Let it Go !

In somebody’s blog (apparently a follower of the Zen Buddhism)  I’ve stumbled an interesting  word

” Who stole my  Zafu ( small cushion for sitting)”

—– its mean, without Zafu he couldn’t meditate, hence he couldn’t get enlightenment = somebody is

obstructing him to get enlightened.  And saying, not let it go = not giving away the secret / keep it for

oneself is a greed and envy of others getting the truth.  It is the monopoly of the truth.

I couldn’t stop burst into laughing.  😀  😀   ( But he is a very honest man !)

The person is quoting some words of past Masters, so has read some books and saying ” not let it go—”

indicates he is not a beginner though —– ? ? ? —– I wonder isn’t he aware what he is saying, itself

contradict the logic ? —– If  “let it go”  is the matter,  why he is keep asking ?

Yes, Don’t bother any more “Just let it go” —– do it without Zafu.

—–

Looks funny though, the most crucial question is “let it go — of  What ?   ” Is there anything to let  go ?

A novice and even a (at least the years past) seasoned Buddhist having this misconception —– but the

meaning of let it go is,  Let go such notion itself.

In fact, in order to keep their “authority”, the establishment (and the so-called teachers) are pretending

to hold the Ark though, there is nothing in it, other than the Myth —– in its best, otherwise a deception.

That is why, the past Great Masters who found it, all  described it as a Dog Shit.

Simply because the Truth, only the Truth is the Dharma.  And the Dharma is here already.

But to see the Dharma  (in fact to see anything)  need to see it with clear eyes, without having any

preconception,  deluded idea, Ego,  even the Self itself —— hence need to be in Mushin.

Strangely you might feel, it include the notion of the Buddhism too.

If you having a belief that you are a Buddhist, you are not enlightened Buddhist but the one

only pretending or showing off.

(Don’t ask me, “If it is the case, why my blog is here”.  Please read the earliest post.—– It was my Karma)

—-

So, you may ask,  If it is the case,  What is the point to be a Buddhist ?

Well, the answer is only you can find it out.  It is not a  Sale Item nor fancy gadget.  There is no catalog.

It might come, might not come though, the one thing definitely certain is, as long as you expecting it,

it never come.  Because you hadn’t let such idea go.

———- In my case, it seems the Dharma is keep watching me and keep giving me the sign,

in a form of the number (where ever I go, or do what so-ever — rather annoying) (Ref; 8150 Story)

So far, having quite peaceful life without getting ill —– might be thanks to the Dharma —– or

might be just a sheer coincidence. Who knows.  But what do I need to ask more ?   Neither I care.

( I suppose, I did let any expectation go long time ago —– may be.  I don’t remember  😀 )

The beauty in the Buddhism is its carefree life.  I even don’t need to remember that I’m a Buddhist  🙂

( The secret behind is, the life style itself has been simplified and it is carried out without need to think about,

other than something new and creatively challenging.  So, Just do it. —– I’m perfectly contented ! )

So, be relaxed, don’t bother Zafu.  You can sit in anywhere —– isn’t this, an enlightened freedom ?

___/\___

—-

PAIN ? — How about SMELL ?

When I wrote about the PAIN, many of you might thought, it’s gone too far and hard to believe.

Yet, as a matter of fact, you are experiencing same kind of phenomena in your life everyday.

For instance, the smell.  Your bad (or no) smell of your mouth or body odor. —— It might be almost non

or awful, though  you don’t know or you can’t tell.

If the stimuli of smell is not there we can’t feel the smell, of cause.  But if it is persistently there, the threshold

of the sense become high, and we become desensitized to its smell.  This is the reason why you can’t

judge your own smell.  (Bad breathed person still able to smell other’s bad breath —– it’s not own smell  😀 )

But there is a completely opposite situation.  Once you become conscious about your own smell,

regardless it’s there or not, you become paranoid and become obsessed to use body splay etc etc.

The manufacturer of deodorant or such kind, try to make you think, you are a smelly person — and once you

were trapped, there is no escape. You start to think, others are pretending not feel the smell, in order not

to offend you.  You are completely possessed by the delusion. And  becoming  to over sensitive to any

minute smell.   (Though, there are many really smelly person who doesn’t care at all also exists  😀 )

A similar situation is in the noise.  Someone is almost immune to the high level of noise but others are often

too sensitive —– couldn’t sleep because of the noise of ” Electronic Watch ” ( How can you hear ? )

Fishmongers never complained, fish smell fishy or car manufacturer never complained it is noisy, because

they got used of it (desensitized ), or contemplated and accepted,  as it is a part of their own life.

If there is a possibility of compensation,  to become conscious and too sensitive then become sleepless

and fallen ill, could be a choice. (People live by the sea never complained  its endless wave noise, because

there is no point and no gain to do so ).  Or other choice is completely ignore and just get used it, and

carry on the life —– is depend on the mind-set.

So, one’s Ego, Greed, Obsession or Paranoid —– or in opposite, Contemplation, could make completely

different perception, hence, even a different view toward the life.

This is the reason why the Buddhism is here. ( for you to get correct mind-set )

___/\___

—

CHILD’S VIEW — DHARMA ?

One of my friend who is a cool customer to my blog said to me

” Hey, your theory has broken down,  Although you’ve been saying , the children unconsciously

accumulates the Dharma into his subconscious, yet, you yourself didn’t know and had to learn

why the energy in a battery lighten up a bulb “

” Ha ha ha, yes I’m well aware of that.  That’s why I put that story there “

” When the time of Buddha, the world having less invisible, let alone electronic gadgets.  The life what the

Father saw was the same as what the Kids are seeing and the Nature is the same Nature.

Yes, the Kids today are living in a false environment with full of electronic gadgets, but what actually they

are doing in the LCD screen ? —- Lethal combat ?  Car racing ?  peeping Naked Woman ?  —- What’s new ?

What makes difference, between beating an enemy with stick or shining Star War’s sward ?

Or, racing horses or Super Car ?   Is any mutant beautiful Woman here today ?

The signal running in the body and the brain is the same electric pulse.  2500 years ago and today.

Neurology was utterly unknown 2500 years ago but you know it today though, has it given you any new

sight,and new sensation ? (You still have to deal with exactly the same kind of headache with your wife. 😀 )

—-

On the time of Buddha, human being was seeing the nature in much more direct and naked manner.

All the system were more visible.  Cooking on open fire,  instead of micro-wave. 🙂

Still, with a heat, carrot soften and then disintegrates.  Oil lamp light up the room, same as LED light.

We now having nicely packaged, well covered-up environment though, the basics are still the same,

and what the child learned is more or less the same —– see the brothers sisters grow, see the people

getting old and die.  The seeds germinate and grow to make yet another seeds which needs good

watering and fertilizer and so on.  This is the same Dharma.

———- And more importantly, even today, how many people remember such as  Ohm’s Law, and even if

knowing it, how many of them using it in their life ?

What about a  Super Nova in the sky to do with anybody’s life ?

In 90% of the case, electronics mean,  when to charge the battery,  or to take the battery out to reset the

gadget —- in its best, and other than a buzz-word and a pretense, it is not existing in their life. Merely using it.

There wouldn’t make any difference to know invisible and unknowable.  ( Well, except Virus and  Bacteria )

Kids playing with computer without knowing what the BIOS inside is configuring the hardware set-up, still

knows  when a plant in a pot needs water.—– This is the indicator to have good Dharma in him ( her ).

(The trouble is, even if having it,  still not know how to follow it—– or over riding it with own Ego )

—– Convinced ? ”

Good.   ___/\___

—

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 ! )

—

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 😀

___/\___

—

Virtue of DHARMA — What ?

Deep in the bottom of Dharma, there is the Physics.  And the basis of Physics, there are Atoms

which behaves or having its tendency according to their structure such as the number of

Electrons they got.  And the Atoms are made by the Nuclear particles, which were made by

the Sub-particles —– and those Sub-particles seemed consist even smaller Sub-particles —– and so on.

( According to the theories. —– Yet, nobody knows the truth, or it seems to be the unknowable.   🙂  )

I don’t think I need to listing-up the names of those and pretend to know anything about it.

Just leave the matter to the Nuclear Physicists —– as I’m not.  I’m only an outsider and merely qualified

to ask a question to the superficial phenomena.

Yet this question must be the ghastly fundamental serious one.

” Is DHARMA virtuous ? ”

M m m ———— So far what I found, the answer is Yes.

But if we take a  Humanitarian stance,  it is not necessary benign.

This was the reason why Buddha bluntly defined it in his Four Noble Truth, The life is suffering,

getting ill and get old and die, even though we are covered under the Dharma.

——

Long since a question of where the notion of Virtue in the Buddhism come from, was a conundrum to me.

The general morality is a necessity to keep the society’s unity and the peace, in other words it is the

obvious commonsense though, when it comes to a critical tricky situation, such as who should survive

when they faced to a crisis, blink of mass extinction, demise of the tribe such as a famine etc,

the compassion to others etc —– where those human virtue came from ?

To make it as a human duty to be compassionate, which appeared in the Buddha’s teachings from  its

earliest period, together with Four Noble Truth —– Its suggest, Buddha was fully aware that Dharma

is not necessarily kind to the man, hence need to take our own measure of helping each other.

Otherwise, Buddha would have said  “Ask your God to help you”  like all other religion.

But Buddha did know, No such convenient things in this world.  Buddha’s eyes were seeing

much larger picture ( Not having the man in the center, but the Harmony of the Universe in total)

—–

To see the nature and its evolutionary history, I can see the Dharma’s incredible kindness towards

the extremely rare existence —– the LIFE.

What sort of coincidence combined the some Atoms and created basic structural element like

amino-acid, and then simple virus / bacteria kind of Life form.

Far beyond the mathematical probability, while against the Principle of Entropy, yet congregated selected

Atoms and Molecules and to create Life, could not occurred in accident. ( —– If it was an easy occurrence

in chemistry, with today’s technology, artificial Lives could have been created already. )

Any moment in the history, in any global event, this process could have been halted and the Life could be

extinct long ago. —– But amazingly this history on the Earth continued till now —- billion of years,

as if there was a will to make it continue.

—

To make it continue, it is necessary the system of the existences has to be balanced,

ie; sustainable in today’s buzz word —– in other words intricate equilibrium has to be met.

This is What Dharma mean, and Buddha meant —– as only a part of the Dharma, man’s life

couldn’t be alone and trouble–free —– In fact, the man’s greed and the arrogance to expect and

imagine  ” It should be trouble–free”  is the cause of trouble in its own.

The balance is for the total system, not for the man’s convenience, since human is only a minute part of it.

Among the all the existences ( Dharma ), only but  the human, is having their own mind and the mean

to go against the Dharma’s Rule.

And this arrogant mind, greed is expecting more than the fair share of  which  Dharma allocated to man.

That is why the Buddha’s teachings says, to be humble and abandon the Ego / Self, in order to

achieve manifestation of the Dharma within —– Abandon the Self = Mushin ( Mind of No-Mind )

which mean let the Subconscious ( the reflection of the Dharma —> Please Refer to previous post )

to rule your life.

Like a compassion is in one’s Emotion / Subconscious (reflection of the Dharma ) inherently Virtuous. So, the

Virtue in the Buddhism teachings is not from the God or convention of the society,  but it is the Dharma itself. 

Hence, the teachings of Buddha is ” Not against, or struggle with Dharma, but live with it,

live in accordance to the Dharma.  It’s mean, observe it by yourself, and aware and listen the

Dharma deep inside of you.   And to live with the Dharma in Mushin, prevails the Virtue in you.

This is the Enlightenment, which lead you to the Nirvana”

—

When man-kind violated the Rules and destroy the balance of the Earth’s Climate Equilibrium,

the sea stream changed its course, and caused the heavy rain here and there.

Simply, the Dharma is adjusting new Equilibrium —– and, it happened to be in the Australia or Brazil.

It looks as if the Earth is intentionally giving a revenge. —– No it is not, it just happen to be there, where

no human used to live —– human is the one invaded the land.

Don’t exercise your Ego and Greed, and impose your own Idea. 

Virtue is not in one’s mind, but in the DHARMA.

Here a Paradox again, you can’t deliberately exercise Virtue, it’s appears in your Mushin.

___/\___

—

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.

___/\___

—

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 )

___/\___

—