Winter Cherry for New Year

 

First Post for this New Year, I was thinking to put photo of Sunrise or

yet another New Year’s cooking ? —– but I’ve got bored with Sunrise, seen  

from my window,  and the cooking doesn’t necessary to be for the first day.  

( though, I’m not such keen, travel to a beach just to see sunrise. —– Do you 

know some people travel as far as an island in the south Pacific, just next to

 the International Date Line, to see the earliest sunrise in the World ! —– so,

 the Japanese TV goes there as well.    And Air Companies in Japan operating

handful flights to see the first sunrise above the clouds !

Such as this one. — but what a shoddy video. )  

So, I decided to put sweet images of the (That !) Winter Cherry Flowers.

Beautiful soft Bokeh was created by Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 T* with and

without Ultra heavy Proxer out of a TV zoom lens.  (In this instance, instead

of 85mm lens like before, I used 50mm lens, because I wanted to have a bit

wider view though, 50mm lens has not as smooth Bokeh like 85mm lens.)

 

 

Those flowers were the other tree standing next — a bit narrower flower petals,

still flowers in the winter = it’s mean, the gardener in charge with those trees

did intentionally planted those Winter Cherry here.

(so, the tree was not a fleak, but the established winter variety.)

(It seems, the best bloom was about a week ago)

Still, it’s a view to make our mouth shut — it’s mean, either you follow

or you were rejected by them.  (Nothing between.  No argument with the Nature.)

___/\___

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Utterly useless Banana skin —– still, this is the Glorious 700th Post for a festive evening !

You never seen like this or able to guess what this is.   They are the banana skins.

—– ? ? ?   Why banana skin was made like this ? —– They were left there to

become dry. —– Why needed to make them dry ? = It was for not to make wet

rubbish in the bin and to prevent the fruits fly to come. —– M m m ? ? ?

—– If I have a grown up teenage daughter, she must hate this kind of practice

and the man who does. = = = I know, that’s why I don’t have a daughter, in fact

any kids or even a possible cause of that, a wife.  

(I just read a small article which was telling about his awkward daughter.  😀 )

So that, to avoid to have a cause of trouble was a wise precaution, or wise choice

to have trouble-free life and seems to be a way to reach Enlightenment.

Sound very much Buddhist like thinking.   Though, this was an Hinayana approach

to the life.  =If the whole planet was filled with such wise Buddhists,

the human-being would be doomed.

As, Hinayana approach was to avoid to have the cause of trouble beforehand,

therefore, to become a man of “Do nothing” was the ideal solution to get Enlightened.

—– but this approach creates more trouble “Not able to follow the rules” = The more

rules, more chance to fail.   And anyhow most of the man was not such ideal person.

So, the Buddhism invented another approach called Mahayana = To have a trouble

which is natural to the life is not classified as a trouble.   A wife (or two) and could be

an awkward daughter(s) = they may be troublesome but bring a fun as well.

It’s mean, a man (or woman) to have life’s troubles is nothing wrong, it’s just

awkward that all. (After all,

Lord Buddha defined the life is suffering !)  = The matter of the Enlightenment is

nothing to do with those troubles.   No man is perfect, so, why imperfect was the

obstacle to get enlightened ?

Still, strangely enough, no one (well almost) stay put imperfect = but try to be better.

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So, this is where the banana skin comes in. — but not to make you slip, make us think.

Why fruits fly is not welcome and the fruits skin is the cause of trouble ? = Filthy wet

rubbish made by the fruits skin kind in the bin is the ideal breeding environment to

the fly. —– Still, fly exists according to the Dharma too.   All sorts of nasty bacteria,

virus etc etc also exists thanks to the Dharma.

—– If so, imagining own clean life and avoid to have a filth is just an ego and a

delusion isn’t it ?

Giving the opportunities of their life’s fulfilment to the fruits fly, bacteria, virus etc etc

it is a compassion isn’t it ? ? ?  —– So, how do you think.  (My guess is,

Lord Buddha would have given a smile but no answer.

And Zen master will give a good whack. = shut up, don’t waste the time. 😀 )

—– Have a nice holiday.   🙂

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Autumn Cherry 2014

In a normal sens, it must be crazy to see the cherry blossom in November.

But this cherry tree is not an ordinary cherry.

= This is the Autumn Cherry which I’ve been photographing every Autumn to

Winter in a past few years.    ( I even called her Perpetual Cherry, before.    🙂 )

In the Autumn, when the tree started to change the color, this cherry start to have her

flower bud.  Then one or two bleak open.  — On the beginning, I just bumped to this flower,  and

realized,  it was not an accident or fleak,  this tree has a fixed program to have winter flowers.

Since then, I also made my custom to visit this tree when I see the season.  May be, it is

the similar kind of feeling to see an out wedded daughter come home once a year and find that

she is fine and doing well.    (Only a guess as I don’t have any kids.   🙂  )

Those photos were taken by Zeiss 85 mm F1.4 , with and without

“Homemade Ultra heavy Proxer (close-up lens)” on Canon 5D Mk-III.

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M m m m — Alien ?

On the street, I found a very very peculiar THING.

 

 It looks like a botanical thing still —– it could be a dried-up dead body of small animal, 

but what animal ? ? ? —– could be an Extraterrestrial THING like a Martian Octopus ! 

It most likely, a shell of nut belongs to a plant of Genus Quercus in the Fagaseae Family.

(Commonly known as an Acorn kind)  🙂  —– still, who knows, it could be a disguise. 

Though, so far, while I’ve observed, it haven’t started to move and sucked my blood nor

metamorf to a winged angel —– yet. 

But even more strange fact was, where this one came from ? ? ? — there was no such

kind of tree in sight, absolutely non.  

With its spiky “Tentacles” it could hook-up and hitch to have a journey though, —– ? ? ?

M m m m    Strange ?

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Contradiction in Agama (Nikaya) Sutra

The scripture called Agama (Known as Nikaya in the Theravada sect) is the oldest

group of the Buddhist’s scripture written down from the recited oral heritage

kept mouth to mouth for 200 years.   Since they came from the memories of the

original followers, we should expect that they are the closest to the

Lord Buddha’s real words though —– were they ?

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—– Use your common sense and good imagination.

Think about the text, kept purely in the memories, taught mouth to mouth for 200 years

where in the society, everybody else was believing and talking completely different idea.

Lord Buddha was the only one, teaching the impermanence of the soul = or denying the

permanence of the Self (Atoman).  —– Against this, all others were believing the

perpetual soul (Atoman) and believing reincarnation, hence the man is suffering in the

endless cycle of Birth and the Death (of which the Hindu people call Samsara.)

This idea gradually seeped into the original words.

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And the time when the oral heritage was written down, the people who took the task 

were the Vedic Brahman. Because, they were the only people who knows write and read, 

and has learned the Veda.   Of course, the Veda teaches the perpetual soul, Atoman and 

its reincarnation.   Therefore for those Brahman, the teachings of No-Self, Anatoman is

nothing but an absurd idea.   Naturally, when they wrote down the recited texts of the

teachings, they couldn’t understand the alien idea, so that they changed it to the words

which made more sense for them.  And to show off their writing skill, they decorated the

text with a lots of glorious addition, such as the name of deities and kings etc not

mention the new fancy stories.

—– As a result, the Scripture Agama or Nikaya ended-up to be a mix-up with Hinduism.

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Amazingly, this mess is still continuing today and you can easily see the situation.

The translated script of Agama (Nikaya) is available in the Net, though as you may expect,

they are quite hefty amount.    Such as the one, “here is the link”.

And “this one is an extract” with good commentary and the explanation of the historical

background.   The author of this extract, Dr. Thomas Tam seemed to be a quite profound

scholar of Buddhists scripture though, he was showing the deep spell of the Vedic idea.

So, he was writing “The following passage does not appear to carry any religious message.

It is just a vignette of a moment of the Buddha’s life.

“It was a dark night, raining lightly, with flashes of lightning. The Buddha said to Ananda:

“You can come out with the umbrella over the lamp.” Ananda listened, and walked behind

the Buddha, with an umbrella over the lamp. When they reached a place,

the Buddha smiled.   Ananda said: “The Buddha doesn’t smile without a reason.

What brings the smile today?” The Buddha said: “That’s right!  That’s right!

The Buddha doesn’t smile without a reason. Now you are following me with an umbrella

over a lamp.   I look around, and see everyone doing the same thing.”” [S-1150] “

This was the passage I’ve quoted in the “Test of Selflessness” (though, Since I’ve read it

many years ago, wording of my memory was not exact) — As I said in the post, this was how

Lord Buddha demonstrated what “Selflessness should be”, but Dr.Tam thought it has

religiously no significant. = This is the very situation how “So called” scholar is

understanding  the Buddhism. —– If this passage was seen “No Significant”  how PhD

could talk about the selflessness or the Void in Buddhism. 

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There was the another passage the author was saying that “This was the evidence that

Lord Buddha had the concept of reincarnation”

“Did the Buddha talk about reincarnation? In the Diverse Agama Sutra, there are

several passages that the Buddha had referred to it. The following is an example.

The Buddha told the monks: “Let’s say the whole earth becomes a big ocean.

A piece of wood with a hole floats on it, drifting with the waves, and being blown by

winds from all directions.   There is a blind turtle that sticks out its head once every

 hundred years. Will it meet this hole?”

Ananda said: “Not possible, if the blind turtle is in the ocean’s east, the driftwood 

may be in the west, south, north, all directions.   They may not meet.”

The Buddha told Ananda: “Hard as it may for the blind turtle to meet the driftwood,

it may still be possible.  For an ignorant person to regain his human form, however, it

is much more unlikely to happen.   Why? It is because these people don’t follow the

principles of the dharma.   They don’t do good deeds. They kill repeatedly, with the

strong ones bullying the weak, and sinned without end.   That’s why for those who do

not understand the four noble truths, they better start to learn and practice them

diligently…” [S-328]

—– Can you read this in such context ?  

The words “regain human form” did mean reincarnation ?

(wasn’t that meant just “regain sanity to be a human” ? )

Do you agree with his wishful thinking ?

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Lord Buddha brought the aspect of the Karma into the Dharma.

By definition of its word, Dharma should be the one which keeps its own attribute

= keeps mean never change.   Though, Karma affects.   And it is the dynamic driving

force.   Therefore the karma in the Dharma mean, it is the constantly changing huge

mechanism hence, there is no permanence. = Non can stay permanent as the 

existence of everything is relying on the others.   And as a soul is dependent to its body,

 no permanent body mean no permanent soul (Self, Atoman).

 And this is the very basis of the teachings of No-Self.   No-Self = No-atoman (Anatman)

mean no remaining soul after death = no possibility of reincarnation.

= No past life which will “Cast” next life could exists = Therefore, there was no “Cast” in

the Lord Buddha’s follower’s sangha. This was why his teachings were so revolutionary.

Though, this idea couldn’t be accepted in the Vedic, Hindu society.

So, they changed the story and started to call

Lord Buddha as one of their Guru.   What a contempt.

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Though this tendency is still active today

= insatiable appetite to find an evidence among the scripture, the

Lord Buddha’s words mentioning “Reincarnation”.

Obviously, it is nothing but absurd that if the teachings of the “Impermanence and

the Selflessness” containing “Perpetual Soul reincarnates to the Next Life, hence

having the suffering from the endless cycle of Birth and the Death (Samsara)”.

As a matter of fact, we can see lords of such words in the Agama / Nikaya though

as I aforesaid, they were nothing but the mix-up or expression for a convenience and

Lord Buddha’s stance was still the same “There was absolutely no answer to the

silly question, what would happen after a death”.

This NO answer was not just a rack of word but the strongest denial with despise.

—– You might got your eyes clear.

Now look around and check so-called books about the Buddhism.

How many this kind of absurdities you can find ?

___/\___

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Pear Skin

In this post, I’m talking about completely different several topics. 

To start, all of those are the photos of peeled skin of a pear.  

— peeled and dried skin.     The photo, top photo was taken by

the 4th version of Double-Density Pinhole. (Shutter speed was 1/30th)

And this photo was taken by the Two Elements Homemade Lens.

(Equivalent of  F4.5  and 1/250th)

Then this is the normal kind of photo taken by the Canon EF 40 mm F2.8.  

(at F11 and  1/100th)     Something special was that all those three photos

were taken on the ISO 25,600 setting !  —– Even with such high ISO setting,

the color and the smooth tonal character wasn’t too bad though, very peculiar

point was that the rough grain appeared only on the top (pinhole) photo.

 = a sort of common knowledge,  the rough grain appears on high ISO setting

= if that was the case, why other two photos doesn’t show the grain at all  ? ? ?

The another matter here was,

why drying the fruits peel ?

Well, in order to prevent the fruits Fly

appear, I decided not to make a wet 

garbage in a bin, but first dry them 

spread next to the window.

(Fly doesn’t come to the exposed, half dry skin)

Once, fruits skin, orange peel etc were dried, they never attract fly = it’s mean

there wouldn’t be any conflict.  (may looks a bit messy though, nobody sees it.)

I think this is the Buddhist like solution — remove the cause, resulting no conflict,

fight or killing = What a peaceful solution.  Don’t you agree ?   🙂

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Magnolia in the Park

When I moved in this area, this park was named as the most derelict park

in London by a popular newspaper.  In fact, this local council was the

most mismanaged council in London.  And for such council, the Park kind

has the least priority in their spending list.

So, it looked more like a disused land with over grown grass and the weed and  

the grown trees showed no order (why this tree was here ?  kind of situation.)

But I liked its wild growth,  much better than the trimmed grass.

Make the story short,  I have discovered a Magnolia Grandiflora in this park

= while coming here over ten years, I didn’t know it was here and blooming.  

Because, the tree was hidden behind the many other tall trees.  

I discoved its flower by chance, from the distance.

To take picture of this big flower (often more than 10″ big = hence the name

Grandiflora) it needs to see the flower from above.  It’s mean, unless having

a flower on a cutted branch,  photographer got to be very lucky.

— But I wasn’t.   😦

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Quest for Fuzziness

Well, a word Quest might be an over statement and others may say,

it is more like my obsession.  😀

 “Concentric double Density Pinhole” 

 which I invented, is using metallic film

 for larger Pinhole though, it has a

 dreadful character to create a funny

 spark like halo around a bright spot,

 as you can see in the

 Photo here.

—– Metallic Film was used as a substitute for a Neutral Density Filter though,

the metal coating is far from even and  showing lots of hole like pattern and it may

causing that spark like halo. —– I’ve tested with a ND Filter like plastic film, but

it didn’t make a good halo.    So, while testing with numerous different materials,

I found a thin plastic film with uneven surface can make a good halo, and

I smeared it with a black soft pen  to reduce the light ( = ND Filter effect )

then,  made a pinhole on its center. (hence Double Density Pinhole)

The result was —–  a soft imaging pinhole which can produce the

almost unusable image.  😀

Still, they ARE a kind of image.

In some taste, it might not too bad. (I would say.)  🙂

Image like this, is like a painting —– and I like it.  

(The photo right was illuminated by a LED lamp =

there could be lots more interesting field of possibilities.)

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A Field by Homemade Lens — (2)

Those photos were taken by the same Two Elements Homemade Lens like

previous post.    And non of them has been PSed but only the Brightness,

Color Temperature were adjusted —– though, tinkering  in a free editing

program Picasa  is a guess work, and has not much consistency.  

While taking photos,  some of them were double, treble exposed and

in the same time, intentionally camera shake was given.

(Some time, it’s works well —– if not, delete them.  🙂 ) 

Photography is not a serious business for me now.  

And I wouldn’t talk about  Reality, Truth, Cutting edge,  etc. brah brah,

and try to preach the world —– but, as long as the images cheer me up,

that’s enough !

 

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A Field by Homemade Lens — (1)

Well, the lens what I call “Homemade Lens” has first appeared here as

the  “Lens from Toy Camera” and then having had additional front element,

it became to the “Two element Retro-focus Lens“.

In fact, the additional front element was a concave lens from my

broken specs. (Photo above: Left)    Then, proper optical lens came from 

HOYA Optics.   And finally I properly mounted that optical lens onto

Canon EF Mount adapter, using  67 mm filter ring. —– But, to put

the main lens (from Toy camera),  I mounted it 10 degree tilted forward,

since this lens has no focus adjustment, tilting the lens would give

a kind of Pan-focus effect. (Photo above: Right)

Still,  the images were the good old Impressionistic fuzzy image

which I’m very fond of.  🙂

What I like the most of this lens was,  it’s small size,  good general wide angle,  

no need to bother focusing,  shows enough detail of the subject but

not too much,  with good fuzziness —– and above all,  it cost nothing !

It is really a lazy Sunday Painter’s best companion.  = just click a camera,  

it automatically produces the paintings in mass scale !    😀

So, a knuck to have a life contented is = don’t ask too much.  Be contented.  

Ha ha ha   😀

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