Does Meditation helps ?

There was an interesting report which studied the benefit of Meditation.

After a medical report about the effect of Meditation was published in JAMA

Internal Medicine, numerous articles which quotes this report has been

published. = This is the one of them (Wall Street Journal)

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304887104579304691799314468

Meditation Has Limited Benefits,

Study Finds

Mindfulness meditation can ease stress but

won’t curb problems like being overweight

Certain types of meditation may provide some modest relief from anxiety,

depression and pain, a new study found.

But the study found little evidence for other reported benefits of meditation,

including help in curbing substance abuse, poor eating habits,

sleep disorders and weight problems.

The report, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine,

reviewed the findings from 47 previous studies, all randomized clinical

trials, with 3,515 adult participants in total.

Many people use meditation to ease stress and promote general health.

The purpose of the report was to examine the accumulated evidence to help

doctors determine how best to counsel patients on the possible benefits and

limitations of meditation, said Madhav Goyal, assistant professor of

general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore

and the report’s lead researcher.

In each of the underlying studies, participants received professional

instruction in one of two types of meditation: mantra meditation or

mindfulness meditation. A popular form of mantra meditation is

transcendental meditation, which involves repetition of a phrase

“in such a way that it transcends one to an effortless state where focused

attention is absent,” the study said.

By contrast, mindfulness meditation emphasizes training in “present-focused

awareness,” or mindfulness. The study noted that the distinctions between

the meditation types aren’t always clear.

Researchers found that only mindfulness meditation produced some benefits.

For example, the improvement in patients with mild symptoms of depression

was similar in magnitude to what might be expected from the use of

an antidepressant, the study said.     It also noted that there were few

mantra-meditation studies to include in the JAMA review, which could help

account for the lack of evidence of benefits from this type of meditation.

The study didn’t find any evidence meditation was harmful.

Researchers culled through nearly 19,000 previous studies on meditation to

select the most scientific. Dr. Goyal said his team used rigorous inclusion

criteria. Each of the 47 included studies was a controlled trial in which

at least one group received either a therapy with known psychological

benefits, such as exercise, or a placebo instructional or educational session,

he said. Studies that looked only at children or adolescents, or those without

a control group, were excluded.

“Although uncontrolled studies have usually found a benefit of meditation,

very few controlled studies have found a similar benefit for the effects of

meditation programs on health-related behaviors affected by stress,”

the JAMA report said.

The report’s findings show that meditation is perhaps less effective in

alleviating stress-related symptoms than is widely believed, said

Allan H. Goroll, professor of medicine at

Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts General Hospital, in invited

commentary also published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“The studies overall failed to show much benefit from meditation with

regard to relief of suffering or improvement in overall health, with the

important exception that mindfulness meditation provided a small but

possibly meaningful degree of relief from psychological distress,” he wrote.

Still, Dr. Goroll noted that participants only received 30 to 40 hours of

training in meditation, which could indicate that “meditation is a skill that

takes time to master.” He also said more evidence is needed to draw

more robust conclusions about any benefits to meditation.

“People come to a meditation class because they’re suffering in some way,”

said Jon Aaron, an instructor at New York Insight Meditation Center, which

promotes mindfulness meditation. Through meditation, they learn to relate

to their stress in a way that is more productive, he said.

Lindsay Gellman

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Something took my attention was that the way the other articles were

created while quoting the original JAMA report.

= Despite the original JAMA report gave only limited “prose” to “Mindfulness

Meditation” and found no positive effect in “Mantra Meditation” a lots of

subsequent article has been using this report as if it was the positive proof of

the effect in Meditation. <= this was a fraud !

See the real situation by Googling this = type [ JAMA report, meditation ]

—– This fact highlighting a situation = simply, people doesn’t actuary read

the line in detail but easily deflected by a misleading head-line = and this

tendency was exploited by those organisation who is making money

selling the Meditation practice.

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In reality, it is same as any religion, Meditation may work, may not work.

= It depends on the person’s Karma. (Everybody got own different Karma.)

And even worse, the effect of Meditation depends much more on a person’s

mentality. —– A person who got addiction, dependency, depression kind of

mental problem, it needs long term treatment = not few months medical trial.

Naturally, if anybody who is possessing a strong will and able to keep a strict

regime, the person wouldn’t get a trouble in the first place.

It’s mean, in case of opposite tendency, neither Meditation which is not a

Magic Bullet works.

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So, here is a funny but fundamental question. = Buddhism / Zen is

stands on the Selflessness, not a strong will or mind, because mind itself

shouldn’t be existing there. — But, “Strong will” wasn’t it a part of the Self ? 

Well, this is the most fundamental question = I’ll write about in another post.

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Mistranslation of “MINDFULNESS”

When a person is walking —– in most of the case, the person is

not aware that HE (SHE) has been walking.

—– it is the same situation as you didn’t aware that your eyes has

been busy reading this blog on this very moment.

So, it is crystal clear, unless you become aware and intentionally think 

that you are reading this, your brain is just busy processing the meaning 

what was written, but paying little attention to the fact that who the

person reading this. = It’s mean, the awareness of you, yourself and what

and how you are existing here, doesn’t exists unless you are intentionally

think about it = because, “The existence of the SELF” is only in our mind

= SELF is a product of the one’s thinking. —– Also, it is obvious, once you

started to think about “That I am reading this etc etc” the efficiency of

reading drop drastically.   That’s why “This kind of thinking etc etc” were

called “Zatsunen”(雑念) = useless thinking or destruction. 🙂

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Lord Buddha thought exactly the same and came to the conclusion, that we

were designed to live without those conscious = useless thinkings and the

imaginary SELF.    We can be far better-off living and doing without those

“Zatsunen” because, without the destruction we were naturally controlled

by the Dharma.   Live and Do without useless thinking, is Mushin and being

with Dharma is Ichijo. = Then, what is this Dharma here, the Dharma who

controls us.  How this Dharma did know that the person IS walking or reading.

And how and what this Dharma remember how to walk or read, not mention

better way of doing them than our conscious controls.

—– (To cut the story short, I give you the answer here = they are the

subconscious control program, programmed and memorized into our brain

—– some has been even genetically programmed !)

—– This Dharma is the very Mindfulness and to let it control our action or

ourselves also called Mindfulness.

(In fact in my view, the choice of this word “Mindfulness” against the

Pali word “Sati” was the mistake

= it should have been “Retained Dharma” or simply just “Truth”.

—– It seems, all the misunderstanding of the Zen in the west has been

caused by this mistranslation ! = as it had given an impression that it was

the matter of the Mind-set —– but the essence is, NOT having it. 🙂 )

[]

—– Now, the reader who experienced so-called Zen training might have

realized a funny things  “where on earth so-called “Mindfulness Training”

such as that counting and concentrating to the breath etc etc, came from”.

—– I mean even in the ancient time when Theravada Canon was written.

—– In fact, this was the very very evidence of that the teachings of

Lord Buddha had misinterpreted from the beginning !

The Sati in the Meditation is, to let the Dharma made us sit = completely

abandon our SELF and get Mushin and just sit, is what the state of

Mindfulness on the (sitting) Meditation mean.

—– Who got the idea “To Think the breath and Feel the body etc etc”

= intentionally bring a Zatsunen / Useless thinking into the practice. 😀

(—– That was why the other school or sect has invented and since been

using other practice which couldn’t allow any useless thinking while doing it,

such as Shaolin martial-art or carrying a bowlful of water etc.)

—– Buddhism and the Zen is a strange mysterious teachings = not because

it got mysterious teachings but it got strange out of context mix-up and

wrong interpretations. 😀

The trouble is, still many people believing it, like wearing a

“Fashionable” T-shirts which got exotic Chinese character

printed upside-down. (It is in fact, nothing but, the insult to

Lord Buddha.)

___/\___

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Fruits Fly

It seems different people call different Fruits Fly though, I’m talking

about very small common Fruits Fly in England.    While Googling, I

found that the others are having the same problem of Fruits Fly.

——( Dead Fruits Flies I found, and they were photographed by Nikkor 24mm F2 lens,

Reverse-mounted with extension-ring on Canon 5D Mk-III — as a X5 Macro-close-up) 

—– they suddenly appear in mass and start to pest the place.

Of cause, I wouldn’t believe that they naturally generated —– there

must be somewhere something nursing them.    But what was that ?

I certainly don’t have rotten fruits or cow-dung dropped in my room.

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When I was in my junior school, there was a kind of out of course

biology project = To receive a bottle of fruits fly and keep them in

a warm condition.   Then next week, 10 of the pupil brought back

each bottle and counted the number of hatched fly — how many of

them had black eyes etc.  Actuary, we were assisting the researcher’s

study (without understanding what for we are doing.  :-D)

Anyhow, still we learned how to nurse Fruits Fly with a gluey

yeast-starch mix and to see them hatch less than 10 days.

= It’s mean, when one female came into the room and laid the eggs,

a week to 10 days later, suddenly the room would have 100 of them

flying around.

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While observing where they are frocking, I realized that the fruits

skin peel etc anything sweet and wet in the bin is attracting them.

On top of those, I discovered that quite number of them penetrated

the polythene bag of Raisin loaf through small gap = they must have

laid hundreds of the eggs on the raisin. = If I didn’t notice, I could

have eaten plenty protein as well.   (That was how the Essential

Amino-acid was delivered to the “Strict Vegetarian” 🙂 )

—– then battle commence.   Since then, any wet or not completely

dry rubbish, mostly fruits peel kind were lapped-up in polythene bag

and goes to the bin and any soft food goes either fridge or plastic

container with lid.   I needed to make my room as dessicated and futile

as a desert, making them to convince “It’s better to go somewhere else”.  

( I did composting before though, I have no garden of compost to go,

and it’s bin itself became a center of unpleasant insects, fly etc

= So, I gave up the idea.)

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So that, in reality, to have an ecological, naturally harmonious life =

“Happily Live Together with other small Lives” is = sound sweet but

not practical or ideal at all.    In fact nothing but a pretentious fraud.

We shouldn’t forget  “To keep hygienic, clean life” is no other than

the practice to persecute against the pests and the germs.

The Bottle-fly or Cockroach are just having their own life that all.

Even AIDS virus is surely the other life-form. They only happen to

cross over the boundary to the human life and created the conflict.

—– People expecting a beautiful Butterfly just fly over their flowers,

still never anticipates their larvae could infest their plant in their

garden. —– if they saw it, certainly 99% of them will kill it.

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It easy to make-up a softy face and preach love and compassion kind

—– Oh !   Really ?

= Better not to be a filthy hypocrite. I rather stay to be a honest tyrant,

killing millions of grains and beans every year, on top of billions of

other invisible small creatures and the germs for my comfort and the

survival. —– To know the real extent, how we are relying on the sacrifice

of other life-form = Exact reality of the Karma, not a convenient pretty

story to justify and glorify ourselves, is the duty to be a real Buddhist.  

Scripture spent so many pages to explain about the Oneness  (Ichijo —

such as that “Giving, even without having a conscious of giving” ==>

having pretentious mind is too remote from the Buddhism.)

We need to see and think it in person.

___/\___

PS:  Since when my flat was made a desert, they just disappeared

and I only managed to find two dead bodies —– Where had they gone ? 

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On the River Thames

Photo session in Greenwich naturally came down to the river side.

I saw swans on the Thames before, but this time there were quite few

Cormorants = may be Thames got enough number of fish now.  🙂

The Seagull I saw this time were rather small kind and doesn’t show much

dramatic flight ! —– (By the way, the photos in this post were all taken by

Tamron SP 500 mm F8 / Canon 5D Mk-III  and on the AV mode)

Of cause the Greenwich is a place on the Thames River. (southern side of it,

in more accurate term) and used to be the centre of the Global  Navigation Technology.  

In order to make a sea journey accurate and safe, Sea Chart / World Map has to have

exact positioning to the giography, hence the angular grid to define the Global position

was invented and made the imaginaly line running North to South, and a line running

on the Royal Observatory in Greenwich was made as the original point = 0 degree !  

Since the Sun goes round, “If you found the Sun in Exact south at 1:00 Pm Exact, you are

on the Longitude of 15 degree west”.   And on the Equinox Day, the hight of the Sun on

the 12:00 Noon Exact, tells you where you are on the Latitude. (If the Sun was 90 degree

on top of your head mean, you are on the 0 degree (Equator) or If the Sun was just on

the horizon (0 degree) , you are on the North or South Pole ! = How lucky you are 🙂 )

—– It’s mean, to have an exact measurement was crucial = not only an instrument to

measure the angle but also a watch, which can tell exact time.  (Hence, Briton and other

Nautical Giant (= other colonialist) Dutch were competing to invent accurate clock. )

Anyhow, it was a time when British Empire was ruling all the 7 seas.  

Not much activities these days but the remains became good show-piece for tourism.

Basically, Photography is the response to the MOMENT, 

but to capture a flying bird is a bit physically demanding task.  

Ha~ he~, —– once I was a young man.   Ha ha ha  😀

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Cat’s Story / Haori-chan

When the time to give a birth came, the pregnant Mother-cat come and rub her head and body

against my leg.   That is their expression of “I beg you” —– I spread a bath towel on the sofa

and lightly give a massage to her tummy.   Then she start to push out the kitten next by next.

So, I take each kitten to her face for her to lick the new-born.

But some time (1 in 5~6), a still-born kitten came out.   Once, there was a very hard deliver of

over-grown kitten.   Only the head came out, I knew the trouble, and I pulled it hard.

When the whole body came out, the Mother-cat screamed.

That kitten was pretty big —- may be over 400g but I couldn’t save him.

Among the 3^rd litter, Haori (of cause, named later) was the most miserable kitten.

In fact, she was yet another (almost) still born.   I just took minuscule odds and revived her.

= As in the most of the case, kitten seemed to have drowned by the amniotic fluid, I shook

the body, head down to drain the water, and insert a small paper stick made out of toilet

tissue to the nose of kitten, for sucking out the water further.    And massage the body in

a warm water while blowing the air into the nose several times. —– in minute or two, three,

the kitten started to move. = Voila’ one life was saved.

(— Sound, and looks may awful treatment though, I’m not intended to play “Tender Buddhist

posture”, —– if the matter was to drain the water, I needed to use centrifugal force, hence

shake the kitten’s body in Karate speed —– To drain the water from a drowned human by

putting the hand into the throat, it neither be a nice picture, nor revive a person in hypothermia

in the mountain, it is more of the battle field operation than a “hart warming tender story” =

What-so-ever, my practice was very effective and altogether 4 out of 6 kittens has been saved =

this is the fact.  

Life is not for talking an imaginary sweet story, but just go through hard act.     Just Do.

Revived though, Haori was still the smallest and weakest, hence couldn’t compete with other

5 kittens on the milk-sucking battle.    I’ve tried as many times as possible, by taking other

stronger kittens off from tits and gave it to Haori, still, it was not enough, and needed to give

her supplement but, ordinary cow’s milk caused her diarrhoea and needed to buy special

“Kitten formulated Milk”.

On top of those trouble her eyes had infection and having eye-glue stacked on her eye lids.

When Mother-cat try to clean her eyes, she chew-off the dried eye-glue, but in the same time

her whiskers had been chewed-off as well.

(Poor Haori-chan, photo left ! / Photo right, Haori and Pino)

[]

A month past, when all the kittens started to change to the solid food, I trained Haori to eat

Kitten-milk-powder mixed with cream-cheese. Then cheese mixed with cat’s food but Haori

refused to eat cat’s food. —– (One theory said, that the baby (kitten) acquired the taste

(= what to eat) through the minute chemical in the Mother’s milk —– like Haori, who couldn’t

have enough milk from the Mother, hadn’t developed the taste for cat’s food.)  Therefore,  I

had to feed her frozen Coley Fish (lightly boiled) mixed with cheese. —– sound very special

treatment though, nothing special to Haori herself.   It was her norm and she just grown-up

to an ordinary cat.  (She didn’t grow Golden Fleece.  🙂 )

She behaved more or less the same to other cat but not so interactive, just sitting and 

watching out of window or me. = only not ordinary was what she was eating.

And because of her expensive diet, she couldn’t be adapted by others.

In addition, another cat, once adapted by other family had came back, because she, Pino was

a too clever trouble-maker.   Such as to jump to a door handle and open it etc. she was the

expert to open and sneak into anywhere, hence made a lots of mischievous.   (= get inside but

couldn’t open it from the inside then shit there, kind of trouble. 🙂 )

(— Though, I could anticipate what she is going to do, hence such as to make the things on the

shelf to fall easily, she instantly learn and never attempt it again.

So, those two, Haori and Pino were the cats lived with me longest, and left many wired stories.

[]   

Zen in Daily-Life (2)

In the previous post I explained how to gain the Selfless-mind-set with an example

of Tea making though, obviously Tea making is hardly a “Task in our daily life”.

It is more like a not too serious leisurely moment when we have a break.

So, how about a handling business matter such as to deal with Bills.

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Zen only deals with the matter on front.   And divides the whole task into small section.

And to deal with each section, one at a time.   (To climb the mountain, not overwhelmed by

its 8,000m hight, just concentrate to make each step perfect ! = On the end, reach to the top.)

Of cause, our brain can trace the implication of the matter even to 3^rd, 5^th effects and able

to speculate further though, the further we go it become a products of Imagination, or

pretty close to a Delusion.   (As a matter of fact, most of the speculation is nothing but a

delusion and the rest of only few, happen to meet the probability. —- Yet I wouldn’t totally

reject the facts, some people could foresee this probability in amazing accuracy.)

—– So, when a bill dropped on front of you, how you handle it ?     This bill is no delusion, and

a fact how much money you got, wouldn’t have so much grey area.   (Of cause, if you are

running a business, the money coming in, may have some uncertainty of timing, hence some

speculative juggling may be inevitable.   Still, a situation of unknowable wouldn’t give an

excuse to halt the whole business.   In a situation,“Can’t pay now” still, just keep a silence, or

send an excuse of delay, would make a big difference.)  

If ignored, it would come back twice harder.

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To live a life, “Don’t care” is one of THE attitude.   The way of Zen is the another attitude, and

I wouldn’t judge right or wrong but just show the resulting difference in efficiency to deal

with the Life.   Throw the bills to a bin and leave the payment until receiving a Red-bill, is

also a life-style.  Though, Zen chose the way, responding it at once. Because, anyhow a due

payment has to be cleared soon or later, not mention additional Late-payment charge etc.  

Unless the amount is in millions and keep it one more day in the deposit account will create

thousands more interest, instead, just clear and see no mess, is the choice of Zennist.

Even just to open an envelope, tear it regardless if it could also tear the document, —– but 

Zennist use scissors. (For THE task to open it, take the neatest way.  NOT the least effort.)  

And to pay attention, whether to keep the envelope together, if the document was

back-dated.  (—– I had an experience to argue in the Court, for the serving date of a

legal document with the stamped date on the envelope as an evidence. !)

Zen approach is to make everything into a clearly sorted file, and make a way to handle

it to a fixed routine, and to deal with them automatic = no hesitation, no stammering =

hence nothing bothersome would be left.   Even if having a headache of juggling, still see

the balance on a clearly filed order would make the Life easier, otherwise see it among

the piled-up bills, notices and other letters etc., will make the life into a confusion.

It’s far easier to deal with it, one by one in the first place.   The more delay only makes

the pile-up higher and such situation makes one’s mental state only depressed more.

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Dealing the things with a rule, and make it routine would change the matter from

“personal” to “one of an item among the lots”, hence it became an object, and

separated from the Emotion.  = Because of it is under the rule = independent from your

whim, and the rule and the routinised process handles the matter = not your mind = this

is the Selfless state.  —– (In fact this is a well known situation, “the customer complained,

don’t handle me as a number but as an individual person”— still, in an aspect of

efficiency, the difference is obvious.)

With a superficial impression, you may not like this though, the Zen originated “Selfless 

work Ethics” has contributed to High-productivity and the quality in the Japanese industry.

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This rule and a fixed routine creates consistency in the repeated task, and makes 

a person’s brain “Selfless state” —– This phenomenon is all common in the Tea-making or

the handling of clerical work, even the car-making — in fact all the human activities.

—– Behind this phenomenon, there is an crucial tendency of the brain. = Our brain has a

threshold of signal intake = if the same input has been repeated, the brain start to ignore

the signal and respond to it as a pattered routine without involving the Emotion.

It’s mean, when the brain handle a matter without involving Emotion,  the feeling of MINE,

or conscious of SELF  would not be generated.  

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All the sensory signal first goes to the Limbic System to have a reference from the memories

and anything related to one’s interest  (gain, loss, danger, comfort) was marked as significant

and the related hormone (if it was a sign of danger, Adrenalin) will be secluded to the

whole body to respond.  But if the signal has no such importance and repeatedly coming,

this process in the Limbic system would be bypassed. (Even though, the same bodily action is

still carried-out but “Emotionlessly”).  

Because of this Limbic System distinguishes and sorting the signal related to the SELF, if the

signal was bypassed,  one’s reaction would be carried-out without the connection to the

SELF, and the related hormone wouldn’t be secluded = No Emotion. — (Emotion doesn’t come

from a Thinking process, but mostly from a Mood created by the Hormone.) 

—– Therefore, when the brain was trained (through repeated practice) to bypass the process 

in the Limbic System, both  Subconscious of the SELF and the Emotion would be suppressed.

 —– And this phenomenon is the basis of

Lord Buddha’s teachings of the Selflessness (Anatman) and the origin of Buddhism.  In deed,

our brain, thoughts, mind is bothered by the interference from the conscious of SELF and the

Emotion, which creates Ego and the Greed and subsequently all sorts of the troubles in the LIFE,

Lord Buddha’s approach to utilize those Brain Function was a brilliant idea.   And without a

bias of Self, Ego, Greed and Detached Emotion, we can see the things much clearer

= We can see The Truth —– This IS, what Zen and Buddhism can achieve. 

___/\___

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Zen in Daily-Life

Don’t mistake this title as “Twisting leg everyday”.

Zen is to do something in a Selfless state of the mind. Twisting and sitting (supposedly while

meditating) is a mere practice to gain this Selfless (Mushin) state. —– Though, we are not

born for sitting but to do something to have active life, otherwise we have had extinct long

ago with starvation. So, even Eating in Selfless (ie; in Mushin, and in complete commitment

ie; Mindfulness) IS the Zen.   = This is the realization of what

Lord Buddha taught us = Anatman / Selflessness.

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To DO Selfless mean, DO IT without connecting the matter to the Emotion. = This is a state

of so-called Detachment. —– Everybody ever attempted to learn Zen, must heard the words

such as Mushin or Detachment, though, very few had been instructed how to learn it.

(Because in most of the case, their instructor had only an experience to have sat somewhere

in a temple, that all. Still, he is thinking that he had learned Zen.

So, teaching the same sitting  (and only sitting)  to others. 🙂

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The trouble of learning Zen by sitting is, even if the person (luckily) able to manage vacating

his mind while sitting, to keep this state of mind (whil doing other than sitting) is almost

impossible.   Because the mind had been accustomed to “Sitting and Do nothing” and make

empty Brain.   Therefore, TO DO anything else, the Brain and the Thinking will come back.

—– Naturally, to learn Zen in the ordinary situation, in a daily life is far better, as the person

can apply the same method and the state of the mind to DO another  “Thing”  as well.

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Such as to make a cup of tea. (In this purpose, DON’T take short-cut = make a tea from loose 

tea-leaf —– (this has the same concept as how “Tea making as a Zen practice” developed.)

The way I make a tea is :

Put a water to a kettle and shake it to wash inside and drain it. Put a water again to the

exactly the same level.   Switch on and wait it boils.   When the water started to boil,

switch-off (don’t wait automatic switch-off).   Pour the hot water (about half cup) into a

teapot where a tea-strainer and a tea-spoon is in.  (To heat-up them all together.)

Then take the spoon and tea-strainer out and make the spoon to dry.   Throw the hot water

from the teapot.   Then, put a spoon-full or two (according to the taste) loose-tea leaf into

the pot (heated spoon takes no condensation of the steam from the warmed tea-pot, hence

no tea lief would stick on it.)   Then pour the hot water to tea-pot.   Wait two minutes then

serve a tea. Put sugar or milk when I want.

(In fact, when I pour a tea to the cup, I add the (still) hot water from the kettle for next cup.

(I’m a chain tea drinker, anyhow.)   (Hot water was not as hot as before though, tea would be

brewed longer in the pot = it prevent the tea become too strong !

— Second cup doesn’t have fresh flavour though.)

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—– The process may seems too much details.   But they are all for a sake of good tea-making,

and to concentrate for this purpose IS the Mindfulness.

By doing the whole process always the same as THE Accustomed Form.

—– If you follow this, soon or later, you will gain the Formalized body movement and

gradually able to refine the details.   And soon or later you must be realized that you are

DOING all the process Just as a routine = without thinking and the process seemed to be

carried-out almost automatic.   It goes almost independent from YOU —– (As you know,

Do the same, again and again, you start to Do it without excitement, interest = No Emotion ! )

= Now the tea is ready for you to enjoy.   And it was made without your thinking (in Mushin)

and Detached from your Emotion, in other words, Without the  Conscious SELF

= You were in Selflessness.

Do anything in a part of daily-life in the same approach = DO only what you ARE doing

= Mindful Concentration to the only subject.   (nothing else in your mind)

And DO what that subject demand, in your best.  = This is the ZEN in the daily-life.

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= As you did the things, as good as you could, it’s mean “You may do better next time though,

what you have Done WAS the best on That moment = no regret.   (Regret can not change the

past, because the past has gone and the matter to DO better would be on the next time.)

= So, you can live the day without useless regret.   (You only can live, on its moment !)

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Key point is,

(1) Take it as if it is a Formalized procedure, hence you only Do it as if an imperative form.

(2) No short-cut and Do the best. (3) Establish your way and stick to it. (Stick to it though,

“Do the best”  has priority = the way to Do should evolve to even better on the process.)

(In fact, Mushin or Selflessness is mere By-product of this process = Forget them and just Do

what you got to DO = The matter is, you to DO it and only the result count.)

—– So, enjoy your Tea.      (While having the tea, think about, when you live in this manner

down to all the detail of the life, from the way to get-up from the bed – – – – – each frame of

picture to picture, you did your best = in total you had the best satisfying day, and next day too,

so does next year = in total, you have satisfying LIFE.  

As you been doing the best, others will know you are the most reliable consistent best,

because you are the Zennist.      What you wish more on your LIFE.

—– (without able to make satisfying tea, able to have satisfying day, you are far behind

of even start to talk about Zen,  let alone Enlightenment.    

But when you achieved to make a good tea, and had satisfying day, year, life = then,

you don’t need to have any Enlightenment on top of your life, since you already had one.

—– Life has full of funny paradox.  😀

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This was the reason why, when the Zen Masters found their Enlightenment,

all uttered “It’s a dog shit” = after all, all of us walking completely in Selfless Mushin

= nobody need to think how to move the legs.   We were born, able to live Selflessly

= So, it was explained as “We are born possessing the Dharma” which enabling us

to Live without relying on to the Self.    In fact, The Conscious of SELF is obstructing us 

to Live Selflessly.  —– When the Master discovered  this,  after spent years of practice,

he was annoyed to feel ( as the years had been wasted,)  hence    “What a dog shit”  😀

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Lettuce and Spinach — its Origin

One of the most unique Photographer / Artist, Karen showed her stunningly beautiful

photos of Canada Lettuce seed in her blog “Draw and Shoot” it awaken my memory that

I had the photo of this (or the one, closely related) plant — The seed-pod in her photo

looks very much like a Dandelion’s, as you can see.  = In deed, this plant is a cousin of

Dandelion and as its name suggests, it closely related to the Lettuce.  

Or the Lettuce was descended from this kind of Plant, namely

Luctuca of Asteraceae (Compositae) Family.   When I found that this plant was the

ancestor of the Lettuce, I was shocked —– as it was completely out of my imagination.  

( Not only it looks so different but also I’ve never seen it in an open field and flowering.)

A book, I saw said that  “to eliminate its bitter tasted white sap, it took 200 years” though,

Wikipedia says Lettuce has been cultivated since ancient Egyptian time.  So, the English

local farmer might have had their own approach, instead to import the established

variety from Mediterranean.

Something similar stories are in Spinach.

The photo left is a plant belongs to

Spinacia in Amaranthaceae family.

The Spinach was created from this kind

of plant, and this weed is also edible.

(Though, this plant contains Oxalic acid,

thus if eat a lots, it would cause an ulcer 

on the mouth.)

The cultivated variety is not only to eat

leaves but also there was a variety to eat 

thickened stem, called “Poorman’s Asparagus”. And other was called Lincolnshire Spinach. 

—– In deed, we human being is very resourceful — or used to be so poor to scrape the life ?

Still, there is a very funny situation. Despite increased world population, therefore needs

lots more food and in deed great number of the people are starving,  in the same time,

we are said to be wasting 1/3 of food. (couldn’t sell in the super-market, due to a blemish.  

Or made them rotten in a fridge due to too much shopping.) —– Something wrong isn’t it ?

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No Word = Strongest Teaching !

Wikipedia is a very convenient place to see the world, even about Buddhism.

Not necessary because it shows the truth but shows the current situation of Popular Belief.

Funny though, it often says “Citation required” — in Buddhism this is THE most blatant irony.

Understanding in Buddhism came from not because it was written. It always come between

the lines. —– Don’t believe what was written but you have to think yourself.

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In Buddhism, such as the strongest denial or the things which is not exist was not lexically

expressed.   So that, the matter was often over-looked or even mistook by the people who

only follows what was told or read.

Like a famous episode in the Vimalakirti Sutra —– To answer a question of “Oneness” (how

totally mindful to the subject) Vimalakirti utter no word, and its silence hit the audience

like a roaring thunder (so the scripture said).

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—– (If you couldn’t get it) = Think, such as in a situation of Sword Mastery, if a man using

the sword could see the situation, how he moves, how sword moves in the Objective View,

it’s mean his mind is separated and floating in the air and watching the situation in

distance = here, two Selves, one was watching and other was being watched, not mention

the independent Sword = this is far from Oneness.    When the conscious of using Sword

and the Hand(s) and even the existence of the Sword fused altogether and moves as one

unified force,  it is the Sword Mastery and the Master was in Oneness.  

(In Zen term it is Ichijo / 一如 or Fuji / 不二 )

—– If you are good in typing, you must know, when you were absorbed into its task =

not only the position of each key, but the keyboard, screen, even the draft paper has gone

out of your conscious but only a stream of each letters = your finger moves automatically,

completely out of your conscious.   And even your Brain was not in there, if the draft had

miss-spieling you just miss-type as it is = This is the Oneness = two Selves, Observer and

be Observed, in fact, THE SELF itself has been totally disappeared into the “TYPING”.

Therefore, no observer or conscious to describe it, nor description of Oneness on typing

could exist. —– (I can describe it because I myself is one-finger typist, still seeing other

expert, I can guess how it’s works from the aspect of Zen. —– still, I may be wrong. 😀 )

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—– So, there couldn’t be a description of Oneness.

= No word even from a wise-man Vimalakirti.    And, in the scripture, there was no

explanation such as what I wrote above ever existed, because able to write about 

expose a failure, that the one was not in “Selfless Oneness” = make a fool oneself.

This was also the reason when

Lord Buddha went out for a walk in a rainy night, he didn’t explain why, even to Ananda.

Because it was about the Selflessness = since the Self / its conscious was not there to

observe, there couldn’t be a word to describe it. = So that, there was no explanation.

(In fact, to teach Selflessness must be the hardest part, even though it IS the gist of Buddhism.

It can be taught only through a practice  (without type-writer !)  I wonder how many of the

followers could have managed to get it ? —– Still, as the tradition has been continued to

the Zen, it’s mean some had certainly mastered it and handed down the teaching !

—– but not by a word or scripture.)

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In Buddhism, a lots has not been written.   As, it meant to be a strongest denial.   Such as

Lord Buddha didn’t answer the question related to the “after life”.  Hence no explanation 

= it’s mean there couldn’t be any written record, hence no citation could be possible.

No citation indicates, no such things in the Doctrine of Buddhism.   And no word by

Lord Buddha ever existed since such matter has no worth to spear even a single word.

(Unfortunately, this situation had been exploited, knowingly or with sheer ignorance,

so many stories of “reincarnation, etc” had been fabricated.)

—– Yet western rhetoric wants to have a denial also has to be expressed,

and No-existence (it’s hard to explain what the Voidness is), has to be proved even

in the Wikipedia. —– It must be a headache to the author.

They can’t create a blank page in Wikipedia and put a comment  “This is Zen”.

(I wonder why not.   A blank page could convey as much as message written

in the same space.)     Ha ha ha.   😀

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Focus-shifting Muliti-exposure Photo

Don’t worry, You don’t need to clean your specs.

 It’s not your eyes. —– Photo IS fuzzy and it’s meant to be.  😉

——————- (Hey, this is a very very pretty girly picture ! = Click it and see enlarged. 😉 )

These photos were taken by a technique,  Multi-Exposure with Focus-Shift.

—– In order to have an effect = a core image with out-of-focus halo around, I did

it before while camera was set on a tripod.     But this time I did it by hand-held.

I guess, it could be done by Hacking into camera’s operational program and

over-drive the AF motor while the camera is giving the multiple exposure. 

(Single exposure is too short to manually shift the focus. —– In the old days of

wooden camera, the old masters used the same technique to shift a focus while

giving a long exposure.  And the Minolta Alpha 7000 had this effect in their

Portrait Mode to create softer image. ) —– But, I found it was not

difficult to move the focus ring during the few multiple exposure. = Just Do it,

and if not successful try it again —– success rate is somewhat one in four.  😀

(not only how far focus to be shifted, but a trouble of camera-shake is also

a spoiling factor.  = If you are a bad shooter, shoot a lot — one might hit a target !)

————- (This must be a puzzling photo = where it was focused ?  😉 )

Keen reader of this blog might be realized that the post in these days were all connected

behind the scene = how camera can be steadily hand-held etc.  (without having enough

practice and gained a confidence, this kind of photography would be only a waste of time.  

Creativity does not occur out of blue,  it needs to have a base, or incubating ground.  

A practical adjustment  or improvisation may suddenly conceived on the spot but

it is a minute part of the operation.

 

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