Ghost — Buddha’s Psychological Profile

Can you describe the details of a Ghost ? — how it looks etc, etc. — CAN YOU ?

Imagine, it was a kind of public gathering and somebody started to talk about seeing

a ghost and some others responded and told their own experience or hear-say but

 most of the others didn’t say anything, other than murmuring their doubt.

—– I think this is the general situation and it wasn’t so different in 2,500 years ago

in India, even if more superstitious people was there, still, only very few could say

actually seen it. 

[]

Lord Buddha’s time, when out of Sanskrit / Vedic belief, a new religion, later known

to be the Hinduism was emerging.   Over the Sanskrit belief of perpetually remaining

soul, Hinduism put an emphasis on the reincarnation of each soul which reflect the

previous life = hence, the life in this world is the result of previous life, in other words,

every life was fixed which makes a person’s Cast.

—– This idea horrified the people then = the endless cycle of reincarnation traps the

person, if not make the worst to reborn to be a beast.

To against this idea of endless suffering of reincarnation, (called Samsara)

Lord Buddha was the one offering the rescue, saying “Don’t worry, no such things

like endless reincarnation, because the one supposed to be reincarnated = the Self or

so-called Atman is not existing, therefore when your body dies, it is the total end =

Nirvana” and offering the refuge where there is no notion of Cast or previous life.

[]

Lord Buddha’s this understanding came from the observation of the Karma and

the Dharma.    Everything depend and rely on others in every moment.

Without this inter-dependency, nothing could exists, so as our body and the mind.

It’s mean, when the body goes, the mind which has been imagining the self, also goes.

The self is mere illusion and the cause of all the troubles.     As it was clearly stated 

in the Four Noble Truth, the Life IS nothing but the suffering. —– In this respect,

Lord Buddha gave no illusion.   Very realistic and blunt.   To observe and give an

insight to the relation between the phenomena of the Karma, eyes and the brain has

to be as clear as a crystal or like a critical scientist.  

No illusion, not mention a delusion was in the mind of

Lord Buddha, it’s mean, there was no notion of Ghost existed.  = As such notion

was not exists in the first place, no such image, let alone the word exist there.

No ghost exist, and its source, the Self itself neither exist.   Therefore, not only the notion

of Self, but the attitude to recognize or mind it shouldn’t be there.    Hence, in this respect,

Lord Buddha was very strict, even harsh.   When somebody who couldn’t understand

the imprecation of No Self, made a question “What happens after the person’s death ?”

its question was completely ignored. —– (There was a description in the Agama Sutra

“Completely stop speaking is same as to kill the person” )

[]

To understand this post, please read “Test of Selflessness” as well.

___/\___

[]

Azalea and Rhododendron

Even among the same family of  Ericaceae,  Azalea and Rhododendron is

very close.  Often their flowers are indistinguishable. (I don’t care.  🙂 )

A bit fragile branched tree is Azalea and having stiffer branches, thick leaves is

Rhododendron —– in general.

In fact, in the mountain, both Azalea and Rhododendron are quite common.

—– well,  Azalea in the grassy meadow and Rhododendron grows much higher,

even rocky ridged area of the mountain.

Even in the wild, both of them got variety of colors though, in most of

the case, one area got the same kind and the same colored flower.

So, in Japan, we climbers are proudly boasting,  has seen the special

variety of the Rhododendron in the particular mountain.

It seems, the Rhododendron has an alkaloid (poison or medicinal constituency)

 which rise a blood pressure, hence some are believing it has an Aphrodisiac effect.

In the mountain Shelter,  I observed a group of the people experimenting it and

showed the effects = feel hot and itchy on the skin and having a feeling that their

 earlobe are swollen.  (but not their part of the anatomy —– how shame)  😀  😀 

So, when I read a description in the book  “Third eyes” —— Tibetan family eat

honey pickled Rhododendron flowers. = I was very suspicious about the

authenticity of the book = then, later I discovered that the author was in fact

an English Milkman.  Whole book was just a fiction.

So, don’t make a Rhododendron Salad.

They are pretty as they looks !  (nothing more,  nothing less)

(Whole picture were taken by  Canon Fish-eye Zoom 8~15 mm F4

—– it’s a pretty useful lens ! )

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Pippin’s Art

As I described in the other post,  South London Deptford is a peculiar town.

And an artist Steven Pippin must be the most well known (to the certain

people) peculiar resident there.   On the Deptford High Street,  his studio

or work-shop having a sign as an Optician.   (I haven’t ask him why though,

I guess, may be because he is dealing with “Optical things”  🙂 )

So, in his “shop front” there are numerous “Kind of Camera” or “Used to be a

Camera” which are heavily modified or some might say “almost destroyed.” 

Whether his art lies in the resulting images created by those cameras or the

Camera itself is the Sculpture —– or the action to make those Cameras are

the conceptual art ? —– is a question but I couldn’t find an answer yet.

Like a typical artist, he seemed to care little and just doing what he want to do.

(Right = Pippin.  Center = Julian,  and James —– we three were from the

Wireless Workshop in Greenwich)

Often, his creation was more of the destruction — such as to make a camera

explode or shot with a gun.

But his recent project  [ Ω = 1 ]  is a kind of autonomous  machine to keep a

pencil standing upright. = It’s a X-Y optical feed-back system, and he want to put

this machine installed on top of the tall tower. —– (on the end, he seemed to 

persuade the people of the [Sky-tree (634 m tall)] in Tokyo to install this on top.)

(I guess, this optical feed-back system would  work only on the solid ground.  

If the machine itself, with optical detector altogether moves (not just wobbling

pencil), its movement may go beyond the feed-back range, as the Sky-tree’s top  

sways more than 5 meters, wen hit by an earthquake or strong wind ! )

—– incidentally, the link for the anti-shake structure of the Sky-tree Tower 

[Shin-bashira] and  [Mitsubishi Counter-weight system].

By the way, the reason why Sky-tree was 634 m tall was because it’s in Tokyo where

used to be called the county of Musashi. (to pronounce  6=Mu, 3= San, 4=Shi) 😀

Photo Left = Carl Zeiss’ folding camera “Zeiss Ikonta” was burnt to produce

the image of the  “End of the Camera”.   In his “Aladdin’s cave” it’s hard to

guess what there and what for or what would it become to.    🙂

He got fully equipped work shop and all those tools are pretty familiar to me.

Though, to the local folks, the world see through his window must be

the remotest world, let alone to understand the significance of the

[Half-cut Camera] !

So, whether his studio is transparent or invisible to the people or not,

a gap on the street itself shows the mysterious zone in the human mind.

Ω[]

Small Repair (2)

My friend brought a broken external speaker to our Weekly Meeting

in Greenwich.  Its left channel was working but the condition was not stable.

—– When electronic device was unstable to a mechanical shock,  the cause

may be in a mechanical component such as switch, volume control

otherwise somewhere has a loose connection. 

With a detailed observation inside and the check of the resistance value,  

the Volume Control (blue block)  found to be faulty.

—– So,  I removed it from the board and disassembled to see the inside.

On the middle of right photo, you can see the burnt-out volume structure.

To check whether rest of the circuit is sound or not,  the best way is to put

fixed value resistor in place of Volume, in this case  20 kΩ  ganged volume was

replaced by 4 x 10 kΩ  resistors which gives a setting somewhere in the middle.

—– As I couldn’t find the identical replacement,  I put an equivalent

Ganged Volume ( they are for each Left and Right channel) instead.  

The repair has done and it worked perfect.   (don’t complain poor look and some

inconveniences = repair was for the function.  As long as the sound is OK, it’s OK

—– to enjoy the quality of sound, out of Philips Amp and the Speaker, while pay

nothing — don’t ask too much.  😀 )  

( After all, repair was also free  =  neither me paying any tuition fee, still I learned

quite amazing idea of Philips’ audio design  = What a fun ! )

[]

Wash Grapes

Grape is one of the most ancient fruits recorded in the human history 

though, as it is the cousin of Ivy,  I guess,  in the ancient time its

fruits must be as small as Ivy’s berry.   (about 1/4″ — 6 mm big ?)

Any how, the matter here is not a big (or small) issue at all = the way to serve.

—– In my bad boy’s habit,  there is nothing but a pleasure to steal a fruits.

(Fortunately or unfortunately I didn’t grown up to acquire the pleasure to

steal a woman.   😀  —– before read such menu available

I’ve become a monk (?)  —– how shame,  what a boring life isn’t it ! )

[]

To pick  and eat a fruit in the (Somebody else’s) garden, I wouldn’t be bothered

to wash it while presuming that the dirt has been washed away by the rain, and

no human hand ever touched it anyway. 

Though, when I bought it from a shop, I suspect it has been handled rather

dusty condition hence they are not clean. —– So, how to wash it ?

Long before,  I was washing the bunch of grapes under a jet of water then later

changed to wash each individual fruits —– I mean one by one,  since when

I noticed some time, some of them were covered with quite stubborn film of dirt.

( Remember, we eat grapes with its skin !  —– Japanese grapes can be skinned !  )

And these days,  I separate each fruit from a bunch and wash them in a plastic

bawl under the running water while make them well rubbing each other.

[]

Considering the amount of dust we are inhaling and eating, which may consists

sand or dried soil, even dried dog shit etc etc, without  knowing,  some dirt on

the occasional grapes wouldn’t make any concern.  —– So,  is this a matter of

principal or most likely the personality ? —– A kind of contemplation such as

“Resisting the dirt would be useless” may have an effect still,  the sense of 

cleanliness came from one’s up-bringing, and IS the one’s second nature.

[]

So, as a practice, how about the point of  so-called “Mindfulness” or “Middle way”

= how can we be “single-minded” and in the same time “be tolerant”.

(Is it a funny question ? )

If you think this is a funny question,  your understanding of Buddhism was wrong.

Wrong in the “Thinking” of  both  “Mindfulness” and the ” Middle way”.

[]

We don’t need to think about how to wash or how to eat grapes.   We should just Do.

= Wash or not wash what so ever you Do, IS a reflection of WHO YOU ARE.   As you

are born to be under the own Karma,  to follow it,  is the most natural way to live.  

And to be natural, need no thinking = just to be the own.  

No thinking or no conscious mean no Self is there.  And no Self,  no conscious mean

no intentional thinking NOR being not natural,  hence no over doing = Middle way.  

Without the Self, still able to do what necessary to Do, IS the Mindful way.

In fact, all the teachings of Buddhism are [ To be done without conscious ].

= Live without a conscious of Self IS Selfless.  Do without thinking IS Mushin.

When you Do the thing, there are no other things in the mind IS Mindfulness.

And when you Do,  no intentional thinking is there, therefore

Do only naturally you need to Do,  IS  Middle way.

If you are Doing something special to be a Buddhist,  IS not Buddhism.

[ Buddhism is Do nothing special, Think nothing as Thinking.

This IS why, Buddhism mean the VOID.  —– And this was what

Lord Buddha taught though, it was not fully understood by even

the author of scripture. ]

___/\___ 

[] 

Mono Hole – DD Pinhole Comparison

Another day, I demonstrated the effects of the Pinhole to a sceptic in a Park.

So, the Photo above is the reference shot by a Fish-eye lens.

Photo above are the images made by [Wide-angle Mono Pinhole] (Left)

and the Pinhole alone (= Wide-angle lens was removed) (Right)

And here, the Photos were made by [Concentric Double-density Pinhole]

with Wide-angle lens attached (Left) and without (Right)

A Fish-eye image of  “Pink Forget-me-not” (I think) — note,

even Fish-eye lens has limited depth of field.

Left was [Wide-angle Mono (single) Pinhole] (Orange cast was caused

by a light-leak.)  Right was [Wide-angle DD-Pinhole]

Left = Wide-angle Mono-Pinhole.  Right = Pinhole alone and close to the flowers.

(Remember, Pinhole has no focus —– even no view-finder image = too dark.  

Therefore all those photos were the blind-shots)

Left = Wide-angle DD-Pinhole.  

Right = Pinhole alone and close to the flowers. (The line in the left side

was caused by an internal reflection.)

[]

At least, my friend was convinced that the effect was not by a digital

manipulation though still sceptic about the significance of the image.  

That’s a matter of the taste Sir.  😀

[]

Snap-shot by DD-Pinhole

All the photos here were taken by my ” Wide-angle Double-density Pinhole” on

Canon 5D Mk-III.  In fact on that day, I went for a walk only with this lens (?)

and the Tamron 500 mm Mirror lens, hoping to see Parakeets.

Original pinhole got about 60 degree of view though, with the additional concave

lens ( from a Canon Zoom lens) the angle was greatly widened to nearly 100 degree.

You may guess that the Pinhole Camera needs to have long exposure though,

with the advantage of Hi-ISO digital camera, such as with ISO 12,500,  the shutter

time can be  1/80~1/8 like this outside shot. —– who care with slightly

blared photo on 1/4 or 1/2 slow shutter any way.  😀

The best thing was,  no visual details were given in the image,  

no further information would be needed.   Photo has atmosphere only.

So, the photography (for me at least) purely a fun.

No complicated notion about the subjects or message in the photo 

= image or the subjects were there just as they are.

To see the world in clear eyes, the world showed its fuzzy nature.

This paradox is what the Dharma is.

 ___/\___

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Snap-shot in the Park

I think they are the Canadian Geese but I’m not sure as the

color is dark grey — or are they juvenile ?

And they are the Coots.  Unlike ducklings,  Coot’s chick looks rather odd.

Now I realized, Coot’s chicks got full-size foot !    But no web — how

those chicks can swim ?   (Photo right )

[]

I think, most of the bird’s chicks are not cute or I rather say, they are ugly.

When I was young, I rose a pigeon chick whose mother didn’t return few

days after egg hatched.  New born chick was almost naked with few yellow hair still,

the beak was quite big, and eat a lot. —– I had to feed the chick mouth-feed while

chowing the grain myself.   When chick got stomach-full, the eaten grain or maze

were visible under the thin skin.   So, chick walks with full-up chest while shaking ass.  

= looks awful — not mention utterly noisy begging call, and shit everywhere.   😦   🙂

Still, this chick became a fully grown-up pigeon though, she (he ?) was completely 

imprinted me as the kind, and couldn’t become a member of pigeon society.    So, 

even after became independent, she stayed under the roof many many years. 

—– I don’t know whether I did good things to her or not = wasn’t that better, leave

her fate to the nature and let the chick dies ?    Good but heavy question.

You may say, why Dandelion here ? —– Well, all the photos here were taken

by 500 mm Mirror lens.    And my mirror lens works well as a Macro lens too.

[]

Daddy Long Legs

————————   HEALTH-WARNING = NOT suits for Squeamish person  🙂   ————————-

M

M

M

M

M

Well, this is about a visitor here / Daddy-long-legs.  🙂

In principal, I don’t discriminate any life form —– though, in practice,

I’m not welcome any visitor here. (Before, I invited the person to come and

see my work here.  Though, since I started this blog, I just tell the person

“Just look into my Blog and Youtube”.  Yet still, insects are kept flying in and

I knew the Spiders must be somewhere —– though, I didn’t expect to see a

Daddy-long-legs in my Kitchen.  =  She hanged on the inside of a fruits bag.

But, how she came here — walk-up all the way,  outside wall  ?  

Or born and had been living under the floor board  ? 

(Photo Left /  F5.6 ,  1/60,  ISO 3200.   Photo Right / with Flash,  F16,  1/100,  ISO 400

by Canon 100 mm Macro F 2.8,  5D Mk-III )

( Part-enlarged Image —– It is an incredibly designed piece of mechanism ! )

Well, —– not so pretty face to watch.  😀

Though, she might not wish to born as a Daddy-long-legs, and a Hindu person

may even say that she could be a woman before !     Who knows.  

—– still,  what so ever, she is an amazing creature !

(How she could sense and catch small insect ? — by eyes or detects vibrations ?)

(To see how she hunt other insect,  I should watch her all through the night

though, I’ll do it one day in my next life. —– I guess, somebody must have done.

= Isn’t there any video clip “Hunting of Daddy-long-leg” in YouTube ? )

[]

View from Roof-top

Me and my friends went up to a roof-top of a building in Greenwich.  

One of the friend brought up 800 mm mirror lens on Canon and me with the

same D-D Pinhole, the other with a compact camera and we took some pictures. 

Though we didn’t stay long as it was a bit windy and  chilly.  Still, I could see a kind

of potential with Wide-angle Pinhole for the land-scape photography = weather

permitted, with something great lighting such as a sky burning sunset.  

(Something like the paintings of Turner !  🙂 )

I borrowed 800 mm lens and clicked few pictures.  

In the Photo left is the top of the Canary Wharf (1.8 mile / 2.8 km),  and in 

the Right photo, the Victorian Tower of the House of Parliament and the

Westminster Abbey (5 miles / 8 km away).

And this is the top of so-called O2 / Millennium Dome (1.8 mile / 2.8 km away). 

Photo left,  the mast of the Cutty Sark and the Church tower.

The clock face in the right photo was a part enlargement.  

(Not too bad quality for a £150 second-hand lens.)