Return of Chilean Miner

The return of Chilean Miner is one of the most extraordinary story in resent human history.

It was an exceptional raw human endurance, and the typical technological solution of today.

( I have no idea, how to drill a hole into solid granite and hit the target 2,000 feet away.  What sort of

guiding / detecting system, technology there.  When Doctor insert a probe through blood vessel, he can

see it by X-ray image, even in 3D.  Though, can Radar does the same function towards under ground ? )

That is why the Chileans are so proud of its achievement. ” We can do this “.

In Buddhist’s view it was also the proof of that the Buddha’s insight was bang right.

——- You might say, no, they are the devoted Catholic that’s why God saved them.

I’m talking  not about their God,  but the Universal Dharma / fundamental nature of Human Psyche.

Even though,  their motivation to go down the notorious hell mine is derived by the better money

than the other safer mine,  in other words greed and the ego,  yet still,  if they couldn’t overcome

much more fundamental ego / survival instinct / fear of the death = negation of the self,  they

couldn’t go down to the hell in the first place.

Without this State of Non-self /  Anatman, they couldn’t keep the discipline / diligently follow their

leader / foreman and managed to keep peace in the utterly desperate condition.

If they were just greedy egoist,  there could be easily the fight over the food ( can you imagine, just

one spoonful of tuna fish per day,  under the utterly uncertainty of the fate, for 17 days ).

If , Survival of Fittest was the rule, some of them, much stronger than the leader, could have broken off

and took all the food only for them —— but no such fight occurred.

They had accepted the fate,  there could be the possibility of all of them may die, one by one,  still

without fallen into the madness facing the coming death,  play together and kept Hope

—– waited, and waited, —— 17 days ! ! !

This is nothing but the typical sample of the  Buddhism Paradox / The one

who survived was the one who accepted the death. Non-self is really the key of the survival.

And the Non-self was the foundation of the charity / kindness / compassion —— so, they helped

weakest, and  ALL 33 survived together and came out the hell.

It was not the Dharma helped them.

They followed and kept the rules of the Dharma / they are the Dharma.

( You may say,  why non-Buddhist could know and follow the Dharma —– Dharma is the universal Rule

therefore it rules every body, and all the human being has it in them, whether a person aware of it or not )

Congratulation.

___/\___

—

PS :

Following the previous Post, there was some exchange of opinion in Emails.

And this is the extract  in which,  I found,  it is highlighting the point of

” How to make a perfect music piece which will hit the guts of others “

————-

Though, important point is, —- What  are the guts.

Everybody got more or less the same guts, having it

tens of thousands of years.

Its mean, what will hit it, has been tried and sorted out

spending thousands of years of time, by millions of people.

That is how most of the culture in the world came to

have pentatonic —– same conclusion.

The reason is, it was written in the Dharma. ( Ref; Harmony

in Dharma )

And the guts is ruled by the Dharma, not by one’s brain.

Deviate from the Dharma, yet make perfect one is hard,

if not impossible. ——–

—–

Equidistant Tonal system was perfected in the time of  J.S. Bach, though it has been only utilized for

the convenience of key-tone change.   And its use became universal, despite of the existence of some

discord (which has been simply avoided to occur as Taboo, by the composer.)

So that,  Arnold  Schoenberg is the first one to fully explore the musical possibility of its system.

But, big but, do you or anybody on the street, ever listen, let alone remember his music ?

Some (very rare person, may be a student / ex-student in classic music) may say

“How about his organ music [ The Ascension ] it is spiritually very striking isn’t it ?”.

I can agree, its sound very spiritual though,  as I wrote in ” Blank Space ” it is because of slow-moving,

continuous high tone, which is vague and undefinable,  hence our brain abandon to define its

meanings,  then start to feel  ” Something Unknown there”.

This very feeling, “abandon to impose own thinking, and leave the Mind open” is happen to be

the same to Buddhist’s Mushin —— we describe it  Spiritual.——- All of us share more or less

the same perception and the same guts.  Simple  😀

—– So, departing  from the tradition, and explore complete freedom in sound making,  is a good attempt,

though,  better not forget, we and yourself are still within the Dharma’s  rule.

Other’s guts is under this Dharma too, so that better chose the direction accordingly.

( The Expression —– which is also common with others, mean Communicable, has to be

emanated from own guts” Blank Space ” too —— not from the thinking or technical possibility )

Please read the Post ” Freedom in Restriction “. (Under a category [Music] )

___/\___

—

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  🙂

___/\___

___

Four-Leaf Clover

I know, everybody have a memory, once (or many times) looked for the four-leaf clover when we

saw the patch of ground covered by the clover.  Of cause I have, and in deed I found few of them in my life.

Yet, I don’t think it brought me any better luck —— and I’m not talking about the good luck here.

( Still, this post deserve to have a title of  Four-leave Clover —– you will find it  🙂  )

——

When you were looking for the clover, do you remember what you were thinking ?   Kind of play to the God ?

“Oh my Load, please give me a Four-Leaf Clover” —— I don’t think so.  😀

(May be you were thinking of your girl friend or boy friend —- to present the precious findings. How sweet ! )

When you are scanning the field with your eyes, I don’t think any thought was in the brain.

Eyes were just scanning and just concentrating for the task.  In fact any thought would be a distraction.

And, do you believe the concentrated effort, will power would help to find it ?   I don’t think so neither  😀

And if you lucky to find one, was it in the center of your eyes ?  —— it doesn’t necessary so.

Quite often we find the intended object somewhere periphery of our vision.

We read the small letters in the center of our eyes, other than the center, we can’t read and understand

what was written there.  So that,  when we need to find a file name in the list, we have to concentrate

and pick the pattern of the word in the file name.  It need to have a will to read.

In comparison  we can detect the pattern which we know already in the periphery of eye field.

But this vision were controlled by our subconscious,  not by our conscious  will.  When  noticed

it’s there,  we move eye-ball and capture it in the center of vision,  then confirm it,  Gotcha !

___

When I was in my Uni’ I was asked to join the research expedition to the remote corner of Japan or pacific

islands, to help the botanist.  ( As I was a member of Alpine Club, specialized in yet traced area or jungle

kind of terrain and doing botanical photography as well —– despite of I was a student of Sociology.  🙂  )

Strangely, in those occasions,  many times I was the first or only one to find out the specific plant, while

going through the field or jungle.  I have enough knowledge of botany but, professors knows a similar type

and so on far better,  and the information I had,  was only a line drawing of the plant from the botanical book,

encyclopedia etc otherwise 70-year-old dry specimen, of which the plant haven’t been seen 50 years,

kind of rare species.   Everybody was amazed  ” How you could see this.  You must got very good eyes ”

( Though, I’m heavily short eye-sighted )  “No no, I just noticed, it looked different ”  ” In 10m away ? ”

Of cause, the plant didn’t come on front of us.  I had to catch it in my peripheral view.

——- In deed,  our eyes or cognitive function of our brain is possessing remarkable ability.

Just learned  from 2″ size line drawing to distinguish real plant ( which is not necessary having flower to

stand out )  might be akin to a Policeman to apprehend a suspect, from a vague photo-fit.

It must have a very intuitive creative work to fill a gap.

—-

But before work out to reconstruct the image,  we need to catch it in the first place.

So,  how our eyes can catch the Four Leaf Clover in distance,  even by the peripheral vision.

In fact, the answer lies in this peripheral vision, and its subconscious process.

It’s all came down to the same paradox ” When you want to see, you can’t.  When you abandon  to

search, you start to see”.  And here, the same Blanc Space in the Mind is playing the role. (Refer the Post)

If you don’t know about the Zen, you might think this is contradictive though,  this is how our brain works.

Expose the perception in open-minded way,  which Zenist call  Mushin (Mind of no mind),  the brain can

receive far more information / visual signal,  and able to process them far more efficient way.

( Many years ago,  I met a man who is working as a railway station staff told me “How to find a railway pass

cheat” saying ” Standing and checking the passes one by one by reading the date on the pass is impossible.

So, we just standing watching the incoming passengers.  Then anyone caught eyes,  we look at his / her

pass and read the date.  We are reading the behavior and the mind of the passengers.  Standing and just

seeing the flow of the people, still we can distinguish who is cheating, far more accurate” —– Well said  :-))

——- This is why I wrote in the earliest post,  ” Just walking the street. Just looking forward without focusing

any point or taking any notice of street scene,  open and spread your vision from the side to side.

This is the Zen ” ( in easiest way —- called Walking  Zen   😀 —– The advantage in Walking Zen is, you

can observe your state of mind from your Peripheral Vision  (able to notice, both end of images are keep

moving while you walk) —– though, tricky part is, you only have to feel them without the conscious mind.

Still it is easier than to observe the state of mind of  Sitting / Meditating without Thinking —–

Thinking the state of Not Thinking is pretty hard to achieve —— Make your subconscious to observe

your conscious mind which supposed  to be not thinking = This is the nut-shell of  Zen training —- Training

because the aim is to achieve Let the subconscious to think and deal with the life —– Because of the

subconscious is thinking but you do not notice it = Hence you are not consciously Thinking.

—– Most important point to remember is, All the thinking process was actually done

subconsciously, then, conscious consideration such as tactical maneuver, social pretence  etc

intervene and mess-up the decision-making and push the life into unnecessary trouble.

Buddha’s suggestion was simple, Be straight and simple, don’t make a life complicated by

being messed up by unnecessary thought.  This is what the Buddhism all about.)

So, why not try your Zenist eyes by looking for the four-leaved Clover.  (Provided, if it’s there at all.  😀

Zen can not create something out of nothing.  Zen can only help you to see it )   Good luck !

___/\___

—-

State of Zen = Dharma

Through  email,  Jaganathan  asked me pretty significant question.

” It would be helpful to know, by doing what a person in  Zen can fall back into  NOT being in  Zen  ”

In fact there was a popular misconception behind of this.

Zen or ultimate state of the mind in the Buddhism is not a newly acquired fancy addition of

the Mind.  Far from it, it is just the default state (if I may use a computer term)  of the mind.

( Hence, it is the a crucial marker to distinguish out a sham  Zen instructor —– if he says ” You will get

something new” it is the indication of that he doesn’t know the Buddhism )

This is Why everybody has it and born with it.

This is Why all the Zen masters in the past, when he realized it, described  ” It’s a dog sit ”

And this is Why a small children often shows it,  even a small animal, the Nature itself  shows it.

And this is Why, the Buddhism asking and asking ” Get lid of your thought (which is the products

of the complicated brain activities)” —— so, it was described as, be in the Mushin / Selfless.

Of cause,  Buddha was fully aware of this.  That is why he showed it by doing, not by the words.

And this was Why the followers had to follow him and mimic (and repeat as the practice) what

Buddha was doing.  (so the tradition was created )

——- being in the Default state, even the perception of  ” I’m seeing or listening etc ” are not

there ( hence, later description of the sense itself are not existing  were appeared in the Mantras )

( You have to remember that the all the Mantras were written more than 200 years afterward  by

the memories and the guess-work —— since, often with misunderstandings)

All the conversion to the categorized notions or ideas are done by the additional Thinking process.

Still, without all those conversions,  our eyes are seeing. And to see it, as what we have seen in the

first moment, without conversion or additional process is  what we call as the Clear view or Clear eyes.

And without the complicated brain process, which mean without any masking of the thoughts,  we can

see the Dharma —– or one might say even without seeing the Dharma, but Just be with Dharma.

So, be with it —— its mean forget what you have just read here — blah blah blah, Just Do It.

—-

Therefore (back to Jaganathan’s question) as the  Default is the basis, one can not remove it,  though it

would be easily masked by any setting of  thought,  pretension,  borrowed buzz-word,  fashionable

popular idea,  useless Ego,  Greed  etc etc,  but with the price of the Karma.

That is why,  stay humble,  without any masking  or dress-up  would be better,  as it will lose nothing

——- so, peace in simple life is what the Buddhist’s choice.  ( Though, paying some price to the Karma

and have small pleasure may not to be too bad. —— If it was not forgiven,  we human being had been

eliminated long ago.)   Still, choice is yours.  Don’t blame me if its happened.   Ha ha ha   😀

___/\___

—

Worship ?

If anyone think the Buddhism is one of the religion, soon you will be realized

“If it is the religion, where is the God and what to worship ? ” —— Then you might be

realized, something peculiar or even something wrong.

—

Since, on his death-bed,  Buddha ordered to his followers ” Don’t idolize or worship me”

In the Buddhist’s Mantras,  there is even a single line of script which described that

Buddha himself bowed to anything, exist.

Buddha respects the Dharma and its rules, though  rule is just the rule.

Rule is not the God or an object of worship. ——– Gravity is one of the physical phenomena.

Its rule is absolute.  No one can escape —- though, no one think gravity is  God  nor anybody worship it.

Dharma rules the universe though as it is not like a  personified western  God,

Dharma is not answerable, even communicable to the human,  it is not an object to worship.

Hence,  Buddha didn’t need to worship the Dharma  but he just followed and lived with it.

Because of this, the Buddhism has been often  regarded to be NOT a religion,

and often mistook as an atheist.

( Lots of you may think,  if this is the case, what about the many Devine figures in the temple and

worshiping rituals  the monks are performing ? ? ?

——- It is just because of a mix-up with Hinduism.    It is not the Buddhism )

In the same kind of misunderstanding, lots of people think the Buddhist practice is a part of rituals.

No, they are a training exercise to gain a state of the mind ” Mushin “.

( DO the things without Thinking —– leave it to the control of subconsciousness / Dharma )

Darma has unknowable mystical power ——- though, it is not because of Buddhism.

Since,  Dharma and the Karma are ruling anybody, regardless one’s religion.

Believe or not, everybody you too, are under the Dharma —— hence, it’s better to aware it.

To become aware it ——- you are wiser.        Which we call ” Enlightened “

Buddhism itself has no mysticism or mumbo-jumbo.

Buddha’s teachings or Buddhism is the way to see the Dharma and live with it.

Following and living with it, mean more smooth natural life, hence having the Peace.

___/\___

Peace in a Battle field

There was a funny conversation in Email exchange ——–

” Hey  Yoshizen, could you pay the cost through Paypal please”

” Sorry, I’ve been black listed by the debt recovery company,

so that, I can’t use money transfer.  I only can give you in cash.”

” Oooooh, you are such a trouble maker 🙂 “

(Among the Anarchist group,  Trouble-maker is the honourable title  😀 )

” Oh yah, so far I’ve made the enemies,  whole Judiciary here, Japanese Embassy,

Police, Local Council, British Telecom, Virgin Media, Three G, T-Mobile and

barely having a truce with Talktalk.

So that, the Motto of the Zen is the PEACE,—— how to find a Peace / Calm Mind

while shooting  😀 “

—

——– When we are in the battle field, we need to have unmoved,  focused mind

and the clear eyes —- therefore the Zen is the most effective way to deal with the situation.

Dealing with the photography / how to capture the subjects, or even dancing on the rhythm, it is

the battle facing with the situation while sensing all the signals, then instant judgement and the response.

Because of the gushing torrent of the information is coming in, to put them in the clear space

in order to give detached  bird’s-eye view and make instant intuitive judgement

with appropriate priority, become crucial.

—–

This is the reason why,  the sword-masters,  martial-artists even the throat-cutting  share-dealers

needed to learn the Zen —– they are not chasing Nirvana or Enlightenment (too late any way  🙂 )

but needed to have ultimate efficiency managing their mind,

hence able to maximize their achievement in the life.

Do nothing, just sitting peacefully —— needs no more.

—

Zero = Infinity

Watch this Space.

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This is the Space supposed to accommodates whole Universe end to end.  Therefore if you type here, the

space would be enough to have the whole Buddhist’s mantras scripts trillions of trillion times,  though

WordPress is a small provider in the cyber space and myself is an ever minute blogger,  hence the

appearance of the space is just this small.

Yet,  you can see the infinite spread of the space ——- since this is the expanse of the Dharma.

Did you see it ?   You convinced ? ——– Well done.  Then, watch the inside of the circle —– zero.

— ——————————————————— ——o

Do you still see the same expanse, whole Universe ? ——– Since,  this is the same Dharma.

——-  Now you know that  with Dharma,  you can be whole span of the Universe,  in the same time

you can fit inside of the space zero.

Once you free your mind,  you can be in anywhere,  you can live anywhere in any shape.

With its blank space of the mind ( Mushin ) and the complete open perception,

you can embrace Infinity and the Zero in the same time.

This freedom is the Enlightenment.  There would be no limit or any hindrance in your life..

___/\___

Nature = Dharma

–

—————————————–It’s a summer, have a brake, have a kitcat.

—-Photo by :  Canon 5D Mk-II  ( It’s a good Camera)  /  Nikon Fish-eye 16mm  ( It’s a good lens ) 😀

Talking blah blha, typing tick tick —– is a tiring business.  It’s nice to be in the nature.  Its teaches us more.  🙂

Please click the image to enlarge, and click again even larger.  Nature is not necessary posing us in orderly

esthetically pleasing alignment —– they can be just wild —– yet this is still their equilibrium / harmony.

Try to see them in esthetically orderly frame is our Ego.  Mahayana accept its disorder as it is.

This is the Dharma.   ___/\___—-

Rules in Helping Others

Be kind to others, help someone in need. ——- What a nice words —— as the Words.

Though, when its came to the practice, there are loads of question arise.

If you are a Buddhist, there must be the fundamental understanding to pay a respect to the Dharma.

Therefore has to accept the manifestation of the Karma.

Everybody got their own Karma. ( Not only the Buddhists.   🙂  )

——– So, when something happened or you encountered and see somebody in difficulty and obviously

needs a help.  If it is a very simple matter, it may not very complicated —— just give a hand.

Though, if the matter was very serious and the help may affect the person’s life or fate. ——– M m m  ?

How do we know,  if it does not interfere the person’s Karma ?

To live on their own pathway according to their own Karma is their individual birthright.

In the same time, we shouldn’t be obsessed by the idea of   ” I’m helping others ” —— just help without

having any notion of help.   If you do, you have to do it in Mushin.

Why encounter such situation, there was our own Karma  working as well —— It was not just an accident.

———- So, where a Buddhist draw a  line IN the Middle way ?

For such situation or even for the general rules to deal with others, I’m following a hose Rule.   Give a  help

automatically but  ONLY once. ( Buddha said to have offered three times  though  I’m just a small man  I can

afford only once.  Any how we got only one life and only one chance, never able to try the same again ——

—- have you ever seen or heard the same person born again and did the same attempt and succeeded ?

No such things like reincarnation exists. —– yes, decomposed my body, the element must be re-used to

constitute another life form, well may be a plant —– what so ever —– like a hydrogen atom in my body

has been recycled, recycled billions of times since it was created in the Big-Bang (allegedly) though,

no same person had ever created or same mind / soul ever exists, since even the soul is the result of

own Karma and the Karma of this moment is never the same in second later. No moment stays the same )

If my help didn’t work, it is the sign, I’m doing wrong  AND / OR it is the person’s Karma.

Struggling my way of help, believing this should work is the delusion.  It may make situation even worse.

Observe everything include the self, in the completely detached eyes.  So that never exited or panicked.

Other than technical difficulty, a sudden occurrence of blockage or short coming such as suddenly

mob-phone broken or train service halted etc is the sign of halt from the Dharma = stop it at once.

If the help is essential and when you are doing it in your Mushin, Fully Minded, strangely all  other

factors work together as well.  Others give a hand, conveniently specialist appeared etc etc.

So-called  Devine Intervention really happen.

After the event,  never contact the person unless the person gave me a contact.

( If the person is a stranger, never exchange contact unless the follow-up is the essential part of advice

——- avoid to touch personal matter as much as possible and limit only to the issue or problem itself)

It is the arrogance to see the result of the help. (such as ” Have look I’ve successfully helped this person “)

As the matter of fact only the person knows whether the help was really helpful or not.

If the person is not grateful and contact to say thanks, it was a sign of inadequacy.

Then, erase the memory of event other than the data of the experience (practical technique etc).

Above all, I myself have  One Week Rule which is, even when I’ve offered a help for the project etc,

if it was not started or the person did not make a move within one week, its file is deleted —– so, I

will not retain the memory.  If it is not urgent to the person, why do I need to take initiative and if the

person got yet another problem occurred, it is the sign, Dharma is not keen to its project.

Me to help a project lie on front wouldn’t have any problem though I wouldn’t undertake the person’s worry.

This is my way to live as a Zen Buddhist and live the life with  light luggage.

___/\___