Life to be Artists

I’ve received a question from a keen reader of this blog / Jaganathan, who is

creating / developing  fancy program of creating even fancier sound, out of computer.

————

anyway id like your thoughts or a blog post 🙂 Why do many artists end

up depressed, do drugs, kill themselves.  And how to keep doing good

work irrespective of whether it is a success or failure.  How do

continue doing sincere work even if nobody gives a sit.

—————–

In anyone’s life,  to see what is the success, having many facets —— Financial ?, Social recognition ?,

Historical importance ?, Personal Pride and Confidence ?, Made people happy and became local Hero ?

All those may satisfy the ego.  But in reality, before think about success, most acute needs are to survive.

—-

When I finished hi-school and chose the direction and Uni’, I hated to go to science and technology side

as I didn’t want to be enslaved by the technology —– I’ve applied to Art College.  Though I was told by

the member of  Alpine Club in that College  “Want to become Sculptor ?  Oh no, even studied in here,

its impossible to live on the sculpture.  You may end-up an art teacher in a junior school or a craftsman

making dummy for the shop” —– What a hopeless situation. I gave up and next year I went to a Uni’

where we don’t need to fix the direction / Faculty / Major  for the first year —– then end up to take

Sociology by accident.  Before apply the Art College, an art teacher told me ” The success rate of

top Art College ( Where I wanted to go) is about 50%, and the other would be less than 10% ”  here

success mean, able to live / survive on the skill or the art which was studied in the college.

This was the time, Art was the traditional Art, long before such as Conceptual  Art became main stream.

Art is a very subjective commodity.   Commodity mean, the objects which can be sold and owned.

Though, when the type of art, and the educational direction has changed to the Pure Art and a theory

of Conceptual Art, sellable art became the dirty word as it is Commercial / Crafty, to live on

the Art become even harder. Who want to buy a pile of dung / (said to be) conceptual art installation. 😀

——- So, the question of Jaganathan is a little bit out of time or not a kind of the matter to rise a question.

Depressed, infested by Drug, kill oneself or even kill others —– may not be anything unusual.  😀

Even worse, as the art education is aiming to the concept, not the skill, actually no skilled useless persons

were flooded to the labour market ( it include the Media study as well).

Under such situation, if any artist want to have satisfying life should better take Buddhist’s paradox.

Forget success, forget recognition, forget financial reward and just make own art —– but perfect one.

Perfect Art would hit the guts feeling of the others. It impress the people and make their mouth shut.

——- so-called success will follow. ( But, as long as the one is hoping and expecting the day will come, with

ego and greed there will be no perfect art or success. —— in this aspects, Dharma is very harsh )

So that, so-called  Positive thinking, or Keep your hope live etc etc are all but just the sweet words.

The Buddhist Mushin is the very strict term, if not perfect, it would be all in vain.

If Jaganathan is developing new program, if it is exciting enough, he could be absorbed into its work,

he couldn’t be disturbed by useless thought —— its mean, he needs to make his work interesting,

important enough —– here, crucial inspiration, key idea which he may get it in the Blank Space

may become decisive factor.  So, to see its new idea, in complete open mind / Mushin holding the key.

( Here, chicken and the egg,  Exciting project absorbs person’s mind and make him into Mushin, though

to get exciting idea need to have Mushin —– shut up, just start.    Ha ha ha. 😀 )

——- So, how about, take a walk, —— Do a Walking Zen and get Mushin first  🙂

___/\___

___

Four-Leaf Clover

I know, everybody have a memory, once (or many times) looked for the four-leaf clover when we

saw the patch of ground covered by the clover.  Of cause I have, and in deed I found few of them in my life.

Yet, I don’t think it brought me any better luck —— and I’m not talking about the good luck here.

( Still, this post deserve to have a title of  Four-leave Clover —– you will find it  🙂  )

——

When you were looking for the clover, do you remember what you were thinking ?   Kind of play to the God ?

“Oh my Load, please give me a Four-Leaf Clover” —— I don’t think so.  😀

(May be you were thinking of your girl friend or boy friend —- to present the precious findings. How sweet ! )

When you are scanning the field with your eyes, I don’t think any thought was in the brain.

Eyes were just scanning and just concentrating for the task.  In fact any thought would be a distraction.

And, do you believe the concentrated effort, will power would help to find it ?   I don’t think so neither  😀

And if you lucky to find one, was it in the center of your eyes ?  —— it doesn’t necessary so.

Quite often we find the intended object somewhere periphery of our vision.

We read the small letters in the center of our eyes, other than the center, we can’t read and understand

what was written there.  So that,  when we need to find a file name in the list, we have to concentrate

and pick the pattern of the word in the file name.  It need to have a will to read.

In comparison  we can detect the pattern which we know already in the periphery of eye field.

But this vision were controlled by our subconscious,  not by our conscious  will.  When  noticed

it’s there,  we move eye-ball and capture it in the center of vision,  then confirm it,  Gotcha !

___

When I was in my Uni’ I was asked to join the research expedition to the remote corner of Japan or pacific

islands, to help the botanist.  ( As I was a member of Alpine Club, specialized in yet traced area or jungle

kind of terrain and doing botanical photography as well —– despite of I was a student of Sociology.  🙂  )

Strangely, in those occasions,  many times I was the first or only one to find out the specific plant, while

going through the field or jungle.  I have enough knowledge of botany but, professors knows a similar type

and so on far better,  and the information I had,  was only a line drawing of the plant from the botanical book,

encyclopedia etc otherwise 70-year-old dry specimen, of which the plant haven’t been seen 50 years,

kind of rare species.   Everybody was amazed  ” How you could see this.  You must got very good eyes ”

( Though, I’m heavily short eye-sighted )  “No no, I just noticed, it looked different ”  ” In 10m away ? ”

Of cause, the plant didn’t come on front of us.  I had to catch it in my peripheral view.

——- In deed,  our eyes or cognitive function of our brain is possessing remarkable ability.

Just learned  from 2″ size line drawing to distinguish real plant ( which is not necessary having flower to

stand out )  might be akin to a Policeman to apprehend a suspect, from a vague photo-fit.

It must have a very intuitive creative work to fill a gap.

—-

But before work out to reconstruct the image,  we need to catch it in the first place.

So,  how our eyes can catch the Four Leaf Clover in distance,  even by the peripheral vision.

In fact, the answer lies in this peripheral vision, and its subconscious process.

It’s all came down to the same paradox ” When you want to see, you can’t.  When you abandon  to

search, you start to see”.  And here, the same Blanc Space in the Mind is playing the role. (Refer the Post)

If you don’t know about the Zen, you might think this is contradictive though,  this is how our brain works.

Expose the perception in open-minded way,  which Zenist call  Mushin (Mind of no mind),  the brain can

receive far more information / visual signal,  and able to process them far more efficient way.

( Many years ago,  I met a man who is working as a railway station staff told me “How to find a railway pass

cheat” saying ” Standing and checking the passes one by one by reading the date on the pass is impossible.

So, we just standing watching the incoming passengers.  Then anyone caught eyes,  we look at his / her

pass and read the date.  We are reading the behavior and the mind of the passengers.  Standing and just

seeing the flow of the people, still we can distinguish who is cheating, far more accurate” —– Well said  :-))

——- This is why I wrote in the earliest post,  ” Just walking the street. Just looking forward without focusing

any point or taking any notice of street scene,  open and spread your vision from the side to side.

This is the Zen ” ( in easiest way —- called Walking  Zen   😀 —– The advantage in Walking Zen is, you

can observe your state of mind from your Peripheral Vision  (able to notice, both end of images are keep

moving while you walk) —– though, tricky part is, you only have to feel them without the conscious mind.

Still it is easier than to observe the state of mind of  Sitting / Meditating without Thinking —–

Thinking the state of Not Thinking is pretty hard to achieve —— Make your subconscious to observe

your conscious mind which supposed  to be not thinking = This is the nut-shell of  Zen training —- Training

because the aim is to achieve Let the subconscious to think and deal with the life —– Because of the

subconscious is thinking but you do not notice it = Hence you are not consciously Thinking.

—– Most important point to remember is, All the thinking process was actually done

subconsciously, then, conscious consideration such as tactical maneuver, social pretence  etc

intervene and mess-up the decision-making and push the life into unnecessary trouble.

Buddha’s suggestion was simple, Be straight and simple, don’t make a life complicated by

being messed up by unnecessary thought.  This is what the Buddhism all about.)

So, why not try your Zenist eyes by looking for the four-leaved Clover.  (Provided, if it’s there at all.  😀

Zen can not create something out of nothing.  Zen can only help you to see it )   Good luck !

___/\___

—-

Big Brother

No no, it is not meant to be THE Dharma.  The size of  Dharma  is immeasurable.

This Big Brother is in fact small guys who is sneaking everywhere,  where ever you go.

——- If you clicked my humble Youtube channel,  and clicked  Virtual Woman,  you may see

a thumbnail of Space Hijackers title appearing  right-hand column.    And click that one to see a

video image —– then loads of  Space Hijackers’ thumbnails appears.    In one of them,  Plan C

happen to have some scene of me dancing —— strangely or inevitably,  what so-ever.

( I rather like to have a scene of me dancing in  Kung-fu style with my  fists flying an inch before

a nose of riot police, since as it was a day time, it could be a rare footage, if anyone shot it 🙂 )

Any how,  I  wonder the way of editing or the choice of thumbnails to appear next to each video clip.

Lots of dinosaur images appears next to my Wire Dragon,  is straight forward as the title relates.

Though,  what is the link of my kinetic sculpture to Space Hijackers ?

Was that just a seer coincidence or because of my link —-> yoshizen’s blog —-> Space Hijackers ?

( By the way, I’ve joined them not because of their anti-establishment activity, I was just asked to help

repairing their Tank, then I found the dance parties they are organizing are so hilarious and funny —–

” Could such decent grownups can have such crazy imaginations ? ! ! ! ”  😀 )

But, if those links has been traced by the Youtube automatic search system ——- m m m ?

I feel rather uneasy.

Google is watching all of our cyber activity word by word,  hence the choice of AD appearing  next

to our Email pages etc etc. —— and the Youtube are doing the same now ?

If you Tweet a word something-nitrate,  you could be listed in the MI5’s potential list. ? ? ?

——— Even more disturbing development is, if you use ( or forced to use as the new system

adopted by the service provider )  RFID system, which ever it is for shopping etc,  you are going

to be remotely watched.

RFID is a small radio wave responder.  It react and transmit the specific code of the user, hence

it can distinguish the person.   Not only for a door entry or supermarket shopping,  this system is

going to be used to control the information (AD) where ever you go.

So,  if you are a regular shopper of the item and the connoisseur of it,  video AD in a station could be

changed and display  Durex AD for you. —— How nice —— is the future is Orange ?

As the fancy devices like iPhone, iPad spread, the function of their radio wave connectivity

could be utilized yet more fancy purpose ( or malicious purpose ? ) —— who knows.

So,  stay humble (or others say poor ) not to have fancy staff ( my Mob’phone is 15 years old —–

still working ) and use only small cash (no credit card)  is a knack to have a peaceful life.  🙂

___/\___

DorkBoat

Yesterday there was a marvelous boat journey called  Dorkboat organized by the Dorkbot London.

Dorkbot is a group of the people ” Doing strange things with electricity “ —— as their motto

suggests, it is the gathering of the people who is doing with electronics, electricity what so-ever

to show off or discuss what so-ever about their free-minded creation.

Naturally, some are purely digital electronics /

computer programmed graphics or music.

And some are involving kinetic mechanism with

electronic control.

As the group is completely open to anybody

some are doing it alongside of his or her profession

with profound expertise, but some time

utterly an outsider of electronics came up

with very witty approach of an invention.

—

Me to join the group was, again a sheer coincidence.

Somebody a friend, happened to know the member

introduced me to the Dorkbot London as I’ve been

making a lots of funny kinetic sculptures and designing lots of electronic devices.

I liked their motto and my approach —– making the things which are utterly useless but fun,

was exactly matched and found a common ground.

Since then, virtually all of my public exposure such as to French TV, news paper or BBC

were happened with the Dorkbot.  ( Gathering can be seen only for the members, which mean strict

Health and Safety Regulation which is always our headache, can be avoided )

—-

On the boat from Westminster Pier to Kew, we saw the presentation of many funny devices ——

” Mocking bird can be seen as a  recording device (since they can repeat human words ! )” or

ever hilarious  J.Rarson’s game controller, and some music performances  etc etc.

It’s funny to think, the people who follow rigid and rational Physics and Electronics rules

still able to conceive such utterly useless nutty idea 😀   —–  This is THE creativity.

—-

Event was coincided with the farewell award giving for the departure of one of the founder

Alex McLean / formidable  experimental Programmer, as his family is moving out London.

I wish his family’s ever happier life in new location

and his creative projects to ever more flourish.

—

Peace in a Battle field

There was a funny conversation in Email exchange ——–

” Hey  Yoshizen, could you pay the cost through Paypal please”

” Sorry, I’ve been black listed by the debt recovery company,

so that, I can’t use money transfer.  I only can give you in cash.”

” Oooooh, you are such a trouble maker 🙂 “

(Among the Anarchist group,  Trouble-maker is the honourable title  😀 )

” Oh yah, so far I’ve made the enemies,  whole Judiciary here, Japanese Embassy,

Police, Local Council, British Telecom, Virgin Media, Three G, T-Mobile and

barely having a truce with Talktalk.

So that, the Motto of the Zen is the PEACE,—— how to find a Peace / Calm Mind

while shooting  😀 “

—

——– When we are in the battle field, we need to have unmoved,  focused mind

and the clear eyes —- therefore the Zen is the most effective way to deal with the situation.

Dealing with the photography / how to capture the subjects, or even dancing on the rhythm, it is

the battle facing with the situation while sensing all the signals, then instant judgement and the response.

Because of the gushing torrent of the information is coming in, to put them in the clear space

in order to give detached  bird’s-eye view and make instant intuitive judgement

with appropriate priority, become crucial.

—–

This is the reason why,  the sword-masters,  martial-artists even the throat-cutting  share-dealers

needed to learn the Zen —– they are not chasing Nirvana or Enlightenment (too late any way  🙂 )

but needed to have ultimate efficiency managing their mind,

hence able to maximize their achievement in the life.

Do nothing, just sitting peacefully —— needs no more.

—

Rules in Helping Others

Be kind to others, help someone in need. ——- What a nice words —— as the Words.

Though, when its came to the practice, there are loads of question arise.

If you are a Buddhist, there must be the fundamental understanding to pay a respect to the Dharma.

Therefore has to accept the manifestation of the Karma.

Everybody got their own Karma. ( Not only the Buddhists.   🙂  )

——– So, when something happened or you encountered and see somebody in difficulty and obviously

needs a help.  If it is a very simple matter, it may not very complicated —— just give a hand.

Though, if the matter was very serious and the help may affect the person’s life or fate. ——– M m m  ?

How do we know,  if it does not interfere the person’s Karma ?

To live on their own pathway according to their own Karma is their individual birthright.

In the same time, we shouldn’t be obsessed by the idea of   ” I’m helping others ” —— just help without

having any notion of help.   If you do, you have to do it in Mushin.

Why encounter such situation, there was our own Karma  working as well —— It was not just an accident.

———- So, where a Buddhist draw a  line IN the Middle way ?

For such situation or even for the general rules to deal with others, I’m following a hose Rule.   Give a  help

automatically but  ONLY once. ( Buddha said to have offered three times  though  I’m just a small man  I can

afford only once.  Any how we got only one life and only one chance, never able to try the same again ——

—- have you ever seen or heard the same person born again and did the same attempt and succeeded ?

No such things like reincarnation exists. —– yes, decomposed my body, the element must be re-used to

constitute another life form, well may be a plant —– what so ever —– like a hydrogen atom in my body

has been recycled, recycled billions of times since it was created in the Big-Bang (allegedly) though,

no same person had ever created or same mind / soul ever exists, since even the soul is the result of

own Karma and the Karma of this moment is never the same in second later. No moment stays the same )

If my help didn’t work, it is the sign, I’m doing wrong  AND / OR it is the person’s Karma.

Struggling my way of help, believing this should work is the delusion.  It may make situation even worse.

Observe everything include the self, in the completely detached eyes.  So that never exited or panicked.

Other than technical difficulty, a sudden occurrence of blockage or short coming such as suddenly

mob-phone broken or train service halted etc is the sign of halt from the Dharma = stop it at once.

If the help is essential and when you are doing it in your Mushin, Fully Minded, strangely all  other

factors work together as well.  Others give a hand, conveniently specialist appeared etc etc.

So-called  Devine Intervention really happen.

After the event,  never contact the person unless the person gave me a contact.

( If the person is a stranger, never exchange contact unless the follow-up is the essential part of advice

——- avoid to touch personal matter as much as possible and limit only to the issue or problem itself)

It is the arrogance to see the result of the help. (such as ” Have look I’ve successfully helped this person “)

As the matter of fact only the person knows whether the help was really helpful or not.

If the person is not grateful and contact to say thanks, it was a sign of inadequacy.

Then, erase the memory of event other than the data of the experience (practical technique etc).

Above all, I myself have  One Week Rule which is, even when I’ve offered a help for the project etc,

if it was not started or the person did not make a move within one week, its file is deleted —– so, I

will not retain the memory.  If it is not urgent to the person, why do I need to take initiative and if the

person got yet another problem occurred, it is the sign, Dharma is not keen to its project.

Me to help a project lie on front wouldn’t have any problem though I wouldn’t undertake the person’s worry.

This is my way to live as a Zen Buddhist and live the life with  light luggage.

___/\___

WEDDING

There is a nice Buddhist story ———-

” When two Buddhist monks came to a river crossing they found a woman having difficulty to cross the

rapid water.  One of the monk offered his back to carry her to other side.  After this, another monk started

to accuse him  ” Oh, you have broken the rule.  You touched the woman ”   He replied ” Are you still

carrying the woman in your back ?” ——– ( When you see a woman in trouble, to help her is your task

on front of you.  And when the woman is off your back.  Woman is no longer there.  If not there,  its not there.

Only the mind keep the woman still existing.)

There was my friend’s wedding.  ( So, the man and the woman decided to carry each other in body and the

soul ——- they are not the monk.  They are melting hot  😀 )    To celebrate  I’ve join the Champaign toast.

Then another friend said  ” Hey  Yoshizen,  I saw you have broken all the rules of Holy man ” ——- ?

Generally,  I don’t drink alcohol ( even though I can drink half bottle of spirit in a evening, simply I don’t like it,

as I’ve fed up to take care of drunken guys and anyhow it wouldn’t change me or the world,  nor it brings any

solution to any trouble ——- it’s no use mean,  waste of the time and the money.

To be cheerful and crazy  doesn’t need to be under influence.  I am the living sample.     Ha  Ha  Ha   😀  )

I was there to congratulate my friend ( and take photos ) not for any religious, moral campaign.

I don’t need to be obsessed by alcohol,  but in the same time I don’t need to be obsessed by the mind

of keeping  me perfectly dry. ——– This is,  what  Buddhist calls  MIDDLE WAY.  ——- Why is it the

matter to Buddhist ?     In the Buddhist  teachings, the both obsessions were created by the false

self which has no basis in our mind.  In other words, it is the delusion which shouldn’t be exist.

Anyhow it is not daily or even monthly occurrence, (last Wedding occurred two years ago)

to give a toast to the new couple Why not join.

———————-

Another day,  I took young lady who said never tasted Sushi to a  Japanese restaurant.   The man might have

heard this story as well, hence he teased me. 😀

It’s nice to have good food with pretty woman.   Have a nice meal together doesn’t necessary carrying hidden

agenda.   It’s a clichéd stereotype.   Nice meal is the nice meal.  Enjoy it and bye-bye. ——- What’s wrong ?

Zen Buddhism is (as it stand on the Mahayana philosophy)  to have the freedom of the mind (obsession,

paranoia is the enemy of free mind )  and fulfill the life’s potential to its maximum,

not to miserably vegetated to be a monk’s life.

( So, even a Holy Zenist drunk Champaign,  rest of people, not mention the new couple, are all get drunk )

~~~~~~~It was a superb wedding party.   Congratulation to the newly wed.  ___/\___  🙂

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]

—

CYBER SPACE — (and Z80 mini-computer)

It is 25 years  since  Dot Com was first created,  and 20 years since  WWW  was invented.

One of my old colleague,  Camera Critics,  Kazuo Taira  was one of the pioneer of the PC networking, using

acoustic telephone modem and he organized the Photographer’s Computer Network in Japan.

It’s shame Mr.Taira  is no longer with us.  Unfortunately  we in the creative field tend to lose the friends who

tend to be a heavy drinker.  ( Do you know,  the average life-span of Rock musicians are 38 something,

of cause it may not caused by the alcohol alone )

And since then, our lives are more and more entwined with the Computer and the Internet.

Nearly 20 years ago,  I made a small computer using Z80 CPU,

designed from the scratch.  ( Left  Photo)

( I would say, it’s a half sculpture, half computer )

Its operates on only 10 MHz clock speed and having 512 Kb memory,

which needs to be programmed by Machine Code.

—– In electronics, to design and to build is one thing and

to make it works is the another.

Eliminate all the glitches and instability etc etc are the hard part.

—– As the definition,  computer operates on the data in the

memory,  once the memory was corrupted,  it needs to re-program from the start.

( It was the time of  UV erasable  memory,  before easy to re-program  Flash-memory )

After this experience,  I became a computer skeptic ” Computer can make mistakes ” hence, even now

I don’t use Credit Card and I rather like to use hard-wired design,  not soft control.

In this reason, I honestly admire the person who can design and manufacture a  10 GHz device which works

in any environment  reliably.

——————–

In another side of the revolution,  the Internet is becoming almost a monster, and the Necessary Evil.

Since  I  started to use Email,  I wrote very few letters  which  needed to be a signed evidence.

—– The trouble of Net is their intrusive activities.  As everybody knows,  Google / Gmail is

watching our use of web and the contents of communications word by word. ( Cookies, hidden files etc)

When I heard about  Facebook,  I instantly felt their dubious nature  ” Why do they need to have so much

detailed personal information ? “—– obviously they are  the salable commodities.

Without having such profitable return,  what is the point to provide free service.

Personal info’ used to be sold to the marketing / direct mail company before.  Now the Internet provider,

social networking site are the Marketing/ Advertising/ Direct-mailing/ Delivery Service  All-in-one.

(When  I got an Email from one of our Old-boy telling, he has reached to the grand age, the Ads on right hand

column are all cheap Funeral service and the international flower delivery — Great, thank you very much :-D)

So that from the beginnings I didn’t use my real name to open Email account, and never sign up the

Website which asks Date of Birth.  ( Still, now Yahoo knows my DOB, obviously from the content of

the mail between me and my friend. )

With full name and the DOB, the one can hack-in and get the information of National Health, and

together with the Address,  it is possible to access the Banking information.

——————–

To live in peace, we have to be aware ” We are in the battle field ” which the Buddhists call  Samsara.

With technology and the Internet,  we opened the Pandora’s Box.   It’s a funny situation, as in the Informations

we are becoming almost naked,  in the same time our contact itself becoming even more indirect.

Just by  the chain of characters on the screen, a 30 years guy pretending as a 15 years old boy,  chatting

with a 40 years woman who pretending 13 years old girl. —– Yuck,  how  beautiful,   😀

——————

Zen  rely on the Direct Transmission,  still what I’ve been trying here, is the triple, quadruple indirect

communications.  In order to type, I converted my feeling to the lingual form, and express it in the

bloody English, which typed chain of ASCII code traveled through unknown node here and there and

end up —– how do I know where.

As I thought,  I never met Buddha himself,  or  I have any idea , how many times the Mantra was translated

or re-written,  and  2500 years apart, someone try to reach the same conclusion as Buddha,

( in the point of indirectness, this is the far-most remote situation )

still, if its works,  a talk to others through  Internet may works too.

Thats what I’m thinking.

[]

LIFE’s DOMAIN

This is my  Life and its  Domain.

This piece of cloth was given by a monk registering the visitors in the  Eihei-Ji  Temple,  when  I  notified as

I was leaving the Temple.

While handing this, he told me, “ Think, your life is in here, and keep remember it  all of your life ”

This foot square ( 33 x 36 cm ) space is the space, a man occupy all through the life until the moment

when he needs a bit more to lie down to die (hopefully for a Nirvana )

——— And this cloth was meant to be used to eat on it.  (Though, when I needed to washed it some time later,

I found the color was fading —- originally it was dark brown —- I realized even this one is not permanent and

only for a spiritual teaching,  not for actual use.)    Since then, I just placed it in the kitchen where ever I moved.

So,  technically  this cloth has been shadowing and watching my life for the past 36 years, and

kept reminding  me,  who I am and the place where I can be. ( in its one foot square )

——————–

The Spoon on the cloth is shadowing me even longer than that.

I made this fork-spoon, out of ordinary table-spoon by cutting the teeth in it when I was in the first year of my

High-School.   In a tradition among the Japanese mountain climbers,  the eating utensils / spoon, fork  kind

were called ” Buki ” ( weapon )—– the essential tool to fight through the battle field of survival.

The larger the Buki,  we can eat quicker and  more.  Without energy in the stomach we can’t climb or walk.

So that I made the most versatile and efficient one for myself. ( It took whole one night  to make)

And I’m eating all the meal  nearly 50 years with this.  If I was invited someone’s dinner party, I go with this.

This spoon signify my life,  my living existence.——- Literally I’m living on it.

——————–

Pretending not eat a lot is laughable.  How anyone can survive with empty stomach.

And once the food staffs were cooked, while sacrificing the life of rice and vegetables etc,  not

waste even a single grain of rice, is imperative. ( It was the Zen family’s constitution )

So,  this is the foundation of my Life.

___/\___

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