In REALITY

All over the world, there are kind of Haunting Ghost Stories.

Still, I never heard a Ghost came back to his Priest, complaining a failure of the teachings

to give him a proper Nirvana. ( or reaching to the Heaven ) 😀

As a matter of fact, Nirvana doesn’t necessary mean a Death. Original meaning is “Put-off a Fire”

and the Fire is a metaphor of the Suffering in the Life.

In this context, its metaphor is quite Buddhist-like understanding, still somewhat akin to the Original Sin

of the Christianity.   It is a sale’s tool to sell the religion to unsuspecting innocents —– exactly same tactics

to sell a body-spray saying “You smell” even though the man is having virtually no body odour but simply

because a man himself can’t judge his own smell.

So, a first step, persuade the people to start to feel, his life is not satisfactory and having trouble and the

sufferings —– when they were persuaded “Having something wrong” then start to sell a remedy.

Irony here is, if there is no religion in the first place, there may not be a notion of Sin or Sufferings.

—– Any how non of the Life is perfect as nobody is perfect.

—–

I used to have a friend of the owner of a big department store.

Since he had inherited huge share of the company, automatically he was earning too much amount

of dividend, therefore having even a headache of what to do with that money.

Donating so much so to this and that Conservationist Organization, and others etc while chased by

other organizations who want his money too, etc etc.

He doesn’t want to deal with money, so that his company has appointed another relative to be a executive

to run the business —– though, because of he got so much money, the people coming to him, were all

after his money, include his 6 wives ( of cause, one at the time 😀 )

Women who got tender sensible character were scared off from him, hence he had to live all through

his married life with gold-diggers. ( Once I was asked by him to judge a woman, I instantly told him

“ Never marry her “ but the woman was much more clever than him in the tactics of psychological

warfare, make him to wait too long, away on her holiday, then gave a call from  China, saying

“Government wouldn’t allow me to leave the Country, unless I got British passport “—– its mean

get marry and get nationality. —– as she got what she wants, she divorced him )

—-

He didn’t need to be Greedy, or Egoistic. Very intelligent Cambridge graduate, hence some time

hard to follow his too academical subject (not mention Cambridge accent 🙂 ) still maintain child like

perception and openly cried like a child with his loneliness ( when woman was not there ) —– though,

he couldn’t understand what’s wrong with his life. —– It was his hopeless Karma.

I don’t think he got anywhere near to a Nirvana though, ( still, at least a Greek wife then was his bed

side —–when he passed away ) I don’t think he would come back as a Ghost. ( He needn’t to haunt

anybody ) —– So, what is the Nirvana ? —- Is there anything like a perfect Nirvana exist ?

I don’t think so.

Someone said, the quality of the man will be reviled when how many number of the attendance came to

his funeral. —– ?    Is the quality of famous pop-star higher than the others ?

Anyhow, the deceased wouldn’t know how many people ever came to his funeral.

—-

Here is the another irony, if a man didn’t ever had a notion of the Enlightenment nor Nirvana, he

would just live his life as it is with high and low.—– Though, a Snobb would say, it’s a dog’s life,

man has to aim spiritually higher existence. —– ?   Really ?    Interesting !

—-

If any Buddhist having this kind of snobbish delusion, better read the Books again.

You will find the description such as

“As long as you have the notion of the Enlightenment, it is not the Enlightenment “.

This is the description of ultimate Mushin. If only the accomplished Buddhists reborn to the human again,

and rest of people would reborn to the another creature, human population will be soon dwindled.

Think how many times more number of   Non-Buddhist population in the world.

So that, in reality, there is no problem to re-produce bad boy by the un-enlightened parents. 😀

If this is the reality, what is the point to study and chase the Buddhism.

Because after all, the goal is just carry out ordinary life without having the conscious of own life.

This is the situation, I described long time ago with a metaphor of Room A and Room A’. (Ref: )

—-

Funny Paradox is, in the Mahayana understandings, as every body born with the Dharma within,

there is equal potential for everybody can achieve the Enlightenment and Nirvana.

But in the same time, nobody is the same (even the same person is different, moment to moment),

nobody is perfect, still everybody can get their Enlightenment as his own INPERFECTION, there

can not be any one standard of the LIFE.

Therefore, neither a standard of what the Enlightenment should be.

Only the person who can assess Who I am and the State of the Mind, and the progress to reach

the Enlightenment, is the very person —– might be you who is reading this.

—-

In the fundamental paradox of the Buddhism, as long as a person is thinking about

the Enlightenment, the person will get no Enlightenment. —– in fact,

the Idea of the Enlightenment itself is nothing but a delusion.

“There couldn’t be any Enlightenment exist” —– might be the ultimate Enlightenment.

To see the thing as it is, in reality is the Buddhism.  And to think it by yourself was the Order of

Buddha himself.   And above all have to live in Reality, not waste the time with fantasy. 😀

Is it a daunting task ?   No, I don’t think so neither.

Because, to be a Buddhist is as easy as Just Do It, Just Live.  😀

___/\___

—

MOUSE !

Some days ago, I suddenly noticed something

a fluffy blob on the floor, between my foot.

Bending myself down and with close-look, I realized

its hairy tear-drop shaped blob was a Mouse.

Even with my movement he (she ?) didn’t run.

Stayed there with crouching posture, both hand

on the floor. ( well, like all the four-leg animals do naturally 🙂 ) as if he is begging me something.

I scooped him up on a cardboard paper.   Look into his tiny eyes, he gave me rather drowsy look.

I put the cardboard paper on the kitchen table and gave small piece of  tissue-paper

soaked with water and small crumble of biscuit. —– he only touched a water.

He just staid there almost motionless, and two hours later when I looked him again,

he was laying on his side —– He was dead.

—-

Next day I took his dead body to a nearby park and buried him under a blossoming cherry tree.

—– A council flat I’m living, the building has been poisoned by the council pest-controller.

These day’s rat-poison is not like an old-day’s nasty Arsenic, but very sophisticated nerve-agent.

It interferes a mouse’s nerve system and also deteriorate his eye sight.

So, a mouse coming out to a brighter open space and die,   preventing a rotten smell coming from deep,

dark corner. —– how clever and well-designed killing system.

—

Since then a thought to that mouse remained me and made me wondering.

What a hell,  how on he came to me to DIE.     I’m not a funeral director or priest.

And, how he knew I would bury him under a tree —— ? ? ?

If there is such a reputation among the mice community in this area, am I going to have hundreds

of dying mice queuing here ?    Oh, no please.

When I was young, I was a notorious insect terminator, making hundreds of Insects specimen.

———- ? ? ?

Any how, I know at least that mouse got a peace under a cherry tree, away from harsh rat (?) race.

Yet still, as it happened, it happened.    It’s not my remit to guess whether there was a kind of

intervention by the Dharma —– or else ?

What so ever happened, what I can do —– is my best and I think, I paid enough respect to him.

( Don’t ask me to make a golden coffin to him )

—– One day,  if I were attacked by a swarm of grudged insects in the Hell, an army of mice

suddenly appeared and fight off the insects. —– How sweet children’s tale isn’t it ! 😀

___/\___

—

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.

___/\___

—-

SOCIETY

In the media reports of Japanese Disasters, a peculiarity of Japanese society was shocked the world.

“Why Japanese can keep calm and not express their grief ? “

I explained a back-ground —– their deep embedded Ethos / Fatalism originated from the

Buddhism —– in the previous post.

—–

But there is the another aspect which is even deeper and common to all the human-being.

We human-being is a social animal , we live, and have to live as a member of a society.

We are definitely a descendant of the packed animal like monkey, chimpanzee, not a lone panther.

Hence it is written in our gene, and so-called instincts are programmed accordingly such as the

gripping hand of a baby is to cringe to a mother.

To be a social animal, there is the order of the society and its rules. Any member who couldn’t

comply the rules, will be excluded from its society —– and slow death is the fate.

Where those rules were posted ? Ethos and those social code are not written but kept by the

member, the member themselves are the role-model / manifestation of the rules.

As society is operated by their member who possess the same Ethos and the Rules, and it is

almost the same even generation after generation, all the social activity, social systems are coherent

with the same Ethos. Everything shows the same manifestation and follow the same rules.

This exact coherency can be observed by even a small baby and learned by them and written

down into their subconscious memory. In fact this is the so-called Collective Unconscious.

But this is the case when the society is having universal, coherent system and the Ethos.

Among the member, some might become rebel though, the person is only temporally rebelling

or just behaving the reverse of existing rule —– nothing new just a reverse.

But when the population who is possessing fundamentally different Ethos, moved into other society,

it start to show completely different situation.

In metaphor, when non-thieving society received considerable size of thieving group, the Ethos of

both societies break down. ( Even thieving society and their way of life having their own strict rules,

taboo, who to steal or who is the senior thieves and the violent punishment who break its rules )

A kids of Non-thieving society learn the thieving, and a kids of Thieving society learn to

escape a punishment claiming his Human right 😀

Everything break down and only Ego exposed.

A baby start to see two conflicting systems and the rules, hence unable to figure out what is the Ethos of

the Society —– there couldn’t be a Collective Unconscious but just an attitude of

convenient cherry picking of excuse and the knowledge of “How to avoid “ —– it’s mean avoid

to be a member of the society. In fact there is no longer a society and its integrity exists.

—–

Fortunately ( or unfortunately ? ) Japanese society still maintain themselves as a society,

as foreign element is still negligible, even an outcast group Yakuza responded to the disaster, with

hundreds of truck load of relief supply delivered to the evacuated people.

Even though Yakuza were branded as the criminal organization, they are undoubtedly nobody else of

Japanese, and a part of the same society, hence share the same compassion and the sense of duty.

—– simply because, they grown up in the same society ( Even Yakuza was once an innocent

small boy,as you know 😀 ) hence build up the same Ethos as a Japanese.

—-

In reality, to make a baby to a Japanese, other than the teachings in a school and the family and the

circulating popular culture, such as everybody should have the same gadget and ware same kind (well

some pre-classified types) of fashion, there is a hidden secret of social pressure to a person

to conform the social code.

It is more akin to the chorus of the hen in the Animal Farm. When this chorus starts, even a person

who has been saying different opinion suddenly changes the colour and join a chorus, the louder the better.

This is a moment to a person to assess what is the majority and join them.

When the majority is behaving in a certain way, just do the same. To remain within the same group

and the society is the imperative in Japan. Whether it is true or not, right or wrong, just go with them.

So that, when nobody is crying –its mean, no-one should cry. The unwritten code says “Mittomonai

( It looks disorderly, and embarrassing ) “ Anybody brake-off from here, there is a danger to be ostracised.

As a result, everybody looks calm on the TV.

—

Funny side-effect of this conformative society is, as the expectation and the imaginary eligibility

of a man is fixed, such as socially acceptable income and the status etc, under the stagnated

Japanese economy, most of the ordinary man is no longer regarded to fit to marry —– hence

so many people are forced to stay single. ( A research found that among the eligible age-group,

only 6 % of men were regarded to fit the expectation of the woman, its mean, if a woman marry

other than rare 6 % , she will face a humiliation, a chorus of “Mittomonai”.)

—

When no dominant voice led the chorus, hens couldn’t know what to do.

Strangely, they still knows when somebody start to show up with unconformative opinion, they

overwhelm the opinion with their noisy chorus and suppress it. Therefore no fresh innovative idea

(other than imaginative Manga story) nor strong decisive idea coming out of Japan.

This is the situation in Japanese politics too.

Therefore, when they faced a crisis of Nuclear accident, they only try to avoid the Japanese public

fallen into a “Mittomonai” panic, by pretending nothing serious happened, thus do-nothing —-take

an emergency measure itself looks “Mittomonai”—– until it’s actually exploded.

Then everything got too late to take any measure. —– though, a criticism like this will be seen by a Japanese

as an act to expose “Mittomonai”Japan, hence has to be suppressed —-> So that , there wouldn’t be any

“Mittomonai”situation, therefore, able to keep calm face. Face is more important than the safety.

Beautiful isn’t it ?

—-

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 )

___/\___

—

Self Denial — Self Sacrifice — Duty of Charity — MUSHIN ???

Self Denial – Self Sacrifice – Duty of Charity – MUSHIN ???

This is one of the most misconceived area in the Buddhist’s practice, hence I’ve been asked a

question again and again about the distinction.

Such as like a practice of one of the Buddhist’s sect in Japan, Ittou-en which I had mentioned some post ago,

which member is going around the town, asking household to let them clean their toilet.

This is the practice to learn Self Denial and the Self Sacrifice, and make people’s toilet clean may

seemed it is an act for other’s benefit hence it must be a charity. ( Though it seems quite patronizing )

I can see their point though, in the same time I would rather feel the intention with a pinch of salt.

If a practice to clean somebody else’s faeces could make a person humble and enlightened, the

people in India where particular job has been assigned to one particular cast ( or former cast ) should

have created thousands of enlightened holy man there. ( Never heard of it 😀 )

I’m sure, to clean somebody else’s faeces could destroy the person’s dignity still, not necessary it

destroys the person’s Ego. ( Ego is not dependent on the profession. Arrogance may be )

The more the required practice was dreadful, the more strong will and the determination is needed.

Unfortunately, this strong will, a belief of “ This practice should make ME higher noble person “

and “ I WANT to achieve it, I WANT TO ACHIEVE IT “ is nothing but an obsessive thinking.

Far from it, what Buddha taught was to DO the things without thinking, i.e; in Mushin.

The so-called practice is its formalized form of each sect.—– As everybody has unique grown-up and own

life history, even in the way of learning the same Buddhism, everybody takes different pathway and

as I described, there are three distinctive aspects how people related to the Buddhism, hence to learn

the Mushin, each person would take different approach and the steps.

Hence different expression, explanation were come up, such as Self Denial.

As a matter of fact, Buddha didn’t teach such things at all. What he taught was “ Self is not exist

from the beginning “ ( Since he took a stance against the Vedic idea of Atoman —– he saw it is the cause

of the trouble, as  it is the delusion.   That is why, he taught the MUSHIN / Mind of No-mind) —– though,

this is one of the hardest part in the Buddhism to understand. ( If anybody has able to achieve

the MUSHIN, it is almost the completion of the enlightenment. )

—–

History of the Buddhism clearly showed this fact, that even Buddha’s immediate disciples are not

necessary understood this. Hence the first few hundreds years, Buddhism have had the time

of Hinayana to Suppress the Self = Denial of the Self = Superficial mimicry of the MUSHIN.

To be in MUSHIN, of cause there is no SELF hence no EGO or Arrogance, Greed.

But try to achieve it from other way round, suppress the SELF first, not necessary works, because of 

a thinking of “Deny the self, deny the ego” is there.

———- As you are reading this, only your visual cortex and the brain to configure the word and

their meanings are working = you are not aware the existence of your eyes and

the conscious “I am READING this”. ——- You are reading this in your MUSHIN ! ! !

Buddha also against the practice to torture the mind and the body, therefore the Self Sacrifice is

not in his teachings. It was not the Self Sacrifice but as the ( Enlightened ) person doesn’t have

the Self, the person just react to the situation in the best way or necessary way —– it only happen to

be seen “ the person has sacrificed himself “—– but the person himself was Just Doing It, that’s all.

Same applies to a Charitable act —– “If the one is doing it with a conscious of I’m doing the

Charity, it is not the Charity “ —– so as the Enlightenment. Which occur only in Mushin.

This is the reason why, in the Mahayana Sutras, there are typical expression like “ Exists as not exist “

“Do as not do” hence, do the charity (or help others) without having the conscious of helpingothers.

Without conscious mean, without thinking, without having the

conscious of the Self = DO IT SUBCONSCIOUSLY / SPONTANEOUSLY.

—–

To re-discover the Buddha’s original teachings, Buddhists spent another five hundreds years until

the Mahayana was introduced. And with its new ( or original ) understandings, sacrifice the life

to get Enlightenment as an Arakan ( Arahat ) was rejected, since the matter is not a posture but to

be in MUSHIN, and to be in MUSHIN, anyone and any life-form can get enlightenment as the

Dharma itself is, in its nature. —– But the reason why Buddha remained as a Bhikku ( begger) was

very simple. He was not trained to be a farmer nor any profession, there was no way else to get food.

To have a simple humble life go round the town begging the food was enough for him (and to his followers

together ). It was his simple easiest life style. To live as a Bhikku he didn’t need to think neither. He just lived.

Therefore, to be a Bhikku is not a precondition to get enlightenment, it was just happened to be.

Buddha never accused to be wealthy and had no hesitation to receive their giving of good food and

he ate any food. A funny description in the Vimalakirti Sutra “ You have to mind to receive it from

the poor people as well, in order to give the same opportunity for them to offer the food ( Hence

let them to practice good deed —– for them to attain their Nirvana ) show the situation well. 😀

Buddha’s teaching to those wealthy people to stay modest ( Middle Way ) and the way of giving

in Mushin would lead them to have Nirvana without any danger to reborn to be animal ( Since no such things

of perpetual soul exist ) must be well received by them.

As it was the historical fact, the Buddhism spread and did grow having with the wide support of

the ordinary people. It is impossible to imagine that Buddha asked those people to endure a kind

of practice to sacrifice their life, let alone to clean the faeces in order for them to reach Nirvana,

as Buddha himself rejected the practice to torture the mind and the body.

Simply because Buddha knew, anything can be done in Mushin, and the Mushin has no Ego.

Anything can be done mean, the practice can be anything, hence it doesn’t need to be torturing practice nor

heavy self-denying act. Mushin can be achieved Not What the Practice IS or how to understand it,

but by the Mind-Set = Mind of Just Do It.

—

It is the easy practice, as easy as some late Masters described it as Dog Shit. And as difficult as

non of Buddha’s disciple could understand .

It seemed that Buddha did know the situation, hence he needed to order his disciples “Think yourself,

not just believe what you were taught” in his death-bed.

Its meaning of thinking is, not what the answer they would get, but the process and the effects of

thinking (and effort to figure out in practice) —– “Mushin has no Self, no Ego” was what they had

been taught. And they must have shown well copied practice what they learned from

Buddha.  But it was just a copy of the movement, not necessary in Mushin.  Buddha must be aware of this.

That was why he needed to give an order to his disciples. —–  It was an inherent short-coming of

having the master near you. You can get the explanation easily from him, then you satisfied as you

could understand it (intellectually). The trouble of Mushin is —– you can’t get it with an

understandings or any thinkings. You have to DO it to discover.

—– therefore, many hundreds of years Buddhists monks just argued the definition of Dharma or try to prove

whether the Self is exists or not.

But the situation like this provoked the mind of free-thinker. “What a hell, what are they talking

about ?” which made them aware, that the matter is not whether the Self is exists or not, but it lies

in the phenomenon, that we can do the things without the conscious of the Self, and it can be

done by anybody. ( hence Mahayana )  ! ! ! ” This must be the core, what Buddha had taught.”

This kind of observations never came from the monks who is just sitting and thinking, but from the monks who

are under-taking the chores  in the monastery or low-ranking monks walking and begging the food by himself.

That was the reason why, such observation became a noted idea and written-down to the Sutra took long time.

Yet still, they couldn’t go further than the description

of “Do the Charity without having the conscious of Charity” or “Do as not Do”.

Mahayana Buddhists only thought about the DOING side, not knowing how DO changes the mind.

And how this DO came out of one’s brain was completely out of their sight.

—–

To decipher what was the mechanism in the brain / to see the roles of the subconsciousness, took

another 2000 years. ( Until here )

I am well aware and confident, for you to read this post, this 10 minutes opened your eyes to

reach your enlightenment. ( You only need to open your eyes and the mind  🙂   )

___/\___

—–

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.

___/\___

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