MODIFIED APE ? ? ?
As I’ve written “ Artificially modified Ape “ I received pretty strong contention. ( as anticipated )
I didn’t intentionally try to create argument though, I knew there must be a lots of contention.
Not mention the Christian Creationists, but even the ordinary Evolutionists couldn’t agree.
To my eyes, the changes occurred to even the physics of the Human, which were triggered by the
active Human selection, which changed or resulted the condition of existence is artificial.
MMM
Among the animals, such as the exuberant horn of Deer or the feather of Peacock were the result of
the breeding competition. The more prominent, the more attraction to the females, hence the Gene
of bigger horn had become dominant. This is a natural selection and the shift of the size of horn
would be regarded as a process of the Natural Evolution.
But, in the case of the size of Human boobs is quite questionable. When our far ancestors started
to walk biped, genitals became inconspicuous and male and female sees each other, face to face,
guessing the appearance of the others, with dark skin and hairy body, it may not very easy to appeal
“Look at me I’m a female “. So that, the female who happen to have larger boobs had taken more attention,
hence she had more opportunity to produce the offspring —– and the Gene to make larger boobs were
established. —– yet, big boobs is not actually contributing to the fertility nor good supply of the
mother’s milk, because it was made of useless fat.—– It is just for a psychological display.
In other words, it was the matter of the male imagination. Nothing to do with physical evolution.
( Selective breeding is not a natural evolution. It is a reflection of man’s Ego and Arrogance)
MMM
The more drastic change had happened in the Human history, when our ancestor gained and figured
out their stable life, and became more than just a hunter gatherer. —– Probably with some domestication
of the animals and the primitive agriculture or knowledges to keep particular plants as the staple food.
Hence able to alleviate a hardship cycle of plentiful and the starvation in the cold.
This stable life, away from the effect of the season, had the same effect of the domestication to
the Human animal.
—– With the (self) Domestication, Human lost the seasonality of the breeding, and the females
started to ovulate out of season. It was a change of the physiology lead by nutrition and the psychology.
( I couldn’t find any explanation Why Human lost a chemical trigger / Pheromone or sensitive nose 😀 )
All over the world there is a peculiar artefacts of so-called Venus Figure
with exaggerated body.
They are always in the early stone age. —– and only limited on that
period, and never continued. This fact suggests what had happened,
a woman in the colony had first ever bore the babies twice in a year,
which astonished the people, hence she became a symbol of fertility,
Mother Goddess. Though, gradually all the women started to show the same,
worship of the Goddess became pointless, hence, the Venous Figure was
no longer produced. ( This is totally new theory 🙂 )
(Photo above = Venus of Willendorf / Naturhistorisches Museum / Vienna / Wikipedia )
MMM
This physiological change was a result of the change of Human Life Style, generally called Culture.
And this change of the Culture was the results of the Intellectually lead Human adaptation.
It hadn’t occurred naturally. In another word, it was an Artificial Change.
—– Subsequently there were many side effects, consequential changes had occurred in the Human
history. Namely, such as the Brainization ( Imagination lead ) sexual behaviour —– hence resulted
even a development of sexual obsession. —– This is not a natural evolution at all, but a destruction.
(Without Pheromone induced sexual imperative, a sexual drive has to come from one’s MIND )
—– Big BOOB may not have any physiological value, still it would give you quite an
Imagination. Imagination always strays away. ( How exiting. Ha, ha, ha 😀 )
MMM
Thanks to the Human Intelligence, Humankind invented many new psych and the idea though,
they are too often far remote from what we started and originally designed by the Dharma.
This is the reason why we have two separate SELF in us.
The one is our Self-conscious (the One, thinking), and the other is in our subconsciousness.
The more we became conscious, we alienate our true Self which we only subliminally aware of.
This is the reason why Buddha taught,
“The Self in the thinking is a Delusion “ “Look at the Dharma without thinking “
Without thinking, is what Mushin mean. (in another sect, this is also called Detachment)
The Buddhism is to become aware, and to regain What We are.
___/\___
===
DHARMA is Everywhere
Since I wrote and explained the Dharma in relation to spontaneous compassionate cases in
Japanese Disaster, a reader asked me “Is the Dharma prevails only in such special occasion ?”
—– Of cause not. Dharma is everywhere, where ever you go, always with you.
Simply because, that is how we exist and live.
===
In the sea, there is the Phytoplankton which is fixing solar-energy with their photosynthesis.
(I have no idea how many billions of tons of them all together there.) They are the most fundamental
organism to form the food chain, and they are eaten by the small fishes etc.
And the small fishes were eaten by the larger fishes and so on —–.(And on top of the chain, we eat
them large or small and in fact we are pushing many of them to their extinction )
On the land, the Plants are doing the same, creating themselves, looks out of nothing ( in fact, using
solar energy and the water + somewhat 10 materials ) —– then Herbivorous eat them.
—– In the Yellowstone Park US, now the re-introduced Wolves are regulating the population of
Elk ( kind of Reindeer ). ( When the man hunted down the Wolf, the Elk’s population exploded and
the vegetation has been devastated by the over grazing Elk —– So, man needed to put it back )
===
Those mechanism, so-called Ecosystem and its balance is the part of the Dharma,
so that some people call them as the Natural Law. Of cause, those mechanism are even inside of our
physiology as well, such as called Homoeostasis which controlling and keep the body condition constant.
The Dharma is not just a part of the science BUT crucially it is also a kind of will or direction
to over-see the EXISTENCES.
Why the Nature needs to have the balance ? Or man’s body needs to be kept consistent ?
Because it is the will or direction of the Dharma to the Nature to BE HERE,
and the HUMAN BEING to EXIST. —– Rules / The Dharma couldn’t be explained just with the
Science. Such as The Second law of the Entropy is a direct contradiction to the Creation of the Life.
Why the particular atoms were INTENTIONALLY combined, not dispersed by the Entropy and
became to the Amino Acid and to a Life-form.—– ( It couldn’t be explained just with the Gravity )
( Yet, it doesn’t mean Human being got blank cheque. Since, we are only a small PART of the NATURE )
===
—– So, when we need,we eat we drink, we do the business etc etc —– on top of those fundamental
life’s activities, we form the society, we think and invent and so on, which we calls Culture and the
Civilization. Still we are a part of the Dharma which is inherently keeping the things in balance.
To keep-up and follow those rules of the Dharma, we don’t need to even think about —– even if we
are asleep we still continue to breathe, heart keeps working. So that, even with those very very inventive
Civilization and the incredible level of the Technology, we were still bound to keep fundamental rules
—– we still need to breathe Oxygen not CO2 or any fancy gas.
===
The Human being is, as it is an artificially modified version of the Ape ( generally called Evolved )
having fundamental paradox within.
Basic aspect and the function is still remained as it was originally designed as a part of the Dharma.
Though, the Culture and the Civilization, not mention the Technology which changed the condition and
the environment within few thousands years, are not necessary following the Dharma.
In other words, what Human being invented or created out of their over sized brain –— the result
of their thinking, is often contradictory to the Dharma. ( Imagination can start from purely
imagined base or abstractive idea, hence it can be an utter delusion )
===
As a matter of fact, we Human being is a compound of contradiction and the Paradox.
Therefore, it is having the inherent stress even for Just to be Here. —— ( So that, we are
having unconscious feeling of doubt or question, “ Something wrong. There must be answer
to make the things clear “ which has been driving a man to seek What is the TRUTH )
And this is what Buddha pointed out and taught. —– Better to live humble, simple life, even though
it is effectively the denial of the fruits of Civilization and the Technology.
And to eliminate the useless, trouble making thinking and to live in Mushin, hence able to
see and live with the Dharma.
___/\___
===
SINSAI . INFO — A Website to Help Others
—
Only four hours after the Japanese Disaster, an information website called SINSAI.INFO started.
The site is giving the extracted information of what people tweeted or the report to tell what is the
situation there or needs of help in the Geological, Graphical framework.
On the beginning it was started by a small group of the IT engineers lead by Haruyuki Seki, though soon
many more volunteers joined through internet while communicating each other by the Skype Chat and
became a formidable volunteer work force.
And the persons who did similar work for Christ Church Earthquake Relief project, using
[Ushahidi Feed] open-source program which organizing and displays the information on the map
has joined, and the top expert of the web design, top expert to organize the information as the geomedia and
top expert for interfacing to other system by designing applications hence able to provide the information
through mobile-phone or to use with Android etc has all joined together.
It became a working group, almost a dream team, no commercial project can ever dreamt of, or
no commercial project can afford to employ them.
—
What was the key, How and Why, the activity like this started ?
Everybody wanted to do something to help, the sense of duty told them “Have to do something”
It was a spontaneous fundamental urge of the human psyche to help others, unconscious sense of duty,
when someone faced the situation which needs the help.
The situation itself has driven the people —– not one’s intention or will, neither ideology.
This was a situation where the Dharma worked. And the people who is connected to the Dharma
spontaneously reacted. —– Since it was the Dharma, it was not an individual mind or intention.
This is the Selflessness of the Dharma. And as the people having and following the Dharma,
every person worked selfless —– or it must be said, in their default state as a part of the Dharma.
—
( I doubt, if it was a commercial project, they would not have worked together in such selfless
manner. In a commercial project, there are certain work convention exist, which limits what
the one should do —– what you ought to do must be compatible to what you were paid, and
within a reasonable working schedule —– it became a subject of relative assessment.
It mean, The Person is seeing the Work in distance / as an object = It is not in ICHIJO ( Oneness )
In contrast, free voluntary work has no limit —– free mean, no price = priceless mean it can be
infinitum hence the quality has to be absolute and there wouldn’t be any limit of working time.
This is the condition of WHAT the MUSHIN meant and WHAT the MINDFULLNESS appeared.
The crucial point here is, they did this spontaneously / nobody asked them BUT they did
almost automatically —– How and Why ? —– Dharma inside of them, has DRIVEN them )
On top of it, the program system they have based on, Ushahidi ( Meaning “Testimony” in Swahili ) is
an open-source program. There is no monopoly or copyright control. Open-source is selfless.
And this program was best suited to organize the information in geological order.
—
The drive to start a voluntary work to set-up and run SINSAI. INFO Website was purely came from
its situation. Dynamics was there in the Dharma and the Dharma has no self.
The situation, a phenomena of the Earth, cracked open.
As the drifting earth’s Tectonics plate collide and the stress increased, it had to be adjusted = then
the plates has moved causing big earthquake and its movement caused the huge movement of the
sea water as well, created huge Tsunami.
The movement of the plates followed the Dharma, in its Earth level action to regain the balance.
It was simply unfortunate to the human-being happened to be there.
—
Then, seeing the situation, the Dharma in Human level responded, since some of the people
were born to be good in their IT skill, for them to react in the aspect and the possibility in IT field was
their second nature. They found the way to help the victims in their natural capabilities.
So that, their solution was the Information website [ SINSAI . INFO Ushahidi Feed ].
Since its starting point was the fundamental compassion, therefore Ego, Greed etc has no place
and the task and the requirement is Just Do the Best.
There was no place to accommodate useless thought.
In fact, they had barely enough time to set-up and made it functioning.
They frantically worked some time all through the night.
Yet still, their action has been following the Selfless Dharma, it was the right action, destined to succeed.
( Otherwise why the Dharma made them to start in the first place . And of cause,
the Dharma is the Universal force, it covers the Buddhists, and non Buddhists all alike).
This is really the Dharma at work.
___/\___
—
TOMATO is DHARMA
A reader sent me a link of a page of Wikipedia [Dharma] to educate me. 😀
Thank you very much though, I might have seen this page before but didn’t like it.
The author of the page surely knew the meanings of the Dharma contains
mere things and phenomenon as well.
But he might wanted to make up the story looks more authoritative, he emphasized more in the Rules side,
and only mentioned “Things” and “Phenomenon” just like an addition.
—– ” It was his Arrogance sir ” 😀
——
Don’t make the things and the life even more complicated with useless thinking.
Just open your eyes and look at a Tomato plant.(Provided if you have one. If not, anything would do the same)
—— Its green shoot, leaves, and although it’s under a soil and can’t be seen but its root is there.
It’s just grow. And going to yield beautiful red Tomato fruits (or vegetable ? —– you argue, not me 😀 )
( If you ever eaten fully ripen real tomato in the sun drenched field, you know how sweet its fruits is ! )
With your fresh eyes, just feel again. Isn’t this amazing ? How it’s grow ? How it’s exist here ?
To maintain its shape as a Tomato plant, there is a complicated biological mechanism, —– determination
by its genetics, and the botanical, agricultural aspects such as the species, variety etc, the growth
mechanism, monocular-biology, what nutrition, what substance goes into their roots and converted into
what and makes its leaves etc etc. It is a conglomerate of existence with rules and phenomenon.
—-
Without having this Tomato plant itself, all those phenomena never taking place there.
So, why the Tomato exists in the first place and who is and why, you happened to watching this Tomato.
All together, this, before your eyes —– is The Dharma. (Which you need to pay a respect as well)
—– But, if you don’t have the eyes and the mind to feel it is amazing, you may need to reset your mind
and the perception once, and start again to see the world, like a child saw it first time ever.
You may not as bad as the people believing that the Tomato comes from Tesco. 😀
This is why Buddha ordered ” Think yourself ” —— refresh your perception.
To see the Dharma in its shape of a Tomato is the starting point of the Buddhism.
___/\___
—
YOU are a part of the DHARMA
The people who is thinking to know or believing the Buddhism, might be believing that
Shakya muni Buddha started the teaching of The Dharma.
You are wrong.
—-
The Dharma exist from the beginning of the time and the space. —-– or even before that and
may triggered the creation of this world itself.
And the notion of the Dharma has been existing thousands of years before Buddha.
In fact, an ancient word Dharma is a headache of the scholars and the translators alike, as its contains
so many meanings. All the existences is the Dharma, and the Rules among those existences is the Dharma.
And the Rules and the Law are also the Dharma. —– it’s suggesting it was the long-established philosophy
to see the world, visible and invisible, the existing world is an entwined system of the existences and
the relations and the rules between them. It was derived from the basic attitude to see the things not
just as a material but to understand them in a spiritual context. Typical in the Eastern Philosophy.
It is more akin to the general theory of the Universe which can define from the sub-particles
to the life-cycle of the stars and the universe.
What Buddha found was mainly the relation and the rules between Man and the Dharma.
But as the Dharma itself is the Rules, what he taught was the way to see and follow its rules in the Dharma.
And taught his followers, to follow and live according to the Dharma, it is the way to attain the Nirvana.
——
As everybody born with the Dharma within ( of cause, since we are a part of the Dharma ) every body
should able to see and easy to follow it. ( provided, to see it with clear eyes and the mind. 🙂 )
So that, Buddha ordered his disciples to see and think it by themselves —– not believing what others
said or written.
—– Why, the reason was? Because, the Dharma is invisible and deep inside of each person’s
subconscious, only a fully opened mind, without any disturbance of the thought in the mind
can see it. Listening, reading somebody else’s words need to think the meaning —– utterly opposite of
what Buddha taught. Of cause, no-one can write down and listing up what the requirement of the Dharma.
No human being is above the Dharma.
Even Buddha followed the Dharma and accepted his Nirvana.
—–
As everybody is a part of the Dharma, everybody is connected each other and to the natures.
As if you feel the pain of the injured hand in your whole body, the pain and the agony of the victims
in Sendai hit the other people, even a Yakuza in Osaka, and made him to drive a truck to deliver the
relief goods to the victims. It was his spontaneous actions and nobody needed to persuade him to do.
Thousand of volunteers like him are helping the victims of the earthquake, tsunami and evacuees of the
destroyed nuclear plant, simply because the compassion in their subconscious, which is no
other than the Dharma, has driven them.
Some volunteers may be the Buddhists or other persuasions but not necessary all of them.
Its mean, the humanistic compassion is not a monopoly of the Buddhism nor any religion, but
the Dharma and its virtues are the common among the all the human being.
Buddha pointed out this fact, and taught the way to see and listen it, since he noticed the
mechanism and the tendency of the Rules in the Dharma, by his insight while in Mushin.
What makes the Buddha’s teaching unique was, that he found an active process to reach the
Dharma by sharpening one’s perception by the practice. The practice to silence the useless noise,
the one’s thinking which is masking the Dharma.
—-
Fundamentally the Dharma is Selfless as it is, say the Universal Soul, the Rules of
the Universe, it doesn’t belong to or favour any individual.
And its Rules are for the continuation of the Universe, not necessary for a single individual.
Therefore, to see and listen what the Dharma is aiming, the one has to silence his own projection.
In other words, the one has to know he himself is not a single entity, only a part of the Dharma.
In metaphor, there is no such things of the sovereign independence of the Nation of the Self.
Strangely you might think, giving up the independence can bring much more benefit to a nation.
( Don’t fooled by a silly sample of a farce in the European Community and the troubled Greece and the
Portugal etc, EC is not the Dharma. Ha ha ha 😀 )
Of cause, the power of the Dharma and its aim of continuity is far grater than an individual. 😀
Its power ratio is the infinitum against virtually nil. Better forsake useless own thinking and let the
Dharma to decide —– this is what Buddhists calls the Selfless-Life or Life in Mushin.
In another metaphor, the Cloud Computing has more power than the set of program in an individual
PC. ( —– though, I don’t like the idea of Cloud itself, since Google is not the selfless Dharma.
There is no such things like free lunch. Think while using free Google, what we gave up to them ?
To them we are completely naked. What we are interested in, what we are searching, what we are
talking with my friend etc etc and made ourself to just a target of the advertisement )
—-
Once the individual thinkings were cleared off, one’s subconscious, and the Dharma which
has been masked underneath will prevail.
And it allow a person to react instantly without the hindrance of time-wasting thinking or
useless consideration of Ego.
This is what the Zen Buddhism is doing and what you can achieve with it.
___/\___
—
禅仏教とは What is the Buddhism
This is the shortest explanation of What is the BUDDHISM, which I made to my friend in Japan.
——————–
これは日本の友人に送ったメールで、仏教とは何かを説明した部分ですが改めて読んでみると、
極度に簡略化した割に要点はちゃんと収まっている。
これは皆に読んでもらうのに手頃では?と、ポストに加えました。
—-
仏教的倫理観では、人間も含めた全存在は実は無限に広がり断え間なくつながった
「法(ダルマ)」であると理解しています。 個人が個人と見え、当人もそう考えているがそれは単なる
見かけで実体の無いもの。 (ましてその当人のエゴだ欲だといったものは当人の幻想、雑念以外
の何物でもない)---で、当人は実は全体のー部分、他の人ともつながっているから、ちょうど怪我をした
手の痛みが全身に伝わるように、仙台の痛みが大阪のヤクザにさえ伝わりトラックを駆って現地の救援にと
かり立てる。 それも坊主が説教してかり出した訳ではなく、全く自発的な行動です。
ーーーという事は別に仏教に依らずとも、元々これが人間のモラル、「法」として存在していたという事実です。
当然、救援に向ったトラックで石コロを運んだような馬鹿は居ない。自発こそは「法」であり、英知です。
例の倫理構造図式の、実在、真、正、英知、さらにそこから抽象された倫理意識や、具体的に
何をすべきかは人に言われるまでもなく、まして坊主に説教されるまでもなく誰もが解っている事です。
釈尊はこれを指摘して「法」がいかに全てをカバーし有効に機能しているかを説明しただけで、別に
[法]やモラルを発明して人類に与えた訳ではありません。(僕は単にそれを図式化して説明しただけです)
元々「法」の中に無我も慈善も含まれているのですが人間、我や欲、執着があって素直に「法」を
見る事、従う事ができない。 で、小乗仏教では細かく禁忌義務を列記して、
形の上だけでも「法」に従った、つまり悟りを開いたとされる人間を生産しようとした訳です。
しかし何百もの禁忌を記憶しそれにこだわりつつ生きる事自体が雑念ではないか?となった。
ここから大乗ヘの進化が始まった訳です。
—
「法」は全ての人間に(実は虫けらにも)元々備っていて雑念がそれをマスクしているだけだから
要は無心になれば良いーーーとは言うものの、それ程簡単ではない。
「精々努力しなさい。しかしムリしなさんな」というのが「中道」と言うもの。
極端に執着したり固定観念でタメにするのは別として人が人として自然に着想してやっていく事は
「法」の内と見るのが大乗です。 しかし、それならー流の職人が寝食を忘れて完璧を追求するのは何か?
あるいは連続強姦魔はどうなのか?ーーーなどというタメにする質問が出たら、
質問者をー発ドツケば即解決する。禅は明解です。
—–
面白いのは長年黙々と手作業をやって来た人、全く空しく水面を見つめて来た釣り帥などの中に
しばしば「ムッ、お主できるな」という人物がいる事です。ーーーで、この効果を意図的に再現するように
考えたのが、それぞれの宗派の「行」で、全く何の足しにもならない事を延々と繰り返させる。
初めは疑問や不平があってもいずれ思念を放棄し黙々とやるようになる。意図的に与えられたものでも
無心に遂行する心理、行動様式が定着すると余計な思考や逡巡なく物事を処理できるようになる。
ーーーーー(僕はこれを仏教の持つ第3のアスぺクト=心理工学と呼んだ訳ですが)
(思念のマスクが取除かれると潜在意識の中にプログラムされていたものが反射的に出る。.しかし、
本人すら自覚していないものが何故そこに在るのか?ーーーだからそれが「法」なのだ、と説明する)
無心とは、一切の構えなく心を開く事でもありますから自由な発想を持つには最適ーーーで、
それをテストする為に僕は色々変なものを発想しては、それを作っている訳です。
実験心理学、実験仏教学と言う所以です。
ーーーーーーーーーー
___/\___ Yoshizen 拝
—–
SELF again ? ! ! !
One of my friend who is a believer of the Brahmanism sent me a link to the site showing a (long )
conversation between a Guru and a follower.
—– www.krishnamurthys.com/profvk/advaitadialoguepage1.html
—————
Gosh ! Is it going on to 1008 lines ?
It’s a good sample of 3~4000 years argument.
My blog having strange conflict about this. And 2000 years still no answer was found 😀
The argument is time-consuming and on the end no answer —– so,
Buddha cut off the time-waster “No such things like the Self ”
—–Though, the obvious trouble is — I’m still here, Who Am I ?
In my Blog, I’m saying True Self is in our subconsciousness but it is not the self but the Dharma.
And the apparent self — Self-conscious is false or self-conceived illusion.
Still, leaving murkiness — When enlightened man sees the ” Dharma let this hand move” and created
something ( by himself ) — whose hands did the work. Undeniably it was the same, very man —– though,
he was working in deep concentration (abandon himself / he was not even aware his eyes were watching
his work )—–there was no Self, as he was in Mushin, state of the Mind of No-mind ).
———- Your Brahmanism, your Guru is talking about abstract definition of the Self —– but
Buddha was talking about mental-state / neurophysiology.
Because, Life is not in your abstract imagination —– but you actually need to DO and LIVE.
And when you can achieve much better result “ Do it in Mushin ” why you need to have
conscious of Self / notion of Self.
When a Bank rend you a good money, you don’t need to think about the financial system behind the banking
operation —– you just invest the money into your business and work hard.
—– Buddhism is the pragmatic answer, the best answer applicable to the real life.
Not for a philosopher. Buddha didn’t need to save the Philosopher / Brahman.
He wanted to save the real people.
—
By the way, those conversation is the long tradition of which even Buddha did it with his disciples, and
the origin of the Rinzai-Zen though, as you too might have found, it’s hard to read 1008 lines without
fallen asleep 😀
That’s why I’m suggesting ” Cut a lemon—> and learn Mushin ” 😀
———- Convinced ? 😀
—–
There is a story of Buddha attending to a man wounded by an arrow.
His disciples were wondering from where the arrow could have been shot, the material it is made of, who
could have shot it etc etc, while the man was dying !
Buddha said ” Gentlemen ! STOP !!! Attend to the man first, before he dies !!!”
This is Buddha’s revolution with respect to Hindu philosophy 😀
—-
I’m well aware except few differences, there is little distance between Buddhism Dharma and
the Brahman / Atman. —– Yet its argument wouldn’t help much to the human life.
So, I would concentrate pragmatic implication ” Just Do It ” 😀
Because we can’t create our life just by imagining it. We have to LIVE, while we LIVE.
___/\___
—-
DISASTER in Japan
–
–
–
–
——————————————————– Here Everything was lost
—————————————————–anything remains is the HOPE
————————————————–and the WILL to Re-build the LIFE.
–
–
–
–
Seeing the Earth Quake and the Tsunami report from Japan is nothing but a heart-braking to me.
To see a photo of a flatten muddy field which caption says, There used be a town, its empty span of
nothingness shocked and made me wordless. Emptiness of almost perfectly flushed-out field.
—
It seemed, the western reporter, photographer prefer to pick up dramatically or even funnily
piled-up devastation. An orgy of destruction. ——— but to Japanese, as I am, it is not funny at all
nor the object to be amazed.
—
Another cultural differences appeared in the western media is, all the report found it is even strange,
the reporters unanimously says ” how Japanese can keep emotion in check and stays calm ?”
The emotion is the default feeling of the human-being, hence it is more or less the same to any
culture. Though, emotional expression is not instinctive, in other words, it is cultural.
Whether it is emotional or not, expression is a way of the communication, therefore even
an emotional expression is dependent on the situation.
—– there was an interesting psychological study and the video images of the small children.
When a small child stumbled and fallen, having a pain the child started to cry. —– You will think it is
a natural emotional reaction.
Though when the same child stumbled and fallen on the empty street where nobody else is in sight
( except a hidden video camera ), child didn’t cry, and stand up by herself.
This is the true nature of the human-being. —– communication is to appeal to others.
Having emotion is one thing. To express is other.
If there is no other person to help, no need to express. —– even small child knows this
and behave accordingly.
AAAAA
In the western culture, where the Ethos and the psyche was shaped in the cast of Judia-Christian religion.
In there, the God is a humanized image or notion. And the relation of the believer to
the God is one-by-one base. You have to stand before the God in person. Hence you have to talk or express
to him — otherwise you can’t to be heard.
Therefore, unless you express and assert your Self, you are not exist. And under this understanding
even a word expressed by a person may not necessary enough. Hence, a written contract became essential.
So that, express and express and make a claim is the basis of the psyche.
And as the relation to the God is one-by-one, when something happened, shout “ Why me “
AAAAA
In comparison, the Eastern God or the place of the mighty power is the Heaven,
or Buddhist’s explanation is the Dharma. The rules of the Universe.
Regardless, whether you face it or not, believe or express yourself or not, you are under the Dharma.
As all the occurrences and the existences are in this Dharma or under this Dharma, hence even a huge
natural disaster may produced by this same Dharma, hence you can’t argue with it.
Nor there is no use to complain or express your emotion. —– Shout and cry is no use. The matter is
just think what you can react to the situation. What you have to do the next.
And in the case of huge natural disaster, as the same fate has come to everybody, and as everybody
was created by the same Dharma, everybody has the same feeling and facing the same situation,
one crying wouldn’t make situation any better.
Thanks to Japan has very little foreign element in their psyche, everybody is sharing the same psyche
—– even to the people who was not affected by the disaster, they share the same pain,
hence the help started almost instantly. And no looting at all.
—
In the Buddhist’s explanation, this is the moment when the Dharma prevailed.
As everybody having the Dharma in them, when they sees the situation far beyond the human
comprehension, lost the word, hence lost any thinking, therefore the mind became
blank = blank open space = Mushin —> The Dharma, hence its nature of Charity and compassion prevailed.
And the Dharma is inside, whether the police is there or not, no looting occure. Since Dharma knows it.
—-
I only hope the people who had this disaster to recover and able to re-build their life.
( And in this given opportunity, Japanese can root out their rotten government and rotten policy in their
nuclear generating system )
___/\___
—
Review of the Post
One of my friend gave me a review of latest post ” Third Aspect in Buddhism “ and said,
” You did a dissection of the Buddhism, not with a scalpel but using a machete, cut it open and
made its body visibly spread wide.” —– M m m, was it awful ?
Not necessary, but quite drastic, nobody had ever attempted it before kind of action.
But, as it showed the Buddhism graphically spread open, it made the people to position
where they are standing about, and made them to see which direction is the next step to take.
———- It must be true. As soon as I uploaded the post, many Links were made and the access
was just kept growing and growing, and so far made second highest hit among my posts.
And something amazesed me was, a day before I posted
” Burden ??? ” and ” Third Aspect –“, when I had bought top-up
voucher for my Inter-net connection, that notorious 8150 number
appeared in its top-up code. —– Its mean, Buddha did know what
I was going to do before hand, and telling me its importance.
I’m not a vegetated peace-loving Buddhist as I had no hesitation
to use a machete to cut open the confusion in the Buddhism.
But in the same time, I still retain the attitude to bow the mystery of
the Dharma who seemed to watching me.
This is the Aspect, Buddhism as a Religion, and I keep my faith there.
___/\___
—
Hidden burden in BUDDHISM
Hidden is not necessary appropriate word. To the people who is aware of it, it is nothing new but
because of it is not convenient or sound nice, it has been stashed away or intentionally ignored, hence
it was rarely talked about, —– YET, it is the most crucial element and the steps of which
a Buddhist had to take once in their pathway.
—–
Go back to the Kisa Gotami story, —– What was her Contemplation ?
Was that just an acceptance of the life’s reality and the surrender to a force of the Dharma ?.
What was the meaning “Surrender” to the Dharma ? —– obviously, it is silly to stand against the Dharma,
therefore, it is no point to talk about the general condition of human existence, as man’s
existence is a minute from the beginning.
Superficially the teaching in the story of Kisa Gotami is an acceptance of the life’s undeniable reality= Dharma.
Yet hidden in the story, was her Self Denial —– not just accept the Dharma, but there was much more
personal, strong feeling of the failure, as a mother and a wife.
In fact, it was a rigid patriarchal society where a wife’s role and the duty was to bear a son.
A woman can assert her status only as the mother of the heir. Having her son’s death, she was
facing not only the grief of her loved child but a crisis to be branded as a woman of failure.
—– To accept the emotional trauma of both grief and the feeling of failure in fully minded
depth was, in deed her contemplation.
Discovering the harsh reality and found no possibility to find the seeds to revive her dead child,
psychologically she was stripped naked, left alone in the void of blank space —– she became
a clean blank sheet of paper, well prepared to listen the teaching of Buddha.
And Buddha knew she will reach to this state of mind when she come back. ( That’s why he sent
her out for a journey ) So that, when Buddha saw her come back without carrying heavily deluded
expectation and clean calmed face, he gave her kind consolation and the words of wisdom.
—-
Often forgotten or rather intentionally ignored fact of the Buddha’s life is that,
once Buddha was a renegade of the ascetic holy man’s lank.
In order to soften the blow, this story was changed to rather positive description of that
Buddha found the better way to reach the truth, other than torturing the body and the mind —– though,
the eyes of the society then and to the mind of himself, he knew he was a renegade until
Buddha found his own answer —– real truth and the way to reach there.
In the man’s life, anything has happened was, in fact placed there to be happened.
Same apply to the Buddha’s life as well. —– If he didn’t join the holy man’s lank and learned among them
and then abandon its practice, the Buddhism today is not exists.
In other words, the elements and the experiences Buddha gained while he spent a time among
the ascetics, and above all, the contemplation he got when he became a renegade was a key
to reach the Buddhism.
When Buddha abandon and let such practice go, he was literally a broke. no margin to retain
any ego or arrogance left, and having the deep blank space in his mind —– the mind was
completely open. Buddha was ready to configure his understanding from the deep depth of
his subconsciousness. ——————-> (read again and have enough time to visualize those words)
And Buddha’s blank space in his mind, completely open subconscious inspiration was
able to see the invisible rules of the Dharma which we call Panya Paramita.
Here the Buddhism was born.
—–
It must be clear, it sound not very pretty though, a defeated completely lost mind, or utterly
desperate feeling of failure, —– utterly denied and hopeless ego, utterly powerless feeling
and so on, —– is the key to gain a blank space or completely open humble mind.
Which can be bracketed as a Self Denial.
May be not, not pretty, but sound rather dreadful 😀
But this is the key step to start to receive the teachings. —– hidden and yet another unfortunate
aspect of the Buddhism.
Yet, even The Great Teacher Buddha went through this, how can we avoid to take this step ?
Sound too much ? —– OK, I leave the analysis to the next post 🙂
___/\___
—

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