Zen Practice on the Desk

If you think, that the Zen is to twist the leg, you are wrong, it is just a posture.

The matter is in the mind = how to vacate the thinking and to get a state of the Mushin is

what the Zen mean.

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This is the easiest practice to gain a state of the [ Mind of No-Mind / Mushin ]  instantly.

Yes, instant, just by closing your eyes (even only a second = as the trigger of the Mind-set)

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If you are sitting on front of a desk to write anything, —— Close your eyes, and pick-up your pen

and put the pen on the paper where you are going to start writing.

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To do this, you have to fix the position of the pen (or what ever) on the desk, always exactly the

same place. And sit on the chair exactly the same position facing the desk in the same distance.

—– Sit on front of the desk. Take one deep breath and look at the blank paper on the desk.

Memorize the picture and close your eyes.

While visualizing the picture in your mind, put your hand straight to the pen and pick it up and

put the point of the pen on the starting line of the paper.

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Try this as many times until you can do this as smooth as possible with natural flow of the movement. Just do it.

On the beginning your finger may reach to a bit away and needed to wobble a bit to touch the pen.

But, soon or later your fingers would come to the exact position you should grip the pen.

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Every time when you sit before the desk, do this = and make this to a habit.

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Soon, you will be realized, when ever sit to the desk and take deep breath, your mind is focused

to the paper and the pen = nothing else is in your sight, and when you closed eyes, the picture

you are visualizing is the paper and the pen, nothing else.

In Zen term, this is called Mindfulness = nothing else is in your mind.

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As the practice became routine, you become able to do this automatic like a well tuned machine.

It’s mean, you become able to do all the body movement without having any thought.

In Zen term, this is called Mushin.

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This practice can be improvised to a key-board. To type a word such as [calm] if you like in Italic.

And if you like type it in the center of the screen while the eyes closed. (You may become an expert

of the timing, how long the Space-bar should be pressed down. 😀 )

Or you can do this with your Smart phone or Tablet kind.

How to access one particular program while eyes closed.

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Once you mastered this practice, take deep breath and close the eyes will lead your mind to focus

and able to eliminate any thought.  Hence, just think this practice would soon become

enough to bring your state of mind to the Mushin = deadly calmness.

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It may not looks like a mythical Zen practice though, Zen is not a pretense, but able to get

the mind-set of Mushin is the matter.

And what you need is just do this. (Further readings are in a Category [ Lemon Zen ]

___/\___

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Mindfulness – Western Misinterpretation

People talked about the BBC News, featured about the Meditation (which I didn’t know).

And it seemed, BBC used a word [Mindfulness] to explain [Meditation]. —– What ?

Meditation is to sitting in [Mushin = 無心] = not having even a notion of Mindfulness.

—– Why such kind of mix-up is taking place in the west ?

So that, I first ever saw Wikipedia [Mindfulness] 😀 and discovered the situation. (it explained me why

a talking about Zen with western Zen Practitioners are often end up in confusion. 😀 )

I’ve been long suspected that the understanding of [Mindfulness] and [Meditation]

in the west was wrong.

Simply because of the academics or the scholars of the Buddhism scriptures are arguing about the

meaning of the WORD in its semantics. (Word is mere indicater of a notion = not the notion itself. And

even the notion couldn’t necessary able to describe the meaning.

Such as “Ride” a bicycle = to find the use of this [Ride] in the time of Donkey and a Cart wouldn’t make

any sense about an application against a modern bicycle. And the understanding of the word “Ride” is

nothing to do with how to ride a bicycle. You only know it actuarially master to RIDE it. 😀 )

So, it became clear. To know the meaning of a term in Zen, you got to do the Zen.  And to know

the meaning of the word wouldn’t make you able to to know the Zen. This is the very reason why

Lord Buddha ordered his disciples “Don’t take the words of mine or others, but think yourself.”

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Zen had spread from China, and to Japan. (then from there to the west)

Lord Buddha’s teachings were re-discovered in there through the practice which

Lord Buddha taught direct to his followers.

By following those practices, Chinese monk who translated Scriptures and Mantras, managed to find the

meaning of the word in Sanskrit, Pali or Tibetan and assigned the word to a Chinese character

[念(nien in Chinese, nen in Japanese)] to the word now (miss) used in the west, as [Mindfulness].

The Chinese character [念] has the meaning of deep thought or even a kind of feeling stacked in the depth of

mind which is distinctively different from the temporally conscious thinking [考].

One of the most observant people in the human history = Chinese, created the character to each different

level of mind-activities in the brain.   Such as [考], [思],[慮],[念] and [懐].

[懐] is a word to describe a feeling, “I feel it is there though, hard to describe, and I can’t get lid of it” kind =

such as latent fear or one’s positive, negative mood. ( They are the matters of the hormone level in the body)

Above this, a bit more clear level of Mind is [念] = which indicates “whether you intentionally

think or not, it is always there and you aware of  it” kind of  focused tendency in the mind.

This  [念]  is the Mind what ancient Chinese monk who translated the scriptures, found to

be the best suited to describe [sati (Pali)] or  [smrti (Sanskrit)]. —– As this is the mind

reside,  deeper beyond the person’s intentional manipulation, try to think something to

concentrate, is nothing but the misunderstanding.  = Mindfulness will bore out from the

situation and the attitude of the person. —– It is the result,  not other way round.

Think, you are a journalist, walking through the ground near Melt-down Fukushima Nuclear site.

As you were allowed to walk there, it was regarded to be safe though, the mud could have invisible

radiation hot spot. Which makes you very cautious, hence choosing dry clean point to step-on.

Every steps —–. This detailed attention you are unconsciously and constantly paying to

everything, every moment, —– this is what [Mindfulness] really meant.

You were programmed to walk the most careful manner while watching all the signs and the left over

rubble of the Tsunami.   In the same time you have to observe what and how workers who removing the

contaminated soil are doing, or the situations how the strayed pet animals are surviving and so on, which

was the purpose of you to be there.  Mindfulness is not an intentional mind-set but when

you faced the serious situation, (or you take it serious) its naturally set in, as Dharma works.

(This is the reason why Tea Master says “Make a tea as if it is the only an occasion in your whole life” )

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If you are riding a bicycle everyday, you just ride it.

You don’t need to think “I’m riding a bicycle”,  you ride it as to ride a bicycle, not a motor-bike.

Because, your body, your brain knows “You are riding bicycle, unconsciously = you have been

programmed through the practice to ride a bicycle.

To program your subconscious and your motor-region of the brain, how to ride, where to pay attention etc

has been done through the practice. = so, as the result, you can do it almost routine = automatic. =

automatic mean, you can do it without thinking, hence efficient and smooth.

To apply same principle to all the aspects of the life is what

Lord Buddha had found and taught = Life without useless thinking (delusion etc), hence

able to live in peace.     This is What Buddhism all about.

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At the Wikipedia [Mindfulness] you may read (Zen criticism) the quote of  Muho Noelke of Antai-ji saying

“Don’t be mindful, plase !  When you walk, just walk. — Let the walk, walk. — let the sitting sit”

it seems, his words are the most closest to the Zen among the many Zen sites.

—– Even though, he was stop short of noticing that it was in fact, the matters in one’s subconsciousness,

at least, he knows and doing the Zen —— Able to do the Zen, he doesn’t need to give a damn whether it is in

the subconsciousness or else = When you DO, just do.  (But my role is to analyze and see the structure of

the Zen = This is the reason why I didn’t became a monk, even though I’m a son of  Zen priest)

—– Forget the word, Mindfulness , Mushin, Jizai = they are just different naming of the same

mind.  As they are in fact just one, hence having Oneness = Ichijo, and this is what Dharma is.

___/\___

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First Sun-Rise over quake-stricken Miyagi, Japan

————————————————————- (Photo from Mainich News Paper )

This is a photograph, I found less than an hour ago, which has been taken only few hours ago in Japan.

The first Sun-rise seen from the hill-top (Hiyori-yama) in Natori City, Miyagi Prf’ which

is over looking a mountain of rubble, left by the earthquake and the tsunami.

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To see the First Sun-rise of  New Year is the tradition in Japan.

First day of January, many part of Japan has been covered with snow though, lots of people

goes out cold, some are even climb the high mountain only to see this Sun-rise. (I did it before too).

Of cause, to reach high advantage point before Sun-rise needs to start the journey in the

middle of the night, the temperature could be well bellow Zero.

—– Don’t ask  “what for”,  because the answer is just  ” To see the first Sun-rise”  (初日の出)

 If you see it yourself, you can’t stop to feel owe. —- Why ?   This is what Spirituality mean.

Western people asked ” Why Japanese brought a cash found in the mud to the Police” (and 90% of the

money — £23M all together — has been returned to the rightful owner by the Police) or  ” Why Japanese

didn’t loot” —– the answer is all same.  Such kind of morality is in their fundamental ethos = Spirituality.

(It is nothing strange, when people talk or behave according to what they have read in a book or Bible, as

it was simply in their memory.    But when people behave without such knowledge, against their instincts

such as greed or selfish gain,  and even without the other’s watchful eyes = This is the Spirituality.)

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People saw the Sun-rise there, might have played (don’t ask “to whom ?”.  Spirituality doesn’t

need a figure or name of the God )  for the Soul of who lost the life in  Tsunami or

wished the well recovery of the surviver.

To share the same play, I put this photo here.

Peace to the people who has been suffering.

___/\___

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Higgs Boson and the Buddhism

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm[ Photo —- Peter  Higgs  / from  BBC News  ]

The scientific world was stirred by the news of the tale of the tail of a sub-atomic particle =

dubbed as the God Particle = Higgs Boson. —– Gotcha !

Higgs boson may not even a particle but just a remnant ripple in the invisible field.

—– Like a ripple on the still water gives off a signal, where the surface of water is, and you may notice

the existence of a clear glass panel, only when it shows a scratch mark.

—– Higgs boson is a tell-tale sign of the invisible, undetectable energy field = Higgs field which said to

give a mass to the existence.

—– When you stir a honey in a jar, you feel heavier resistance on the spoon than in a water = it would give you

heavier feeling of the same spoon. = this resistance or impedance effected on the particles (and its compound,

atoms) are called as a mass. (conventional expression of this mass in relation to the gravity is called weight =

less body weight on the Moon because of less gravity is there).

( But don’t ask me why a sub-atomic particle Neutrino can have no mass and able to move even

faster than the light. —– I don’t think even scientists does know this yet 😀 )

Still, we human seemed to discovering the relation and cause of the phenomena next by next.

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Those scientific stances are perfectly in line with the Buddhism.

In the Lord Buddha’s teachings, those relation and the cause behind of the phenomena and the existences

is the Karma, and they, all together is the Dharma.

(Hence, Dharma is all the Existences and its mechanism and the rules behind)

As the dynamics of the phenomena and its momentary appearances are time dependent, so that nothing can

stay the same or permanent. —– Therefore, no perpetual soul kind = Atman can not exist.  Hence no SELF.

The reason why Lord Buddha took this stance, instead to contributes the cause of occurrences

and existences to an imaginary supernatural power = Godly existence was, because of

Lord Buddha’s mind-set was more of the scientist not a man of religion.

Religion is the matter of the belief to a particular ideological myth = not necessary to the

factual truth, therefore,  he defined such Myth as a delusion.

—– This was why,  he was called Buddha = Enlightened man,  not a divine figure or prophet.

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But, what made Lord Buddha different from just a physicist was his observation towards the

invisible depth of the  human psyche (now we call as subconsciousness) and found a way to

reprogram this subconsciousness through the practice.

Practice to make a person able to do the things or to live, without useless thinking (in Mushin /

Mind of No-mind) and ultimately able to see the invisible part of the Dharma. (and lives with it).

Even the most advanced science still having left quite large unknown part, we human still couldn’t able to know

what ourselves are. —– Yet, the Lord Buddha’s insight was reaching to this area.

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—– In the dawn of the cosmic science, scientists imagined a medium which should fill the space of the vacuum

by which the light-wave can travel,  was the Ether.

The existence of the Higgs field could be parallel to this idea of Ether, as Higgs field fill all the space = from cosmic

space down to the internal space of the material which spread between the sub-atomic particles.

Therefore, this ultimate universal field is the invisible part of the Dharma.

—– I suspect, there could be a possibility, — this universal medium = continuous energy field

( Higgs field ) was the very medium which is contributing the way of the psychic communication,

and this is the ultimate meaning of the Dharma, 

which Lord Buddha called [Panya Paramita].

If this is the case, of cause, the Dharma is everywhere and as it immerse all the existences

= “Everybody posses the Dharma within” !

—– This is what we Zennist are aiming to see, with our practice.

___/\___

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OFFENSIVE — What ? ? ?

How interesting, after more than a year, some clicked LIKE but non ever clicked Don’t like, or

never received even a single negative comment —– my You tube video clips was identified as

[Potentially Offensive] —– What ? — I beg your pardon ? ? ?

Since I couldn’t have any more information, I don’t have any detail, which one, in what extent ?

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Potentially offensive, dangerous etc can be said against anything, by anybody —–

Yes, Baseball bat, Cricket bat are [potentially] dangerous killing weapons, as the facts showed that they

have been actually used to kill a man.

Well manicured nails are [potentially] dangerous weapons, it could cause an injury which may needs

hospital treatment, where the spread of life threatening MRS is a common feature there, and a person

who contracted such deprecating illness could [potentially] die.

But those are the statistical probabilities = may be [potential] one in millions.

The notion of [offensive] came from the imagination = to make a specific imaginary

connection to something they imagined socially or personally , what-so-ever unacceptable,

even just for a single person.    If one person felt offended, it’s mean it is Offensive. —– Is it ?

Isn’t it a trouble of the person’s own imagination ? —– or obsessive delusion kind.

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While displaying thousands of killing scene video-clips from Arab springs etc, I’m nothing but amazed by

so-called [You tube community’s] mind-set.  Who are they ?

If you search in You tube while typing Virtual Woman, Funny image or Condom, you will find the

thousands of dubious images or really low grade innuendo.

As I wrote in my post featuring my sculpture Virtual Woman, I created this wire mesh torso to see how

our psyche works. —– and I made it rotates like a computer cage design like a virtual image in a screen.

—– Any 3D body-design in the computer starts from a naked body, of cause.

Putting a skin, costume comes after.  Feel explicit image out of wire mesh is a really mindful imagination !

—– Or, was it because, it looks like a human barbecue ? — “Juicy and succulent” Ha ha ha 😀

Incidentally, I saw the lords of looks like dead naked bodies in the dark basement of latest

Secret Cinema’s event at St. John’s Street, London. They looked pretty realistic in its shape though,

they were made by plastic films and shredded paper. —– so, how a twisted metal mesh can be offensive ?

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Or, are they talking about blowing-up a condom ? —– Oh, c’mon. It’s nothing new.

Hundreds of You tube images blowing up a condom.

——— ? ? ?

Or, are they trying to make a fuss, in order to stir a news, expecting me to make a mountain

out of mole hill ?  Any publicities are good for them.

Fortunately or unfortunately for them, I’m a Zen Buddhist.

I’m not seeking a trouble which wouldn’t be an exciting fun.

Even HM the Queen treasuring the drawing of penis in her collection and Tracy Ermin’s open-leg

drawing of her genitals are the ART,  so what offensive my sculptures —– is it, because they are

the great Leonard DaVinci and Tracy Ermin, but I’m just Yoshizen / Kinetorori = M m m,

Isn’t it very discriminative OFFENSIVE view ?  Isn’t it a contempt to Offend me ?

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Whether, it was their joke or not, I haven’t received any formal notice (they got my real Email address)

nor my video-clips have been removed (— yet ?) by them.

So, watch the space for any fun-full out-come. 😀

___/\___    Peace for the World and the Cyberspace.   Ha ha ha.

– – –

PS:   After I have blogged here and Tweeted,  You tube withdrawn their comment.

—– Though, I have no idea whether they did read this blog, or just gave a second thought.   😀

 —

Desire and Greed (2)

The first moment when I became aware the connection between Zen and the programming

of the subconsciousness (so-called mind-set) was, when I gave up any relation with woman.

It was triggered by two factors appeared on 1987. One was the first report of incurable new disease AIDS

(it didn’t have even a name then) = sexual relation is no longer safe.

And the other was the start of a trouble with a woman who exploited my VISA status by a false registration

of the marriage done in Japan, in order to get new passport and obtained the VISA masqueraded as my wife.

(It took 11 hearing in the High Court to make the Judge to realize it really happened without my knowledge.

—– Japanese Registrar had no way to know whether my signature was genuine or not and the name seal

was mine or false one, woman bought in the stationery shop, which she confessed and astonished the Judge)

(Yet still The Judge who didn’t even know the difference of [Void and Voidable Marriage] made

this to a valid marriage, hence it was brought up to the Court of Appeal)

= I really utterly fed up “Woman is nothing but a trouble” (in addition to this Judiciary is utterly rotten) 😀

(Funny story is, I was told that the trouble with woman will happen, by my mother as she read

my palm when I was 10 years old —– for me,  it sounds just an unscientific mambo-jumbo then)

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It caused me not only a deep psychological trauma but the situation itself made any relation impossible.

In order to fight over the validity of the marriage in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, it completely

consumed my time, finance and energy.  All of my friends were even amazed, how I could manage without

braking down.  ( Still,  it was not as heavy as mountain climbing as there may not be a danger of death.

After all, proceedings is the research of precedence and compiling documents = clerical work = Just do it )

—-whether it was my choice or not, I had to follow the situation and

think “I’m not in a position even to think about woman” = it was not a relative matter, but absolute

imperative = (this is so-called Mindfulness) — as this psyche sunk deep down to my subconscious, 

the notion of woman has disappeared and it became a distant land scape.

(Still, they are visually pretty land scape though,

they no longer appeal to my mind / in a sexual context —– then I realized

“Aha, this is the very eyes of so-called Medical Detachment of a Gynecologist” 😀 )

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So that, when I was a regular in the Fridge Club, Brixton London (Escape from Samsara), every weekend

for nearly 6 years, I was just dancing there without mixing with cloud.

Many people mistook me as a special security or under-cover policeman even the owner of the club,

because I don’t take alcohol neither drug, never talk with girls (except the bar staff) still always there.

In reality, seeing hundreds of half-naked girls shaking their bottom every week, made me even more

insensitive, if not utterly nauseating.

I was there not just for dancing, but like a zoological researcher to observe male-female behavior.

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As a matter of fact, I myself had amazed by this change of psyche.

Since, even the most fundamental instinct could disappear just with a mind-set,  it convinced me

that all the fancy stories in the martial art, sword mastery must be true = they really

able to overcome the fear of the death,  hence able to come closer to hair-line distance to the enemy’s sword.

—– Liberate the mind from the fear, hence able to obtain the ultimate freedom of the movements.

Then all the Zen stories, has started fallen into the places, like the pieces of Jigsaw Puzzle,

and it started to show whole picture of what the Zen is.

Zen is not an ideological / religious mambo-jumbo but a very logical / rational mind engineering.

—– As even the most fundamental instinct / sexual desire could be annihilated, why not any another desire or

the mind.   What is the point to be imprisoned by such desire or being obsessed and become greedy.

We can make ourselves free from any mind, idea or the situation, and able to choose what ever

better to do.   This freedom is the Enlightenment.

(But remember, don’t chose chocolate and junk food 😀 )

___/\___

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Desire and GREED

There is a funny paradox in one’s greed.

The more the one chase its desire, more likely end up in misery, in stead to have a satisfaction.

It is said, there are only two motivations which drives the man’s life. One is the sex and the other is greed.

— it might be true as the fundamental instincts for survival are the own survival and the survival of the species.

For own survival, the one has to eat. To eat enough and well, it needs to find the source and the mean to get it

= virtually all the human culture is for this system, directory or indirectly.

And the cynics even said, to eat and live is for a purpose of to perform sex. (How exciting. —– but if it was the

case, surviving without performing a sexual act, is it a waste of the life ? —– somebody made a joke,

it’s a small change after spending spree 😀 )

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Eat just enough is classified as bare essential —– but more than that is called as [Greed] 😀

Eat more than necessary would end up with obesity but I may not be a good adviser for this topics since

I couldn’t understand why it happens, since I’m not an addict to any food and having the same body weight

(60kg) since I was 16 years old.

Yet, strangely I can eat an enormous amount in one go —– once, when I went to the Saudi Arabia, Jeddha to set up

an audio-visual multi-screen display for a Motor Show, as well as photographing all those process, I needed to

work pretty hard —– and seeing me eating two portions of meal, a man from advertising agency from Japan said

“Now I understand where your energy and the power came from”

“Of cause, you can’t fight with empty stomach” 😀

But, when the body needs very little, such as a time just dealing with electronic circuit, sitting all day = I even

forgot to eat. —– (Still, drink 1.5~2 litters / 3~4 pints of tea in a day = it is a must for my body)

So that, I have no idea how and why some people can keep eating while getting fat without feeling nausea.

—– couldn’t they feel what the body is telling and see the situation in the mirror ?

( uncontrollable addiction is different from a simple desire or greed, still as I wrote in the earliest post,

eating disorder such as anorexia is a wrong program in the subconsciousness = it’s a matter of the person’s

mind-set of which the Zen is specialized to deal with )

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Life is a total system. Hence, it’s called Life Style.

But this style is not like a fashion, it can not be simply changed day by day or each occasion.

And as it is the total system, it is hard to tinker the corner, as the system operates in relation to every

elements / subsystem. —– Mind set is synchronizing with this system.

Simple example is the shopping.   The food you buy is what you eat. = you may say “Of cause”

—– really ?  Just think, how much food you have been throwing away from the fridge or didn’t finish to eat.

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If you think to slim-down to simple life, you have to start to change from the shopping habit.

Buy only the food for bare essential, and make a pattern what to buy in where.  If you are likely to

eat little of that cooking, make it only small portion for just enough amount and finish all of them.

—– once the pattern is established, gradually remove a kind of food which is not essential or

self-indulgent kind, namely sweets, crisps and chocolate, even ice cream 🙂

Having the food on front and curve the desire is a fruitless attempt.

Better start with not to buy, not to have it.

So, set the mind [I can’t spend the money for this kind. I’m a poor person] —– (I don’t think if

anybody think, to buy chocolate is a sign of rich person though. 😀 )

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At Morison I buy Danish bread, Carrot, Onion, Sprouts, Leaf Tea and Honey. = Because I can choose exact size

of vegetable (because I eat all of them in one meal) and their Danish bread found to be the best so far.

At Lidl I buy Chicken, Apples, Tinned Fish  (my cloths, shoes and junk goods and tools = cheap :-D)

And Iceland, I buy only their Eggs and Single Cream (for Tea and for creamy soup).

At street market, I buy Green Pepper, strange fruits, and exotic vegetables. —– as this shopping habit is

fixed, I only goes to particular corner and I buy nothing else  ( to do Japanese cooking

I go up to the China Town to buy Tofu, Sea weed etc.)

Since, my mind got only those essentials, others such as sweets are just a passing land-scape.

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Here that paradox is = set the mind as poor person and abandon greed can bring the more

well-shaped rich life. = (Best of all, I don’t get ill. 🙂 )

———-

PS :  Some of you might be wondering, what I’m cooking out of such limited ingredients. —– I used to

think, I’m a good cook and when I ate something “Oh, I know how it was cooked and I can do too” though,

I gave up to think like this, as I became aware how it is the specialized and delicate area of the skill.

I left gourmet food to the specialized restaurant.  I know it’s there, but may not on my life.  That’s it.

To accept the limit is a part of the contemplation, and this is the departure away from the greed.

—

Cognition – Expectation – Speculation

When I wrote my thesis for the Sociology degree (gosh, 40 years ago), my theme was

“Lion was made with the seven deer he ate” = Our lives were based on the intake of not only the food

but also depend on the intake of the information. This pattern is common from the simplest mono-cell

organism to highly evolved animal like us and even a huge social organization or corporate.

What makes the difference of their degree of evolution is, how far the objective / projection is,

in the time perspective = instant reaction to many years long-term development project.

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Until a mono-cell organism actually bumped a food or danger, they couldn’t react.

But the elephants may go to a water-hole they had seen 40 years ago when they got severe drought.

They expect to find it even beyond the weeks of walk.

And we (well, some of us) are experimenting about how Neutrino behave, for any possible

application of its use or knowledges for an unknown future. —– all depend on how much we

have the data to make a judgment and a decision-making.

For my thesis, I made a frame-work to analyze the decision-making of the people, analyze the

[Information sphere] of the people (in its group or social cluster) by their use of the words in comparison to

the use of the same words in the media —– such as the words “social class” were more often used by the people

who is reading the left-wing media = hence they are most likely to respond according to what media was suggesting.

(And this is what Google is doing now by picking the key-word in our Email !)

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Zen is suggesting to eliminate the useless thinking when we react or for decision-making. —– though, even when

our hand picks up a tea-cup, the position of the cup has been coordinated in the 3D sphere, hence our hand, each

bones and muscles are able to move correct direction and proper distance.

Our brain is projecting, if the hand moves in such way and so much, it would reaches to the cup, with an

assumption of the visual information from the eyes is correct.

Simply they has been done without we are noticing that we are processing the data.

—– So, the matter is how much is too much.   (Too much thinking read you to nowhere, yet if

literally no thinking at all,  our hand may not able to pick a teacup).

In comparison to the expectation and speculation, cognition is mostly passive, but expectation

is inflated with a wishful thinking or even a delusion.  This is where its trouble starts.

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Our human lives are based on the projected expectation.   Even when we were the hunter-gatherer, to go to

the beach was to pick the sea food. = they knew it’s there from the experiences or other’s direction.

So as the economic activities and its decision-makings are.  In here, the greed inflated wishful thinking comes in.

Spanish has expected, the English holiday maker and the retired rich would buy their holiday villa. = Hence they

invested so much money to build the holiday villa,  hotels etc. —– though, after Lehman shock,  all those

speculation busted. = trouble was, the money they invested was not their own money but the money

borrowed from the bank.   Not only the people working in the building industry and their supply chain but

whole economy collapsed, end up with 20% unemployment.

When the developer decided to build, it was the firm anticipation to expect pretty reasonable return of which

the bankers had the same anticipation, hence they rent the money.

Though, it was regarded to be a careless speculation, mistake they made. = therefore inevitable

consequence they are suffering now.

[]

So, a funny question is, what makes the difference between anticipation / expectation and the

speculation ? —– if it was right in the hind-sight, it was the expectation, and if it was wrong,

was it the speculation ? ———- the trouble is, a famous speculator who made huge, huge money with

his speculation,  like George Soros,  his speculation was proved to be right, hence he made money.

—– was his speculation,  made by days of thinking / analysis,  or unknown kind of sheer hunch ?

So far I haven’t heard a story of Zen meditation made any money-making good speculation 😀

And even though, my mother was so accurate to see the future,  still all the prediction about herself was not

correct (she expected her life may end 50 something though,  she lived much longer in her 80s)

What she taught me was, even the Chinese I-chin, it wouldn’t work when the matter is related to the

own ego or greed. = Spiritualism and money-making can not go together.

[]

In the cyber space, the information sphere is almost completely open.

We are no longer limited to a single view of the TYPE of media = theoretically, we can seek any information,

and to have free thinking and own judgment —– really ?

Yet, the last barrier seems to be, our own EGO and the GREED.   Ego and the greed makes the

one’s view to very narrow scope, limiting it just to a money game, dropping all the view for the

social implication.   Open mind is not only for new idea, but to see the world in every aspects.

( If there was not such blind greed in the bankers or speculators, the economical mayhem which the world is

now facing, wouldn’t be there in the first place)

—

Can Monk get MUSHIN ?

Can Monks get Mushin, let alone Ichijo and Jizai ? —– I don’t think so. Or it may takes 50 years.

Even worse is, so-called Buddhism Academics.

How many Japanese Zen Monks can speak English, and how many of them wrote Zen book in English ?

—– This is the situation, what western people reading the Zen. = No wonder it is hard to understand

let alone able to learn Mushin,  not mention ever get Enlightenment.

What monks learning is, their trade = the business how to run their Temple.

[]

Most of Japanese monks become monk, just happen to born as a son of priest = had to take over

temple business.    Naturally some of them might be good in English though, it is not necessary useful skill

in running the temple as virtually all of their customers are the Japanese, and most of the case they are

the old people.  So, what the trade skill to run temple ?

It is, to carry out the ceremonies which required immaculate posture, performing, chanting some mantras,

above all friendly but solemn facial expressions !

( No customer ever ask about the meaning of what they are doing   😀 )

[]

To be qualified as a monk, —– as a formality, they have to learn Buddhism theory and its history in their

sect’s university.   Though it is in most of the case, yet another boring study.

And yet another formality, spend few months in their main temple as a novice —– except exceptionally few

exception, most of them are then ordained as an “enlightened monk”.

So, where they can learn Mushin ? (few months in the temple, cleaning the floor ? —– joking)

[]

Buddhism Scalars are likely came from Philosophy back ground or Religious History. Naturally, they are

good in logics and semantics and may able to read ancient Pali, Tibetan and Sanskrit etc,

and must have read millions of the words.   On top of this, may have met many priest, monks while visiting

or even staying the temples —– though,

has they got time to lean what the Mushin is,  let alone to master it ?

Now, the medical science can observe the activities of the Schizophrenia’s brain by PET scan and able to

analyze what chemical effecting it and so on. Yet still, non of them able to know what is going on in the mind

of a Schizophrenia.  To treat it, doctor doesn’t need to learn to be a Schizophrenia.

But to talk about Mushin,  it is necessary to get Mushin  by him/herself first.

Able to read the ancient description about the Mushin and able to compare this script and others, doesn’t

mean they know what the Mushin is, therefore,  they are not necessary able to know what would it be if looked

by the eyes of Mushin. —– They know the words but not the meaning and its effect of changed perception.

[]

So, this is the situation what has been written about the Zen Buddhism.

Even worse, the Buddhism is having too many conflicting notions in the same instance,

such as how detouched emotionless eyes can be compassionate eyes in the same time.

—– it is hard to complehend on the words or in thinking,  but only able to experience it

in Mushin in the situation.

To experience mean, you got actualy do it,  not by trying to understand it while sitting in a cauch.

Utterly contrary to the popular belief, Buddhism is not a religion of understanding / Meditation

but the practice of the practice. —– It wouldn’t take you to the heaven (as no such things exists)

but help you to live everyday’s life,  as you have to practically do the

endless continuous practice as your life.

( After all, life is not what you think, but what you do.   🙂 )

___/\___

—

Conflicted view to Steve Jobs

Some people pointed out that my view toward Steve Jobs in two previous posts are conflicting.

Appreciate him in respect of his Zen influenced attitude but in the same time showing an

almost a hatred toward him. —– this is true in certain extent.

There is a very clear reason. From the beginning I didn’t like Apple at all as I’ve described before.

Then, I learned a life history of him and his background —– born as a child of Syrian father

and an American mother, but as their marriage was not accepted by their parents, Steve was grown up

in the adopted family, Jobs. —– those conflict embedded in his psyche lead him to seek the Zen

which gave him an ultimate confidence to be HIM and the mental strength.

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People having a stereotype towards the Buddhism that it is a teaching of peace and harmony.

Though, as I wrote long ago in a Post [ Third aspect in Zen ] there is yet another aspect =

Zen as a technique of Mind Engineering.   How to reprogram one’s mind and give a confidence.

The most famous Sword Master Musashi Miyamoto who wrote [ Book of the Five Rings ] was an accomplished

Zen Master too. —– Still, he was a killer of 30 odd people — (said to be, as I wasn’t there 🙂 ).

And lots of opponents who fought with him were also Zenist.    Being a Zen Buddhist doesn’t mean they

avoid the fight and settle peaceful draw.   One has to die.    The matter in there was only how to kill

in the most efficient way.  Live as a Samurai, death is a part of their Karma and the contemplation.

This is nothing but the Zen Buddhism.

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Zen can give completely open eyes of Mushin,  hence the reaction or decision-making is

the reflection of the Dharma, thus the result would be the most appropriate and the best.

In this aspect, Steve Jobs has accomplished the task what he needed to Do.  Which

he conceived the idea with his open-minded way ( having no dithering to the conventional

thinking or hesitation to others ).

I appreciate this, in relation to the Zen. —– though, I hate the way how Apple exploited the others.

Dharma did give him the best idea of the product design, though I quite doubt of the

well thought-out (second thought driven by the greed) business model to enslave the

consumer = too much tactical thinking and the greed subjecting others was excessive. 

Zen will make a person to perfects the task,  but to harm others

would lead to the repercussion of the Karma to him.

I give certain appreciation to the products, though I wouldn’t make myself to become

a slave or their colony.

My freedom is more precious than few hundreds pound gadget   😀

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