Greenwich Park again — Red Deer

Greenwich Park has a Red Deer enclosure in their south eastern

corner = closer to the back gate.

Unlike its northern part, closer to the Thames , where Royal Naval College,

Royal Observatory are attracting the numerous visitors, its southern part

maintains more natural environment = small pond, dense rhododendron

bush etc etc and naturally we can see many birds, even red deer.

South of the park is the Black Heath area.  Heath mean, the land covered by

the Heather plant. (Well, in the old days.)   Heather is a Elicaseae plant and a

cousin of Rhododendron ! (You believe or not  😀 ) ( Heath looks like this !)

And where ever a natural reserve and a pond, the Birds gathers.  —– and

where ever the Birds gathers, Human forks / Kids coming to feed them.  🙂

(It’s a well established custom of the modern society)

Not so many people thinks to make them a roast duck.  🙂

——– (Photos were taken by Tamron 500 mm SP F8 Mirror lens)

 I was really fascinated by (1) the quality of this 40 years old lens and

(2) how the birds can keep their feather dry ! 

So, the Red Deere here are not for Venison !

Photo above, left was a view of 15 mm lens and in its center, a

white-dot was a Wood Pigeon = photo Right, shot by 800 mm lens. 

The building with clock tower is a very historic old School. (So, I heard )

Sound very dashing but looks pretty miserable building = Trident Hall.

This one is really the Pride of England or its past glory !

Old Royal Naval College.

(The photo Center is the Trinity Hospital. Photo Right, Cutty Sark Ship)

Camera used was Canon 5D Mk3,  Pentax 15 mm F3.5,

Tamron SP 500 mm F8 Mirror lens,  800 mm Mirror Lens ??? make. 

[]

Western God — Eastern Heaven

While talking with a Japanese lawyer about the Human-right, the most

fundamental difference in its origin become clear. = The origin of the

Judea-Christian God was such as like Gilgamesh who went to the heaven

and became the God. That’s why even the God speaks the same language

and able to listen a man’s play.

So that, even God’s given Ten Commandment was written in human

language but applicable only to the mankind = not to animals or to the

Great nature.   And because of the God has human origin or a product of

human imagination hence, having the same sentiment and the logic.

Therefore having the same fundamental needs, and expresses its needs as

the right (or in the other words Our EGO) and demanded.

This is a so-called human-right circulated in the western society.

—– You can imagine to live anywhere though, the people accept

you to live there is depends on their attitude = You can not demand.

You want to live is your wish though whether you can survive or not

depend on your fate.    Still believing, you can demand to your fate is,

because you know that the fate / God is negotiable, since he is a same

kind having the same mind. 

[]

In comparison, the Easterner has no God but the Heaven (Taoism) or

the Dharma (Buddhism) as the ruling Supreme Power.

But as it has no personified figure or human like character, it remained as an

invisible abstract notion whose power is absolute and to be feared.   Under this

Supreme Power, we exists only under its shadow.  = Nobody has independent

“Right” kind, merely having the given opportunity to stay here.  

But in the same time, this Supreme Power is not a tyrant but the power to

exercise Justice in Rational way. (= If not Rational, its system will not work.)    

Therefore the fate this Supreme Power has given us is the equivalent of

our “Right” (or the Cause of us to exist or not exist = Fate, even as a Death.)

[]

The idea of social system under this Eastern Ethos is = “All the system has to

be operated accordance with this Justice” = abstract notion of “Right or Wrong”

exists in the society as the Absolute Moral which is not negotiable or given a

margin of discretion.   And the most important point of this Eastern Ethos and

its system is, not just applicable to the human but it extends to all the nature.

Therefore, it causes us to exists but in the same time, in the same extent,

it causes the rain or even earthquake to occur = all the dynamism of

the Dharma or Power of the Heaven.

[]

So-called Civil-right has its origin in more or less the same story.   Such as like

King John who was forced to sign the Magna Carta, he was not a man of

Supreme Power = merely yet another Warlord, who happen to be a King then.

So, as a part of negotiation and the expression of power balance, the Magna Carta

was composed. = It was nothing like the God’s given Right to preserve human

dignity but a mare bargain of do and do not.

[]

In comparison, eastern Emperor was the Heaven-chosen Ruler ! (In its legend ! 😀 )

So, his power is absolute and not negotiable at all. —– the trade-off to the ruler is,

he couldn’t make a mistake since he was supposed to be the wisest-man who is able

to see the invisible sign of the Heaven to know incoming disaster etc etc —– if failed,

he would be ousted by the popular up-rise. (This was the Chinese history in the past

4000~5000 years !) —– In contrast, the authority of Japanese Emperor has never

been contested and its blood-line has never broken in the past 2000 years.  So that,

former Palace of the Emperor in Kyoto has no defence structure at all, ie; no high

wall or moat, since it was not necessary as Emperor never made mistake and nobody

ever stand against him.   (Current Palace in Tokyo was originally built for Shogun.) 

(Any short coming occured, it was all due to his courtier or minister’s mistake and

their head could have been chopped off, leaving the Emperor’s authority intact. :-D)

[]

—– in such system, there couldn’t be a prescribed law to guaranty the right of the

subjects, since there could always be the different condition and circumstances.

Therefore, the precedence never be generalised = always, “Such and such year

what was said” and it only worked as a reference. = had no bounding power.

= Everything was depends on the discretion of the Emperor or the Shogun.

So, this was the reason why in the Eastern society there couldn’t be the

development of Human-Right has ever taken place. = Since there couldn’t be

a possibility of negotiation against the ultimate, invisible power. —– but the

western idea of Human-right was made up with a negotiation between the

[Man] and a notion of yet [Another Man with power] therefore, a reasonable

line was drawn as applicable to the both side.

= So, it’s funny to hear that the so-called Western Human-right said to have

divine origin. ( Oh, really, what’s divine you meant ? !   😀 )

(Eastern philosophy never indulge [So-called Equality] = IF it exists, it negates

the fundamental teachings of the Karma and the Moment dependence of the

Dharma (and one’s life).  —– The reason why the Sangha of

Lord Buddha had no Cast in its group was, not because of the notion of Equality

but because of the cause to generate a Cast, the SELF of Previous Life is not exists.

But it doesn’t mean, the person would be born Karma Free. = Far from it,

If The Karma doesn’t exist, the Cause to create the person is neither there.

= Person wouldn’t come to this world. 😀

Can you ever imagine that you can force the Karma to create you with

the want of Human-right. 😀

(You can not negotiate it with the Karma, but you just follow.   😀 )

___/\___

[]

River Thames (on the Greenwich)

Those are the photos from the last week Shooting session

— or walking with camera in Greenwich.

The center of the photo, the tallest building is the Canary wharf, and

right hand side there is the Millennium Dome.

The camera was Canon 5D Mk3 and the Lens was Pentax 15mm F3.5

[]

Graffiti ? in Deptford

I don’t know how to call them Graffiti or Painting.

Anyhow, what-so-ever, They are there as they are.

 

I remember that about 10 years ago, I met artists who got their studio in

the pink building. — They were doing a kind of “community art program”

to paint big garbage bin in the town to black and white “cow like pattern”

= Making the city looks more pastoral and natural !  

—— What an utterly fantastic marvellous idea ! ! !  (I lost a word then. 😀 )

===== Guessing from the pink wall, they seems still there.

(Mind you, I’m writing this without any cynical connotation at all.)   

[]  

Zeiss – 18mm Lens for Nikon

I saw this lens at Camera Cafe —– The test shot in the Cafe showed me

pretty impressive quality. Virtually no Distortion or Chromatic aberration.  

And this lens got the Number 1580xxxx,  the number of my fate. => So,

I decided to buy.  —– Lens itself is well known Distagon 18 mm F3.5 yet

this is for Nikon DSLR = FZ.2 type which has a Microchip built in and works

same as Nikon’s own lens, except auto-focus (still gives Focus-confirmation).

(Lens was designed by Zeiss but actuary made by  Coshina in Japan. ) 

From Camera Cafe, I took the direction south, on foot while shooting

time to time.— I felt the camera (Nikon D810) was working a bit funny.

= taking much longer to show the image though, I didn’t investigate it

on the spot. —– But after I checked the image on the PC, I realized that

D800 had been malfunctioning = gave all the exposure in HDR mode.  

And the photo above was the most severely mal-processed one.  (straight

from CF card)  And the photo below is the normal one. (though, clopped).

For HDR mode, three images in different exposures has to be integrated

= position has to match exactly —– though, the wrong one showed an utter

dislocation of the image and the color has been red-shifted. 

Richard of Camera Cafe explained that the So-called lens-mount adapter

with “Focus Confirmation type = microchip built in” often cause the

camera to malfunction. —– Though, it is too early for me to decide the

cause of this trouble.

(Whether the trouble could be repeated ? — in what condition etc etc. )

South of British Museum = Covent Garden area has many Dance / Ballet shops.  

Royal Opera/ Royal Ballet and the Drury Lane Theatre (which used to

perform “Cats” are there = Mecca of Dance.

And further walk down south => we get to the Waterloo Bridge.  

And the South-bank = Art centre is over the bridge.

It’s a funny installation though, as it was outside of Hayward Gallery,

it must be an art. —– is it ?  —– You got to be serious !    🙂  

—– So, optically superb.  Electronically —– not sure.   

I need to test this 18mm lens further. 

[]

Camera Cafe

They says it’s only one Camera Cafe in the world — may be, but I don’t care.

On the Photo above, end of street is British Museum (This is Museum Street).

Past decade or two, we are seeing less and less camera shops.  Small camera

shop disappeared because of big discount shop such as Jessops.  

And Jessops disappeared because of the internet shopping.

But before, local camera shop was a kind of talking shop and to the regular

faces, shop offering a cup of coffee or two. = So, to have a chat while having

a drink in a camera shop was not unusual sight at all. But digitals changed all.

Unlike a film photography, digital camera gives the result on the spot and

any short-coming become visible at once = anybody can see what’s wrong

and what to do. (if not, try other button = no need to learn, just press it !)

I know Camera Cafe many years —– they even organized a fund-rising

campaign to help Tsunami victims in Japan (gosh, 3 years ago !) = So,

it is a kind of node in the society and a salon to the photographers.  

And as a second-hand camera shop, they got quite a collection of

Zeiss lenses both for Hasselblad and Contax, on top of more familiar

Nikon and Canon. (as far as I’ve looked around, they are cheaper —–

such as Nikon F4 body, they offered for £250 —– only a while ago, I saw

it £350 at Nicolas of Camden = hence I nearly bought it but I got 150mm

lens for Hasselblad in stead (which I sold same one 25 years ago) (I can

test and use the lens on my current 5D Mk3 but to test Nikon F4, I need

to set up a dark-room to deal with B/W film again = a bit too much   :-))

The technical staff, Richard (photo Left) was a film maker before and

having immense depth of knowledge over lenses and the cameras.  

Very nice man to chat with.  🙂  —– and they got an exhibition space as

well (see the details on their website). 

Looking back the shopping list I did in there (such as Nikon’s 35 mm

PC lens,  Olympus 80 mm Life-size Macro etc etc.) —– I realized, that

I’ve been buying a kind of the item rather unusual = hard to sell

—– it’s mean, I’ve been a good customer to them.  😀

(But in the same time shop is keeping it’s own Reson de etre !)

They are open till 7:00 evening —– the best of the things there IS

they don’t have the restless tourist like customers.  😀

[]

Does Meditation helps ?

There was an interesting report which studied the benefit of Meditation.

After a medical report about the effect of Meditation was published in JAMA

Internal Medicine, numerous articles which quotes this report has been

published. = This is the one of them (Wall Street Journal)

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304887104579304691799314468

Meditation Has Limited Benefits,

Study Finds

Mindfulness meditation can ease stress but

won’t curb problems like being overweight

Certain types of meditation may provide some modest relief from anxiety,

depression and pain, a new study found.

But the study found little evidence for other reported benefits of meditation,

including help in curbing substance abuse, poor eating habits,

sleep disorders and weight problems.

The report, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine,

reviewed the findings from 47 previous studies, all randomized clinical

trials, with 3,515 adult participants in total.

Many people use meditation to ease stress and promote general health.

The purpose of the report was to examine the accumulated evidence to help

doctors determine how best to counsel patients on the possible benefits and

limitations of meditation, said Madhav Goyal, assistant professor of

general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore

and the report’s lead researcher.

In each of the underlying studies, participants received professional

instruction in one of two types of meditation: mantra meditation or

mindfulness meditation. A popular form of mantra meditation is

transcendental meditation, which involves repetition of a phrase

“in such a way that it transcends one to an effortless state where focused

attention is absent,” the study said.

By contrast, mindfulness meditation emphasizes training in “present-focused

awareness,” or mindfulness. The study noted that the distinctions between

the meditation types aren’t always clear.

Researchers found that only mindfulness meditation produced some benefits.

For example, the improvement in patients with mild symptoms of depression

was similar in magnitude to what might be expected from the use of

an antidepressant, the study said.     It also noted that there were few

mantra-meditation studies to include in the JAMA review, which could help

account for the lack of evidence of benefits from this type of meditation.

The study didn’t find any evidence meditation was harmful.

Researchers culled through nearly 19,000 previous studies on meditation to

select the most scientific. Dr. Goyal said his team used rigorous inclusion

criteria. Each of the 47 included studies was a controlled trial in which

at least one group received either a therapy with known psychological

benefits, such as exercise, or a placebo instructional or educational session,

he said. Studies that looked only at children or adolescents, or those without

a control group, were excluded.

“Although uncontrolled studies have usually found a benefit of meditation,

very few controlled studies have found a similar benefit for the effects of

meditation programs on health-related behaviors affected by stress,”

the JAMA report said.

The report’s findings show that meditation is perhaps less effective in

alleviating stress-related symptoms than is widely believed, said

Allan H. Goroll, professor of medicine at

Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts General Hospital, in invited

commentary also published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“The studies overall failed to show much benefit from meditation with

regard to relief of suffering or improvement in overall health, with the

important exception that mindfulness meditation provided a small but

possibly meaningful degree of relief from psychological distress,” he wrote.

Still, Dr. Goroll noted that participants only received 30 to 40 hours of

training in meditation, which could indicate that “meditation is a skill that

takes time to master.” He also said more evidence is needed to draw

more robust conclusions about any benefits to meditation.

“People come to a meditation class because they’re suffering in some way,”

said Jon Aaron, an instructor at New York Insight Meditation Center, which

promotes mindfulness meditation. Through meditation, they learn to relate

to their stress in a way that is more productive, he said.

Lindsay Gellman

[]

Something took my attention was that the way the other articles were

created while quoting the original JAMA report.

= Despite the original JAMA report gave only limited “prose” to “Mindfulness

Meditation” and found no positive effect in “Mantra Meditation” a lots of

subsequent article has been using this report as if it was the positive proof of

the effect in Meditation. <= this was a fraud !

See the real situation by Googling this = type [ JAMA report, meditation ]

—– This fact highlighting a situation = simply, people doesn’t actuary read

the line in detail but easily deflected by a misleading head-line = and this

tendency was exploited by those organisation who is making money

selling the Meditation practice.

[]

In reality, it is same as any religion, Meditation may work, may not work.

= It depends on the person’s Karma. (Everybody got own different Karma.)

And even worse, the effect of Meditation depends much more on a person’s

mentality. —– A person who got addiction, dependency, depression kind of

mental problem, it needs long term treatment = not few months medical trial.

Naturally, if anybody who is possessing a strong will and able to keep a strict

regime, the person wouldn’t get a trouble in the first place.

It’s mean, in case of opposite tendency, neither Meditation which is not a

Magic Bullet works.

[]

So, here is a funny but fundamental question. = Buddhism / Zen is

stands on the Selflessness, not a strong will or mind, because mind itself

shouldn’t be existing there. — But, “Strong will” wasn’t it a part of the Self ? 

Well, this is the most fundamental question = I’ll write about in another post.

___/\___

[]

Mistranslation of “MINDFULNESS”

When a person is walking —– in most of the case, the person is

not aware that HE (SHE) has been walking.

—– it is the same situation as you didn’t aware that your eyes has

been busy reading this blog on this very moment.

So, it is crystal clear, unless you become aware and intentionally think 

that you are reading this, your brain is just busy processing the meaning 

what was written, but paying little attention to the fact that who the

person reading this. = It’s mean, the awareness of you, yourself and what

and how you are existing here, doesn’t exists unless you are intentionally

think about it = because, “The existence of the SELF” is only in our mind

= SELF is a product of the one’s thinking. —– Also, it is obvious, once you

started to think about “That I am reading this etc etc” the efficiency of

reading drop drastically.   That’s why “This kind of thinking etc etc” were

called “Zatsunen”(雑念) = useless thinking or destruction. 🙂

[]

Lord Buddha thought exactly the same and came to the conclusion, that we

were designed to live without those conscious = useless thinkings and the

imaginary SELF.    We can be far better-off living and doing without those

“Zatsunen” because, without the destruction we were naturally controlled

by the Dharma.   Live and Do without useless thinking, is Mushin and being

with Dharma is Ichijo. = Then, what is this Dharma here, the Dharma who

controls us.  How this Dharma did know that the person IS walking or reading.

And how and what this Dharma remember how to walk or read, not mention

better way of doing them than our conscious controls.

—– (To cut the story short, I give you the answer here = they are the

subconscious control program, programmed and memorized into our brain

—– some has been even genetically programmed !)

—– This Dharma is the very Mindfulness and to let it control our action or

ourselves also called Mindfulness.

(In fact in my view, the choice of this word “Mindfulness” against the

Pali word “Sati” was the mistake

= it should have been “Retained Dharma” or simply just “Truth”.

—– It seems, all the misunderstanding of the Zen in the west has been

caused by this mistranslation ! = as it had given an impression that it was

the matter of the Mind-set —– but the essence is, NOT having it. 🙂 )

[]

—– Now, the reader who experienced so-called Zen training might have

realized a funny things  “where on earth so-called “Mindfulness Training”

such as that counting and concentrating to the breath etc etc, came from”.

—– I mean even in the ancient time when Theravada Canon was written.

—– In fact, this was the very very evidence of that the teachings of

Lord Buddha had misinterpreted from the beginning !

The Sati in the Meditation is, to let the Dharma made us sit = completely

abandon our SELF and get Mushin and just sit, is what the state of

Mindfulness on the (sitting) Meditation mean.

—– Who got the idea “To Think the breath and Feel the body etc etc”

= intentionally bring a Zatsunen / Useless thinking into the practice. 😀

(—– That was why the other school or sect has invented and since been

using other practice which couldn’t allow any useless thinking while doing it,

such as Shaolin martial-art or carrying a bowlful of water etc.)

—– Buddhism and the Zen is a strange mysterious teachings = not because

it got mysterious teachings but it got strange out of context mix-up and

wrong interpretations. 😀

The trouble is, still many people believing it, like wearing a

“Fashionable” T-shirts which got exotic Chinese character

printed upside-down. (It is in fact, nothing but, the insult to

Lord Buddha.)

___/\___

[]

Cooking KINTON in easiest way !

Kinton, in here Kuri-Kinton is a kind of cooking especially aiming

to a New-year’s celebration in Japan.  —– it is in fact a kind of Anko,

made out of white bean and some time it got sweet chest-nuts too.

Though, to cook Adzuki-bean and make Anko is a long laborious work

= use any bean, the work is more or less the same though, there is

always an escape —– if you can sacrifice some authenticity.

—– And this time I’ve took an easiest way which was non of the

corner left intact.  = (in other words, everything was cheated = Still,

end-result wasn’t too bad.  :-D)

It’s a long work to cook dry bean soft from scratch —— If so,

why not utilize the most popular readily cooked bean.  😀

I separated a tin of baked bean from its source (Left Photo) and

rinsed them to reduce the saltiness and boiled them with sugar.  

( Though, as it was a Baked bean with Tomato source, the residue

of red colour was a bit too much, I added a baked potato to

whiten it.) ( Centre Photo   🙂 )

[] 

And after cooking, I got the idea to add Sweet-horse-chest-nut to

elaborate it to Kuri-Kinton. (But it took few days to find a pack of sweet

“Ferrero Rocher” —– as, I thought it was a Marron Grasse =

Sweet-horse-chest-nuts cooked in sugar.  But it was an utterly ignorant

mistake = it turned out to be just another Chocolate. (Right Photo)  😀    

I think I ate Marron Grasse 30 years ago which was lapped in Gold, like

Ferrero Rocher.  😀   Anyhow, as I don’t buy or eat sweets, I didn’t know.

—– So, I needed to go to a Japanese Shop to buy Amaguri (ready to eat

sweet Sweet-horse-chest-nuts to mix with Kinton.  🙂 ) 

—– So, at last, here the typical New-year’s cooking Kuri-Kinton.   🙂

It’s color a bit darker still it looks like genuine Kuri-Kinton, and taste

really like Kuri-Kinton = I don’t think there could be any doubt.

Far from it, I’m sure we can enjoy this.  —– Yet, some one might

say, it’s not genuine though, such complaint is only in the mind.

[]

Dedicates one’s whole life to make the best Kinton, while seeking the

best possible genuine beans etc etc IS a kind of the LIFE. —– Wearing

silly mask and costume to dance for a Carnival or Halloween can be

yet another LIFE = neither LIFE could be seen to be better or anything

closer to the Enlightenment.   BUT, at least, arguing like this is definitely

the waste of the time.  Zen only say, if you got to do, do the best.  (I mean,

it include good cheat as well. —– for a sake of good cooking.   😀 ) 

___/\___

[]

New year’s First Sunrise — (well, almost)

New year’s First Sunrise —– well, not quite.  It’s the second one.  

Yesterday was a bit cloudy = so, this is in deed, the first opportunity

to take picture though ……… I didn’t even go out of my room,

let alone go-up a hill or a beach to take typical photo.

Worse still, I didn’t even rise a bamboo blind.  Still, with a longer 

lens with its shallow depth of field, bamboo-blind was disappeared.  

And at least, the photo on top is a genuine photo of SUNRISE !

—– but, first of all, why do we bother a day next of 31st of December ?    

or So-called New year’s day.  

It’s not even a Winter Solstice-day = just arbitrarily man-named day

= a products of human imagination.     Nothing absolute !

[]

We human invented so many rules and the patterns for us

to be bound or even enslaved by it.  

Like, if we use English, we have to follow its strict rules.  

Or some of the people created their own God and follow it.

—– so, to take a special significance of the NEW-YEAR’S DAY

—– IS just depends on our mind-set.  

Mind has created “Special Day” and the mind enforce its belief.

—– still, it is only in our imagination.  It might be fun and

able to have a kind of comfort to feel a part of the larger society

though —– we may better to think “Why do I follow this ?”

There could be the other kind of life “If not follow it”.

Enlightenment is to liberate the mind yet I wouldn’t simply say

brake the convention —– to chose the same convention, same

conclusion could be a feasible choice. 

Still, to see it in different eyes, everyday could be a fresh first day.

Have a peaceful and joyful year.

___/\___

[]