Season’s Greeting / BUDDHA Figure

Buddha-2009

with the  Buddha 2009‘s  image and the Wheel of Life.

Christmas is, for me it is much of a havoc as all the shops

close and the transports stops etc, than  to celebrate.

Though, to a lots of my friends, it is the occasion to have a

good time and get drunk, which I don’t do. ———-

no drug, no alcohol, no gamble, no woman ( how nice  😀  )

still eat anything but not processed food or fizzy drinks.

——- so, I’m making a sheer joke, I’m a holy man    Ha Ha Ha   😀

———————

To see the details of the figure, please click on the photo to enlarge.

Don’t miss the internal reflection, the image of  Wheel of the Life

in his glass  head  ( In the Selfless state, the fundamental rule of Dharma would  revealed  itself).

(This reflection is an optical false image, it will change with a direction to see. It is there as not there )

——– This glass head was made by a technician  who has made the glass housing of

the Hubble Space Telescope’s Image sensor which brought us unprecedented clearest images

of the Universe.  ( To meet this technician happened by the series of sheer coincidences, which I would

call, Karmic encounter. ——- Buddha’s figure may wanted to have his head connected to the Universe )

——————–

Why he was depicted in such a poor looking figure ?   you might say.

Buddha himself chosen to be a Bikku (beggar), and from where, the teaching of the Buddhism

was started.  If he had stayed as the richly ornated Royal Prince, the great teachings of the Buddhism

couldn’t have born.  We have to follow this origin, without additives or glorious decoration.

Without  weapon he was the strongest teacher.  Without any ornament he was the most precious figure.

So, I made him by using recycled materials except the head (and a Hi-power LED inside) though,

some may say, I wasn’t rich enough to buy gold leaf to gritter.  ( So, your donation of a piece

of cloth to wrap his body would be much appreciated   🙂 )

——————–

It is difficult to see from the photo though, a  skull head was held on his hand.

One eye of the skull reflects the twisted, distorted image, and the another shows straight image,

its meant, that is what we have to see the world.

( The rest of the concepts were explained in the post  ” Odd news “)

***

* * *  Hope all of you have a soul fulfilling  and peaceful  New Year  2010  * * *

———- As the Sun is coming back, its would be brighter any way  😀

***

Why Subconscious (1)

Many of you who have read some other posts here, may wondered Why I’m bothering

Subconscious so much ?

(1)  The first reason is;  Fundamentally the  Selflessness appeared when the incoming

signal of visual, sound, linguistic etc what ever, has not been connected to the emotion.

This brain activity is taking place, in deed, subconsciously.

And only in the Selfless state the one can see and communicate with the Dharma.

Therefore, to gain a control of this process, we need to access into our subconscious.

——————–

(2)  The second reason is;  If we need to control our Ego, Selfish-Self, Delusions etc,

which is hiding in our Emotion or primitive region of our brain, not to mention the troublesome

our instincts, we have to deal  with very subconscious.

——————–

(3)  The third reason is;  as all of our brain activities are carried out without our conscious.

We only know the end result when it was converted to the linguistic context (to the words) or

visual image or action of muscle etc, without even knowing how this result has been deduced ,

induced or inferred by the algorithm there( which all the attempt to simulate by Artificial Intelligence (AI)

had failed ) So that,  we can not discuss the matter while avoiding to touch the matters in subconscious.

On top of this, the basis of those process are relying on our accumulated knowledge, or

[ Data Bank ] (I discussed this in earliest post) which we gathered mostly unconsciously.

Even worse, some part of our  [ Data Bank ] seemed to contain even the Genetic Memories which we

inherit from remote ancestors, which we may only see under the heavy trans like state of the mind.

Trouble of those hidden file is, it quietly influence our perception, way of thinking  and the life itself.

——————–

Of cause, non of the Mantra said anything near to this kind of observation, because of it is not

visible and easy to explain, and anyway, the notion of subconscious was not exist in ancient time.

Still, the Buddhism  managed to control those matters in subconsciousness without knowing how its works.

So, it must be said, the one who discovered this phenomena, Buddha had really incredible insight.

He had seen the invisible phenomena which hadn’t have even the notion or the word to describe it.

Most crucial Paradox

” You can’t run as long as you got legs “

This is THE most crucial Paradox in the Buddhism.

” As long as you have an intention to attain  Selflessness or  Enlightenment,

you can’t get it until you loose its intention.”

This sound almost like ” You can’t run as long as you got your legs ”  isn’t it.  How funny ! ! !

But this is true, you can’t run as long as you got legs. Ha Ha Ha   😀

——————–

Why this is true is, its true in the Buddhist’s context.  In the Buddhist’s context, when they says

anything about ” is there or not there ” it is not Physical existence of the object,

but  subjective conscious of its object.

So, as long as you are conscious of the legs or noticing its existence, in another word,

if you are thinking of it——– you can’t run (in its full potentials )

So, the Buddhist says, as long as you are conscious of your Self, and conscious about

your life, you can’t achieve its maximum potential.  Neither you get your Enlightenment.

( They are quite harsh aren’t they.   😀  )

In fact, there is an answer, leave the business to your subconscious.

Daily Job

” Your boring Job would lead you to the ZEN “

One of the exchange of the words with  Master Kogetsu ( Please refer to “Starting point—” ) and me

was  ” Zen is to fully become Who you are.   As you are a photographer, you got to become perfect

photographer, is the Zen ” —— so I returned,

” But, to find what is the Buddhism,  may need to look for somewhere else.  Look, Buddha himself

abandoned his roll to be the Royal Prince and became a Bikku to seek the truth “.

” What an  outrageous devil.   To compare yourself to Shakya-Muni Buddha is treacherous “.

———-

———-

As most of us think, to master the Zen we need to do a special practice ?

But as I explained before in ” Selflessness – Detachment ” the matter is the disconnection to the emotion

and to connect the signal to the Notion of the  ZEN.   Which  I explained  using a  word  [ Tag ] at

” Contradiction ” in reference to ” Lemon Zen “, practice itself can be anything. The matter is the end result.

———- The most boring, mundane practice which anyone can do to make your brain empty is

your daily job.  ( In my case, it was the photography then )

– – – – – – – ? ! – – – – – ! ! ! Isn’t it ?

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – ( I’m giving you a time to think )

———- Non of the Mantra said so.  Still, as a story of ” Buddha asked to sweep the garden to Churi Pantac

(known as Shuri Bantoku in Japan ) which lead him to attain the Enlightenment ”  is telling, there is a

crucial clue there.  The Mahayana Buddhism gradually came closer to recognize this.

(At this point, if you read ” Perfect Circle ” and ” Lemon Zen ” again you can see the matter clearer ).

Then you might make a question here.

” If an ordinary daily task can lead the people to get selflessness, can ordinary people

achieve enlightenment by themselves ? “————The answer is yes.  Since the Enlightenment

is not the Buddhism’s monopoly, but in the same time  Karma affect non Buddhist too.

Unfortunately, some were born to suffer.  Therefore, need to take longer way.

On my life, I met many unforgettable person who has achieved astonishingly high level

of contemplation and able to make themselves almost a noble Holy Man.

( I’m telling about those people in next post )

Selflessness – Detachment

” How to get selfless state of the Mind “

After reading the previous post ” Selflessness Demonstrated “,  you may convinced

that the selflessness is nothing special and it is everywhere in our life.

Then you may start a question ” If everybody has selflessness, can all of us make

good Buddhists ?  ——- Not quite.

To become a Buddhist, one has to cross over the first varier, which is to learn to brake

off from the Ego, by doing the repetitive practice, unconditionally.

To accept this Duty  unconditionally, and able to keep doing it indicates, you have gave up your Ego.

( May not necessary the proof of  non-Ego, but Not accept is definitely the sign of  Ego )

Keep doing its practice endless times, you become get used with it and able to do without

thinking, and it will became your mundane daily routine.

In order to survive this boring tread-mill, your mind become apathetic, and become

emotionally detached from what you are actuary doing.  ———–( In Neurological term, the

threshold of the signal  became higher, therefore incoming repetitive signal loose the significant impact )

——It may looks a contradiction, while doing it in full commitment ( so-called mindfulness / full hearted )

but disconnected from the emotion, in the same time able to carry out perfect practice.

——————–

The emotion is not an essential component to do the perfect business,  in most of the situation

it is more of the destruction, otherwise a  Gynecologist couldn’t do their business.

Another example appeared in the brain scan analysis of the

Alzheimar’s cases, the reason why a patient loose the ability to recognize a family face is,

its visual signal lost the connection to the emotional region of the brain, while visual cortex  is still intact.

It is the matter of the control of the signal connection or to make association.

Even without making connection, each faculties of the brain can  works perfect.

——————–

As the emotion is directly connected to the basic instincts, such as the feeling of hunger or

I want to have this, I want fuck this woman etc etc, its forms fundamental part of the Self and Ego.

————First, detached from the raw basic emotion, then connect the signal in the brain

to the Spiritually conceived Notion or Ethos and to the activity of the life , is the Zen and the Buddhism.

Even though observing the self doing something, without having the emotional connection, it wouldn’t

produce the conscious of being as the Self,   This is The Selflessness.

Once a person mastered this control, it can be applied to other practice and to the whole life.

( This is why Half Buddhist or Thinking Buddhist couldn’t see the Buddhism. —- need to cross the varier first)

——————–

(Some of the reader may not want to agree with  this, as this theory seems (as far as I found) the

first of its kind in the history——-Neuro-scientists would confirm this, soon or later.  But the fact of that the

Zen monk is not emotional is medically tested and established fact—— simply nobody ever thought why )

—–

Fortunately or unfortunately, I went through this first varier in my youth, in the mountain.

To climb the mountain, we just accept the situation, and keep walking, days even a month.

Most of the time, there was no margin to exercise Ego.  We just carry on walking without cry.

———————

(I’m going to discuss spiritual (or even super natural) aspects of the Zen in near future)

Selflessness demonstated

” This is the Demonstration you can discover the Selflessness On The Spot “

In this post I’m going to demonstrate what is the Selflessness and

what is the Meditation should be in the simplest and clearest term.

—— m m m ?      Interested ?

Until here, to read those lines, did you noticed, your eyes has been reading this ?

I don’t think so.

Unless you got poor eye sight and struggling to read the screen, your eyes is

out of your scope, out of your mind. ————-(So, the Mantra says, Its exist as not exist)

When we read, we just read without noticing the existence of the eyes, let alone

a knowledge how visual signal running and processed in the brain etc etc.

——————-

Until you have read and get the meaning of what I am talking about,

your eyes is just taking the pattern of letters.  You are not thinking.

Neither you are noticing who is reading this.

———-As I asked you and you were alerted, then you start

to think ” I AM reading this, who else ”

(so there was a Zen Mondo ” Who was reading this, minute ago ? “)

——————–

Then, try reading a line of words alphabet by alphabet.

In this input your brain has to work harder to make sense of the word, what was written here.

As you try to think and process the word, it takes much longer time.

Here, you must be convinced, the automatic process of the Reading Routine is much quicker.

——————–

Now you must be convinced, how most of our activity was carried

out without we are noticing it. We are doing it unconsciously,

and because of the teachings of Buddhism is based on this subconscious activities,

the argument of ” Who did this without my conscious ” is

persistent all through the history. (And some are doing even today  😀 )

——————–

When you read those first few lines, YOU were just reading, nothing else,

otherwise you couldn’t concentrate to read—— its mean you were in the

Mindfull state.

As you been doing this without even noticing that the eyes are reading NOR

having the conscious of  ” I AM reading “.  This is the Selfless state.

———-Do you think is this too simplified and lost the glory of Holy Grail ?

Don’t over glorify.   It is your arrogance and the delusions.  Truth is always simple.

——————–

To apply this condition to the sitting, as sitting is supposed to be just sitting nothing else,

(in Theory  :-)), it must be the best practice to practice not thinking

or selflessness——– so the ancient Guru thought.

But we are here in such noisy destruction full world, it is very hard

to vacate the brain.  Even worse, we are accustomed to sit to think.

——– So, if you are struggling to attain selfless meditation, don’t worry, relax, sit on

a sofa, forget the Notion of meditation and play a non-vocal  slow music to just fill the atmosphere.

Keep you eyes open and fix it on something, insignificant object on front of you.

(As the visual signal of insignificant object stays the same, the brain start to ignore the signal all together)

But as your eyes has been fixed to the object, brain couldn’t visualize anything else, and soon

it become empty. (but don’t fallen asleep  😀 ) ——But ! getting sleepy is not necessary bad, it is

the sign of your brain found nothing to do, its mean its empty ——though, if you fallen asleep,

you lose the opportunity to see the Dharma of which you may only able to see it in this state.

It is the Paradoxical state, almost sleep but fully awake, without even knowing you are awake.

This is the reason why many of the primitive religion (?) resorted with hallucinogenic drug.

Any how, have the emptied brain  is more important than the posture.

——–Don’t torture your legs. It’s no good to your body which was given by the Dharma.

If you happen to live near the sea or river, go there and absorbed by

the atmosphere and the sound of water which is persistent but not

in the exact pattern. (So, the Brain wouldn’t bother to decipher the meaning—–its just the noise)

Or the woods is also good to be there in the same effect.

The Nature is where we came from.  So, just relax.

——————–

Don’t struggle to attain something in the Buddhism. Intention itself is bad.

Don’t worry , there is nothing there.   So that you don’t need to even

boast that you are The Buddhist, just be it.  Never think you are anything special.

If you are born to go to the Hell, go to the Hell.

Once you accept this, you don’t need to worry anymore while you are still alive.

The matters in the Buddhism is to live now in peace and with confidence.

So that, struggle to find something in the Buddhism is the silliest thing.

Since, as long as you  want to do intentionally, its mean you are THINKING.

When you sit, without noticing even you are sitting, this is THE sitting without thought.

Forget Buddhism, forget Enlightenment, forget the notion of Meditation. Just sit.

——– Use the words from Michael  ” Let it go ”

When you let it go, you will get whole of your life.(strangely ! )

This is the Paradox in the Buddhism.

Who is the Self ?

” Did Buddha kill his own SELF ?”

I’ve visited a site called < Contoveros > run by Michael J who gave

a good observation of his Zen life to my blog. (@ Mindfullness / comment )

I can see he has cultivated nice friendly community around his

relaxed heart warming blog spot.

——- And I found very interesting words in his spot which says

” Needn’t kill yourself to be like Buddha ” ——m m m ? ! ! !

Waite a moment matey, did Buddha killed his Self ?

According to the so-called Buddha’s biography (along side some historical facts)

Buddha had abandoned his status to be the Royal Prince and became a bikku

which gave a serious havoc to the linage of the Magada Kingdom etc——.

Even though it was for a quest to find the truth to save the human being,

Wasn’t that by his crazy ego ? especially to the eyes of  Shakya Royals.

——————–

Here is the very interesting issue of What is the self, ego ——What is

the person’s role to be born under the Dharma.

In the Buddha’s eyes, clinging the position to be the Royal Prince while

indulging exclusive prosperity was the greed  and ego infested by the

delusions, therefore it has to be get rid of it.

——–In my view, Buddha didn’t kill his self ofwhich he was born with.

He only needed to expose it which had been stashed away under the

cover of Royal robe.

The same apply to anybody as you are born to be the self by the Dharma,

but to live as the true  yourself (some time called  Inner-self ) you only

need to get rid of the life of unnecessary and excess ofwhich most of them

are artificial and unnatural (This is so-called Middle way ).

——————–

From the tiny thumbnail of Michael’s photo, I can see his really nice character.

Look his child like twinkling eyes and the round smiley cheeks.  The shape of

ears shows his rather well-off happy life.

A man born like him wouldn’t be killed even under the bombardment of Vietcon.

Dhrma protect him to fulfill his life.

(As a family tradition, I’m pretty good to read the face and the line on the palm)

Congratulation to Michael.

Fuurin / Wind Bell

There is a very memorable ZEN story;

When a Zen master and a novice were sitting in the Temple,

a wind bell out side tinkled with very beautiful sound.

As both master and the novice were so deeply struck by

its sound,the Master asked novice Why.

The novice answered ” Since, both of hearts are calmed still ”

(Nishin sizuka nareba nari) / (The heart of the listener and the

heart of the bell are both in the dead calm state, hence both are

in harmony with the Dharma )

———– By this answer, the novice was ordained. ———-(Read this story tens or hundreds of times again )

This must be the most beautiful Zen episode among the rather harsh vigorous stories of them.

———– But in the same time, this story imposed me really awkward questions.

As all the Mahayana Mantras repeating, all the senses include hearing are the false.

And the self who is supposed to listening, is also false.  ——- Even if we take the explanation,which is,

the selflessness is in fact detached mind, —-? ? ?, in any view, this story is the contradiction.

————————

But, I definitely take and believe this story than 1000 of the words in the Mantras. This is the Zen.

How do you think ?

( Photo / From Frickr /  By Kamomebird /  Fuurin in Mino-town )

Zen in Action

” With the ZEN you can still live and kick, like Micky”

There was an opening of an exhibition called  ” Sign of Revolt ” in east end of London.

It showed wide spectrum of the artistic  by-product of the Protest Campaign, such as posters, fliers,

props, appeal installations, video images etc etc.

So that, this exhibition can be seen as from the Art with Social issue to the sample of Applied Art;

ie Graphic Design and in the same time it was the appeal of its issue like Eco to Police brutality.

———-One of my friend, War Boutique, exhibited an Armoured Vest of British Army standard, but

with Arabic script printed on it.——- m m m ?   ” Is it an instruction to the enemy,

how to dispose this dead body ?”  ” Oh, that is the script of the Coca Cola can “ —— ! ! !

I like this man’s twisted humor.

——————-

In fact, I got a Police bullet proof vest made by him which got [Metropolitan Peace] tag on the chest.

One opening night of my another friend’s exhibition, I was standing on front of the gallery wearing

this Police vest, walky-talky on the shoulder and huge black dildo instead of a truncheon hanged

from the belt.  Then, out of blue, a real Police car came and stopped on the front.

Two officers in the car seemed puzzled (of cause my attire looked genuine / save some details)

and watched over me 10 minutes, may be wondering ” Is he one of us ?—- If not should we arrest him

for the false impersonation ?—– No  no, it might be an art-performance to take mickey out of us”

When they leave an officer rose a hand and gave me a salute, and I gave salute back.   Ha Ha Ha  🙂

(back to the main story)

This Revolt exhibition has much more relevance to our life today than in pure art exhibition.

( More information ——- Click right column / Associates / Spacehijackers )

Incidentally,

I’ve joined Spacehijackers  ” Training Camp 09 ” (scroll down the page in their website and /Read more )

It was the extremely funny enjoyable few days as you can see in the photos.

—————————-

” What a hell, Zenist doing in the Anarchist’s camp ” you might say. 😀

Yes, this is the Zen in Action.

Buddhism is not to become vegetated state of the life.  It is for focused, selfless state of the mind

and live in full with empowered action.   Don’t afraid to be a Micky.   Live as a Top Micky.

(Hesitation came from one’s self preservating ego. Micky may need to be there to stimulate the society )

😀

_____

Mandhara

A while ago, I was invited to attend a gathering of

the Tibetan Buddhists.

As a Tibetan Buddhism, it belongs to the Vajrayana Buddhism.

So that, the gathering went through an elaborated ritual rite

of which the participants taking part with chanting the mantra

and practice hand gestures.

—————

Elaborated rituals impress the people.

The people who attend such ritual, seeing gorgeous costumes

or strange regalia, never rise question but just follow.

People instantly accept it as it is, since it supposed to have ultimate authority with mysticism.

Anyhow it is beyond the comprehension of the ordinary mind, almost like looking inside of a computer.

The more elaborated, looks expensive, looks remote from ordinary knowledge, it precludes the question.

And deep impression becomes an imprint in the subconscious. (Then start to influence the person)

————–

A clever part of this sect’s practice is, as they ask the followers to visualise their Guru, the visual memory

of the rituals together with the feelings of the atmosphere comes back whenever the person meditates again.

This technique might be much easier to practice for the beginners.

Instead to vacate the mind, totally fills it with the image of Guru is, in effect, it is the state of non-self———

—–somebody-else is definitely not oneself though, this is not Buddhism but Vedic practice.

When the mind was filled by an image or notion, it is impossible to see the things in clear eyes.

This is the very reason why Buddha taught to see with empty mind / selflessness.

————

From this gathering, I brought back a flower which was used for a gesture of offering, thrown on to the

air and most of them end up on the floor.

After 10 days, this flower is still blooming in my kitchen. And this must be the best gift I received at the day,

since I don’t need to question this flower of Natural Mandhara, created by the Dharma, or this is

the Dharma itself.

Why do we need to see a man-made print of  Mandhara.

——————————

PS: Funny phenomenon is, this blog received loads of virus spams.

(though they are all filtered out by the security program)

It’s not a Buddhist like behavior. So that, in deed this is a proof of

its not done by the Buddhists.

If the eyes has been deluded by a false vision, one can not see

even oneself, nor can not see what oneself is doing.(What a hell)

——-I rather like to see the daughters of Mara dancing naked,

than the spams. Ha Ha Ha     😀