Self-sacrifice — is it same to Selfless ? ? ?

Time to time, a search-term “Self-sacrifice” came to here. = It seems, the Self

is the main issue of Buddhism, Self-sacrifice and Self-denial is always taking

quite an attention.    And in deed I myself talked about this in the past.

= I wrote that to reach Zen or Buddhism understanding, it is necessary to

have a self-denial or a self-sacrifice in a certain stage of

the pathway to see who the own Self is.

Though, the Aim of Buddhism is not “Wrestling with the SELF”= try to

eliminate and struggle.   But Being Buddhist is simply being selfless,

since the Self is not exists in the first place.

[]

—– You might be confused. This is the same situation like a “Disease”

= say XYZ syndrome. People may talk about what that syndrome is,

how to treat or eradicate it.   Though the teaching of

Lord Buddha didn’t mention the existence of such disease.  Such disease exists

only in one’s mind = NOT exist mean no point to know about alleged symptom,

let alone how to deny or eradicate it. = In other words, to think Self-denial or

Self-sacrifice as if it was the essence of Buddhism is, utterly a misunderstanding

= Here is a man trying to find and use a fire-extinguisher —– shame, there

wasn’t a fire, he only thought it was.

Don’t mix-up “to know, Fire is not exists” with extinguish a Fire.

Deny the Self is not close or same to the Selfless. Deny mean, the Self has been

 defined  and confirmed of its existence !  = Wrong direction to start.

[]

In our daily life, fundamentally there isn’t a conscious of Self,

hence things were done Selflessly.

So that, while reading this blog, have you been aware that your eyes are tracing 

the line, not mention that YOU ARE reading this.   YOU are in deed, doing all those

unconsciously. = Since you were alerted, now you became conscious of YOU.

Otherwise you didn’t need to become conscious of yourself to read this — in fact to

do anything or to live.   Ironically, human got over-sized brain and so-called Mind,

even worse got Selfish Ego and Greed kind.   When ever you were alerted and

became conscious about your “right” or “gain or loss” this kind of “Mind” often gave

us the interruption — “Hey, it’s a chance” or “Don’t loose” kind.   🙂

Lord Buddha found that this “Imaginary products” is the cause of all the troubles

even though, we can have a life without it.    And found that the idea of SELF, the

generator of all those Mind is the root cause, despite it is nothing but an illusion.

So, he taught to have “Clear eyes and the Mind” to distinguish the illusion or delusion

and the Truth. —– Yet still, we poor human tend to cling own Self and accompanying

sense of Self-loving Emotion, so that, when we do something for ourselves, we can not

handle it in the detached clear eyes and the mind.   The emotion which bound

the integration of Self is always there.

[]

In contrast, when we needed to do something for somebody else, not all of us are

very keen = We just do it as an extra task = often with quite detached mind, no

pleasure, even no Self conviction there.

(Let the hands do the work. The mind is somewhere else. 🙂 )

You can see that to do something for others, we do it detached, Selfless manner.

When you do, you do it dispassionate as it was seen objectively in quite rational

manner. = Because, it belong to the others, there is no attachment, still has to do

the job, job would be handled dispassionately as a given task. —– this situation

can be seen as the Self-sacrifice. And the dispassionate detached mind was

mixed-up with the selflessness.

= This was how and why the misinterpretation has occurred.

—– Self-denial or Self-sacrifice is not an idea of Buddhism.   Still, if there was a

situation to DO, real Buddhist would just DO without any question, since

there was no Self, therefore no wrangling Mind but the Karma put him to DO.

Though, by the eyes of others, it could be seen as if it was a self-sacrifice because

of it was not his own needs, and it was interpreted that he was forced to obey the

situation while denying his own will, himself.

[]

But, to see “Do something to others” only in the view of Self-denial or Self-sacrifice

is in deed the most Un-Buddhist like view.

It is nothing but an Egotistic, stingy, small “mind”.  —– Do something could be

a good exercise, do somebody’s work could be new experience — etc etc.

Don’t waste the time clinging with useless mind.      Just DO.

___/\___

[]

Parts Box ?

To make, modify or repair something etc. what ever to do, it’s always need

to have all sorts of components or parts. —– strange urban myth was that

I’m a kind of professional, so, I have a professional class storage / drawer

box to sort the components.  And people are believing that I got a workshop.  

Wrong !   I’m a non of professional.  Therefore, I’m keeping the components in

the most unprofessional way.

= My storage box for the parts is “plastic Ice-cube tray” used in a fridge. = This is

the most compact and convenient way to keep the small parts in order.

(And cost virtually nothing.  🙂 )

Even just the screw, there are many different sizes, starting from  1mm~.  

About the same size but old  1/8″ doesn’t match to metric 3mm screw.  

So, they has to be kept separates, ETC, ETC !

Situation is far worse in the electronic front. —– if I got to store everything,

I need to have a space, size of a shop.  

So, I keep the items handy I most likely to use, in the Ice-cube Tray.   

I don’t remember when I got this and started to use. —– I might have

brought those from Japan = it’s mean, I’m using this, past  40 years !

For me, the matter is its function.  = as long as it fulfils my needs, that’s enough.  

And, even more crucial matter is  “What I do with those components”.

Parts are just a matterial.  Part wouldn’t creates anything. = Thousands tons of 

cement is not a building.   And the beautiful way to pile-up the cement neither

form a building. —– Building would be counted when it was elected.

So does the component here, when it became a part of a finished product,

it would be counted as a meaningful existence.  (but thousands end-up in a bin)

[]

Mind-set of the Medallist

Now the news from Sochi Winter Olympic is the regular feature in the media.

So, naturally I read quite number of the words from the Medallists “How he

(or she) came to this point”. Such as the one from the first Gold Medallist

of Japan, Yuzuru Hanyu (羽生結弦) the Figure Skater.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoqHZH6KE1c

—– (Unfortunately I couldn’t find a proper video from Sochi in Youtube =

most of them are either old clips or the clip only using his name with

crap contents. = this one from last year’s competition.)

Yuzuru grown up in Sendai, Japan the place received that earthquake and

tsunami few years ago. So, even he had a part of the same fate, couldn’t

practice for 6 months, as a local ice-rink was destroyed, on top of all sorts

of life’s ups and downs. —– still, in his word on an interview, he said

“On the end I came to the point to realize that I couldn’t be anybody

more than myself or anybody less than myself, and understood, there

couldn’t be anything else but to go the life to be a skater.”

= No pretence of special pride carrying the top name or the feeling carrying

the duty to the country.   (Yet still, when he won, he carried Japanese Flag

on his shoulder. = He was thank-full to the people who supported him

back in Japan. —– He was a nice 19 years old boy !)

[]

This is in fact quite common feeling among the athletes who became

top medallist. = Non boasted the words like “I came to the Olympic to win

for my country”—– but “Just did my best and it happened to be an Olympic”.

[]

It is a common misconception = “To achieve such highest goal, it must need

to have highest concentration of the Will and the strong Mindset”.

—– strangely you might think, the stronger the will or higher the aim or

desire kind, it fails to achieve the goal. —– We human was not designed to

withstand to maintain such hard will, and our fate is not providing plain

sailing. = The higher the aim, the stronger the disappointment when the ship

hit an obstacle, then the person brake down.

[]

Athletes compete physical game though, it is in fact a very heavy mental game.

Minute fear or negative doubt would hinder the moment of judgement.

After thousands, tens of thousands of practices, the body got accustomed to

perform routine = let the body to perform.  = No “Will, Aim, Pride, Pretence,

Desire, Show-off, Sense of Obligation, Duty, Fear, Doubt, Arrogance or Shame”

= in other words ANY MIND was not required here.  = Just Do it.

Any how, in the moment when the athlete is competing, there couldn’t be

a margin to haggle any thought.

—– ? ? ? —– Don’t you think it’s sound familiar ?

Yes. This is exactly the same mental state to Mushin and Ichijo of the Zen.

Or, the Selflessness of the Buddhism. —– are they Buddhist ?  Not necessary.

[]

Lord Buddha’s teachings = Buddhism, was the wisdom learned from the

human nature, and been applied to the general aspects of the life.

Wisdom in the human nature which was prevailed in the process of extreme

practice was in fact the wisdom held by the universe = Rules of the Universe,

which is in the Buddhist’s term Dharma.

[]

And the contemplation those athletes has gained, is nothing but

their Enlightenment = Being nobody else of the Self, who is in fact Selfless.

= This selflessness is in deed, the Dharma.

___/\___

[]   

Market, Market

Somewhere in a corner of London but on the another planet of Harrods,

still far behind of Tesco, even below Lidl, or charity shop —— still needs

to pay money = is a place for shopping = an open air market.  

Some of the Market is famous in their antic collection and specialized

dealer often shows very interesting rare items etc.

So that, I used to go those market to look for interesting old cameras

or alarm clock etc etc. —– but, for lots of people, the things they buy

is not a joke or for fun, it is a serious needs in their daily life.

I know a guy —— from top to bottom, he was wearing and using

the things came from the market.  And the another guy bought his

camera all from the market. (When I tested those lenses he bought

for £10, amazingly they are working perfect and image was sharp.) !

( Incidentally, I found and bought Canon 420EZ flash = may be

5 years old, for £10 —– seemed to be working well.) 

Once I was wearing a mountain boots I bought from Charity Shop

for £5.   —– out of this boots, I’ve got many enjoyable walk.  

So, I guess, a person who bought second-hand boots here with 

pathetically cheap price doesn’t necessary mean having pathetic life.  

Far from it, few pound toy for the kids could be a luxury and

a big fun to him or her.   Happiness is not a matter of price.

Though, to the people in the another planet, they may not have any idea

what’s going on behind the buildings.

And still, the days come and the days go. The Life continues.

[]

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.)

___/\___

[]

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.

___/\___

[]

Facebook Bug

What I supposed to download was a map showing the different cooking

styles of O-Zouni (celebrative cooking for  new-year) all over  in Japan.

In stead, what I got was a hacked-in fraud from Facebook. —– on the face

it looks like a notice from Google Chrome though, in fact it was a disguised

mail which tricks us to give Email address and its Password to Facebook

= as the sender’s ID was shown on the top-left corner.    

—– In order to deceive, it is showing the big G-Chrome Logo but their

“Facebook Logo” was not shown. (my be excusing with “Technical hitch”)  

And saying “You’re using a web browser that isn’t supported by Facebook”

while showing Net-Explorer, Mozilla-Firefox etc etc —– despite I’m using

latest Firefox. = it was just a sheer pretext to steal Password. (Anyhow, as

I don’t use SNS, neither need to have Facebook convenient Browser.  🙂 )

[]

Why they have to take like this desperate measure. = Now hundreds of

thousands of people leaving Facebook everyday.  It is an out-of-dated

old fashioned SNS, and only old users (30~40s) are still keep using it.

(Young and more active user has moved to LINE or SNAPCHAT etc.)

= So, they are desperate to fill-up the lost numbers and hack-into

the address book to trick the friends to join —– by sending false mails

which says “Yoshi is asking you to join Facebook”  😀 😀

How Pathetic. —– I’ve been wondering why people need to have such

kind of FALSE feeling of being ” CONNECTED” = now everybody

knows that such superficial number of “So-called FRIENDS” or

number of LIKE is nothing to do with “Real Human Relation”.

Nobody feel confident with the empty person who couldn’t even

stand alone but seek numbers in So-called Friends or Followers.  

————–

PS ;      The further trouble I discovered about the aforesaid

Facebook Bug was, —— it was very difficult to delete that file,

as I didn’t obey and sign-up for them to finish their task. 

So that, I needed to find the file and delete it. ==> But, later

I discovered that the Facebook Hacker left a virus in my PC

which blocks the function of “Copy and Paste”.   So, when I try

to Copy and Paste = what appeared on the screen was not what

I copied but the logo of G-Chrome and the Hyperlink.

Hyperlink to go back to the same Facebook page.

= which is harassing us to give-up and sign-up to them ! 

—– Can you believe, this is what Facebook is actually doing.

Are they such desperate in this extent ? 

[]  

What’s there ?

Here the question is ” Is there or not there”  ” What’s there” in

a photo or behind the photography.

This is an obvious subject,  nobody would give any argument

what it is.   And even without photograph, it still exists = photo is

mere secondly image of the existence.  Photo didn’t make it exists.

This image has no significance = It’s just there, like a subject.

But you may puzzle what this is ?  

What photographed here is the whole possession of a homeless person.  

Still some would say “So, what” —– OR others may see the meaning in

social issue or even philosophical aspects “What’s the human existence”

yet, visually they are just a lots of plastic bags on a bicycle. Nothing else.

More than that is all in your mind.

It’s all depends on, whether you make a mountain out of this heap.

Some might be good deep insights otherwise just the delusions.

Before one photographic image,  we have to see what a person

who is photographing has seen or conceived,  let alone aimed.

But who can see it clear —– and, who knows how real what we’ve seen.   

What I’m seeing might be there —– is it ?  Where ? Here or there or behind. 

We may not able to define what we are seeing unless we intentionally

impose a preconception, what I want to see, and reconstruct

the image OR story.

And it depend what we can see or what we know. —– or believe to know.

And if we know, —– can we be any wiser ?   Really ? ? ?

Is there any use,  if I told you what it was ?

In reality, we may not seeing any, let alone knowing, are they

really there.  So, this is the real situation, and how and what they are.

(If you want to see the VOIDNESS in much more symbolic

elaborated image, it is your pretence and the arrogance !)

—– truth might be just empty space.

= Don’t struggle.  Let it be and see just as it is.  Don’t make-up the order.

(F&M’s Cherubs were in a mess of reflection = that was how they were.  :-D)

By nature, as it is empty from the beginning, see as it is, be with it, is Ichijo.

Be with emptiness mean the mind is not there = Mushin.

Don’t impose own order mean = no complaint. What’s wrong with it ?  😀

—– So, it’s nice to be in PEACE.

___/\___

[]

Season’s greeting 2014

How the 2013 has been for you ?  

I hope it was a pretty productive year for you.

For me while blogging, do something, see the friends etc etc

2013 has gone almost instant !

(Still in a hind sight there were so many things had happened ! ) 

So, it’s always the question —– have I done enough ?

—– May be.  —– In middle way.   Ha ha ha  😀

(Or, I might have done quite drastic.  🙂 )  

What so ever —– we have to see the next stage. = Let’s face it.

And I wish your best happiness in the coming new year. 

—– Hold the breath, listen !   —– You know, it’s coming.  

( —– —– Tap tap tap ! —- Ha ha ha.   I’m kidding)

[]