Think yourself — Why ?

“Don’t believe what others said. Think yourself” was the most famous last teachings of

Lord Buddha in his death bed.   Buddhism is not a religion to recites the words in the

book (repeat the same words million times makes a man to believe it ) or arguing how 

to interpret the meaning with rhetoric, but just practice and get understanding.

 

Therefore, in this context, the use of the word “Think” may not to be the correct word

= instead, “Feel and Grasp” “Find and Understand” would be better, because as I said,

the Buddhism is not a religion of what you Think and Remember but who you become,

down to the subconscious level.

[]

See a simple situation. Somebody taught you the Walking Zen saying “By walking

round and round, you can get rid of all your thoughts, and get Mushin, the Mind of

No-Mind.   This is the another way of meditation which purifying your mind.”

—– Well, the words must be well remembered and a word Mushin must be stuck

to the mind. ~~~~~ Then, walk round and round —– while a thought of

“Have I got Mushin or yet ?” coming up again and again and haunt you. 😀 😀

(Instructor should have told you just “Follow me”.   It’s difficult to see a quality

of the instructor = well spoken friendly instructor tend to get more attendance.  

It’s a paradox  Sir ! )  😀

[]

When No-Mind, No-Self was the matter, 

teach it by the word is self-contradiction.  = I think,

Lord Buddha didn’t teach it in such a way, but just showed how to do, expecting

that the followers can get the Selfless Mushin naturally through the practice.

(Please read the Post : [Test of Selflessness]) (And remember Kisa Gotami’s story =

She was just made running around without having any explanation ! )

Though, among the followers, someone pretending to be wiser, started to give an

own explanation what was the intention of practice or meaning of Selflessness.

But as I said, to explain it by the word is the Self-contradiction, for instance,

“ Do this without thinking is the No-Mind, No-Self” — though, to have this notion

in the Mind IS against the No-Mind = nothing but a Self-contradiction.

So that, there is no way else to learn No-Self other than “Do the practice

and find it by oneself.” —– (Same situation to learn how to ride a bicycle

 = absolutely no word will help, but to learn it yourself !  —– And once learned,  

you ride it automatic = no thinking is needed there. )

[]

Lexical communication is based on the words which is the categorized, abstract 

notion, hence, it rely on the high-level process in the brain which we call thinking.

Bypassing those thinking process and leave the judgement, or action to the

old intuitive part of the brain called Limbic System, = is

“What Mushin and the Selflessness meant.”

This is why “Don’t believe what others said. Think yourself = Experience yourself and

discover the fact, that the things can be done without thinking = in Selfless Mushin.”

So, if it was Selfless, who did this = It was done by the Dharma !

[]

—– Still, this episode exposed a serious situation then.   In a very last moment, WHY

Lord Buddha had to give such basic instruction to the most closest disciples.

= It signify the fact, that

Lord Buddha did aware that his disciples haven’t fully understood

what his teachings of No-Self was.

(And it explains why the Buddhism have had deviated in such early stage

and mixed up with the Hinduism.)

___/\___

[]

 

What we see in flower Photo

You may believe that you are seeing the detailed truth of the things before you.

Yet the reality is, that is only your naive hope.   In our eyes, only the center,

about 15~20 degree of vision can see the detail.   — And in fact, on this text, if you 

gaze at a word “seeing” on the first line,  you are not able to read adjoining words

without wobbling the eyes. 

Exactly the same way to fill the gap of blind-spot in our eyes, our vision is

a conveniently  re-constructed mapping of the environment. = Anyhow,

we don’t need to have the detailed vision of everything. = because we knew

if necessary, we can give a close look.

And in reality, we reject the most of the details, otherwise our brain would be

overloaded —– we only need to have “a kind of understanding of [it is there]”

It is a funny belief that the photograph got to be sharp and show the details.

—– even though,  very few people know the significance of the detail of

such as the structure of a flower. —– So, the most of us don’t care !

With the same belief, even a Phone-camera which got mare 2 mm size lens with

2 x 3 mm sensor, still has 10 MP, 15 MP and produce pretty decent sharp image !

 (—– that’s annoying me.  😀  ) 

So, while using  x10 more expensive and x10 heavier camera I’m creating utterly

fuzzy image. —– anyhow, no botanists or any scientific person needs my photo.

Then suddenly appeared photos here, were taken by a proper Macro lens.

Some of the people prefer this kind of “normal” photo.  —– Why ?  

Are they a botanist or an entomologist ? 

Does anybody expect to find something important from this photo ?

—– I don’t think so.   Nothing significant in here.

It seems, it’s not just me, the people got tired of sharp pan-focused image.

So that, even Google Photo, created an app to give “out of focus bokhe”. (by

moving the camera and gives 3D depth info and digitally creates  bokhe !) 

 I think, the sharp pictures are a kind of piecemeal,  make  us to have a false

peace of mind that the nature is still with us.

(even though, the most of us are nothing to do with it ) = Even a man who

never gave a close look to a face of bee, still feel “Yes, this marvelous creature

 is [My Friend]= I’m in the circle” because I’m seeing such close details.     🙂

For me, the images behind the hazy curtain would calm me down more =

I was relieved  from the detailed scanning task and see the world as it is. 

—– or I would say, “Just feel it” = away from an useless thinking.

[]

 

 

 

 

 

Riot of Flowers (1)

The photos from the same flower patch and by the same homemade lens.

The different tone was created by the combination of  White Balance in

the camera and a digital adjustment in the PC. 

I like those photo’s  Opal like tone.

[]

Hot, Hot — Do something !

After the Summer solstice, the room temperature climbing up and up.

—– I think I wrote a story before, a comparison of two different approach to

deal with a summer heat in Buddhism. = The one said

 “Sinto wo mekkyaku sureba, Hi mo mata suzushi”

(When you negate the mind and the thinking, even a fire could be felt cool)

And the other “Atsusa no natsu wa ase wo kaki, fuyu wa chizimi-agaru”

(Get sweat under the summer heat, and shiver in the winter)

—– The former was a typical attitude in the Hinayana Buddhism and the

later was the Mahayana Buddhism.

I think, the both are correct —– for them.  Please carry on.

= It’s not my business to argue with them as they are not on front of me.

—– I’m facing the heat in my room. —– Of course, I can escape and go out 

though, my PC is here and I have to do something on the Net. = The trouble is,

since I’m using an Internet Dongle to connect, the Dongle get hot.    And as the

room temperature nearing to 30 degree, the Net-connection is getting slower

and stated to say “Connection timed out” “This page is not available”. 😦

[]

In most of the case, trouble or malfunction in the electronic devices were

caused by the overheat.   Any mistake such as wrong polarity, over current,

over voltage, all resulting overheat and burnt-down (of some area or inside of

a chip).  So, the heat management is a big issue in the electronic circuit design,

which is parallel with the issue of “Low power consumption” —– though, the

situation is always the same. ( 10A current on 1A device cause overheat, and

10mA current on 1mA chip will blow them off).   And the devil is, when they get

hot, the current increases = more current more heat = Thermal-runaway.

[]

Funnily enough, even this extremely advanced technological age, when the

fore-front of science is dealing with such as almost invisible Gravity Wave still,

the way to deal with a heat isn’t different from 100 years ago. = Hoping the heat

would disperse (hence, lower the temperature of the area) through heat

conductive material (include the air).

( To generate the electrics out of heat, hence take the heat away, seems a good

idea though, it’s efficiency is less than 10% = 90 % of problem is still there. 🙂 )

—– So, to against a problem of Hot Net-dongle, my solution was “as advanced

as the fore-front of the technology today can offer” = disperse

the heat through a heat-sink to the air.

Photo Left : Disassemble the Dongle.

The Centre : Put heat conductive paste on a metal part of the Dongle

then place a heat sink over it.

Photo Right : Place the SIM card in position and clamp all together.

—– It’s working perfect.  Heat sink is getting warmer, mean dispersing the

heat from the dongle and as a result, the Net-connection got much faster. 🙂

(So far so good. —–  In case, if small window appeared saying “SIM card

invalid” etc, it was caused by the card was not properly slide-in  ===>

Place the card again while mimicking the action to slide-into the position.)

~~~~~ So, have a cool Net surfing.    🙂

[]

 

Passionflower

This flower was called  Tokei-sow, 時計草 (Clock Flower) in Japan though,

I never seen it in there but first did in  Canary Island when I was over 30.  

First time when I saw a picture of this flower, I was in my Junior school,

and it was in an article of magazine about the strange plants in the world 

such as Rafflesia, Farrus Titanium, Giant Lotus (Floating leaves) etc etc.   

Not only it’s Japanese name was really  convincing,  but also it’s structure

fascinated me so much. —– why a flower needs to have such style like a Clock.

The flower looks pretty complicated, and where to hide a honey

seems complicated too.  = a Bee needed to lick all-over ! 

Naive minded young people might have mistaken the name Passion Flower

= Passion for Hot Love kind though, the truth was,  it was named after rather grisly

Crown of  Thorn of Jesus on the Cross. That “Passion” named by Spanish missionary.

(And they tricked the indigenous people, “Look, Evidence of God is here” 😀 )

In this aspect, Japanese name sound more harmless.  —– With a kind of curiosity,

I wondered,  how on earth,  who designed a flower like this, or evolved from where ?

— I looked around the related plant, though,  this plant occupying it’s own species

and has no sister or first cousin.  —– ? ? ?     Utterly Fascinating !

—–

PS :  The Photos by  “Two Elements Homemade Lens” on Canon 5D Mk-III

(I’m amazed by the capability of this lens —– Nice macro too.  😀 )

[]

Soba-plant — Buckwheat

Holly Mackerel ! —– Cosmos was a surprise but not a kind of out of scope.

But to see this one, Soba plant or Buckwheat in this country was utterly

out of my expectation. Unless you are the people from central Eurasia,

Russia, Eastern Europe, India etc, you may not have any idea of what

Buckwheat is. —– and even if you eat it before and knew the taste, still, the

most of the people didn’t know the plant of such “pseudo-cereal” came from.

Most of the staple grain is a seed of grass plant (with that long leaves) though,

this one is one of the exception, alongside the Amaranths or Quinua.

And this one came from a plant family called Polygonaceae, which is

having Knotweed, Sorrel in the family.

———- (Photo above : Green shiny triangular shape  are the seeds.) 

While checking the Net, I realized that some of the people found a business

opportunity selling the plant seed with a kind of sweet buzz word

“Greening the environment” “Seed plant to feed the wild birds” —– m m m ?

—– I’m not happy jump into a bandwagon here.

[]

Natural environment is a complexed huge system which took long time to

establish.   Each plant may need a particular insect to pollinate etc etc,

on top of geo-climate condition.

When foreign plant was introduced (wittingly or accidentally what ever)

quite often it cause the devastating consequences.   Such as Hay Fever, =

the local population may not have an immunity against a type of pollen new

species produces —– and it may takes generations to acquire the immunity.

Before, the root of invasion of exotic species were, stowaway seeds on the

imported log, packing staff between the products etc, (it’s an old practice) but

these days it became utterly unpredictable due to astronomical amount of

trade goods. —– not mention the exotic plant or its seeds sold by the

garden center / Net outlet.

[]

This plant, Fagopyrum.esculentum / Soba-plant was to make Soba (kind of

noodle, unique to Japanese cooking) though, I realized that it was cultivated

(and eaten) in Russia most, and produced and exported from China to Japan

in huge amount.  = (In fact, 80 % of Soba, Japanese is eating, came from China

and US.)   The plant was suited to grow in a cool, dry climate and able to live

even on the poor soil.   So, in certain extent, it is true to say, this plant can change

barren hill side, green though, if we see the agricultural productivity side,

this plant has only 1/10 against the rice, it’s mean, this plant need to have 10 times

more land to support the same population.

= So, if the land was utterly useless poor land, why not to grow this plant

= it may support some people to survive or help Japanese to enjoy

a small luxury to eat a bit chewy noodle.   Ha ha ha   🙂

[]

Cosmos

In that “Instant Flower Meadow” I found the Cosmos !  

— You may wonder why it makes a news ?  = Cosmos is one of the most

common (wild)flower in Japan, especially in a late summer, even though

it came to Japan about 120 years ago.   (It was originated from the Mexico,  

and taken to the Spain about 230 years ago then spread to everywhere.)

But, in here I’ve  seen  the Cosmos only handful times, and this is the one !

(= It’s a good question why Cosmos got out of favour in England. )

Still, as it spread to the wild in Japan,  if you see a field or disused land, 

the chances are,  you will see either  Cosmos if not Susuki (You may not

think, Susuki is a Flower though)  otherwise a bush of  Yellow rod.    

(Strangely you may think,  that notorious Japanese Knotweed is not

spread in Japan. —– Obviously, they like the England more.   😀 )

When the Cosmos fills a field, they do literally end to end.  

And they are as toll as 1 m, 1.5 m or even taller.  

And this  kind of flower meadow was what I remembered as a child.

(So the photo above shows how the Cosmos field looks like in Japan

—– Photos from Maki Yamamoto’s site)

Their variation of color is from white to deep pink. — There is

also yellow one but, we don’t call it Cosmos.   🙂

On the end of the summer, under the dark blue sky and be in a 

Cosmos field, which seemed to stretch as far as I could see, and

the fragile Cosmos are trembling in the first wind of Autumn.

The field became an Universe. (= Cosmos !)

—– was one of my Proto-image with nostalgia.

(A burnt down city, thanks to American Bombing, Tokyo was

almost a wild field then. —– it’s mean, lots of flowers survived the fire, or

scorched land was quickly covered by the plants from surrounding area. )

 So, for me, the flower photo is not just for a  fun to the eyes, but

a clue to trace back mental landscape as well.

(That’s why they are fuzzy.  🙂 )

—– 

Photos here were taken by the Two Element Homemade Lens

(with or without Extension Ring) on Canon 5D Mk-III

[]

Art Studio Open Day

I was invited to see a “Studio Open day” —– Yeah, I can see the Studio definitely.

The trouble was that not much else other than the space to see.

Or, it could be a biggest ever “the Art Performance” they created = To contradict 

all the creche and the stereotypical expectation around the artists and the studio. 

I saw an artist who is showing almost the same, made 4~5 years ago.  

(There was a sort of a say what makes an artist “Genuine” =

stubbornly keep doing the same ! ) —- is this the case ?

Anyway, Open-day is not an exhibition = literally door was open to the

visitors, that’s all = don’t expect to find an eye-catching or mind boggling art

= this is the studio (space or container) —– the contents is a different matter.

Then I realized that this is their annual party to have their close friends 

come together and to have a chat and a fun !

So that there was a Bar, or some food stool, stool selling small crafts etc etc.

May be the so-called artists here might had a misconception or fallen into a trap

of  complacency = “I’m an artist having a studio hence not a nobody therefore

what I make is The Art” —– still, the kids was born and the life isn’t easy etc etc

“On top of rack of creativity”. 

So, a guy I met there and had a short chat told me a very creative crazy idea !

(He was an outsider without having a studio ! ! ! ) = It’s better to remain an

outsider than a full-time “professional artist” in fact a professional pretender.  😀

[]

How to teach No-Self and Void

No-self,  Mind of No-mind = Mushin,  Void etc etc —– in fact it’s all same state 

of the mind or brain though, a trouble is, it can not be explained —– because,

if it was explained, its action, and the words themselves destroy the notion of

No-self or Void and in effect, it is to prove that “You have your own Self”.    🙂

It is the same to a duty of silence, you can’t tell or declare that “I am in silence”

= if you tell that you are in a practice of silence = you fail the duty.

[]

In the Buddhist scripture it was “explained” in the relation to the 5 aggregates

= in fact the relation between the sense and the object =  “sensed” —–

such as a sense of vision and the object what you thought that you have seen,

and likewise sense of hearing etc etc = 5 senses and effectively all the existences.

===> Its core is,  you never be sure whether you actually seen it,  or what you

thought that you’ve seen, was true or not, that’s because the subject, you and the

object were existing in the relation to the others in moment to moment, hence

they couldn’t be defined as a reliable solid existence therefore nothing, include

yourself is real —– in another word, Void.    (It’s shame though,  to understand

what was written there doesn’t mean “able to get Selfless or see the Void” ! )

—– (The expression in a typical Mahayana scripture “Exists as Not-exists” was

an excuse of the autoer “I didn’t say neither exists or not exists” )   🙂

[]

Because of you, yourself is Void, you can’t explain it’s situation because the

situation in any moment is keep changing hence any static description could

be a false = in fact any such notion is nothing but a delusion.

So, this is the fundamental trouble to teach, let alone to explain the Selfless or Void.

Lord Buddha had this trouble too, of cause.   And his answer was “Not answer” —–

because, there is no problem to continue the life without having the SELF, far from

it, we were born and naturally living in Selfless, in other words, having and clinging 

to the Self, or believing that the world, or all the existences are really existing, is

nothing but the delusion.    So, what

Lord Buddha did was just show the practice he does in Selfless state (Mushin) = 

and he instructed to do the the same, exactly like him. = and everybody followed =

automatically following him exactly the same manner IS nothing but the practice 

of the Selflessness.    (Please read [Test of Selflessness])

[]

It is impossible to explain what the Selflessness or Void is, still in practice 

anything can be done in completely Selfless manner and it is in deed a

demonstration and the proof of the Void.

[]

And this was the reason why the scriptures are in haywire still the teachings of

Buddhism and it’s tradition has been maintained in the Zen practice.

—– if you can do the same, again and again without conceive a question, you are

in the Selfless state.    And you can extend this state to do any other work, even a

thinking process.   (It may sound funny as it is the same brain though, the thinking

part of the brain is not necessary involving the emotional region where the feeling

of Me = Self was created.  —– So, the mental practice of Detachment will work.)

___/\___

[]  

釈尊の教え — その原形

釈尊の教えの原形を考える上で最も決定的な鍵となるのはその僧伽（サンガ）にカーストは

存在しなかったという事実です。何故カーストという概念が生れたのか？－－－実は

それこそがヒンズー教の根底である輪廻再生の観念で，カーストはその個人の前生の反映，

その結果に外ならないという理屈であったのです。

釈尊の時代はちょうどこのヒンズー思想の勃興期で，儀式的なバラモン教から陰惨な宿命論ヘの

移行期であった訳です。  これはかつて日本にあった『天中殺』の流行のようなもので，

それを真に受けて信じ込んだ人間は恐怖のパニックに陥った。

当時の新興宗教のグルが説く輪廻再生，カーストのくびき説におびえる人々に

“心配するには及ばない，そもそもベーダやヒンズー教で言うような不滅の魂（アートマン）など

と言うものは無い。人の肉体が死ねばそこに宿っていた魂，我と言うものも消滅する。これが

涅槃であり，そもそも我（セルフ）などと言うものは当人の思い込み，妄想以外の何物でもない”

と説かれたのです。つまりこの教えは『輪廻再生を繰返す永遠の苦（娑婆，サムサラ）からの解放』

ではなく『“輪廻再生を繰返す永遠の苦”という誤ったヒンズー説からの解放を説いた訳だったのです。

古典的べーダ以来一般的に信じられていた不滅の魂（アートマン）を否定し，それが輪廻再生して

カーストが現れるとしたヒンズー教の流行思想を否定した

釈尊の説は実に革命的な教えであったと言えるでしょう。(この教えの根底に縁起，

因縁説（肉体と精神，我の相互依存）がありそもそも我などというものは存在し得ないという

考えが包括的空観に発展していった訳です。）  と言う史実を一見するだけで，仏教というものが

いかにヒンズーやタントラと混合され換骨奪胎されて来ていたかを窺い知る事ができます。

つまり人類は実に２０００年以上に渉って釈尊を冒涜し続けていたのです。

___/\___

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