Standard VIEW
You may know there is the camera lens called standard lens (and the wide-angle lens, tele-photo lens etc).
Is it a kind of lens, camera manufacturer arbitrarily named it, just for a convenience ?
Or, is there any standard of vision exists ?
Whether you aware or not, you are looking an image, photo or painting with standard view.
You may not believe it —— so, just try, and find it.
Look at a cover photo on the magazine and a poster on the wall ——- have you done ?
Do you noticed, when you see a cover photo of a magazine, with what distance did you look at it.
The distance from your eyes to the magazine was about 12″~14″ (30cm ~ 35cm) as this distance gives
the most clear vision. (unless you got short or far eye-sighted)
Closer than this, you can’t see whole picture. Further than this, it’s too far to see the details.
And if the image you looked at was about A4, the diagonal size was 14″, and the eyes to cover this size
of image, the angle of view was about 45 degrees.
When you see a big poster, you don’t look at in this distance, unless you need to see the detail. —– you
step back and see it from a distance. Then you may realized, in fact you are looking the image always
in the same scale —— if it was small, you give a close look, and see a big image from the distance.
The reason is, our vision in our eyes can see this size of image most clear and reasonably in detail.
If the image spread much wider, like a land-scape, to see the whole detail we have to look around.
And if we need to see more detail such as to read the letters, we need to capture the image, in the
center of eyes, within the angle of about 18 degrees.
So that, to see the image of 14″ size, in distance of 14″ which is about 45 degree of vision, gives best image.
Best image is in the vision of not too wide or narrowly concentrated just in the middle. Middle way in vision.
Therefore the photographic lens which can produce this angle of view has been named ” Standard Lens “.
Before the digital revolution, the camera meant 35mm camera. And the lens which gives this angle of
view was happened to be about 50mm, hence 50mm lens was accustomed to call, Standard Lens.
A photo image taken by a standard lens and printed to about 9″x 12″, viewed from 14″ away, it looks
most natural and having the same perspective. (If the same photo was enlarged to twice big, then look it
from the twice distance, it will give the same perspective —– angle of view is still 45 degree)
—— With this reason, the great photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson was using only standard lens
(wide angle lens was for land scape only ) saying ” My lens is my eyes ” and only shot
from the normal eye level. Because, to do his photography, he didn’t want to rely on the optical
effect but the natural way to see the life, just as an ordinary man.
So, the standard view is not only with a camera lens but our eyes having the same standard.
And this standard view, not too wide, not too narrow, just in the middle was what
the Dharma gave us.—— Therefore, this is the visual equivalent of the Middle Way.
—— Though, I hate standard lens. 😀
___/\___
—
Spiritual Sounds
While ago I talked about the sounds which gave us a spiritual feeling.
In there, I wrote ” Something slowly moving continuous rather hi-pitch tone make us feel spiritual.”
And long time ago, when I talked about J.S.Bach and Baroque music —– not melodic but continuously
changing polyphonic sound makes our brain to stop thinking / abandon the thinking process =
attempt to figure out what this sounds mean ——- is good for the Zenist to empty the mind. 😀
——–
Unlike a visual signal, sound signal is a basic stimulus, goes directly into the subconscious.
If you encountered a scene in a huge Buddhist Temple, hundreds of monks chanting a Mantra in unison,
( I’ve listened it at Eihei-ji and Daitoku-ji. You may find a recordings of Tendai-shormyo of Enryaku-ji )
you might have felt its low voice is more of a demonic and gave awesome impact to your perception.
The Gregorian Chant in a monastery gives similar feelings but the sound is less demonic.
Then somebody suggested, how about the Gospel Song ? ——- Those musics are surely Religious but
not necessary sound spiritual as its use of normal voices range and the meanings of words’ limit the mind
to be open. One of rare exception might be the back-ground hi-pitch humming of a Gospel group Take6.
(In purely sound term, not the connotation of the songs).
————————
When we hear roar or beating drone like low sound, it resemble the sound of earth before an eruption
of volcano or a big predator / lion, tiger etc, we feel a fear ( instinctively ). ( Huge fearsome body
never chirp, as the resonance of big body cavity is pretty low / earth’s magma chamber is huge 😀 )
So that the lower sound is the sign of larger and more powerful body, hence used to appeal to the female
who is seeking stronger gene —— from flog to golilla. (and some human as well 😀 )
Since the lower roaring sound gives the feeling of awe and hi-pitch slow-moving tone gives
spiritual feeling, the religious organ music utilising those effect very effectively in its three-part
polyphonic composition.
So, why hi-pitch tone (when its sound slowly moves but not too melodic way) gave us spiritual feelings ?
Try this by yourself now. —– Make high-tone on your mouth, pieeeee —– then, booooo —– you must be
noticed, high-tone resonate in your head / nose cavity, but low sound resonate in your lung cavity.
Lower base sound shake your body, but hi-tone hit your head / brain though, if the sound is not
comprehensible —– not a whistle of train or alarm sound, nor soprano song —— something unknown
but as it keep hitting the brain, we just open the perception and we were nailed down just to listen.
As we couldn’t figure it out, our confidence in our ego melt away, and the mind evaporate into air.
With completely open mind and the naked perception, we started to feel, something is there.
You are standing on the edge of spiritual world.
—
Just open the perception / mind, and become totally passive without attempting to give
any own thought / thinking, is nothing but the state of Mushin in the Buddhism.
Of cause, Hi-pitched tone itself has no spirituality, it was just happened to be a typical sample
to make us feel the uncertainty which forced to open our mind / key to see the function of our mind.
And this key is showing us, No-thinking/No-mind/Mushin is the pathway toward the spirituality.
Buddha, in his ultimate wisdom, decipher this phenomenon and gave the explanation.
What beyond there is, the Dharma. —— As everybody can be hit by this spiritual sound,
its indicates the fact, everybody has its perception, and the Dharma is not beyond the sky, but
in front of us. In fact we ourself is a part of it, that’s why everybody got this perception.
Unlike the Gregorian Chant of Gospel Song which needs to know beforehand and learn what it is,
the perception toward the spirituality is inherent to all the human, Buddhism is teaching how to open
the perception/mind, and see the Dharma through its practice. ( without listening a hi-pitch tone 😀 )
—— still, one of the Zen sect Fuke-shu use the sound of Shakuhach / Bamboo pipe to reach Mushin.
—— ( though, to master this instrument is as hard as to get enlightenment ). ( Still, sound is good 😀 )
In fact, to some people, it is not necessary a hi-pitch tone, but it can be a sound of the running water,
wave sound of the sea, wind through the tree though, those sound sources are surrounded by too many
visual signals too. We may not able to just listen the sound of wave —— mind might be destructed
by a passing nice Bikini Bottom. ( Ha ha ha 😀 —– In fact, Bottom is a part of the Dharma, so, nothing
wrong with it though, if the mind was stuck with it, it break off the Mushin and stray away.
You can deal with it in Mushin, but on a bed, not on the beach. Ha ha ha 😀 )
—— Still, once got know how, it can be done in any way.
Just open the mind and perceive the Dharma. ( People describes this as Meditation )
___/\___
—-
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] )
___/\___
—
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 😀
___/\___
—
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. ___/\___—-
Dharma and Heaven
( This post may read as an addition to the previous post Dharma = System )
In the east a word Heaven ( Ten in Japanese, Tien in Chinese ) having somewhat similar meaning like
the word Dharma. Heaven can be just a sky above but not necessary a Paradise like in the west.
Heaven is where the invisible but ultimate power, the Ruler reside. Or the Rules itself.
As the Heaven cover everything on the earth, there is no escape therefore this notion affects every other
notions and the fundamental philosophy and the ethos.
Unlike under western humanised or personified notion of God, in the east there is no margin of negotiation
to the morality, like the situation of crime and punishment. There is no such things like ” If the God doesn’t
arrow this I’ll go to another God, or our church justify this killing since enemy is pagan”. Killing is killing.
( I’m not talking the sheer number of execution in China, or having sever punishing flood and earthquake)
Without having the insight of this fundation of ethos, ” Wrong is wrong. There is no escape” it is hard to
understand the hidden psyche of Fatalism in Taoism or Zen Buddhism.
As the basis of the Buddhism lie in the word / notion of the Dharma which is all the Existence /
Nature and the Rules behind or Existence / Nature itself is the Rules, it is naturalto see why
eastern culture is so well harmonized with the nature,
or to see why the Hinayana Buddhism says The man’s life itself is the Enlightenment —— as
the man born with the Dharma within.
___/\___
Freedom — Restriction ?
Freedom under the strict restriction —– people may feel it is the contradiction.
Because they are thinking it in the word / notion but didn’t observe the reality. In reality, there is
no such freedom ever exist like we conceived in the notion. Even the most powerful rich person still has
to live in the oxygen rich air and soon or later has to die. Restriction is the basis of our existence.
Ideally imagined condition, or a story from another world may tell otherwise, still a person was
bound to live within his or her restrictive Karma. But it doesn’t mean there is no freedom to the person.
——————–
If you think about music, in the traditional folk music, even popular Blues, they were composed in the
Pentatonic which is the Natural Tonal System. But its got only five notes ( well, octave higher etc, a bit
more ) ——- from those meager five + notes, how many tunes we human being created in the history ?
Have you ever heard the same tune or melody from different source ? No such thing ever happened in
the isolated situation (culture)—–other than a copy.
Any new tune can be created even from very restricted five notes —- isn’t this Freedom ? Need more ?
Full use of the tonal scale, 12 tone system, or even continuous frequency change of the electronic music
the possibility and the freedom to create new music should be much higher ——— though in the result,
do you remember any of such contemporary music ? ——– It is the evidence of what the unrestricted
freedom had achieved. Theoretically it might be new, but in reality its a trash, nobody give a sit kind.
In political correctness, its free to express any new idea, it must be one’s freedom. But in the same time
others got exactly same right of freedom not to give a damn to such idea. It is the waste of the life.
——————–
There was a funny quote ( sorry I forgot who said this though) ” If the God wished the man to play Foot Ball
he wouldn’t have given the hands to us” 😀
If there was no hand from the beginning, there is no notion of the hand or possibility to image them—-so,
there wouldn’t be any complaint of the restriction not having the hands. Just ply Foot Ball. (no punch up :-))
The notion of the restriction is only a thought of excuse by a person who haven’t actually tried it.
When anybody try long enough, and to know deep enough, there is unlimited possibility and the freedom.
To contemplate ” Who you are” and to build your life in its maximum possibility, is the Zen.
And the Zen Master called this Jizai. ——- Being as Itself.
( Sadly, I noticed so many people stranded on front of the door, puzzling ” Who you are”—-misguided
by the wrong but looks elaborated words, words, words. Look at the mirror, its you. Who else )
———-In the history, J.S. Bach’s music is the best sample of the achievement of such freedom.
You should try listen his ” Art of Fugue”, which was composed from the four notes B, A, C, H.
Its followed strict rule of the ” Counter Point” in the Fugue, to make the variation of those four
note in different order and permutation.—— And created such a universe of mesmerizing
musical time and the space.
His achievement is one of the epoch in the human history.
East and West ( 2 )
To the people in the East, the huge scale natural disaster is a part of the Nature.
Even worse, they are coming every year like Hurricane, Typhoon, Earthquake, Land-slide etc.
So that, there is no possibility to conceive a God whose client is the human fork.
—– As far as the eyes can see, was their world. And see the flood of Yellow River as far as the eyes can see,
must be the act of Supreme Power above there. ———There is no possibility to imagine
any personally accountable, human shaped God. (Who speaks same language !)
If the God created this world, what is he doing with this devastation, not once, not twice, but every year !
What is the purpose of this for ? What a waste. Isn’t he got a brain ?
—– (Eastern emvilonment is not very good to the Western God )
——————–
Biblical Grate Flood which story was originated from a legend of a flood happened after the end
of last Ice Age and the rise of sea level, (So that, such legend / myth exist all over the world.
The Biblical story is the word to word copy of the Gilgamesh Myth of Mesopotamia ) and the earthquake
which was the back ground of the story, demise of Sodom and Gomorrah, such disaster were not
repeated again and again so, they could be construed as one-off punishment of the angry God.
So that this God can be imagined as the one who is working together with human —– a friendly type,
speak same language, hence he could answer your call.
Because of such convenient design, there is the free choice of ” If this God wouldn’t give me a divorce,
I’ll go to another” was possible. ( Free choice is a Western Idea, which is the basis of so-called
Democracy too, and that is why a kind of Democracy in the west doesn’t necessary work in the East.)
(A dubious Leader who happen to be elected by a number game, can not to be respected in the Eastern
psyche, though in reality, a politician who managed to fool the people with false Charisma is in power.
Yet still, originally, the Ruler in East was expected to be able to communicate with Heaven, that is why
the Emperor was called as the Son of Heaven in China and in Japan.)
——————-
Therefore, the Eastern Belief System goes to the abstractic Order of Universe, the Rules of
the Dharma or the Heaven ( note, Heaven is not an idea of Paradise. The Sky and the invisible Power
above there ) and not a humanized God figure. (Though, Pure Land Buddhists got different view )
In the same time, by observing the intricacy and the cohesion in the Nature gave the insight, that is
the Order is perfect, beyond the human comprehension, ” If the power and the wisdom is such superior,
there is no competition, we have to just accept and follow”. This the God in the East. ( The Hindu
idea of the Deity and its depiction, might be the Greek influence which came to India after
the Alexander the Grate. —— this must be an interesting field to study)
——- This Eastern God may not even be the religion, but the awareness, where we stand.
Because,even a non-believer couldn’t escape from this Order. When ship sunk under a Hurricane even
a Christian sunk too. It is the Karma affecting everybody, who took that ship, on that Day.



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