?, Personal Pride and Confidence ?, Made people happy and became local Hero ?

All those may satisfy the ego.  But in reality, before think about success, most acute needs are to survive.

—-

When I finished hi-school and chose the direction and Uni’, I hated to go to science and technology side

as I didn’t want to be enslaved by the technology —– I’ve applied to Art College.  Though I was told by

the member of  Alpine Club in that College  “Want to become Sculptor ?  Oh no, even studied in here,

its impossible to live on the sculpture.  You may end-up an art teacher in a junior school or a craftsman

making dummy for the shop” —– What a hopeless situation. I gave up and next year I went to a Uni’

where we don’t need to fix the direction / Faculty / Major  for the first year —– then end up to take

Sociology by accident.  Before apply the Art College, an art teacher told me ” The success rate of

top Art College ( Where I wanted to go) is about 50%, and the other would be less than 10% ”  here

success mean, able to live / survive on the skill or the art which was studied in the college.

This was the time, Art was the traditional Art, long before such as Conceptual  Art became main stream.

Art is a very subjective commodity.   Commodity mean, the objects which can be sold and owned.

Though, when the type of art, and the educational direction has changed to the Pure Art and a theory

of Conceptual Art, sellable art became the dirty word as it is Commercial / Crafty, to live on

the Art become even harder. Who want to buy a pile of dung / (said to be) conceptual art installation. 😀

——- So, the question of Jaganathan is a little bit out of time or not a kind of the matter to rise a question.

Depressed, infested by Drug, kill oneself or even kill others —– may not be anything unusual.  😀

Even worse, as the art education is aiming to the concept, not the skill, actually no skilled useless persons

were flooded to the labour market ( it include the Media study as well).

Under such situation, if any artist want to have satisfying life should better take Buddhist’s paradox.

Forget success, forget recognition, forget financial reward and just make own art —– but perfect one.

Perfect Art would hit the guts feeling of the others. It impress the people and make their mouth shut.

——- so-called success will follow. ( But, as long as the one is hoping and expecting the day will come, with

ego and greed there will be no perfect art or success. —— in this aspects, Dharma is very harsh )

So that, so-called  Positive thinking, or Keep your hope live etc etc are all but just the sweet words.

The Buddhist Mushin is the very strict term, if not perfect, it would be all in vain.

If Jaganathan is developing new program, if it is exciting enough, he could be absorbed into its work,

he couldn’t be disturbed by useless thought —— its mean, he needs to make his work interesting,

important enough —– here, crucial inspiration, key idea which he may get it in the Blank Space

may become decisive factor.  So, to see its new idea, in complete open mind / Mushin holding the key.

( Here, chicken and the egg,  Exciting project absorbs person’s mind and make him into Mushin, though

to get exciting idea need to have Mushin —– shut up, just start.    Ha ha ha. 😀 )

——- So, how about, take a walk, —— Do a Walking Zen and get Mushin first  🙂

___/\___

___

Practice ?

There are funny misunderstandings among the Buddhists,  which lead to the even funnier

misconception of the Buddhism.

Due to the each sect’s tactics to monopolize the Buddhism,  each sect having their own practice,

banging a drum or chanting the name of mantra or sitting etc etc what so-ever.

But,  one shouldn’t forget,  they are just a mean or tool to learn Buddhist’s Teachings.

—

There are hundreds of practices which bear the name  ***** Dou such as Ju-dou, Ken-dou, etc.

Dou mean  A Way / Pathway —– to reach Buddhist’s enlightenment.

It is a vessel to cross the other side.  In metaphor, a finger  pointing the moon.

With an unfortunate confusion in the English translation,  the word  PRACTICE was taken like

a  training exercise. But,original meaning is To apply the teachings to a real situation and Do it.

Medical practice mean actually cut a stomach and stitch it —— Oh, c’mon don’t cut it for practice. 😀

To reach Olympic Medal in swimming, swimmer needs the basic training of running, push-up etc

though, no-one would think, do the running is swimming.

—

Yet still, lots of  self-proclaimed  Buddhist believes  ” As I’m chanting the name of mantra, hours

every day —– so I’m a  Buddhist ” —– so, I asked ” How come, your joint (hashish)”  ” Oh, with this

I can reach even higher spiritual level ” ——- m m m ?

Buddha’s followers literally followed him, And copied exactly the same what he was doing.

This is the PRACTICE.  Buddha was the living sample of How to live as a Buddhist.

Buddha was not doing any training exercise.  When he want, just sit and took a rest.

But never tortured his legs.  ( So, he could walk by his own till 83, to his Nirvana —— in comparison,

all the Zen sect high Priests  end up in wheel-chair when they got old, due to many years of torture to

the legs. —— when Master Dogen said  ” Just sit ”  on that time life-expectancy was mere 40~50 years,

long before the body started to show the symptoms of old age)

So,—– sitting is just sitting, take a rest ( away from the life’s all other activities / actions ) — hence,

no need to think or worry —– have a break, that’s all.

It is so funny, sitting itself was mistook as to be a Buddhist. —— No, It’s a misunderstanding to think

” Sitting is to reach the Dharma ” —— No, we are with Dharma 24 hours, every fraction of second.

Our life itself is the PRACTICE.  To achieve the best in the PRACTICE is the Buddhism.

___/\___

PS:  As I wrote in the earliest posts, those ” Repeating Buddhist’s Practices “ are the

training Practice to learn ” Do the things without thinking “ ( by means of ware-out the mind )

which is aimed to attain the State of the Mushin.

The Key to the Buddhist’s life is To live the life in Mushin—— hence, life is the PRACTICE to

apply the way of Mushin.  And the Mushin is the synonym to the Clear Eyes to see the Truth.

How BUDDHISM deals with TROUBLE

( This is the shortest summary of what I have explained in the past hundred posts )

Half of the troubles in one’s life are caused by  external situations or factors, which is beyond the one’s

control —– the one was in the wrong place in the wrong time.

Though rest of half were caused by oneself which are largely attributed by one’s emotion, including

one’s greed, sexual instinct and emotionally biased wrong thinking —– in another word, Delusion.

–

What  BUDDHA taught was the way to deal with those troubles by gaining the clear eyes to

see the situation  AND  the way to control one’s mind (include the Emotion and Instincts ).

——– so, it was the two-way approach, hence the complete package of the solution.

To see the world in the clear eyes with the understanding of its existences ( include the Self ) which are

constantly changing by the chain of cause and result,  is fundamentally rational and factual —— hence,

Buddhism never has a conflict with the science.  ( And the common sense.  😀  )

——-

And to deal with one’s mind which is riddled with Ego, Greed, Emotion and  Delusion, Buddha had

adopted remarkably effective way of practice which can Re-program one’s  Subconscious,

therefore able to eliminate all the effect of those awkward Ego, Emotion etc.

This uniquely Buddhist’s way of practice is,  to repeat the same action or thinking for the tens of thousands

of times thence worn-out the Thinking and makes the action independent and immune from any Emotion.

By doing so,  human mind and the body learns to do it without involving thinking and the emotion

therefore, the action became almost automatic (since emotion is detached) and extremely refined.

And able to achieve the selfless state ( Mushin ) of  the one’s mind.

———- As the result,  the Person wouldn’t be shaken by the troublesome event,  and the Mind can handle

the situation without the interference of the Emotion or  Subconscious blockage,  even awkward trouble

can be solved in the very rational and calm manner.

—-

–

Clear the CONFUSION

While talking with the people who read through my blog,  I found , I still need to clarify the confusion,

which may caused by not clear enough explanation.

It seems, the most confusing part of the Zen teaching is,  the apparent crush of  the Selflessness

and the so-called  Mindfulness. As  this Mindfulness was mistook as the Concentration,  my explanation

of  Selflessness = Detachment /  Mushin  seemed to have utter conflict with  Mindfulness.

———- Yes it seems true, as long as the person is  ” Thinking them as the meaning of the words “.

Here,  the hardest part of the Zen phenomenon lays.

One is the matter of the SELF,  and the Awareness of the Self /  Thinking ——> Not Thinking

——> BUT do it under the control of  SUBCONSCIOUS.

When we do the things Unconsciously,  this is what the Zen called  MUSHIN  ( SELFLESSNESS ).

DETACHMENT  from  the Thinking, and the person who is Thinking = SELF.

( Detached from the Self or own Ego ——– not from the subject to do)

Do the things in  MUSHIN or  Subconsciously, yet fully committed  to  the subject,  is the state of  FUJI / ICHIJO.

In this state of the mind, ICHIJO,  there is nothing else of  the person  (selfless SELF)  and the subject.

——– this is what western Zenist described as the Fully Minded or  Mindfulness.

One of the grave  mistake of the western Zenist was the use of this word, Mindfulness.

The trouble is,  there is no mind should be there. ———– So that, as long as the person mind the

mindfulness,  there can never be the MUSHIN or SELFLESSNESS achieved.

—————————

And this is the fundamental trouble to approach Buddhism by the word and the thinking,  and

exactly with the same reason,  all the Buddhism sects (except the talking shop of western Buddhists) are

using the physical practice as their part of teachings. (You can bang a drum or cut a lemon without conscious,

though  you can’t read or talk without consciously thinking )

————- And this is the reason,  why I have started this blog saying   “Just Do IT,  Don’t Think “

let alone talking about. ( So, why am I blogging here ?   😀 ——– In Hinayana,  I should just

watching the people talking, puzzling, though it is yet another paradox of the Mahayana. I have to blog )

————————

So, it must be clear now,  Selflessness, MUSHIN  and so-called Mindfulness, and ICHIJO  are

all exist in the same time as One Phenomenon of a State of the Mind (of No-Mind / MUSHIN).

All those words are the superficial appearances of the same Phenomenon seen from different angle.

————————

Since the result is much better done in Zen,  the question arose ” Who did this, as the Self was

not there,  WHO ELSE ? ” ——– Hence, ” It must be done by the  Dharma ”

and the riddle of  ” Is SELF really exist ? ” was born.

WOMAN womam !

I’ve encountered a woman at somebodies’ birthday party  who questioned me, why the Buddhism

discriminate the women and keep them in the lower lank in the hierarchies.

It’s an awkward question.

My explanations  ” There was no such thing in the time of Buddha, as there was no organized system of

ranking his followers,  and the seniority who has learned longer and knows deeper was obvious,

regardless the gender ” —— Though, this woman who said to be practicing  ” – – – something, never

heard of kind of meditation” was so tenacious,  saying  “Even a woman who achieved the high enough

level of enlightenment,  still been recognized lower than the male and couldn’t be ordained to the same

rank as the male counter part etc etc. ”

As the matter of fact,  I rather liked to just shut my mouth and ignored the question though, this woman

just keep repeating the question and push and push,  and unlike the Great Buddha,  my silence didn’t

hit the world like a thunder.  ( Ha Ha Ha  😀  )

——————–

The matter was too obvious,  It is not my business.  And I don’t think it is her business neither.

Somewhere some sect administrate the way of their organization in their own rules,

it is their problem. (if any at all )  If anyone doesn’t like it,  just go to another sect.

Obviously this woman is arguing the matter which is not what she is facing herself,  in other words,

she is arguing the matter which is only in her knowledges, the thinkings.    And talking an injustice of

discrimination in social recognition of the one’s achievement in her assumption. Not in her reality.

———- Unfortunately,  the starting point of this woman was hopelessly wrong.

Buddhism is not a cooperate system to organize the people in bureaucratic hierarchies,  therefore

expecting to receive high-ranking etc is not the Buddhism,  but the one’s ego and the greed.

Invested the money to the speculation of the land, but as the bubble collapsed and couldn’t get the profit.

Though,  before complain the lost profit,  think own greed  expected to grub the money with dubious scheme.

———- I really wonder,  what sort of Buddhism this woman was imagined of.   Instead to find the peace,

she  created a discord in her mind,  which is not even  her business and only exist in her knowledge.

The one’s enlightenment is not given by the organization of sect,  but gained by the person oneself.

Attending the sect’s talking shop, which chair to sit is not the matter at all.    The person,  just sit on

the floor  comfortably,  without any dithering,  is in fact sitting closest to the enlightenment.

And I’m sure,  when the founder of  THAT  sect had encountered  a woman of this kind,  who was just filled

with ego,  still insisting  ” I’ve achieved and gained the understanding of Buddhism”

the founder must be amazed and fed up to argue with her.

After so many years of study and the practice and achieved to gain so much so ” Knowledges” still able to

maintain so much so ego and the greed,

the founder must come  to the conclusion ” They are the hopeless”  ( I guess )

So, after ” The historical woman’s right fighter ” the sect changed their rules, it was the unfortunate history

in a corner of the Buddhism sphere.

In the Buddhism Paradox, the Dharma prevails to the one who achieved the perfection without

asking the return. ( in other word, in  Mushin —– or so-called Selflessness )

BRAIN WAVE

Some days ago,  I saw a bizarre demonstration which purported to be an electronic display of the

Buddhist Meditation,  consisting a video image said to be controlled by the Brain Wave.

Loads of scientific buzz words such as Quantum Mechanics, Sinusoidal Alpha Wave etc etc were spoken.

———- Yet strangely, a demonstrator  who got a shaven head said ” I’m not an electronics expert,

so,  I don’t know the details of the technology here “—— Oh, I’m, sure Brain Wave is not Sinusoidal at all.

——————–

How bizarre this one was —– to begin with,  Alpha Brain Wave is nothing to do with the Meditation.

EEG  Brain Wave was picked up on the surface of the head and showing the summed up electric signal

of the inside Cerebrum Cortex’s activity.   Therefore,  the Brain Wave is the reflection of the vigorous

activity of the brain —— sound opposite of the calm Meditation.   (Of cause, even under the deepest

meditative state, certain physiological function is fully active, hence creating so-called  Artefact ( back

ground noise ) is always there.

Any how, the activity of inner part of the brain such as Limbic System is not possible to observe by the EEG,

unless a hole was cut to the skull and put through a probe deep inside.  ( Very risky operation )

——————–

More than 40 years ago, when a meditating monk was wired up and the EEG / Brain Wave was recorded

first time, the relation between Alpha Wave and the Meditation was discovered.  So, a  Myth  was created.

Though, ironically, some years later, the true nature of the Alpha Wave became clear —— it was the

indication of the ” Eyes are Closed ” —— its mean, the visual cortex in the back of the head is in idle state.

Nothing to do with meditation.    (Well, see nothing was indicated.  At least   😀  )

(  In the Zen, Eyes wide open and seeing, but take NO NOTICE is the key technique —– Thus able to

either Detach or Concentrate to any subject,  any time,  by will )

Yet still, the Myth or idiosyncratic misunderstanding was kept and worshiped by the people who doesn’t

know the Buddhism neither Medical science or Electronics.

And this kind of bizarre gimmick industry is flourishing.

How amazing  !!!

When Mankind didn’t have the knowledge of electric activity,  lightning was believed

to be an act of angry God.

The Brain still remaining in the mystery is,  nothing to do with  the mystery of the Buddhism.

Mind is not just a matter of  Brain cell and  Electric pulse.

—

PS: Half year later, I bumped a man who demonstrated aforesaid  Electronical Meditation, at an art

gallery and found that the man is (despite his shaven head  🙂 ) just a novel art performer, not a monk

or to do anything with Buddhist’s meditation.  So, he must had a lots of fun for doing it. 😀

Which Practice ?

As you may noticed,  my approach to the Buddhism is by means of Doing.

And my Doing is not a fixed practice.

It can be even cutting lemons or twisting a wire to make figures or make small electronic circuit etc ——.

In fact it can be any activity in the daily life,  like somebody’s daily job.

———- The reason is obvious,  (1)  It is not an activity intentionally designed on purpose.  As it is a part of

daily life and carries no special meaning or pretence, such as  ” This is the Special noble practice for the

Higher Spiritual Achievement”, it is natural.   This is the Jinen.

(2)  Basically I’m a humble mean person.  I can’t afford to spend a  time for such a special exotic activity.

If ordinary activity can serve the same purpose,  why not do them.  It would save the time and energy.

Most important point is, the Buddhism is a way of the life.  It wouldn’t work like to buy a piece of Indulgence

and sit as a formality.  Buddhism  needs to go down all the corner of one’s life.  This is the Ichijo in total.

The matter is to live the life in  Mushin.

———- So, as one of the by-product,  I got nicely twisted wire as well ——- How nice  Ha Ha Ha   😀

( I don’t think so many people in the world, found an interest of twisting the wire.   Its mean, this is a very

peculiar activity specifically occurred only on my Karma,  therefore this is a part of  Yoshizen.  Ha Ha Ha  😀  )

Since,  it was the task, I only had to do  (on that moment), I only doing it,  nothing else, therefore I didn’t need

to specially concentrate for  “Mind-fulness”  kind, as there was nothing else to think about anyway.

——————–

Almost synonym of the (misconceived) Buddhism, “Meditation”, “Mind-fullness”, “Selfless” are all too

prominent though, they are bore out of the unnatural pretenceful activity.

Because of it is a peculiar exotic practice, the person has to fight to concentrate to get mind-fullness and

while (utterly contradictively) hustle to get selflessness.  (If a man has to wear Mini-Skirt he can’t be calm.  🙂 )

——————-

But if you do the activity which you can abandon yourself,  you automatically start to do fully minded

without any conscious of self.  In this way, anybody, in any activity, they can reach to the Mushin.

This is the Mahayana Buddhism.

Door is open to anybody,  not only to the professional monk whose task (and the mean of earning money)

is to Perform and Demonstrate “Buddhism”—— in other words, other than a monk, most of the people

don’t need to demonstrate and perform it.

——————- Though,  to do the things which is not your choice,  even a kind of task you hate,

and still able to do it in  Mushin,  needs to have special training to disconnect your  Thinking and  Emotion,

which I have explained before,  ” Starting with absolute obedience and repeat the practice until it

reaches to the state of  Mental Fatigue—–”

———- And almost legendary  ” Hyper state of the Brain ”  could be achieved only through very dangerous

practice and the Visualization.   ( Some Martial Artist can do this.   And the people competing with their

memory power, while memorizing hundreds of cards in order, using this Visualizing skill under

the hyper state of the Brain ——- but don’t ask me about it)

Though,  in my view from my experiences,  I’m not necessary agree with those special  Mind Engineering is

in the scope of the Buddhism.   Those highly specialized  Mind Engineering  was a discovery of the

professional monk though it is necessary to born with particular genetic condition.

Voice of Dharma

The reader who has been kept reading this Blog may have now realized

What is the Buddhism and the function of its practice.

——————–

The fanction of the practice is to remove the noise of the activities of Notion ( Conscious Thinking )

which is masking the inner layer,  Raw Data Processing System or Old System ( Subconscious ).

Since the Old System has been evolved with the history of the Life, its memories retains the

billion of years wisdom and still retains the ear to hear the signals of the Pineal Grand, which

seemingly able to sense the signals from the Earth and the Universe.

Therefore,  in the state of absolute passiveness / Selflessness,  we may able to receive those signals

through the Old System.( even Unconsciously )

———- What is the signal ?

When asked, Buddha didn’t give answer.

Hence in the Buddhism tradition,  it can not be taught neither described in the word.

(Obviously it is the Voice of the Dharma, though the deepest meaning of the Dharma is not explanable

which the one has to see by himself,  thus Buddha didn’t explain.  His action itself was the teaching.)

So that, when we meditate,  first, silence the thought,  then expose the sense of the inner

layer, Old System in the absolute passiveness——-so, you may feel even the flow of dead still air.

This is the way,  we might be able to hear the voice of the Dharma.

(But mind you, Dharma doesn’t speak  English. Its a sign.    Ha Ha Ha   😀  )

——————–

( As I wrote before it can be done not only by the sitting,  but also even by cutting a lemon.

So,  it is your turn, try, just do it. ——- It is just a matter of you to open your Subconscious in

absolute passiveness.)

Why Subconscious (2)

” How Buddhism dealt with Mind “

In this post, I’m going to talk about the practical effect of the practice which Buddhism

invented  as the way to deal with the matters in the subconsciousness.

If you are more interested in the historical, theoretical view in the Buddhism, please read

the Mantra of the Yogacara school. especially about the Alaya

——though I found there isn’t much useful insight.

Or you can look into a mountain of the books about brain science——again, they may lead you nowhere.

Our Ethos, notion of the Dharma or Spirituality is not operating in electrical, chemical level.

(Still, the hormone, Serotonin and Dorpamin seemed to have an effect to the deep contented feelings

but, of cause they wouldn’t make you any wiser or enlighten you )

——————–

Buddhism’s teaching method and its practice has been well thought out in the history.

Whether it is walking, banging the drum or sitting, what ever  they looks monotonous silly practice.

Yet, there are 2  hidden agenda or very effective function behind.

(1)  is what I’ve explained many times, it is to induce the selflessness, and disconnecting the coming

signals to the Emotion which contained the subconscious of Self or Ego  as well.

It can be said, it is to automatize routine work, together with the apathy caused by the mental fatigue.

(This is the harsh varier you have to go through.  Any soft sweet words to sugar court it, is a fraud)

(You can’t buy cheap Enlightenment in pink color.  Real one is pretty heavy and cost you, though

its worthwhile to pay.  Since the value of it would be much much more than your own life)

——————–

(2)  and the second purpose is to make you give up any

question such as what for, what would happen after or  think what others say.etc.

Here absolute obedience  is essential.   As long as you  keep fussing about what, why or am I good ?

you have no hope to go any farther therefore the teacher would just give you a nice smile, as he

is not operating in no win no pay policy,  to keep the student coming back is far more important.

So, the second purpose is to make you to lean giving up your Ego without any question or condition.

This is not easy matter,  that is why its have to be repeated again and again to imprint the notion deeper.

This process is to change the system in the brain down to the deep subconscious level.

And (1) (2) together the denial of the Self became complete, both conscious level and subconsciously.

This is the reason why, even if you  get the intelectual knowledge of how and  why practice,

it wouldn’t help you to get  Enlightenment any quicker, if any at all.

( So does, this blog too.  That’s why I’m keep shouting, Just Do It, yet still this blog would gives you

a kind of navigation guide to find  where you are.)——- if you can see where you are objectively ,

at least it will gives you a confidence, you are on the right path. (or completely wrong place   😦   )

——————–

So, the Buddhism practice will kill two birds in one stone.

Yet still, even with this practice, which may have killed off your  Me Me Me Ego,  the another animals

in your instinct is still at large.

So, this is where the rules, discipline comes in force to curb your greed, desire etc.

Still, from the personality profile, the one who could gave up the Ego, tend to follow the rules easily,

and the effect of the practice which had blocked the connection to the Emotion, the greed,desire,anger,

obsession, etc, even a fear of death, will gradually lose the grip and you no longer be bothered by them.

( I’ve been using a metaphoric expression ” The File has been Dilated  ” therefore, even a word ” Alcohol ”

is no longer exist.  So that a bottle on front, wouldn’t give any meaning.   It wouldn’t excite the emotion,

as it is not exist.  Same apply to another evil, money, drug, ghost, vanity, sex-mania ? ,you name it )

———— (Sound grate,  though your wife may not like this. ——— But don’t blame me  😀

There is an Old say, in its reverse Maxim,  If you can’t beat, run away.   Ha Ha Ha )

In fact tender Buddhist persuasion may work, and if you succeeded she is the first one you have saved.

——————–

When you read this, you may think it looks too simple.  —— You are right, since there isn’t much secret

in the Buddhism or the margin left to think about, since  the secret remained in the black box.

So far we only know the functional map of brain,  still don’t know even how or where the memory kept.

And even with the limited number of input, try to induce human like response with a simulation

program had all failed, since we even not know how many factors which may influence the result, were

hidden unconsciously.  Even worse, in a real life, situation and the perceived informations are never

static and its never same to a person to person. / Nothing stays permanent and each Karma is different )

——- So, the mind is still in the black box, but this black box is like a Nintendo, you don’t need to know

the internal electronics. The matter is,how to use it, which button to push, that is all we need to know.

Exactly like this, what Buddha found is, this button in the human life.  This is why its so simple.

———-And this is why when grate Zen Masters realized this, all of them were so annoyed.

The story of  ” Its a dog sit ” was well known even at the time, still another Zen Master

couldn’t understand  until he discovered it by himself.  Its too funny, but unshakable fact.

——————–

One of the most Not Thinking Sect, the Pure land Sect  (Which followers are just chanting

Nam-Amida-Butsu  that all, and may even  not necessary to know who is  the Amida-Butsu, still,

the follower can attain  the Enlightenment.——–( In this aspect,  the Zenist  is the worst.

They will make a question to Buddha when they met him in the Heaven.   Buddha wouldn’t answer   😀 )