Walk on Greenwich

Together with a friend who started photography, walking 

the Greenwich became rather regular event.

Anyhow, spring has come and the day was so fine.

And a lots of tourists. (Nothing to do with me though.)

No complaint, or comment. —– why do I need.

(Zeiss 18mm, Tamron SP 500mm on Nikon D810 )

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Too Early Spring (2)

This is definitely a Cherry tree though, she already started to bloom. 

(on 10th of March !)

And somewhere in the town, I saw two of the Common Magnolia in full bloom.

This is yet another Magnolia tree.  

In London, the temperature became as high as 25 degree C yesterday.

May be having a warmer weather seems to be better than frosty one

—– though, I’m not necessary comfortable.     It’s something wrong.   

PS: ————————–

I just found this cherry tree in full bloom in the Greenwich.  

I’ve been here around every Wednesday though, there wasn’t a flower

last week —– and suddenly today !   🙂   ( Honest, Believe me.  😀 )

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(That) Early Cherry again

I lost the count how many times I posted the photo of this Cherry tree.

Because of this tree having the flower (almost) always, I talked

about many times, often with amazement.

She kept the full bloom from October to the next may before. But  

it was a bit low-key in last year —– still showing 10 or so flowers

always since last October and she would be in full bloom soon.  

So that I even dubbed her “Perpetual Cherry”.  Despite watching her in past

3, 4 years, still I’m not wise to tell why this tree has the flower out of season.  

—– Genetic ? = Type of variety such as crossed with Winter Cherry ?  or

just because the freak weather had triggered her to miss-judge the timing ?

What ever the cause, the weather these days are enough for her to bloom.

 

(My worry is that her branch seems to be very thin —– was that because of

the energy has been directed to the flowers and not much went to the body ?  

= we may need to give a lots of fertilizer to her ! )

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Mind-set of the Medallist

Now the news from Sochi Winter Olympic is the regular feature in the media.

So, naturally I read quite number of the words from the Medallists “How he

(or she) came to this point”. Such as the one from the first Gold Medallist

of Japan, Yuzuru Hanyu (羽生結弦) the Figure Skater.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoqHZH6KE1c

—– (Unfortunately I couldn’t find a proper video from Sochi in Youtube =

most of them are either old clips or the clip only using his name with

crap contents. = this one from last year’s competition.)

Yuzuru grown up in Sendai, Japan the place received that earthquake and

tsunami few years ago. So, even he had a part of the same fate, couldn’t

practice for 6 months, as a local ice-rink was destroyed, on top of all sorts

of life’s ups and downs. —– still, in his word on an interview, he said

“On the end I came to the point to realize that I couldn’t be anybody

more than myself or anybody less than myself, and understood, there

couldn’t be anything else but to go the life to be a skater.”

= No pretence of special pride carrying the top name or the feeling carrying

the duty to the country.   (Yet still, when he won, he carried Japanese Flag

on his shoulder. = He was thank-full to the people who supported him

back in Japan. —– He was a nice 19 years old boy !)

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This is in fact quite common feeling among the athletes who became

top medallist. = Non boasted the words like “I came to the Olympic to win

for my country”—– but “Just did my best and it happened to be an Olympic”.

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It is a common misconception = “To achieve such highest goal, it must need

to have highest concentration of the Will and the strong Mindset”.

—– strangely you might think, the stronger the will or higher the aim or

desire kind, it fails to achieve the goal. —– We human was not designed to

withstand to maintain such hard will, and our fate is not providing plain

sailing. = The higher the aim, the stronger the disappointment when the ship

hit an obstacle, then the person brake down.

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Athletes compete physical game though, it is in fact a very heavy mental game.

Minute fear or negative doubt would hinder the moment of judgement.

After thousands, tens of thousands of practices, the body got accustomed to

perform routine = let the body to perform.  = No “Will, Aim, Pride, Pretence,

Desire, Show-off, Sense of Obligation, Duty, Fear, Doubt, Arrogance or Shame”

= in other words ANY MIND was not required here.  = Just Do it.

Any how, in the moment when the athlete is competing, there couldn’t be

a margin to haggle any thought.

—– ? ? ? —– Don’t you think it’s sound familiar ?

Yes. This is exactly the same mental state to Mushin and Ichijo of the Zen.

Or, the Selflessness of the Buddhism. —– are they Buddhist ?  Not necessary.

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Lord Buddha’s teachings = Buddhism, was the wisdom learned from the

human nature, and been applied to the general aspects of the life.

Wisdom in the human nature which was prevailed in the process of extreme

practice was in fact the wisdom held by the universe = Rules of the Universe,

which is in the Buddhist’s term Dharma.

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And the contemplation those athletes has gained, is nothing but

their Enlightenment = Being nobody else of the Self, who is in fact Selfless.

= This selflessness is in deed, the Dharma.

___/\___

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Western God — Eastern Heaven

While talking with a Japanese lawyer about the Human-right, the most

fundamental difference in its origin become clear. = The origin of the

Judea-Christian God was such as like Gilgamesh who went to the heaven

and became the God. That’s why even the God speaks the same language

and able to listen a man’s play.

So that, even God’s given Ten Commandment was written in human

language but applicable only to the mankind = not to animals or to the

Great nature.   And because of the God has human origin or a product of

human imagination hence, having the same sentiment and the logic.

Therefore having the same fundamental needs, and expresses its needs as

the right (or in the other words Our EGO) and demanded.

This is a so-called human-right circulated in the western society.

—– You can imagine to live anywhere though, the people accept

you to live there is depends on their attitude = You can not demand.

You want to live is your wish though whether you can survive or not

depend on your fate.    Still believing, you can demand to your fate is,

because you know that the fate / God is negotiable, since he is a same

kind having the same mind. 

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In comparison, the Easterner has no God but the Heaven (Taoism) or

the Dharma (Buddhism) as the ruling Supreme Power.

But as it has no personified figure or human like character, it remained as an

invisible abstract notion whose power is absolute and to be feared.   Under this

Supreme Power, we exists only under its shadow.  = Nobody has independent

“Right” kind, merely having the given opportunity to stay here.  

But in the same time, this Supreme Power is not a tyrant but the power to

exercise Justice in Rational way. (= If not Rational, its system will not work.)    

Therefore the fate this Supreme Power has given us is the equivalent of

our “Right” (or the Cause of us to exist or not exist = Fate, even as a Death.)

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The idea of social system under this Eastern Ethos is = “All the system has to

be operated accordance with this Justice” = abstract notion of “Right or Wrong”

exists in the society as the Absolute Moral which is not negotiable or given a

margin of discretion.   And the most important point of this Eastern Ethos and

its system is, not just applicable to the human but it extends to all the nature.

Therefore, it causes us to exists but in the same time, in the same extent,

it causes the rain or even earthquake to occur = all the dynamism of

the Dharma or Power of the Heaven.

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So-called Civil-right has its origin in more or less the same story.   Such as like

King John who was forced to sign the Magna Carta, he was not a man of

Supreme Power = merely yet another Warlord, who happen to be a King then.

So, as a part of negotiation and the expression of power balance, the Magna Carta

was composed. = It was nothing like the God’s given Right to preserve human

dignity but a mare bargain of do and do not.

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In comparison, eastern Emperor was the Heaven-chosen Ruler ! (In its legend ! 😀 )

So, his power is absolute and not negotiable at all. —– the trade-off to the ruler is,

he couldn’t make a mistake since he was supposed to be the wisest-man who is able

to see the invisible sign of the Heaven to know incoming disaster etc etc —– if failed,

he would be ousted by the popular up-rise. (This was the Chinese history in the past

4000~5000 years !) —– In contrast, the authority of Japanese Emperor has never

been contested and its blood-line has never broken in the past 2000 years.  So that,

former Palace of the Emperor in Kyoto has no defence structure at all, ie; no high

wall or moat, since it was not necessary as Emperor never made mistake and nobody

ever stand against him.   (Current Palace in Tokyo was originally built for Shogun.) 

(Any short coming occured, it was all due to his courtier or minister’s mistake and

their head could have been chopped off, leaving the Emperor’s authority intact. :-D)

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—– in such system, there couldn’t be a prescribed law to guaranty the right of the

subjects, since there could always be the different condition and circumstances.

Therefore, the precedence never be generalised = always, “Such and such year

what was said” and it only worked as a reference. = had no bounding power.

= Everything was depends on the discretion of the Emperor or the Shogun.

So, this was the reason why in the Eastern society there couldn’t be the

development of Human-Right has ever taken place. = Since there couldn’t be

a possibility of negotiation against the ultimate, invisible power. —– but the

western idea of Human-right was made up with a negotiation between the

[Man] and a notion of yet [Another Man with power] therefore, a reasonable

line was drawn as applicable to the both side.

= So, it’s funny to hear that the so-called Western Human-right said to have

divine origin. ( Oh, really, what’s divine you meant ? !   😀 )

(Eastern philosophy never indulge [So-called Equality] = IF it exists, it negates

the fundamental teachings of the Karma and the Moment dependence of the

Dharma (and one’s life).  —– The reason why the Sangha of

Lord Buddha had no Cast in its group was, not because of the notion of Equality

but because of the cause to generate a Cast, the SELF of Previous Life is not exists.

But it doesn’t mean, the person would be born Karma Free. = Far from it,

If The Karma doesn’t exist, the Cause to create the person is neither there.

= Person wouldn’t come to this world. 😀

Can you ever imagine that you can force the Karma to create you with

the want of Human-right. 😀

(You can not negotiate it with the Karma, but you just follow.   😀 )

___/\___

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New year’s First Sunrise — (well, almost)

New year’s First Sunrise —– well, not quite.  It’s the second one.  

Yesterday was a bit cloudy = so, this is in deed, the first opportunity

to take picture though ……… I didn’t even go out of my room,

let alone go-up a hill or a beach to take typical photo.

Worse still, I didn’t even rise a bamboo blind.  Still, with a longer 

lens with its shallow depth of field, bamboo-blind was disappeared.  

And at least, the photo on top is a genuine photo of SUNRISE !

—– but, first of all, why do we bother a day next of 31st of December ?    

or So-called New year’s day.  

It’s not even a Winter Solstice-day = just arbitrarily man-named day

= a products of human imagination.     Nothing absolute !

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We human invented so many rules and the patterns for us

to be bound or even enslaved by it.  

Like, if we use English, we have to follow its strict rules.  

Or some of the people created their own God and follow it.

—– so, to take a special significance of the NEW-YEAR’S DAY

—– IS just depends on our mind-set.  

Mind has created “Special Day” and the mind enforce its belief.

—– still, it is only in our imagination.  It might be fun and

able to have a kind of comfort to feel a part of the larger society

though —– we may better to think “Why do I follow this ?”

There could be the other kind of life “If not follow it”.

Enlightenment is to liberate the mind yet I wouldn’t simply say

brake the convention —– to chose the same convention, same

conclusion could be a feasible choice. 

Still, to see it in different eyes, everyday could be a fresh first day.

Have a peaceful and joyful year.

___/\___

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What’s there ?

Here the question is ” Is there or not there”  ” What’s there” in

a photo or behind the photography.

This is an obvious subject,  nobody would give any argument

what it is.   And even without photograph, it still exists = photo is

mere secondly image of the existence.  Photo didn’t make it exists.

This image has no significance = It’s just there, like a subject.

But you may puzzle what this is ?  

What photographed here is the whole possession of a homeless person.  

Still some would say “So, what” —– OR others may see the meaning in

social issue or even philosophical aspects “What’s the human existence”

yet, visually they are just a lots of plastic bags on a bicycle. Nothing else.

More than that is all in your mind.

It’s all depends on, whether you make a mountain out of this heap.

Some might be good deep insights otherwise just the delusions.

Before one photographic image,  we have to see what a person

who is photographing has seen or conceived,  let alone aimed.

But who can see it clear —– and, who knows how real what we’ve seen.   

What I’m seeing might be there —– is it ?  Where ? Here or there or behind. 

We may not able to define what we are seeing unless we intentionally

impose a preconception, what I want to see, and reconstruct

the image OR story.

And it depend what we can see or what we know. —– or believe to know.

And if we know, —– can we be any wiser ?   Really ? ? ?

Is there any use,  if I told you what it was ?

In reality, we may not seeing any, let alone knowing, are they

really there.  So, this is the real situation, and how and what they are.

(If you want to see the VOIDNESS in much more symbolic

elaborated image, it is your pretence and the arrogance !)

—– truth might be just empty space.

= Don’t struggle.  Let it be and see just as it is.  Don’t make-up the order.

(F&M’s Cherubs were in a mess of reflection = that was how they were.  :-D)

By nature, as it is empty from the beginning, see as it is, be with it, is Ichijo.

Be with emptiness mean the mind is not there = Mushin.

Don’t impose own order mean = no complaint. What’s wrong with it ?  😀

—– So, it’s nice to be in PEACE.

___/\___

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Fort’Mason’s Cherub

These days, all the job for the Angel has been monopolized by

the Cherub or other order has been made redundant.

And the another question is —– wait a moment, in mediaeval time

had Cherub wearing pants ? —– When they started to put it on ?

As far as I remember, I never seen Cherub wearing

dark red pants —– or was that trendy Pampers ?

Anyhow, don’t take it anything serious.   Ha ha ha  😀

And he used be a Cherub, (didn’t you know) still he is a

very very nice Angel.

Fruits Fly

It seems different people call different Fruits Fly though, I’m talking

about very small common Fruits Fly in England.    While Googling, I

found that the others are having the same problem of Fruits Fly.

——( Dead Fruits Flies I found, and they were photographed by Nikkor 24mm F2 lens,

Reverse-mounted with extension-ring on Canon 5D Mk-III — as a X5 Macro-close-up) 

—– they suddenly appear in mass and start to pest the place.

Of cause, I wouldn’t believe that they naturally generated —– there

must be somewhere something nursing them.    But what was that ?

I certainly don’t have rotten fruits or cow-dung dropped in my room.

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When I was in my junior school, there was a kind of out of course

biology project = To receive a bottle of fruits fly and keep them in

a warm condition.   Then next week, 10 of the pupil brought back

each bottle and counted the number of hatched fly — how many of

them had black eyes etc.  Actuary, we were assisting the researcher’s

study (without understanding what for we are doing.  :-D)

Anyhow, still we learned how to nurse Fruits Fly with a gluey

yeast-starch mix and to see them hatch less than 10 days.

= It’s mean, when one female came into the room and laid the eggs,

a week to 10 days later, suddenly the room would have 100 of them

flying around.

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While observing where they are frocking, I realized that the fruits

skin peel etc anything sweet and wet in the bin is attracting them.

On top of those, I discovered that quite number of them penetrated

the polythene bag of Raisin loaf through small gap = they must have

laid hundreds of the eggs on the raisin. = If I didn’t notice, I could

have eaten plenty protein as well.   (That was how the Essential

Amino-acid was delivered to the “Strict Vegetarian” 🙂 )

—– then battle commence.   Since then, any wet or not completely

dry rubbish, mostly fruits peel kind were lapped-up in polythene bag

and goes to the bin and any soft food goes either fridge or plastic

container with lid.   I needed to make my room as dessicated and futile

as a desert, making them to convince “It’s better to go somewhere else”.  

( I did composting before though, I have no garden of compost to go,

and it’s bin itself became a center of unpleasant insects, fly etc

= So, I gave up the idea.)

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So that, in reality, to have an ecological, naturally harmonious life =

“Happily Live Together with other small Lives” is = sound sweet but

not practical or ideal at all.    In fact nothing but a pretentious fraud.

We shouldn’t forget  “To keep hygienic, clean life” is no other than

the practice to persecute against the pests and the germs.

The Bottle-fly or Cockroach are just having their own life that all.

Even AIDS virus is surely the other life-form. They only happen to

cross over the boundary to the human life and created the conflict.

—– People expecting a beautiful Butterfly just fly over their flowers,

still never anticipates their larvae could infest their plant in their

garden. —– if they saw it, certainly 99% of them will kill it.

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It easy to make-up a softy face and preach love and compassion kind

—– Oh !   Really ?

= Better not to be a filthy hypocrite. I rather stay to be a honest tyrant,

killing millions of grains and beans every year, on top of billions of

other invisible small creatures and the germs for my comfort and the

survival. —– To know the real extent, how we are relying on the sacrifice

of other life-form = Exact reality of the Karma, not a convenient pretty

story to justify and glorify ourselves, is the duty to be a real Buddhist.  

Scripture spent so many pages to explain about the Oneness  (Ichijo —

such as that “Giving, even without having a conscious of giving” ==>

having pretentious mind is too remote from the Buddhism.)

We need to see and think it in person.

___/\___

PS:  Since when my flat was made a desert, they just disappeared

and I only managed to find two dead bodies —– Where had they gone ? 

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Last Remain of Flowers —– of this year ?

When I was a bit younger and in business, there was a phrase “4 o’clock irritation”.

= before closing time, something could still be done —– otherwise, became too late,  

so, what has been done, haven’t been done etc ETC ! —– You know what I mean  😀

—– And coming to the time 4 o’clock in my life, I have to do the stock-taking.

= And in the same context (Useless thinking in Buddhist’s term  😀 ) see the nature

and feel  “Oh, you still giving your effort” — but with sigh.

Don’t think.  Just see as they are.

Some might have done the work.  More than enough or just — what ever

it was a given opportunity and only an opportunity.

(What a bloody hell, Xmas is next month —- I thought,

Xmas was yesterday !)  😀  😀

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