SELF in the ART—-(Letter to my friend)

( This was a Letter I wrote to my Artist Friend —-edited extract)

Dear  Artist

————————-

————————-   The art as a career is totally different matter from the art itself.

To my eyes, Art education in this country is utterly fraud. In education general, all the teachings and the

training is for its profession. Except art education.  Art education is giving the utterly useless, unsalable

” knowledge”  “Methodology of thinking”  and a dream of possibility,  irrelevant to the profession.

( Unfortunately Art doesn’t come from thinking ——- Thinking can be taught objectively, but not the Art )

Any profession stands on its specialized skill and expertise, and this skill is the basis to produce

salable commodities. ——– But it is impossible to give any guaranty  with their teachings,  school has to say

” Regardless the skill,  good art sells. ——Fine, good blessing, show me the sample.  Which art, Who ?

No such things in the market.   Except, Exceptional Exception.  (May be less than 100 in the world, which

I can not even name who.  ( I wouldn’t count  Jeff Koons.  His art is a fraud.  It is just the product design

of novelty goods.  I have seen much fancier Chinese room accessories in fraction of fraction of cost )

Simple answer is ” Would Jeff Koons himself buy his piece and want to put in his room ?” Do you think so ?

——— To see the facts,  you may look into the graduate alumnus list,  who is still active as an artist and

able to sell the art pieces.  On the end, it’s not the matter of the education but what the person has worked.

Creativity come from one’s subconscious imagination, not from school.   In another word, can be done by

oneself but has to be done by oneself.  As hard as one worked, the fruits would be accordingly. (With luck !)

In one’s life, what proportion this luck plays, is proportional to how hard the person worked

——– which,  I found so far. Only a knack to capture this luck is, to be open-minded and passive

——– its mean,  be active on your part but passive to see  and  listen to others.  ( It is, for the artist,

hard to do in practice,  yet,  it is typical paradox in the life —— having self-confidence is not the

same to be arrogant and egotistic )

————————

I’ve seen pretty good artistic art,  though ——- then think,  Does anyone want this in his room ?  or

even in his garden ? ( while parting so much so money )

Only the place, such piece can sit would be an  Art Museum, though it is a bit short of Museum standard.

That is why, its need to be an exceptionally good art,  and only 100 in the world can produce it.

———————–

In sociological view,  Art Education and the Community Art Program etc are for a part of social engineering.

It is a  Redistribution of  Wealth  for the outsider of the social hierarchies.   Since, the value of the Art is a

” Emperor’s new cloths” prize can be given to anybody ( just make a person to feel “Recognized” and Happy

—— otherwise this person may become a social problem or  Anti-Anything-Activist.)

( Am I too cynical ? —— read as a satire or joke.   Ha ha ha  😀  )

————————

As you know, that’s why I’m not saying  I’m doing Art. —— I say, I’m making something useless for my fun.

Yet,  some likes it saying, it impressive.  If it looks like Art, it is just a coincidence in their eyes which I don’t

know why or don’t care.

———- But this must be the strongest stance to be an artist.

Since the art is the communication between two subconsciousness.

If the sender, artist can transmit the notion / massage which perceived in his subconsciousness,  it would

be received straight by the other’s subconsciousness.  As it doesn’t involve rational filter of thinking

its communication is direct and most powerful. Which people describes “Impressive”.

So, to a piece of conceptual art, people says “Interesting” and forget next day.

—————————

Though I’m not implying, I’m transmitting such deep notion / massage.

Though, I’m definitely making jokes —— of which the jokes derived from deep human psych, almost

physiological level / instinctive emotion.   ” As I feel so, therefore others feel so too”      Ha ha ha   😀

Here the deepest core, stripped naked, even down to the skeleton level of the Who I am, is the matter.

—————————

With a vague understanding of this phenomenon, art critics ( who is not psychologist but just a person

who got pedantic silver tongue to deal with media / most important expertise to be a critics) said,

” When real personality (not one’s style) prevailed and start to freely flourishing,

it is the accomplishment of one’s art”

———This “real Personality”  is nothing other than “the  SELF”  in the Buddhist term.

Which is the core of the Buddhism  but the most awkward subject, of which even 2500 years after

Buddha, still we couldn’t clearly elucidated.

( In fact, even Buddha himself took short cut “Don’t bother, no such thing like SELF existing / It’s a false

understanding, nothing but a delusion.”

————————–

To express “Real Personality”, in other words ” True SELF”  from the depth of one’s subconsciousness is

not the same to expose one’s privacy like Tracy Emin dropping her pants.  It  was just a sheer

misunderstanding of  this   (What really exposed there was ” She got a kind of Ego and Greed which she

wouldn’t care to drop the pants, as long as it sells —– in deed, her genitals could no longer called “Secret”)

Or, for the woman, the genitals is The SELF ?   It must be a controversial question.

—————————–

Some artist couldn’t hide their SELF from the start, like Edvard Munch or Van Gogh.  So that it took different

path to establish as an artist (or to be recognized).

——— In my eyes, you got enough skill and pretty good perception to see the things or yourself.

Though I’m not sure whether you got good knowledge to put them into a nice package —– to sell —–

(mind you I’m not talking about picture-frame, but such as what kind of group to be associated with or

how to organize the pieces as a series to give stronger impact, how to create distinctive peculiarity

to your style. ———- I remember the impressive animation you created ——- the perception to

conceive such approach and the way to materialize image is a crucial skill to work such as CM planner or

art director in the advertizing  field.  Artistic creativity is not confined in just like painting or sculpture etc.

Good artistic intuition is the sought after talent in the advertizing, publishing or today’s web-design field.

Good CM or Advertisement catch the people’s instinct,  persuasion / text comes after the impact of eye catch.

In deed, this field is the field of intuitive art.  That’s why they even employ  the psychologist.

You got quite wide selection to spread your wing in deed.

Think about.  Open the door and have look wider field.

———– Return me your thoughts.

CREATIVE MIND —- HELIX the ANGEL

My design or creative work used to be to make something useful especially in the photographic field.

But when I encounter a complication or intrigue in its commercial implication, I just fed up with them, and

started to make utterly useless things —– so-called kinetic sculpture. (Well, it is their classification

and the naming.  I don’t care what ever called.  I just made something  fun  for myself and  as I happen to

know electronics  they often moves,  flashing the light or makes sound.  It is a reflection of  Who I am )

In the same time, my interest to the human mind, especially its cognitive function and creativity led

me to make a kind of figurative piece to see how we can recognize it,  still as the figure even when it was

simplified to the limit.

——————–

To think about creativity through traditional art form and technique doesn’t have so much point, as the freedom

would be confined to the last stroke only.  After all, the creativity is the matter of how the brain

re-configure new  image or notion, better try it as wider as possible aspects.

Thanks to be an outsider of the art,  I don’t need to be confined in the traditional art form.

Above all, traditional technique cost more.  The reason why  traditional sculpture having established supply

and production systems are,  they are the money spinners,  hence it would cost more. (See who buy  Art ?)

Though with a Buddhist Bikku’s principle,  everything has to come from the skip, free of charge.

Therefore the material and the production technique has to follow accordingly to funny material —— its mean,

to invent whole process or technique. ( You may never imagine to create curvy nude figure out of drink can )

The photos here is the Helix the Angel.

The name came from its spiral structure.  Why spiral ?

——- To make a full figure,  we can do it with clay  and

take a die and cast it in metal or glass fiber plastic,

( If not the stone or wood carving —– its a heavy work)

But to make it from  metal panel, it will needs to use either

expensive press process or lots of heat and bang by hand.

Though I got an idea to make it easy and cheaper, using

the way to lap-up a mummy with strip of bandage.

Strip of metal will not totally cover the body though it wouldn’t be a matter, as long as its shape showing

the essential contour,  it would be seen as a body and the gap would be filled by the brain with its function

of integration.  (Convert a flat panel to 3D figure,  lots of people may think  to make each body parts with

rounded pipe,  thinking of Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz,  but it is a stereotype,  mere  variation of existing idea.

A body made by metal needn’t to be a robot kind.——— Anyhow most of the robot looks awfully ugly.

If the task was to make a robot,  I  will make a robot which should function,  regardless if it looks ugly.  But to

make a beautiful Angel,  she got to be beautiful.   Creativity has a direction.   Its not just a wild imagination.

Imagination is A Part of creativity.  The matter is how to develop its image to a concrete object / 2D or 3D etc )

———————–

Intricacy of the miniaturization and its realistic representation would amazes the people,  but in the same time

when a simplified figure showed core essence of the subject,  it amazes the people too.

Art is an Artificial representation of the Natural Truth.  When the well known nature was realistically

represented in an Artificial form or invisible truth was well exposed by the Artificial means,  in either case

it would strike the people’s subconscious/ naked perception.  This is what people calls the ART.

Once before, to show  well known existing object such as a Urinary or Dead Shark in different context did

amaze the people as a twist of the context,  but since such idea became ubiquitous,  its no longer impress

the people.  Because, its no longer exposes the truth,  but ironically it exposed another kind of truth

” Money grubbing fraud ” and so-called  Conceptual Art  became the dirty word.

———————–

Once the created piece was seen by the others,  concept or imagination of the maker came into the field of

communication  (it is no longer the solo game of one’s expression ) ——- the very concept / massage has to

be understood by the others.

If the concept or imagination was originated from the depth of maker’s subconsciousness,  as all the human

share the basic feeling and instinct,  it would be understood by the others, more or less in the same context.

Though,  if the concept was manufactured in the higher region of the brain (by Thinking ),  as everybody got

different knowledges and ideas,  it wouldn’t be understood in the same context.

(That’s why,  so-called  Conceptual Art needs to have  pages of pages of  blah, blah, blah.)

Here the situation of ” What is The true SELF ” came into play.

————————

Incidentally,  this Helix the Angel was shown to the organizer of the so-called ” Angel of the South “

( Evesfleet Project) Design Competition as it happened soon after I’ve made this.  Though, they choose

out-dated conceptual piece ” White Horse ” for the project —— I wonder if it would ever be built.

———- With the design concept of the Helix,  its wings would flap by the wind and drive an electric generator

which would power the hi-power LEDs  in the eyes at night   ( in theory  😀 )    Though, I found the wind in

east England,  if it is east wind it would blow from the east, all day——- not conveniently changes the direction

to make the wings flap and generates electricity.   It was the design flop,  not made by the wing.  Ha ha ha  😀

The creativity in the imagination alone would not necessary works in practice.

In this case,  it is much more an engineering product design than  the Art.

Still it was a fun.

Eroticism ? —– Virtual Woman

Photo left is a kinetic sculpture titled ” Virtual Woman”.

The wire mesh torso which rotates  X and Y axis like

a computer 3D cage design,  hence its title.

Before this,  I made three nude figures using same

material and technique.

Despite of those nude figure (I mean female nude)

having supposed to be ideal proportion and curvy

contour,  strangely it doesn’t look erotic.

My friend who got quite a taste of female body (but not empty kind) said, ” Very sensuous but not sensual “.

Wondering  ” Why I couldn’t create erotic figure ? ”   I made most blatant one,  which is just an open-leg

part of the torso,  expecting to see literally naked eroticism.——— Yet the result was far from erotic.

The reaction of female Artist friend  was  ” Your piece is too strong as a sculpture,  leaving no margin to play

with erotic imagination ” ——- ” Thank you very much” ——– ? ? ?

———- Yes, eroticism lay in its suggestive subtlety,  not  naked exposure of ” Thing”,  otherwise

gynecologists can’t do their business.  If it is the case, where this human eroticism came from ?

The Neuroscientists / Human sexologist call this  ” Brainization of the sex” (not sure about this English

translation, as I read about this in Japanese book long time ago).

It is not from the sexual instinct,  as the imagination in the brain needs the source from out side.

So that, the Boys and Girls build up their Erotic Image Library  which is influenced by the Mass-Media, some

became obsessed by the size of boobs others are slim leg etc, and some are even become Anorexia.

Without the accumulation of the original data, we can not imagine anything.  Still,  we have the curiosity as

even a child has. ( This curiosity is at least  Sexual Instinct, which must be the relics of the lost program )

With this curiosity,  we build up own collection of sexual data bank.  Hence everybody got different one. 

But this is nothing but the evidence of  ” We are born without complete sexual instinct “

And as its imagination was made up in the brain,  it is not far from the delusion or obsession

(When a particular thought was associated with certain Emotion and when this connection become

subconscious routine,  it is the Obsession.  For example such as the word  ” Phallic”,  some people

instantly associate the certain shape of object  with  sexual connotation.)

——————–

But the trouble (?) in my case is not the perception,  but the way of expression —— way to make the shape.

One of my friend who knows my celibacy which started 23 years ago, teased  me  ” As you are a dried up

person, you couldn’t distinguish subtle juiciness of the body shape,  you can’t express succulent eroticism ”

” Oh, c’mon,  what kind of death sentence is it ?”   And he said  “But it might be your advantage,  as you

can handle and see otherwise messy slimy subjects, in perfectly cool, objective manner, people feel you

are a safe,  harmless man” ——- ” M m m, is it good things ? to a man who is still believing live and kicking ”

” May be its a trade-off to be a Zennist isn’t it,  by which you have your peace of mind,  I still have a headache

of my wife,  Ha ha ha  😀

——— So it was certified that, me to make nude figure is harmless and safe to the society.  😀

( And, I can continue experiment and research how our creativity and the perception works.)

As a matter of fact,  it has been used on the stage play directed and designed by

my friend Francesco Pestori,  titled  O-Project.

(and I took part of it acting as a life creating Scientist.  It was a fun.   ! ! !   😀  )

PS: This Virtual Woman alongside the Cupidon (pull the arrow and blow up condom) and

motorized  Wire Dinosaur  would be  exhibited at the Rickshaw Gallery,

opposite of  Southwark Station (Jubilee Line), opening  27th May, evening PV (6:00~9:00)

If you are interested to have a fun,  please come and meet them.

PPS: The Moving Image of this VIRTUAL WOMAN can be seen in Youtube / Google [kinetorori]

—

Sexual Instinct —– What ?

Quite number of years I spent time to watch  Male – Female interaction in the Club.

As I had free entry to the Clubs as a top dancer, up to four nights in a week,  I was on the floor.

Such as a Club called  Enigma  ( formerly  Manhattan Light ) in  Muswell Hill, London  was where

I spent four nights every week,  nearly three years,  as I was living in the aria.

( After this, I was in the  Fridge Club,  Brixton , every weekend,  nearly six years  with my flushing LED

dancing pants or sound reactive flushing pendant which I designed myself.)

———- But there was funny rules, ” Never mix with clouds ”  I was there only for my dancing not

socializing with people. Exception was a Manager,  Staffs and  DJs /  And the person introduced himself

in proper manner. ( So that, two guys among the cloud became good friends )

By watching the interaction between  young man and  girl, their body language  and  who chose who

and changed to who and so on,  I recorded those observation in my log-book in their nick names.

————- Even funnier story was, despite always there,  never speak to the cloud but to the Staffs

and never drink  alcohol,  many people mistook me such as the Real Owner of the Club or  Under-cover

Detective,  Special Security Person (since, my dance movement looks like Martial Art)

(Those were what the staffs told me, as the people asking them ” Who’s that guy ?  Isn’t he —- ? ” )   😀

———————-

The reason why I chose this topic was,  as  I thought the  Unconscious,  Subconsciousness (in another

word Instinct ) may hold the key to decipher the foundation of the SELF. ——– Sexual Instinct is

the easiest one to start and observe. ( In deed you can watch  lords of lords of activities there )

And, how my observation has reflected and resulted  was, what you are reading in this Blog.

———— In addition, I came to the conclusion

” The mankind is the only animal born without the complete program of the Sexual Instinct “

( I know, at first you wouldn’t agree with this  though,  think deep,  remember when you were small,

when you were first ever encounter the sexual knowledge such as where the baby come from

( did you believe,  a stork brought them  ? ) you must be shocked.    And the first time you try to do it,

how awkward you were  ——- (Obviously, only the Instinct, the mankind got is a vague urge  to release the

physiological pressure / tension —– by any means —– hence, there such wide variety of means and fashions )

In comparison,  other animals having amazingly complexed yet perfected instinctive behavioral pattern,

not only the elaborated courtship rituals but associated breeding activities which works only to own species.

We mankind knows virtually nothing of what and how to do and everything has to be learned.

Because of this inadequacy of the instinctive (ie; IMPERATIVE ) program, human sexual activities having

so much wide variation,  dependent to the culture and early orientation ——- once a person caught up to

certain direction, its tendency getting heavier and heavier.  Though, this is not Instinct but the Obsession.

Because of this phenomena,  early orientation or occurence affect the person’s behavior in unconscious,

subconscious level ——- by which, such as so-called  Psycho-analysis  works.

You must be amazed to hear,  even the most basic part of the sexual reaction,  the timing of  ejaculation

is in fact Cultural.   ( M m m m  ? ? ? )

In the west,  a man ejaculate when the insertion was completed with imprinted stereotypical psyche

” I conquered “.   —— But in the east,  a man has a duty to make a woman to come,  so that he ejaculate

when he felt the contraction,  since he grown up hearing, reading   ” Otherwise you are not  The Man ” and

this subconsciously imprinted obsession controls the timing. ( You can ask around the people, if you dear.

—– so, you do your research ) —– So-called  Tantra-Sex and its naming originated from here. ( Though,

it seems, it was utterly mis represented by the so-called guru  who couldn’t even control  himself )

——————————–

This observation gave me the insight, even such basic, ( looks like ) instinctive reaction is

cultural / programable,  so-called instinct or unconscious behavior is in deed Re-programable.

——— isn’t this, the very function behind the  ZEN ?     Yes, it is.

Middle Way

Most of the explanation and understanding of the Buddhism are based on Buddha’s life style.

Buddha himself was the very living sample and the text-book.

Not only what and how he does the things but also how he sees and perceives,  feels and thinks the world.

Since it was the way of the life,  it is not the abstract system of the philosophy,  and as he is the living sample

it is not the religion to believe.   ( The reason why the Buddhism became a  religion later was,  as he has gone

to his Nirvana and  only the legend to believe left.  Once the facts is no longer on front, the story changes.)

———————————

Since the matter is the state of the mind,  harder still, almost invisible subconsciousness,  not all the details,

what it is, why so,  were necessary elucidated. ——– May be because he had explained it in enigmatic

metaphor or left it without verbal explanation and let the people to learn through practice.

So that, even the disciples of  Buddha himself,  to attain certain mental state needed to have lots of guess-work.

————————-

To deny one’s ego and attain the negation of attachment,  then broaden it to the general emotional detachment

is hard enough  ( I’m rather skeptical,  how many monks has ever  reached even to this stage)

Then from there ( in the state of Mushin ) to realize  ” If the self is not exist,  how the same self can impose

the denial to other existences ?”  (Which is what I’ve described before using a metaphor,  -1 x -1 = +1 )

This is the core of the Notion of Middle Way ( We often make a joke ” Somewhere in the middle ” but

it is not such simple matter of quantity / Half Measure.)

Unless the person standing in the state of Mushin, this  Middle Way has no meaning as it is a part of Mushin.

———— There is a good sample in the previous post  ” Ikkyu-san ” /

” It’s good to have human hot water bottle “—— Ikkyu didn’t reject her in the same bed,  far from it, he

appreciated her accompany and the warmth.  But just took asleep.

This is the MIDDLE WAY.  How it is  HINAYANA !

( If you felt a discord when you read this passage in Ikkyu,

you are not Hinayana enough, not liberated enough.)

——— As it is not the matter of quantity or intensity,  as there is no such things like  ” Little bit less Mushin ”

It is next door beyond the Mushin.

From Room A you go to next Room B,  then go up the stair and open the next door to go into

another Room A’ which looks identical  to the Room A,  though this Room is situated above Room A.

You may think,  you were come back to tha same Room though, this one is in different dimension.

Not only Room A’  is situated above Room A,  from there you can see Room A, Room B like bird’s eye view,

since Room A’ has no floor or wall to block the view.   This is the place of absolute freedom.

Since Buddha was  in deed the resident of this Room A’  he had the freedom of the view,  and there

was even no silly restriction such as what to eat.  He ate anything offered.  (Hence he died with food poisoning

of a fish which he was grateful as it gave him the Nirvana )

As  Buddha had no stereotypical view or idea toward the death, he could just accept it,  hence it was  Nirvana.

———————–

Yet still, even the disciples were not necessary able to learn everything from the living text-book / Buddha

they needed to argue another 1000 years to find the door way to the Room A’.

And the  Room A’  looks almost identical to the Room A,  the old masters  who actually reached to this Room,

all of them just shouted  ” What a hell.  It’s a Dog Shit ”  —– ( But mind you, this Dog Shit is the same Dog Shit

Buddha stepped on. —– It is the Holy Dog Shit. So you know, it’s even smell nice. /  Internet information

says, at the Shaolin Temple in China you can buy a gold replica of this dog shit.   Ha ha ha  I’m kidding.  😀  )

Ikkyu-san

One of the most famous  Zen monk,  Ikkyu  Sojun  is the literally most talked about Buddhist in Japan.

I don’t know how many books tribute to him and even cartoon comics featuring him for the children has been kept coming  to the book shelf, not mention  TV anime. Though, as he got so many legendary stories,  it is hard to tell which story has historical fact behind or it was an invention of novelist.  Yet still, I especially like this story which is so typical in Zen mind.

—————————-

When Ikkyu was exiled to a remote corner of northern Japan by the Shogun,  as he was an out-spoken critics and a pain on the neck,  the local  War-Load who was made responsible to keep him, put a woman to cook and take care of his daily life,  expecting  Ikkyu to have a relation with this woman,  which would give a convenient pretext to kill him.   Which was a hidden intention to isolate and exile him away from the Buddhist’s center of Kyoto.  Though, even a year past, no such relation had ever taken place.

The woman wondered if she is sexy enough to attract him or not.  So that, woman took a drastic action one night,  waited him in his bed  (well, it was a Futon)  naked. When Ikkyu saw her in his bed,  he didn’t show any surprise and get into the bed saying  ” I knew this would happen soon or later.  It’s nice to have human hot water bottle.  Oh good, its warm”  and within few minutes he started snoring. ——– Woman was utterly devastated.

——– Most of  women are having strange belief almost like a religion.

A man will do the business when he saw a woman laying naked.  But it doesn’t apply to a Zenist. 😀     (It exclude sham Zenist ! )

Unless its business is his task,  a naked body is just a naked body,  nothing to do with him and his body doesn’t react with so-called instinct.   Naked body is there just as it is.  Its sexual connotation is in one’s mind.  Without sexual connotation, it’s still beautiful, soft and warm to touch.   No problem to be there.

Unlike popular belief,  being as a monk Ikkyu had a mistress and he was more than capable to do the business until his old age, though unless the woman was the one he committed,  anybody else was the no existence.

In Mushin, if it is the task to take,  commit to it 100 % down to the level of subconscious.  If not, it is 0 % to the level of subconscious,  in deed to the instinct level.

(As the Emotion was detached,  sexual object wouldn’t cause the seclusion of adrenalin or testosterone,  hence so-called instinctive reflection doesn’t occur.)       (There said to be an extreme training to become a Tantra High Priest (Adjari) = While attending an all night sitting, the monk has to keep his penis elected continuously. = keep his mind totally concentrated to sexual arose. —– it’s a hard act for an amateur to try. )

Zen has only 100 % all, or nothing 0 %. ( Incidentally, this would explain Why Japanese tend to go to extreme. As there is nothing between, when it came to the situation of fight such as in war,  it would be either kill or be killed.   Somewhere between,  beaten yet still alive and become Prisoner of War was not acceptable.   It was regarded to be in half minded / coward.

All those psyche were originated from the Zen ethos. ——-  To reconcile with this extremity with Middle Way needs to have a real understanding of the Middle Way. = not a kind of “Somewhere between”. )

___/\___

.

Find the SELF—- by your Camera

Internet Photo site / Frickr  has interesting functions.

It can be someone’s exhibiting space, even though nobody know actually how many people ever seen them.

Some of them are technically very advanced impressive photos, or

literally  “The moment was captured” kind.  It is the show off of the trophy to the world wide viewers.

Yet still, lots of people just uploading their own photos for no specific intention and the photos are just

an image as the sake of image.  The person who took photos may say, this is my expression, as I felt

it is beautiful, or interesting ———- in fact, what so ever the excuse.

———————

The reason why I’m interested in those photo stream are, not necessary only the contents, but also

the whole activities. When anybody aim a camera and take photo, the person is in one’s fully minded

state of the mind, and the photos are the result of one’s concentration.(even without a breath)

And as nobody directed the person, the photos are the result of their personal choice—– which they says

their unique View-point ——— its mean, the series of photos are the reflection of their SELF, of which

in most of the case, the reflection of person’s deep subconscious. (some times sheer  Ego  😀 )

If anybody watch the series of photos, soon certain tendency, specific interest or taste will emerge.

It is the person’s unconscious aim and the choice.——— in another words, hidden SELF.

In effect this is the very effective way to find the inner SELF.   The best things here is, it is displayed as

a collection of objective images. (Only need to have a bit analytical objective eyes to see the tendency, but

as it is visual, it is far easier than to think in the head)

————- Convinced  ?    Well, Try it. Its a fun in the same time.

HEALTH WARNING :

This is an approach more akin to the Psycho Analysis.  Therefore, important point is,

Don’t show the result to others unless you are prepared to show you inside out.

( Other than some Photographically good photos   😀 )

Taking photo of lots of Holy relics’ doesn’t mean ” You are the Holy spiritual person” but

more likely you are intellectually pretentious.  Seeking the SELF is the matter of personal quest.

Of cause, this observation works in its best to the photos taken casually in open minded and

its hard see the personality of the photographer in academic  or sports kind.

Clear the CONFUSION

While talking with the people who read through my blog,  I found , I still need to clarify the confusion,

which may caused by not clear enough explanation.

It seems, the most confusing part of the Zen teaching is,  the apparent crush of  the Selflessness

and the so-called  Mindfulness. As  this Mindfulness was mistook as the Concentration,  my explanation

of  Selflessness = Detachment /  Mushin  seemed to have utter conflict with  Mindfulness.

———- Yes it seems true, as long as the person is  ” Thinking them as the meaning of the words “.

Here,  the hardest part of the Zen phenomenon lays.

One is the matter of the SELF,  and the Awareness of the Self /  Thinking ——> Not Thinking

——> BUT do it under the control of  SUBCONSCIOUS.

When we do the things Unconsciously,  this is what the Zen called  MUSHIN  ( SELFLESSNESS ).

DETACHMENT  from  the Thinking, and the person who is Thinking = SELF.

( Detached from the Self or own Ego ——– not from the subject to do)

Do the things in  MUSHIN or  Subconsciously, yet fully committed  to  the subject,  is the state of  FUJI / ICHIJO.

In this state of the mind, ICHIJO,  there is nothing else of  the person  (selfless SELF)  and the subject.

——– this is what western Zenist described as the Fully Minded or  Mindfulness.

One of the grave  mistake of the western Zenist was the use of this word, Mindfulness.

The trouble is,  there is no mind should be there. ———– So that, as long as the person mind the

mindfulness,  there can never be the MUSHIN or SELFLESSNESS achieved.

—————————

And this is the fundamental trouble to approach Buddhism by the word and the thinking,  and

exactly with the same reason,  all the Buddhism sects (except the talking shop of western Buddhists) are

using the physical practice as their part of teachings. (You can bang a drum or cut a lemon without conscious,

though  you can’t read or talk without consciously thinking )

————- And this is the reason,  why I have started this blog saying   “Just Do IT,  Don’t Think “

let alone talking about. ( So, why am I blogging here ?   😀 ——– In Hinayana,  I should just

watching the people talking, puzzling, though it is yet another paradox of the Mahayana. I have to blog )

————————

So, it must be clear now,  Selflessness, MUSHIN  and so-called Mindfulness, and ICHIJO  are

all exist in the same time as One Phenomenon of a State of the Mind (of No-Mind / MUSHIN).

All those words are the superficial appearances of the same Phenomenon seen from different angle.

————————

Since the result is much better done in Zen,  the question arose ” Who did this, as the Self was

not there,  WHO ELSE ? ” ——– Hence, ” It must be done by the  Dharma ”

and the riddle of  ” Is SELF really exist ? ” was born.

Why not iPod ?

I’ve come across an article analyzing the  Japanese industry.  The author was questioning why Japanese

couldn’t produce really novel product such as like iPod or iPhone.

The author’s view was that the Japanese is reluctant to break the convention and the established frame work,

yet still, good to play within its frame work and able to maximize the quality and its technical possibility.

——————–

In fact this is exactly what I’ve written before ” to achieve the maximum in the restriction, is the Zen”

and this is the evidence of how Japanese psyche is deeply entwined to the Zen tradition. (even today ! )

———- Here the pros and cons of Zen were clearly exposed.    I don’t think any Japanese is aware, this

psyche is originated from the Zen Ethos.  Since Soto Zen prohibit the transmission by the word,  people

learn it through the way to carry out the daily life, and as it is there always and repeating it every day,

it became a subconscious nature——- therefore it is impossible to objectively analyze. —— Hence,

it is very difficult to change.

When this Ethos was directed to one practice, such as particular sports, the dedication of literally

body and the soul, yield fantastic result. Like the performance of the Japanese Figure Skater, Mao Asada.

———- ( though, to my eyes, the performance of  Korean Skater Kim  showed more genetic

feminine and delicate flow of movement—— genetically spontaneous  movement is more natural than

the learned movement, of cause)

——————–

Though, when this Zen effect appeared in the corporate organization, and when they  faced to totally new,

unknown situation, they are slow to adapt and change.    Since everybody, top to bottom are living and

acting according to the same established frame work and the Ethos,  someone’s new idea would be seen as a

crazy delusion and a destruction to the existing business.

So that the revolutionary new idea is only bore out from the new organization which haven’t established their

own frame work and the Ethos yet.   The new idea and the approach of the Sony or Honda  WAS  the typical

sample of this, when they started out of the ash of world war 2.  (Still they had attitude of  Zen tradition )

The trouble of the industry now, the business got to be globally huge, not only the size of capital, but also

the sheer size of bureaucratic system which always tend to resist the change.

When  SONY  faced the end of era of optical disc (CD),  they resisted the trend of the recording media

toward the  Solid Memory , by cringing CD system while trying Mini Disc and their own signal compression

system called Atrack (saying 50 CD musics into one disc) —–  without  success.     As they resisted the

revolution, they completely missed the ship and eat the dust of iPod and new era.

I don’t believe the front line engineers didn’t see the latest development in the technical front and the

management was kept ignorant, though they couldn’t guillotine  the neck of the dieing CD and Mini-Disc.

( It was the complete misjudgment of the new Aristocrat who started from a small work shop of

Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (later Totsu-ko) in Ohsaki, Tokyo. ——–I’ve handled an old tape recorder of

Totsu-ko with its magnetic paper tape when I was in my junior school’s Radio-club)

——- Try to avoid the system drown in the stagnant water,  Honda having the famous ” Proposal Scheme”

which any staff or worker can give a new idea, but the trouble may not just in a small technical

improvement but needs the large-scale system change, which is hard to accept and implement.

( It is  the situation of so-called  ” Paradigm sift “)

It is the demerit to share the same emotion  from the top to bottom, especially as its Ethos is deeply sublimated.

As in the Zen tradition,  this Ethos  was carried by the  “Just Do It”  practice,  as the  Crafts man’s spirit.

Make things / Engineering  of Hardware,  the pride and spirit is entwined with its work,  which can not to be

easily changed.  (Electronical coding / Soft Program can be changed without changing production system )

(Though it was not the problem of ” Concentrate to the Task”  but couldn’t see the direction

which is not exist on front of eyes yet —— direction can only be seen by detached eyes in distance.

But, when the one has been shackled into the system, it is hard to maintain detached eyes.)

——————–

It may seems to be a contradiction from above, though the Zen itself is not straining the creativity, far from

it, the creativity can have even more freedom with the Zen.  And I’ll talk about this in the following post.

DRIVE to attain ENLIGHTENMENT

Human psyche is the complexed awkward animal.  It has too much pretense and the vague drive.

Pretense,  What ?  – – – – – because it is the posture of the idealized image,  not necessary the inherit nature.

——- though,  this is the foundation of the so-called  Spirituality.

And the vague drive  which may even came from the genetic memories are hard to define.

Still, it is not necessary a bad thing.

In my high school time, the talking shop of the left-wing activists ( of its milky junior rank ) concluded

the definition of the human as  ” a man aiming to become the human”. ( Here,  the Vector is the key )

This persistent aim and the tenacious effort is what makes a man as the human.

Actual direction may not necessary clear and it varied person to person,  so that this attempt include

its search as well.

Of cause,  the reason why we do need to search is,  as we are not born to be ——- its mean,  in nature

we are not human yet,  still if we abandon this attempt,  we will sink to the bottom of the stagnant water,

and we lose even a candidacy to be a human.

Even though we are not perfect yet,  the aim or hanger to achieve perfection is hidden in our nature.

Since this is the same Dharma which has given the vector to Mono-cell Organism in the primeval

sea to evolve ultimately to us,  the Mankind now.

Hence,  the aim or attempt and the effort to achieve the better is the Order of the Dharma.

———- and in the Buddhism,  this Drive / Vector is the very cause to attain one’s  Enlightenment

and ultimately  reach to the Nirvana.   And it is the reason why we need to practice, ——- the Drive

is there, but the one who actually work is the oneself.   Just born with Dharma is not enough.

( This continuous drive is the unique key factor of the Buddhism,  never seen in any other belief system

which tells a fixed Genesis story  ought to be believed )