Poisonous Lychees

My interest in the plant started for the poisonous plant, not a beautiful flower kind. It was somewhat different but more practical type of magic to Harry Potter’s fantegy, which related to Ninja = and Ninja connected to Robot, then to Electronics. They fascinated me when I was a kids.

Among those poisonous plant, some of them are affecting the brain. A rather common plant of Mahonia is quite potent poison to the brain. And eat the nuts of the ancient Cicaid plant would destroy the brain long after = may start to show the effects after 15, 20 years with the dementia-like symptom. —– Then I learned that common Lychee fruits also poisonous to the brain. >>> ​https://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng_afp?k=20190613038733a​

Encephalitis from lychees kills 31 children in India– official

At least 31 children have died in northern India in the last 10 days from a deadly brain disease believed linked to a toxic substance found in lychee fruit, health officials said Wednesday.
The deaths were reported from two hospitals in Bihar state’s Muzaffarpur district, famed for it lush lychee orchards, officials said.
The children all showed symptoms of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), senior health official Ashok Kumar Singh told AFP, adding most had suffered a sudden loss of glucose in their blood.
The health department has already issued an advisory for people to take care of their children during the hot summer when day temperature is above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Singh said.
At least 40 other children complaining of similar symptoms were being treated at intensive care units.
We are trying our best to save them, said S.P. Singh, the chief medical officer of Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital.
The outbreaks of the disease have happened annually during summer months in Muzaffarpur and neighbouring districts since 1995, typically coinciding with the litchi season.
Known locally as Chamki Bukhar, the disease had claimed a record 150 lives in 2014.
In 2015, US researchers had said the brain disease could be linked to a toxic substance found in the exotic fruit.
They also said more study was needed to uncover the cause of the illness, which leads to seizures, altered mental state and death in more than a third of cases.
Outbreaks of neurological illness have also been observed in lychee-growing regions of Bangladesh and Vietnam.

(2019/06/13 11:19)

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Flower of Bamboo 竹の花

I found a report of the bamboo flowering in the many corners of Japan from north to south.   The Bamboo said to open their flowers only once in every 100 years, 120 years.  And after the flower, all the plant dies leaving only their seeds behind.  It seems it is their tactics of the survival as the species when they noticed that they are going to die, so, they made flowers and the seeds.  As a plant, I don’t think they got any thinking let alone any delusion or fantasy, they only follow the Dharma = the rules of the nature.  If the nature is going to have the problem, it’s the problem to us too. —– I don’t know why this news caught my eyes among the mountain of the Youtube viz.   Still in my view, there is no such things like a coincidence = there must be the important to be noticed. —– If it would be a kind of natural disaster, there could be a certain area of Japan, not from all over Japan = if is it like the trouble of climate change ? —– in that case the news should come even from the Philippines or China as well.  There are many spooky stories such as, before the ship sank, all the rat run away (rat knows the fate of the ship, before-hand) or strange behaviour of the animal before the earthquake etc. —– Something very serious might happen soon. 

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God and Heaven

The most fundamental difference of the western God and the eastern Heaven is, the one imagined in a brain (modeled from such as the Gilgamesh Myth) or the one observed as the natural phenomenon.   So that there could be a complaint to someone who created the idea of western God, why the Evil was also created ?  And there, the matter is whether you believe its story or not.  Unless you believe it, it doesn’t exists.  

In contrast, as everybody in the east can see, the Heaven or the Nature is existing even before the human being or the universe was created.  Whether it was believed or not, it is a real existance to anybody.    Therefore, they knew the utterly evil earthquake, tsunami, volcano etc are a part of the nature.   (If the people has  ever encountered those utmost power of the nature, they become aware, they have to live with this without making useless complaint. )   So, that is how those evil were accepted as their part of the destiny.   The system or the existence of those phenomena all together IS the existence of which the Buddhists calles the Dharma, or the Taoist calles Heaven.   The strange phenomenon is, some profound Zennists are able to communicate with this Heaven or Dharma.   (save, other than a nuts)   😀

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End of the season

別にこのブログは楽しいオハナシばかりを伝える義務も無いのだが、それにしても九月が全て文句たらたらに終始しているのもひどい。とはいうものの遊びに行って浮かれたと言うような写真が在る訳でも無い。ーーーそれではとカメラのメモリ一を見るとしばらく前にサヨナラの埃拶に来た（らしい）友人の写真が出てきた。

(Photo left here was taken by the Mag lens, and the right was taken by rather normal  Sony 30mm Macro F3.5 on A7R camera — I can agree, it’s better to have macro photo in a sharp image.   😀 )

(So, this photo is the proper one = taken by Canon EF 100mm Macro F2.8 with Achromatic Proxer Lens —– since the Moth was outside of a double grazed window, a longer focal lens can see the subject more straight (not in acute angle like 30mm lens) the image would be sharper.)

My blog doesn’t have an obligation to show only positive image though, seeing only the collection of complaint text on September was too bad.         So, at least, I show you the image of a friend who apparently came to my window to say a goodby.   🙂

(And this was the morning sky in this morning at 5:30 by the Omni-focus toy lens on A7R camera)  —– And I can agree a point that we can do a lots in a trivial corner of the life, like in the photography, not such as to fly away to the space.     That’s what I learned.   😀 

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1085th Post or yet another 8150

I noticed that on this blog, I published  1085 posts.  And this very  1085th post was that Southwark trouble, which went up to the Ombudsman. —– As a matter of fact, this IS the second time me to deal with Ombudsman.   On the time of the first occasion, the issue was potentially I could send the MP to impeachment.   One local politician who helped me to configure the complaint half the way, suddenly became aware of the grave implication, then dropped off the support while saying Oh, I don’t have time. —– Funnily enough it was the very moment this politician and the Party lost their political fortune.  So, the party lost local election, and that politician lost the seat too and never able to come back.  (It took another ten years for this party to regain the power in Southwark.) 

Why 1085th was so much the matter, you may say. = This IS yet another strange phenomena of 8150 jinx.  It IS a kind of omen and the intervention of the fate (what Buddhists call Karma) which is telling me the significance of THE MATTER.  It could be a warning of a risk or a notice of their support.   Since I received this sign, I’ve been dealing with this current Southwark trouble with utmost heaviest priority and the caution.  So that, while dealing with the matter, I could find the crucial information or the evidences as if it was placed there for me to use.  (So the sound recording of the visitor’s words has been kept.)   In the other hand, if something became too difficult to access, such as Mail Daemon started to say “Couldn’t find the address” = such coincident was in fact a message “Don’t go there”.    Or, other side manage to make own mistake and blow up the scandal ( = such as demonstrated the Hacking and managed to perform the Extortion.)  —– (In the past, I found quite few people who has been implicated, suddenly died, such as Paul Foot etc.= Sound dubious though, as it has happened, it must be the proof of what the person did = the consequence of cause and the effect = So, I’m pretty thrilled, who come next ? —– I’m not playing with Karma, I just watch and analyzing how it works. )

———— There are many strange stories in the following “Related Post” or among the  collection of “8150 Story” in the right column category. —– (In principal, unlike Tantra sect, I don’t believe the super natural phenomena in the Buddhism, yet still, I was said to be borne under the protection of the Fire God (hence I don’t get ill neither meet any accident, so does the 8150 follow me), though, I don’t have a power to make share price up or pretty girl drop her pants ( = how shame = when I made this joke, one of my friend said to me that I was a luckiest man because I’ve been avoiding the worst possible trouble in our life in its first place —– though, Mahayana says, that the trouble itself IS a part of our Life) = power of Zen or Buddhism only works when we have absolutely no mind / no thinking / no intention while doing the work in due in our life.)

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平常心（対話から）

これは友人とのメールのやり取りの抜粋です（青字は友人）

ーーー で、かつての人生の思い出、その追憶の駒々はどんな栄光や贅沢よりも、私にとってのかけがいのない宝物なのだ。それが宝物かガラクタかは、ひとりひとりのホンネで決める、というより、決まってしまう事だ。

そんな個人ごとの宝物を死ぬまで保持することがいかに大切かを共感する人々は、決して少なくはない。

この心理をわかってくれるときが来れば嬉しい。そして、先輩が意図していること とは無関係に、このホンネの欲求に先輩のピンホール写真が寄り添ってくれるから、ありがたい。

あのピンホール写真にやすらぎを覚えるのは、私の場合、心が覚えていて、時空を超えて再現したい、あるいは、せめて心の中にだけでも再現し再体験したい愛しき何かへの入り口を感じさせてくれるからだ。

　　おたくはものすごい思ぃ入れと追憶の中で生きていて、おそらく禅も同様に思ぃ入れ、思念の形だと考えていると思う。しかし僕の禅には思い込みの部分は無く現にやっている事、そこでの無心が僕にとっての禅であり解脱なのだ。つまり、何か特別な思い方とか観念が禅なのではなく、何の思いも無いのが褝なのだ。

何の思念、知的作意なく発想された事は、実は潜在意識、情念の深層からの呼びかけに外ならない。で、それを黙々と追求していくうちに針金彫刻やA７Rに付いたベス単なんて物が出来上った。これが僕の禅であり自在だ。

同様に何故かボケた映像に引っかかる。待てよ、これどっかで見たぞ。いつだったかは解らない遠い昔、ひよっとしたら夢の中だったかも。－－－で、ツァィスレンズの向うにそれを発見して以来、僕のレンズ行脚が始った。ピンホールはその一駒だ。

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　　執着を捨てることを良しとする賢人は古来多かれど、「自分に正直に生きる」「嘘をつかずに生きる」ことではじめて安らぎを得る人も多い。しかし現実には本音をいつわり、偽の自分を生きて幸せを装う程、器用に振る舞えない人のひとりであることをさんざん自覚させられてきた。

　　正直も否も、欲や執着と言った感情どころか、そもそもアタシはあまり自己である意識が無いので思いつくまま 勝手に生きさせていただいております。これが禅で言う自在。

で、自在についてもう少し書くと＝これは孔子サマの言う「己れの欲する所に従えども距を超えず」と同様なもので、己れ、己れの生きざま、思考、撰択の全てが一致しているなら、つまり己れとして生れたそのもの、つまりカルマ、ダルマに沿ったものであるなら、それがー如であり、それが正しい。

　　正直であるの無いの云々と考えているお宅はまだ正直の外側をうろうろしているだけで正直になり切っていない。(本当に正直なら、それについて考える事はない）

『俺以外の誰でもない俺は、俺である事を考える必要はない』

だから禅は考えないし（無心）自己である意識の必要も無い（無私）。只生きるだけ。－－－で、これが自在でありその心を平常心と呼ぶ。

お宅がごちゃごちゃ悩んでいるとしたら、お宅は悩むように生れたのかも知れぬ＝それがお宅のカルマであるなら、そう生きるのが正しい。

（禅とは冷いもんです　😀）___/\___　

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根性悪い？

最近、このブログの『ヨシ禅縁起』なる古いポストに加筆をしたのだが、それを目ざとく見付けた人が「お宅本当に根性悪いなァ、5０年も前の話に末だ恨みを抱ている訳？」と言って来た。　　実を言うと5０年に渡りこだわっているのでは無く,　ふとその男が山で初日から下山するまで徹底して暴風雨に痛めつけられたという話をNetに書いていたのを見て　因果応報という言葉を思出したからに外ならない。　で、この場合、何が「因」なのかを辿ると昔の山岳部時代のしごきのエピソードに戻るという訳だ。　この男の場合岩場で滑落して死んでいても不思議は無かったのだが、死体を運んで長い雪道を歩かされてはこちらが迷惑。－－－まァ雪盲あたりが妥当な応報だったのだろう。　　　

「まるで仏教者らしからぬ言葉ですね」と言うので「仏教が底無しの慈悲などを語っていると思っていたらひどい誤解で、死ぬ程の苦行も経験した　

釈尊自身、人を殺しかねない程の厳しさで教えを施していたのです。　つまりそれは甘い慈悲などと言うものではなく、本人自身で答を見つける為の、鍵を与えるものだったのです。　しかも三回教えても見込無しとなったら、それまでとつっ放されていたのです。　慈悲とか極樂を語っていたら、それは

釈尊の教えではありません。教えの核心は何が真実か、であったのです」　つまる所誰もが己れの持って生れた運命を生きて行かねばならない訳で、その男が「唯物論はその状況での自由撰択を取るだけで、運命などと言う考えはナンセンス」と言うのは自由だが、死にそこなう程の暴風雨は現実に有無なくやってくる。　で、何故かそう言う時に山に出掛ける人が居ると言う遇然のフシギ ？？？    これを運命とか宿命と呼ぶのですが本人、自覚していないから避ける事もできない。ーーー 因果応報の不思議な所はそれがー見何の関係も脈絡も無い所に出る事で、当事者は単なる事故と思っていても, 改めて考えてみると自分の血筋は根絶やしになっていたと言うような調子で、それがいかなるメカニズムで機能しているのか、まるで不可解ながら何故かそうなる　ーーー　こうした超常現象がマインドパワー（念力、怨念）で働いていると言う説も有りますが、その割に丑の刻参りに効果が無いというのも周知の事実。　

つまり応報とは人間の思念ではなく　“天”が決裁して断罪するものなのです。　そこには普遍かつ永久不変、客観的に成立している善悪の絶対的基準が在り、イデオロギーや聖書と言ったものの解釈やイケニエの量で適当に変る西欧流の“正義”とは完璧に異った、絶対的な倫理空間が形成されています。　それが東洋で天とか神と呼ばれているもので、人々が現象の背後に直感している力（パワー）に外なりません。　　　

オーム教とかいうグループはこうした天の庇護どころか、その力の知識経験も無しに只、ヒンズー教グルの噂話を聞いてそのマネをしていただけだったのです。（２５００年前、しばらく苦行僧のグループに加った

釈尊はそうした苦行が何の足しにもならない事に気付き独自の教えを始めた）　当然のことながらインチキなオームでは天からの警告を聞く事も無く只ずるずると醜悪な泥沼の深みに沈んでいき決定的な応報、極刑の懲罰を受けるハメになったのです。　しかし最大の疑問は、何故もっと早い時点で幹部などのメンバーが癌にかかったり事故に会って死滅していなかったのか？？？　（まさか邪宗（まァ、ヒンズー教の一派みたいに見える）にも信仰の自由、平等な生存権が有るなどの屁理屈があったのか？）　－－－ーー　それにしても、それにしても巻きぞえを喰った他人さまにとってはえらい悲劇。

　＊＊＊＊＊　 ところで別の意見によると、このポストが書かれたのが　１３日の金曜日というのが怖いそうだ。（おヤ、そんな事には気がつかなかったが、しかしどうしてそうなるのかね？）　（笑）

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Heaven or God ?

I just found those photos in the net and I do know not more than any fact of what the photo was telling us. —– may be the photo was genuine = straight record of the aftermath, showing the remaining gate of the Shinto Shrine.

A person who found the photos must be utterly amazed hence just up loaded to the net.   As I have no information of original source, I have no idea whether the photo was taken by the professional journalist or just a passerby, let alone any fact whether the subject was intentionally picked up (such as the survey of all the Shinto Shrine — and the one / only one Torii kept standing — or one of many) or just a coincidence.

—– yet still, seeing one more photo, they convinced me that there IS something.  Think, you were a person who encountered it on the spot.  Even if you didn’t bend your knee there, you must felt a chill on your back and felt, something like Heaven or somebody like the God is there and showing their providence.  (But don’t blame, why send a tsunami or ask why save only a Torii, not the city.   😀  )

This is THE basis of the Japanese Shinto.  We don’t need a fishy sweet words telling the Next life.  We are seeing and keep feeling it IS there.  Unlike an intentionally created, invented idea of so-called God, the supernatural power, or Heaven IS a part of our native sentiment or so-called spirituality.   (That’s why only few % of Japanese is christian. = To the Japanese, Disney like personified God is a joke that’s why no Christian, still almost all of them believe the Rule of a cause and the consequence / the punishment return by the Heaven = that’s their spiritual Ethos.)  So, we don’t steal, nor riot because we know the heaven IS watching us, or living with us.  We don’t need to be told and learn “The idea of Morality” = we have it.  Idea was an invention in the brain.  Japanese Ethos is a part of how we were born.  (Well, ideally —– we have Yakuza too. (But you know, Yakuza’s own rule is as tight as in the army)   And, if you know them, they ARE also nice people.   Ha ha ha   😀 )

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Mystery of the Pigeon Egg

After pigeon chick was taken from the nest in my veranda, the egg was left there and stayed for another 10 days or so.   Then it was moved out of the nest and apparently eaten by somebody. —– but, who did it ? ? ? 

Mother hen-pigeon herself ?  Or Craw kind ?  Or rodent kind ?  But something strange was, why the egg was moved from the nest ?  To clack open and eat it could be done on the spot and didn’t need to move from the nest.  Or an attempt to take the egg to somewhere els was made ? — but the plan was abandoned then the egg was eaten there instead.

I could have put a kind of infra-red sensor activated video camera sort = yes “could” but I wasn’t such keen — and the egg has been left to its fate any way. = out of my hand.  Don’t worry, Nature and their life is just goes on. = One egg was lost though, the other did fill a stomach and that might be fed to her own chicks.  Everything was related and connected.  

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Lost in Translation

There are quite few Japanese words notoriously difficult to translate into western language. 

Such as  Itadaki-masu (いただきます), Okage-sama (おかげさま), Mottai-nai(もったいない)、and abave all  Wabi, Sabi. (わび) (さび)

Why those words were difficult to translate, was because of that the one’s fundamental conscious to exists were completely different in the west.   Some said that because of the difference between the Christianity and the Buddhism.  But, to my eyes, the cause was much deeper = because of the fundamental difference, the westerner invented God, but the people in the east IS living under the Heaven since the beginning of the time. (so that, even Buddhism adapted the Dharma / Rule of the Universe)  And in the Shinto, (of which Japanese unconsciously follows) naturally follow the Rule of Nature which is almost the same to Dharma though sublimated much deeper down to the almost chemical level.  (That’s why Japanese doesn’t touch other’s possession and wash or clean the hand almost obsessively = so that, they were reluctant to shake hand, let alone kissing others, because they were prohibited to touch filth by the Shinto. —– hence, wearing surgical mask to avoid to breath other’s germ. = some of them even don’t eat a rice ball made by others hand.) 

In the same time, since the Japanese has the deep awareness that they “were Made to exists” by the Heaven, Rules, Dharma what so ever called, when they start to eat, they have to say Itadaki-masu = I gratefully receive this given food and thanks to the food (material itself) who gave their lives to me as well = Japanese are well aware that they are killing the Potato, Beans etc boiled alive.  Likewise, the word Okage-sama meant the thanks not only to the person who gave a kindness to him but also grateful to the Heaven who arrange the meeting. = This is the word to express absolute humbleness. = conscious toward the “Given Life” and thanks to its fate.  And the word Mottai-nai meant “Feel shame to waste the precious resources which has been given to us“.

=== It’s easy to see the point, that the fate of the rice glowing society was governed by the sun and rain = nature, not by a strong hunting, fighting individual. (The western God was conceived as an ancient Hero ascended to the heaven (A legend became myth, then to a religion) = therefore speak same language, and negotiable with a bribe = how humanistic !    😀 )

In contrast to the east, the western’s Ego justify his existence “As a rightful owner of my life”  and have a right to kill and eat, because they were made to be eaten. = thus feel no sorry to a butchered chicken.  Such fundamental difference between arrogant Ego and passive Humbleness couldn’t have the same kind of sentiment, the psych which is the base of each word. = therefore no compatible word could exist.   No wonder a trouble in translation.

I’ll explain the words Wabi and Sabi on the next post with sample photos. 

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