Cherry Cherry – 2016

Those photos were from the several Cherry trees,
probably the last cherry photos of this year.








Lens used was that modified Tokina-Wide-Converter
with bellows on Canon 5D Mk-III.
—– Don’t you agree, £1 junk from an Odds n’ Ends box
of a Camera shop wasn’t too bad. 😀
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Self — No-Self
This was quoted from a part of the previous post.
(To talk about the SELF need to recognize the existence of it = need to
have yet another Self to observe its existence ! — if you can aware/
observe yourself, your observer has already alienated YOU. )
—– it seems I need to say a bit more :
When you got another “You” = you are no longer innocent happy mam.
Instead you start try to impose “What you’ve conceived your figure”
which is no more than a wish-full imagination OR distorted, depressed
“Hate-figure”.
To see the True figure of Yourself is one of the most difficult
task in the life. = First of all, it is hidden deep in your
subconscious,
and often, half of them were what you don’t want see.
So, the most of the people try to make-up something looks good,
(to satisfy your Ego, pride/vanity and want to show-off to others)
—– though, not necessary everybody, everything to be such ugly.
= Try to do better IS the default of our survival instinct !
(If we fail, the repercussion/drawback would be harsh ! = even a
fraud-star try to invent better story, and sword-master
practiced hard to kill the enemy )
So that, in the Four Noble Truth in the Buddhist Teachings,
“The effort to seek the Enlightenment” is very natural.
—– When you fail, still to see straight to the “Failed Yourself” =
IS in fact, a kind of the Enlightenment. (according to the Mahayana)
(To see yourself as it IS = IS see it without any impose = No-Ego, No-Self !)
= Don’t worry, relax ! 😀
___/\___
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Paradox on No-Self
Despite the Buddhism IS the teachings of the NO-Self,
there is no explanation of “What is no-self” in the scripture.
Even more peculiar phenomena were = there were hundreds,
if not thousands of description of “the ideal person” still
there was no words saying that the man has no-self. — Why ?
Because there IS NO-Self.
(To talk about the SELF need to recognize the existence of it = need to
have yet another Self to observe its existence ! — if you can aware/
observe yourself, your observer has already alienated YOU. )
.
Our feeling was induced by the Limbic System of our brain.
In fact, all the signal from the sensing organs goes to the
Limbic System first and the most of important process =
selection of those signal, cognition, judgement etc etc were
done in there and only the last result goes to the New Cortex
of the brain and then converted to the conscious and given
the lexical interpretation. = It’s mean, we human being has
enough wisdom to sense the environment and judge the
appropriate response to have the daily life by the process of
the Limbic System alone though, all those feelings and the
process are hidden under the darkness of the Subconscious/
Unconsciousness they ARE invisible for the most of us.
Those process were called instinct though as they were
hidden, often we don’t know why we took such reaction.
So that, when we say “This IS my decision and how I think”
they ARE only a conscious part of the process in the brain.
= And we called this = “Self-Conscious” and the SELF.
Lord Buddha saw this Self-Conscious as a mere delusion
and it was coherent with the view of No-Self = Anatman.
=== To become aware of the SELF is the sign of
the alienation to yourself and the break-down of Mushin.
(State of the Mind of No-mind) —– It IS the paradox.
And this paradox, delusion IS the loot-cause of the
discord to our nature / Dharma.
___/\___
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Enigmatic ?
People says that the Buddhism is the enigma.
Well, if the person says it’s an enigma, the person knows it half.
Half ? —– Yes the person already learned half of it !
It’s remarkable, despite the Buddhism is in the enigma.
Why it’s in enigma ? = Because the Buddhism is not teaching
the crucial matter in the words.
Why ?
Because, to learn it without the words is crucial, therefore
it wouldn’t be taught or explained by the words.
So, to know the situation and able to describe its Enigma is a
sure sign of that the person did come half way. = It’s great.
Well done.
(The point of this was described in this post.) = and as the story
tells, it’s point / secret was not clearly understood even by the
Lord Buddha’s closest disciple Ananda.
—– Because the teachings of Selfless or learning of selfless has
to be done in Selfless = It’s mean without the person aware of it
= couldn’t be told / couldn’t be heard. = Once you consciously
heard the word / explanation, your conscious / Self become
aware of it = it IS a breakdown of the Selfless.
Lord Buddha taught Selfless in this way (could anyway else ?) =
so, the Buddhism was seen to be an Enigma.
[]
Hence, you have to learn Buddhism / Zen in a Selfless way = it’s
mean you just do the practice until you get the Selfless state =
Mushin (Mind of no-mind).
And when you become able to live in the selfless way, you are
NOT conscious of your state, therefore you can NOT able to
observe yourself = you can NOT describe it in the words.
= So, you don’t know what it IS, nor others know either !
Everything stays in the depth of Subconscious.
Therefore, the Buddhism stays in Enigma.
—– IS it clear ? (= it’s a paradox isn’t it !) 😀
___/\___
Test of Selflessness (The most important Post)
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Ephemeral Evanescence

Beauty in Japanese nature and the people’s life style, well
harmonized with its nature is so famous = so, you may think.
And you may think a famous touristic spot of such as the
Cherry Blossom is naturally there from ancient time.
Well, this IS the biggest paradox or contradiction, even
a trick in the Japanese culture. = Virtually all the famous
Cherry spots are intentionally created by planting the tree
which was artificially grafted and propagated Somei-yoshino.
—– Cherry tree has limited life about 60~100 years.
Therefore, those Cherries of the famous places has been
re-planted 2~3 times since the original Somei-yoshino came.
(simply, when the tree became too big, they brake and fall)
Because of the Somei-yoshino could only be propagated by
grafting, unless the tree was intentionally planted,
it wouldn’t exist there. They are the Created Art.
The situation is the same in those Japanese gardens,
even a garden in the Buddhist temple was “created”
= Still they look like a real landscape in great nature.
(I don’t think, you ever imagined that famous Rock Garden
in the Ryoan-ji temple did naturally exists there. 😀 )
It’s like a Bonsai ! Looks like a great tree in the nature —
though, to create those realistic Bonsai tree, the craftsman
spent 10 even 50 years to shape it. = This IS the Zen.
The most peculiar things in the Japanese culture / Ethos is
such Zen Ethos has been kept not only by the monk or
religious people but by everybody without their conscious.
Zen doesn’t speak. It have to be learned by looking and to
try oneself. Therefore, what learned couldn’t be explained.
(Because they are not aware of it, they don’t talk about,
therefore, foreign journalist could not find and describe it.
= So, the Japanese mind/attitude/Ethos stay in the myth.)
And the Zen Ethos of impermanence/ephemerality, even a
death has been symbolized in the Japanese Cherry Blossom.
( = Beauty in its fall !)
(Hence, lots of Japanese Military establishments having their emblem
with Cherry flower pattern, and their barrack has Cherry garden.
And the Kamikaze suicidal-rocket-bomb made on the last stage of the
last war was named Ouka = 桜花 = Cherry Blossom )
[]
Zen and its ethos keep driving the Japanese to even more
refinement/improvement = So that, the next generation of
Somei-yoshino is coming as the Jindai-akebono which is
stronger than Somei-yoshino against the virus.
(This new variety of Cherry has been created by crossing the
Edo-higan Zakura and the (almost original) Somei-yoshino
back from Washington USA. Now the Flower Association of
Japan stop to distribute Somei-yoshino and recommending
to plant Jindai-akebono.) (The name Jindai = because it
was established in the Jindai Botanical Garden in Tokyo)
—– to express the beauty and its ephemerality and the tree
to symbolize it = Cherry = and the quest to develop stronger
tree in order to express ephemerality is a real paradox. 😀
[]
Cherry by Soft Lenses

The photos here were taken from the same Cherry tree as
the previous post. (As they are not plain 5 petals flower,
this is not Somei-yoshino)
The softness (? Blur) on the previous post were created by
the Focus-Shift = focused image and the out-of-focus image
were mechanically superimposed on the shot. — But here,
the softness was caused optically by the lens’ aberration.
= Those first 4 photos were taken by the homemade
single glass lens = nicknamed “Gaudy lens” .

Among my homemade lenses, this is the most useful,
easy to use lens.

You may say, the aberration of this lens is too much
though, this is what I wanted. 🙂


Above those two photos, you can see the type of
softness are very different. = The photo above and
the following 3 photos were taken by the modified
(front diverging lens was removed)



Regardless the technical blur blur, all about
the photography (or any art) the matter is the
end result = if it is good, it’s good.
Nothing else. 😀
(And when the result was the same, the cheaper
the cost is the better.)
[]
Cherry in Focus-Shift blurr

Don’t panic on your eyesight. It’s not your eyes.
The picture here IS shaky ! 😀

The photo above/top was the photo, made by a “Focus-Shift”
(while the shutter was open, the focus has been moved) =
hence created funny blurred image.
The lens used was a specially modified Canon EFS 18~55mm =
(modified to fit onto 5D and its focusing motor has been made
to work with external signal)
—– the photo below was a normal shot for a comparison
(same lens but without focus shift.)

This cherry IS the same tree which I nicknamed the
Perpetual Cherry, since it’s flowering even in the Autumn.
And she was photographed here by the same modified
18~55 mm lens though, this focus-shift technique doesn’t
necessary suit for this shot. 😀
(= so, it’s just a demonstration to see the effect)
Unlike the other soft-focus lens which gives only a fixed
focal-length and it’s viewing angle, this focus-shift
technique with the zoom lens gives more freedom —–
and a fun.
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First Cherry 2016
–

I’ve been closely watching this cherry tree for a past few days.
And at last on yesterday I found a first flower opened on there.
Good heavens, when I went to the tree next day with my
camera, hundred of the flowers were blooming.
(Still, it would be a week away to see it’s full blooming)

There are hundred of different cherries even in this country.
So, a kind of Kan-Zakura (Winter Cherry) has been flowering
already, yet still, this is the first typical Japanese Cherry =
Somei-yoshino’s flower I found.
—– How I can tell this IS the Somei-yoshino was,
(1) The leaves come out only after the flower.
(2) The fertility of the Somei-yoshino was very restrictive =
Somei-Y’ x Somei-Y’ can’t germinate (= with other variety can)
Therefore, we never see the Seedling under the Somei-Y’ tree.
So that, the propagation of Somei-Y’ could only be done by
grafting = Cloning = in other words, ALL the Somei-yoshino in
the world originated from a single tree found in the Somei Village,
a northern corner of Edo (Tokyo), 200 years ago. It’s mean, if the
tree was grown off a seed, it is NOT a Somei-yoshino. (= So, some
Koreans claimed that “That Cherry grow naturally in our country”
is a proof of their ignorance, how they didn’t know the history
NOR biology. = Same kind of ignorance like they claims that the
Chinese-character was invented in Korea. 😀 )
—– What so ever, I’ve been enjoying the bloom on this tree
for the past 15 years ! (But I’m not necessary happy to see the
flowers in such early timing = it’s not even April yet)
(Photos taken by the Tamron 500 mm Mirror Lens/Canon 5D Mk-3)
————————-
And now, the same Cherry have had the full bloom !

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Karma – Fate (2)

(Photo above left showing the back of the ticket on the mirror)
On the surface it may looks just a personal story though, I realized
that this IS more like a public demonstration of the “Karma at work”.
The photo above right was a letter I received some days ago which
showed that notorious number 8150 (= said to be the Sign of Haigorei)
Though, this letter has no strong significance to my life =
So, it is just an indicator lamp. Showing that the system is ON.
But what IS such system all about ? It is the system of the controlling
mechanism of the world / everything within, including the man’s Fate.
Photo above left was an One-day
Ticket of the London Transport
which is showing the same 8150.
The date was 19 Feb’ 1992 =
the deadline for me to lodge the
460 pages, x6 bundles of the
document to the Court of Appeal.
(refer to the Court Order, left) — since I received an “additional Order”
from the High Court on the morning of very day, I went to the Court Office
to have an extension of the deadline. (Which I got 2 more weeks, and spent
£ thousand more to Re-Photocopy to incorporate that additional Order. =
since the page number has been shifted, they needed to be Re-Photocopied.)
(Obviously the conspirator try to make my appeal Out of time though,
the rule is the rule = Court office had to extend the time-limit.)
Can you believe, this has been done by the English High Court themselves !
[]
For a part of my Stock-taking operation, I published the papers of
the Court battle about a month ago. Then somebody who read the
post, tipped off me a crucial info’ to incriminate the opponent.
And to find the name of the person I met then, I found this
One-day Travel-card stacked on my old diary.
All the life’s occurrences (even if it’s looks utterly a coincidence) ,
was in fact caused and placed by the Karma, and all the flow of the
life was observed by the Dharma = even my movement has been
watched by the Dharma.
(= so, the number 8150 was posted on the back of the ticket to tell
me “I know what you are doing. Carry on” —– If they want me to
stop, they could have staged an accident to destruct me.)
===This is not an imagination of the nuts. ——- Can you tell,
who could possibly watch all of our life/movement/action and
able to adjust even a number on the ticket.
(My 8150 story was just a hi-profile example to demonstrate
the existence of the Karma and the Dharma.) = What else ?
The most important matter is not the display of 8150 but having
those occurrences next by next, the troubled matter seems to
find the breakthrough and converge into the better solution.
(So, keep watch the space and see what happen on the end.)
(You may not figured out the sign/number of your case yet , but
surely they are there, otherwise how you were born as you ARE ?)
___/\___
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Spring Equinox

It’s nothing new = same old Spring Equinox and its Sunrise.
Still, a sort of significance to us IS, this sunrise IS showing exact east.
And the time should be Exact 6:00 — though, it was 6:34 — ? ? ?
(I’m not sure, this 34 minuets was due to the distance from the
Greenwich ? — or any other reason ?) Anyhow, it was the ancient
tradition to know the season from the position of the sunrise though,
how many people watching the direction of the sun in these days ?
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We can see any of the fruits or vegetables ALL year round. (Since, they
are coming from the country where got opposite season) Even worse,
if you live in London, the climate is more or less the same all year round.
So, we lost the touch of the nature. And the people who is conscious
about such as Summer Solstice and goes down to the Stonehenge was
branded to be a Nettle-picker or simply, nuts. —– Something wrong.
—– Can you expect, we are still within the boundary of the Dharma ?
Or the rules of the universe which may not to be visible to us ?
It’s true, we human being is expecting even longer life than years ago
and overcoming the trouble of diseases etc thanks to the Science and
Technology, so, you might be thinking that the everything would be
clear and any trouble would be resolved though — they are the surface.
Still, there is something behind we can’t see or notice and that IS
controlling our life.
—– Well, I’ll tell you in the next post.
___/\___
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