Fruits Fly

It seems different people call different Fruits Fly though, I’m talking

about very small common Fruits Fly in England.    While Googling, I

found that the others are having the same problem of Fruits Fly.

——( Dead Fruits Flies I found, and they were photographed by Nikkor 24mm F2 lens,

Reverse-mounted with extension-ring on Canon 5D Mk-III — as a X5 Macro-close-up) 

—– they suddenly appear in mass and start to pest the place.

Of cause, I wouldn’t believe that they naturally generated —– there

must be somewhere something nursing them.    But what was that ?

I certainly don’t have rotten fruits or cow-dung dropped in my room.

[]

When I was in my junior school, there was a kind of out of course

biology project = To receive a bottle of fruits fly and keep them in

a warm condition.   Then next week, 10 of the pupil brought back

each bottle and counted the number of hatched fly — how many of

them had black eyes etc.  Actuary, we were assisting the researcher’s

study (without understanding what for we are doing.  :-D)

Anyhow, still we learned how to nurse Fruits Fly with a gluey

yeast-starch mix and to see them hatch less than 10 days.

= It’s mean, when one female came into the room and laid the eggs,

a week to 10 days later, suddenly the room would have 100 of them

flying around.

[]

While observing where they are frocking, I realized that the fruits

skin peel etc anything sweet and wet in the bin is attracting them.

On top of those, I discovered that quite number of them penetrated

the polythene bag of Raisin loaf through small gap = they must have

laid hundreds of the eggs on the raisin. = If I didn’t notice, I could

have eaten plenty protein as well.   (That was how the Essential

Amino-acid was delivered to the “Strict Vegetarian” 🙂 )

—– then battle commence.   Since then, any wet or not completely

dry rubbish, mostly fruits peel kind were lapped-up in polythene bag

and goes to the bin and any soft food goes either fridge or plastic

container with lid.   I needed to make my room as dessicated and futile

as a desert, making them to convince “It’s better to go somewhere else”.  

( I did composting before though, I have no garden of compost to go,

and it’s bin itself became a center of unpleasant insects, fly etc

= So, I gave up the idea.)

[]

So that, in reality, to have an ecological, naturally harmonious life =

“Happily Live Together with other small Lives” is = sound sweet but

not practical or ideal at all.    In fact nothing but a pretentious fraud.

We shouldn’t forget  “To keep hygienic, clean life” is no other than

the practice to persecute against the pests and the germs.

The Bottle-fly or Cockroach are just having their own life that all.

Even AIDS virus is surely the other life-form. They only happen to

cross over the boundary to the human life and created the conflict.

—– People expecting a beautiful Butterfly just fly over their flowers,

still never anticipates their larvae could infest their plant in their

garden. —– if they saw it, certainly 99% of them will kill it.

[]

It easy to make-up a softy face and preach love and compassion kind

—– Oh !   Really ?

= Better not to be a filthy hypocrite. I rather stay to be a honest tyrant,

killing millions of grains and beans every year, on top of billions of

other invisible small creatures and the germs for my comfort and the

survival. —– To know the real extent, how we are relying on the sacrifice

of other life-form = Exact reality of the Karma, not a convenient pretty

story to justify and glorify ourselves, is the duty to be a real Buddhist.  

Scripture spent so many pages to explain about the Oneness  (Ichijo —

such as that “Giving, even without having a conscious of giving” ==>

having pretentious mind is too remote from the Buddhism.)

We need to see and think it in person.

___/\___

PS:  Since when my flat was made a desert, they just disappeared

and I only managed to find two dead bodies —– Where had they gone ? 

[]

Zen in Daily-Life (2)

In the previous post I explained how to gain the Selfless-mind-set with an example

of Tea making though, obviously Tea making is hardly a “Task in our daily life”.

It is more like a not too serious leisurely moment when we have a break.

So, how about a handling business matter such as to deal with Bills.

[]

Zen only deals with the matter on front.   And divides the whole task into small section.

And to deal with each section, one at a time.   (To climb the mountain, not overwhelmed by

its 8,000m hight, just concentrate to make each step perfect ! = On the end, reach to the top.)

Of cause, our brain can trace the implication of the matter even to 3^rd, 5^th effects and able

to speculate further though, the further we go it become a products of Imagination, or

pretty close to a Delusion.   (As a matter of fact, most of the speculation is nothing but a

delusion and the rest of only few, happen to meet the probability. —- Yet I wouldn’t totally

reject the facts, some people could foresee this probability in amazing accuracy.)

—– So, when a bill dropped on front of you, how you handle it ?     This bill is no delusion, and

a fact how much money you got, wouldn’t have so much grey area.   (Of cause, if you are

running a business, the money coming in, may have some uncertainty of timing, hence some

speculative juggling may be inevitable.   Still, a situation of unknowable wouldn’t give an

excuse to halt the whole business.   In a situation,“Can’t pay now” still, just keep a silence, or

send an excuse of delay, would make a big difference.)  

If ignored, it would come back twice harder.

[]

To live a life, “Don’t care” is one of THE attitude.   The way of Zen is the another attitude, and

I wouldn’t judge right or wrong but just show the resulting difference in efficiency to deal

with the Life.   Throw the bills to a bin and leave the payment until receiving a Red-bill, is

also a life-style.  Though, Zen chose the way, responding it at once. Because, anyhow a due

payment has to be cleared soon or later, not mention additional Late-payment charge etc.  

Unless the amount is in millions and keep it one more day in the deposit account will create

thousands more interest, instead, just clear and see no mess, is the choice of Zennist.

Even just to open an envelope, tear it regardless if it could also tear the document, —– but 

Zennist use scissors. (For THE task to open it, take the neatest way.  NOT the least effort.)  

And to pay attention, whether to keep the envelope together, if the document was

back-dated.  (—– I had an experience to argue in the Court, for the serving date of a

legal document with the stamped date on the envelope as an evidence. !)

Zen approach is to make everything into a clearly sorted file, and make a way to handle

it to a fixed routine, and to deal with them automatic = no hesitation, no stammering =

hence nothing bothersome would be left.   Even if having a headache of juggling, still see

the balance on a clearly filed order would make the Life easier, otherwise see it among

the piled-up bills, notices and other letters etc., will make the life into a confusion.

It’s far easier to deal with it, one by one in the first place.   The more delay only makes

the pile-up higher and such situation makes one’s mental state only depressed more.

[]

Dealing the things with a rule, and make it routine would change the matter from

“personal” to “one of an item among the lots”, hence it became an object, and

separated from the Emotion.  = Because of it is under the rule = independent from your

whim, and the rule and the routinised process handles the matter = not your mind = this

is the Selfless state.  —– (In fact this is a well known situation, “the customer complained,

don’t handle me as a number but as an individual person”— still, in an aspect of

efficiency, the difference is obvious.)

With a superficial impression, you may not like this though, the Zen originated “Selfless 

work Ethics” has contributed to High-productivity and the quality in the Japanese industry.

[]

This rule and a fixed routine creates consistency in the repeated task, and makes 

a person’s brain “Selfless state” —– This phenomenon is all common in the Tea-making or

the handling of clerical work, even the car-making — in fact all the human activities.

—– Behind this phenomenon, there is an crucial tendency of the brain. = Our brain has a

threshold of signal intake = if the same input has been repeated, the brain start to ignore

the signal and respond to it as a pattered routine without involving the Emotion.

It’s mean, when the brain handle a matter without involving Emotion,  the feeling of MINE,

or conscious of SELF  would not be generated.  

[]

All the sensory signal first goes to the Limbic System to have a reference from the memories

and anything related to one’s interest  (gain, loss, danger, comfort) was marked as significant

and the related hormone (if it was a sign of danger, Adrenalin) will be secluded to the

whole body to respond.  But if the signal has no such importance and repeatedly coming,

this process in the Limbic system would be bypassed. (Even though, the same bodily action is

still carried-out but “Emotionlessly”).  

Because of this Limbic System distinguishes and sorting the signal related to the SELF, if the

signal was bypassed,  one’s reaction would be carried-out without the connection to the

SELF, and the related hormone wouldn’t be secluded = No Emotion. — (Emotion doesn’t come

from a Thinking process, but mostly from a Mood created by the Hormone.) 

—– Therefore, when the brain was trained (through repeated practice) to bypass the process 

in the Limbic System, both  Subconscious of the SELF and the Emotion would be suppressed.

 —– And this phenomenon is the basis of

Lord Buddha’s teachings of the Selflessness (Anatman) and the origin of Buddhism.  In deed,

our brain, thoughts, mind is bothered by the interference from the conscious of SELF and the

Emotion, which creates Ego and the Greed and subsequently all sorts of the troubles in the LIFE,

Lord Buddha’s approach to utilize those Brain Function was a brilliant idea.   And without a

bias of Self, Ego, Greed and Detached Emotion, we can see the things much clearer

= We can see The Truth —– This IS, what Zen and Buddhism can achieve. 

___/\___

[]

Zen in Daily-Life

Don’t mistake this title as “Twisting leg everyday”.

Zen is to do something in a Selfless state of the mind. Twisting and sitting (supposedly while

meditating) is a mere practice to gain this Selfless (Mushin) state. —– Though, we are not

born for sitting but to do something to have active life, otherwise we have had extinct long

ago with starvation. So, even Eating in Selfless (ie; in Mushin, and in complete commitment

ie; Mindfulness) IS the Zen.   = This is the realization of what

Lord Buddha taught us = Anatman / Selflessness.

[]

To DO Selfless mean, DO IT without connecting the matter to the Emotion. = This is a state

of so-called Detachment. —– Everybody ever attempted to learn Zen, must heard the words

such as Mushin or Detachment, though, very few had been instructed how to learn it.

(Because in most of the case, their instructor had only an experience to have sat somewhere

in a temple, that all. Still, he is thinking that he had learned Zen.

So, teaching the same sitting  (and only sitting)  to others. 🙂

[]

The trouble of learning Zen by sitting is, even if the person (luckily) able to manage vacating

his mind while sitting, to keep this state of mind (whil doing other than sitting) is almost

impossible.   Because the mind had been accustomed to “Sitting and Do nothing” and make

empty Brain.   Therefore, TO DO anything else, the Brain and the Thinking will come back.

—– Naturally, to learn Zen in the ordinary situation, in a daily life is far better, as the person

can apply the same method and the state of the mind to DO another  “Thing”  as well.

[]

Such as to make a cup of tea. (In this purpose, DON’T take short-cut = make a tea from loose 

tea-leaf —– (this has the same concept as how “Tea making as a Zen practice” developed.)

The way I make a tea is :

Put a water to a kettle and shake it to wash inside and drain it. Put a water again to the

exactly the same level.   Switch on and wait it boils.   When the water started to boil,

switch-off (don’t wait automatic switch-off).   Pour the hot water (about half cup) into a

teapot where a tea-strainer and a tea-spoon is in.  (To heat-up them all together.)

Then take the spoon and tea-strainer out and make the spoon to dry.   Throw the hot water

from the teapot.   Then, put a spoon-full or two (according to the taste) loose-tea leaf into

the pot (heated spoon takes no condensation of the steam from the warmed tea-pot, hence

no tea lief would stick on it.)   Then pour the hot water to tea-pot.   Wait two minutes then

serve a tea. Put sugar or milk when I want.

(In fact, when I pour a tea to the cup, I add the (still) hot water from the kettle for next cup.

(I’m a chain tea drinker, anyhow.)   (Hot water was not as hot as before though, tea would be

brewed longer in the pot = it prevent the tea become too strong !

— Second cup doesn’t have fresh flavour though.)

[]

—– The process may seems too much details.   But they are all for a sake of good tea-making,

and to concentrate for this purpose IS the Mindfulness.

By doing the whole process always the same as THE Accustomed Form.

—– If you follow this, soon or later, you will gain the Formalized body movement and

gradually able to refine the details.   And soon or later you must be realized that you are

DOING all the process Just as a routine = without thinking and the process seemed to be

carried-out almost automatic.   It goes almost independent from YOU —– (As you know,

Do the same, again and again, you start to Do it without excitement, interest = No Emotion ! )

= Now the tea is ready for you to enjoy.   And it was made without your thinking (in Mushin)

and Detached from your Emotion, in other words, Without the  Conscious SELF

= You were in Selflessness.

Do anything in a part of daily-life in the same approach = DO only what you ARE doing

= Mindful Concentration to the only subject.   (nothing else in your mind)

And DO what that subject demand, in your best.  = This is the ZEN in the daily-life.

[]

= As you did the things, as good as you could, it’s mean “You may do better next time though,

what you have Done WAS the best on That moment = no regret.   (Regret can not change the

past, because the past has gone and the matter to DO better would be on the next time.)

= So, you can live the day without useless regret.   (You only can live, on its moment !)

[]

Key point is,

(1) Take it as if it is a Formalized procedure, hence you only Do it as if an imperative form.

(2) No short-cut and Do the best. (3) Establish your way and stick to it. (Stick to it though,

“Do the best”  has priority = the way to Do should evolve to even better on the process.)

(In fact, Mushin or Selflessness is mere By-product of this process = Forget them and just Do

what you got to DO = The matter is, you to DO it and only the result count.)

—– So, enjoy your Tea.      (While having the tea, think about, when you live in this manner

down to all the detail of the life, from the way to get-up from the bed – – – – – each frame of

picture to picture, you did your best = in total you had the best satisfying day, and next day too,

so does next year = in total, you have satisfying LIFE.  

As you been doing the best, others will know you are the most reliable consistent best,

because you are the Zennist.      What you wish more on your LIFE.

—– (without able to make satisfying tea, able to have satisfying day, you are far behind

of even start to talk about Zen,  let alone Enlightenment.    

But when you achieved to make a good tea, and had satisfying day, year, life = then,

you don’t need to have any Enlightenment on top of your life, since you already had one.

—– Life has full of funny paradox.  😀

[]

This was the reason why, when the Zen Masters found their Enlightenment,

all uttered “It’s a dog shit” = after all, all of us walking completely in Selfless Mushin

= nobody need to think how to move the legs.   We were born, able to live Selflessly

= So, it was explained as “We are born possessing the Dharma” which enabling us

to Live without relying on to the Self.    In fact, The Conscious of SELF is obstructing us 

to Live Selflessly.  —– When the Master discovered  this,  after spent years of practice,

he was annoyed to feel ( as the years had been wasted,)  hence    “What a dog shit”  😀

___/\___

[]

Lettuce and Spinach — its Origin

One of the most unique Photographer / Artist, Karen showed her stunningly beautiful

photos of Canada Lettuce seed in her blog “Draw and Shoot” it awaken my memory that

I had the photo of this (or the one, closely related) plant — The seed-pod in her photo

looks very much like a Dandelion’s, as you can see.  = In deed, this plant is a cousin of

Dandelion and as its name suggests, it closely related to the Lettuce.  

Or the Lettuce was descended from this kind of Plant, namely

Luctuca of Asteraceae (Compositae) Family.   When I found that this plant was the

ancestor of the Lettuce, I was shocked —– as it was completely out of my imagination.  

( Not only it looks so different but also I’ve never seen it in an open field and flowering.)

A book, I saw said that  “to eliminate its bitter tasted white sap, it took 200 years” though,

Wikipedia says Lettuce has been cultivated since ancient Egyptian time.  So, the English

local farmer might have had their own approach, instead to import the established

variety from Mediterranean.

Something similar stories are in Spinach.

The photo left is a plant belongs to

Spinacia in Amaranthaceae family.

The Spinach was created from this kind

of plant, and this weed is also edible.

(Though, this plant contains Oxalic acid,

thus if eat a lots, it would cause an ulcer 

on the mouth.)

The cultivated variety is not only to eat

leaves but also there was a variety to eat 

thickened stem, called “Poorman’s Asparagus”. And other was called Lincolnshire Spinach. 

—– In deed, we human being is very resourceful — or used to be so poor to scrape the life ?

Still, there is a very funny situation. Despite increased world population, therefore needs

lots more food and in deed great number of the people are starving,  in the same time,

we are said to be wasting 1/3 of food. (couldn’t sell in the super-market, due to a blemish.  

Or made them rotten in a fridge due to too much shopping.) —– Something wrong isn’t it ?

[]

What Buddha found

(According to the Scripture which Yoshizen found in the Dragon’s den in South London.

—– the Authenticity is more or less the same to any other Buddhist  Scripture )  ;-D

After 6 years of ascetic hard practice which was based on the Vedic concept, “With a

concentration of one’s mind = Atman can reach to the level of super natural power”

which is, of cause, on the belief of that the Atman exists. —– but to realize, it was not

suit for him, and left the ascetic practice, and having nursing his weakened body,

Gautama Buddha suddenly noticed that, while eating a milk-porridge offered by a

village girl Sujata, his mind was completely empty. = no mind or conscious was there.

It must had shocked him and made him realized that we’ve been doing a lots of things

without having any thought or conscious. We all are walking without thinking how to walk.

Facing this undeniable fact, he realized that the belief of Atman was utterly false.

What makes us to live, and walk was not the Atman but invisible Dharma.

Atman is not exists, and if we remove the mind or thinking and make it empty, the Dharma

which has been masked by the mind will prevail.

—– So, he tested this, sitting under the Pipal tree.   And after 49 days when he run-out of all

the thoughts, the mind became empty, hence, without any pre-conception and with the

clearest eyes, he saw the world as it is which is the sign of the Dharma.

It was the moment of his Enlightenment.

[]

Then he gave a thought, why the same man who had been believing the existence of Atman

now seeing it is not exists.   If really Atman exists, same Gautama must see the same Atman

still here, but the fact showed, it is not.    It changes moment to moment.

When things changes, others change as well with direct, indirect connection and this makes

the Dharma dynamic.   Hence, nothing stays permanent.

But it is the paradox, to be the Dharma it should be permanent. —– what only persistent in

the Dharma is, its nature of change, not the appearance.   Appearance is just a transitional

illusion on our eyes.   And our eyes were also attached to this transitional existence, us,

which we can not even define it is existing or not, because the one who try to define it,

is not a consistent existence either.

So the situation, which can only be describable is, the changing nature of the Dharma which

got a mechanism of Karma, which drives everything change, moment to moment,

that nature IS the Truth.

[]

It’s means, “No rigid existence of Atman, let alone its perpetuity, hence No Self, the Self what

we imagined”, everything is Void.  And the Dharma and its mechanism of Karma are all

invisible and unknowable because they may also be Void.

—– Yet still, we are here, there is no choice but has to accept this Truth.

When you can not beat, better join them, be flexible.   This is the Enlightenment.

It is not a kind of jump and dance discovery, but neither need to be depressed, because, this

is what we are and our situation is.   It’s mean, we neither need to worry because, our worry

itself may be yet another illusion, and anyhow we are here only in this moment in only one life.

And we are here because the Karma caused us to be here, there must be a reason which

we can not know.    We have to accept and respect the Dharma.

[]

And an essential wisdom to deal with this situation, —– to deal with almost invisible Dharma

and the Karma, we have to see them as it is, with transparent perception, never with

coloured glass, in other words, in Selfless clear eyes.   In Selflessness, in definition, there is no

Ego or Greed either. Since, the owner of Ego and Greed is not exist.

Therefore we have no possibility to loose anything = We will be in total freedom = We can have

totally liberated life, free from any delusion.

So, Lord Buddha started to teach the way to obtain this Selflessness.

[]

(Note : It is crucial to see the formation of Buddhism in an aspect of historical situation.  

It was a time when the Vedic belief was gradually taken-over by the new Hinduism.  

A religion of mostly just worship and make rituals toward the Vedic Deities (hence, ordinary

people were just by-standers) to a religion which is taking a personal account in each Karma

and perpetual cycles of Reincarnation (Samsara) = Hinduism, which horrified the people with

a fear to be trapped in a cycle and even born again as a beast.  

Lord Buddha urgently needed to to give an answer to those people and liberate them from

such deluded idea by teaching them that the reincarnating soul = Atman itself is not exists

hence the one’s death will be the total end which IS the Nirvana.

No-Self / Selflessness / Anatta / Anatman was the centre of his teachings.  That was why when

Lord Buddha was asked a question (again) “What happens after a death ?” or  “After a death

where the soul goes ?” He was so annoyed and didn’t give an answer.  —— On the scripture,

his personal attendance Ananda asked him “Why didn’t give an answer” “Because, it would

confuse them” = If this scripture was true, even a closest disciple haven’t understood the

teachings, or most likely  the writer of the scripture didn’t know what the Buddhism was.

(on that time the original teachings had already lost !) 

[]

—– It’s sound strange still, it is quite common tendency of the Karma, people who afraid to

get injured get injury.   (May be because, the person who had no fear was more agile and

able to see and avoid a danger = the same tendency appeared everywhere in the life.)

There are endless list of the paradox in the Life. = They are definitely making the life FUN.

And this is the secret to live happier peaceful Life.

So, this is the Enlightenment.

___/\___

[]

No Word, No Teaching ???

There is a well known quotation in Buddhism   “In his 45 years of teaching,

Lord Buddha didn’t give even a single word”. —– Even as a metaphor,

this words could explain the most crucial truth in the teachings of

Lord Buddha.

(After 4 years I blogged here = this practice has been my equivalent of facing a rock wall

to sort out the conflicting notions and the words in the scripture, and on the end, I came

to the conclusion.)

[]

A trouble of Buddhism is that there is no authentic written “one teaching”.    

Even the earliest scripture, Agama Sutra was created 200 or more years later, thence

virtually all the 3,000 Buddhism scriptures were compiled on hear-say and guess-work.

(still the author may say “My understanding of the True Buddhism”)  

And on top of this,  it was a well known fact that

Lord Buddha,s words seemed to be different ocasion to ocasion and it was depend on

to whom he was speaking. —– So that, what I’ve been doing was, picking-up the pieces

among the mountain of disassembled parts and to re-configure the most likely the

original picture. (You may say, I also doing a guess-work) 😀

[]

Considering this Quotation “No teaching” together with other stories such as Kisa Gotami’s

mustard seeds’ story and a story of Churi Pantac (Shuri Bantoku) sweeping the garden, and

on top of those, “Going out on rainy night” (Test of Selflessness) story.

There was no explanation of why or what could be achieved by doing so, was given by

Lord Buddha. = It must be the teaching of “Think it yourself” though, is anywhere the

explanation why need to think yourself, was ever explained ?    By thinking it, (but thinking

in the subconscious level ! ) the one can reach own understanding which would lead to the

own Enlightenment, as the Enlightenment couldn’t be given or taught by any other person,

the one has to find it. (external communication hardly touch one’s subconscious.)

(It is completely different from “Believing the Gospel”= Belief is to firmly memorise the

Pattern, but not necessary know what to do with it, since implanted memory is a

foreign substance) = Because the very process of finding out, is a part of the Enlightenment

(This process is to Re-program the Brain and cut-off Emotional Region to handle a situation

= hence, without an involvement of the Self.)    Thus, to teach it in the words would spoil the

purpose of ths teaching itself. = Teaching in Words would only create a memory, but Buddhism

need to change the personality from the subconscious. —– While fully aware of this paradox,

Lord Buddha wouldn’t have explained the effect of the practice or what is the aim of it,

instead, only gave an instruction what to do.   He didn’t give-away the trick and the goal.  

In this extent, he didn’t teach but just gave a Task.   And while doing it, the person can reach

and gain a state of the “Mushin” and  “Selflessness”. —– Observing the person’s progress,

Lord Buddha must have given further instruction what to do next,

and where is the point to watch, but not what to think or why / the theory.

( Practice  can be done purely subconsciously  (in Mushin)  but the Word  ( = Categorized 

notion)  couldn’t be operated away from the highly conscious brain activities.)

[]

A crucial point in Buddhism IS there is no promise of salvation BUT “Save yourself by

reaching the Enlightenment by yourself” —– otherwise, Life is suffering, getting ill,

get old and die. = very blunt message. = (Very Un-Religion like message in deed, since

Buddhism is a teaching of Truth, not a false hope or pinky illusions.)   And all the

8 right path etc are what you do.   Not what to believe. In fact, all those “Do what” are

obviously in the common sense.   Nobody would suggests otherwise.   So, there are no

fancy ritual but simple practice = matter is not what or why, but Do.

Lord Buddha might actually told those words to his followers, but no words of why to

Do it = because, no matter of what, but actually Do it unconditionally then

what would happen = Was the teaching.

[]

So that when you do, just DO without thinking,

without questioning, it’s mean in Mushin, was what

Lord Buddha taught, NOT a complicated reasoning or mythical story which only exists in

abstract notion = Delusion.    “What we can DO (include the thinking) without our lexical

conscious = in another word “DO it subconsciously” is the Core of the teaching.

Lord Buddha must have taught how the Karma (cause and result) works in each moment,

such as behind our eyes how the nature is interacting, and all sorts of the physical

phenomena, almost like a science teacher, and taught this is what the Dharma is.

But strictly remained within the rationality and on the facts.

(even though it was in the 2,500 years old standard).

[]

Since we can do, we can live, without conscious (in deed as we are walking without

thinking how to walk or we are thinking without us noticing it.)

“In the truth, SELF is not a real existence but only an imaginary existence = The Self or

Atman in Vedic teachings is a false”.   Therefore the teaching couldn’t be based on the

lexical thinking which is a product of the conscious Self. —– The paradox was that the

teaching was “to become and to live Selfless”. = How to teach and learn the Selflessness

without relying on the product of the Self / Word and the notion. —– Only a way to

learn “To do without thinking” is just watch the way to DO, then Do the same.

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To teach or to tell in the words, “Do it without thinking” is the same as to tell

“Tell me that you are sitting in silence” 😀 —– So that,

Lord Buddha just asked the followers to follow him and do the same.

The followers studied by just watching and learned by just Doing.

By just keep Doing, the followers get used with it, and reached the mind-set to Do

and Live without conscious of the Self.   (Without conscious mean, it is not only in

Mushin but be with the Karma of its Moment, in another word Ichijo / Oneness with

the subject or ultimately with the Dharma.)

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So that, the teachings were not in the words, hence, it sound as if nothing was taught.

But that was what Buddhism was in the original form. —– And this was the very reason

why the tradition of “Teaching by Heart to Heart, without relying on the words”

(教外別伝，不立文字，依心伝心)  has been kept in the Zen teaching.

(= Just DO the work. Soon or later you will learn to do it automatic/Selfless.)

Yes, Lord Buddha has taught.  In a way NOT taught anything at all.

So, the quotation was correct.

___/\___

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Home-made flower :-D

It’s a middle of September, not many flower left.  

—– Don’t tell me to go to a florist.  I don’t buy flower or plant.  

They should be where they grow.  Unless I found a pot abandoned on the street.

—– (provided it’s not a meter-tall tree.)  —— Then Kinetorori murmured me  

“If no flower, why not make one yourself” —– It’s a his bad habit.

It’s the most un-Zen like practice though, —– I did.  😀 

 (Out of used envelope.)

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So, a flower is blooming in my room. (keep blooming for foreseeable future.  😀 )

Buddhists telling us “Live on the moment”

—– though, I took a way against it.  

A photograph is imprisoned to the moment.  

So, to have a Jailbreak of this “Moment”

I made a photo to have rather prolonged span

of time (unlike ordinary photographic norm).  

The photo above consists multiple exposure

while having its focus shifted.  = Yet another

attempt to create fuzzy image —– went

beyond a soft-focus lens,  yet keeping a sharp core of

image, unlike a pinhole photo.  

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Stabilize the Camera — Chest-Pod

 There are many way to stabilize the camera.  Starting from the way to grip the camera.

 Ultimately a use of Tripod or Mono-pod, even a use of a Bean-bag.   

Still, it’s all down to a mind-set of the photographer = Whether to pay an attention

against a possible camera-shake and become aware of own doing?  

If it is a case “Doesn’t matter that the Stabilizer built into the lens should take care of

that problem”.   —– This is the most funny situation.   It is only a psychological trick.  

The stabilizer may save a photo while cancelling a camera shake for further 3 stops = such

as in a situation of 200 mm lens, it would be safer to use a shutter speed 1/250 or faster  

and with the aid of stabilizer it “may” drop to 1/125 or 1/60 —– still “may not” works.  

In such case, I would set 2 stop higher ISO setting to get 2 stop higher shutter speed.  

—— In the same time a  “Maestro” may say “other than ISO 100 color is not in its best”

—– Oh, really ? !  The BEST mean it is still in a relative matter = NOT the absolute.  

Our right-eye and the left-eye are not necessary even seeing the same color.

(Test it your self if you are not aware yet.  😉 —– If not aware this discrepancy,

how the one could boast about “the critical Color”  😀  )  

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I used be working close together with the publishers, their printers, plate-making engineers,

and one of my closest climbing mate of mountain has studied Printing Technology and

became an expert of the photo-scanner (such as Crosfield’s machne) —— I heard many

wired stories of “Special Sorcery” in their trade —– still, when it makes the print on the paper,

such as slight difference of the paper which is different a roll to roll, or even a humidity in

the air changes absorbency of the paper hence changes the color of print,  etc. etc.  = there

can not be any reliable absolute or perfection.  It is just someone’s preference.  

Anyhow, computer to computer, this CRT to that LCD screen, the color is always different

= what fuss about such minute difference.  😀  

[]

As I grown-up in the time when the color film was ISO 64 or 100, B/W was 400 and even with

push-development,  ISO 1600 or so (Kodak Royal Record Pan = ISO 12500 was existed though)

I had to stabilize the camera other than ISO speed.  So that, I tried many kind of  chest-pod.

(though there are too many — even I don’t remember how many I bought and made myself.)  

So, I show you two of my handmade.

This is a chest-pod of current use on my DSLR.   The simplest, hence the most neat one !

It was made by aluminium pipe and a short piece of  C-channel (which was cut and bent).

(A trouble was, the Airport Security suspects that this is a part of a disguised weapon.  😀 )

—– Unlike western people,  I hold a camera right side down  (it’s a Japanese tradition)  

 therefore when I shoot vertical-way, this chest-pod come against my left shoulder

just under the collar bone. 

And this is the other one I made for EOS Film Camera which doubles as an external

battery chamber.  ( AA x 5 rechargeable  batteries instead of 2CR5 Lithium battery)

And it functions as a chest-pod exactly the same way as the other one.  But this one can

fold down under the camera bottom. ( I don’t make a rubbish for a sake of Youtube.  😀 )

The advantage of this shooting style is, the hand which triggers the shutter, its elbow was

firmly lodged onto the body, hence it is far more stable than the style having right arm in

the air and move a finger to trigger.  

—– May be because of the fundamental flaw of the camera holding style in the west, the

camera shake is unavoidable, hence, it gave an opportunity to the manufacturer to produce

“Stabilizer” and sell it for £500 more price !    (I don’t think it costed such amount for them. )

—– In a video image, shaky picture is annoying but on a still, “two stops slower” seems not

much use —– better use same £500 to another shopping, and set 2 stop higher ISO, —– above

all, have a practice to gain a stable holding of the camera would be far more advantageous.  

Since, to gain calm, stable mind to stabilize the hand would be far more beneficial to the 

one’s whole life in general.     Anyhow, not all the lenses you got, has a stabilizer, and

living with unstable mind wouldn’t bring any happiness.    

Better think it in different angle and better change the mind-set and the way you shoot.

(If you doubt, have look a photo here and the photos by 500 mm lens in the previous post. )

(Here, the Zen practice comes in.  😀 ) 

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Slide Dupe by D810 HDR

Since many of my old films came out of boxes, I tried to make some digital dupe of them.

The main reason why I bought canon 5D Mk-III was that it has HDR (High Dynamic Range) built-in. —– (Though, it turned out to be unusable unless it was processed in PC with their DPP program. ( PS : It was the result of first test, hence I’ve given-up to use though, I tested again further and I found that it works in the most of the subjects = so, fair to say it was NOT unusable = some of the lighting condition and a combination of the lens may show unsatisfactory result. )   In contrast, Nikon D810 seems to be a bit subtle but it is quite useful as the camera alone gives processed image on the spot.  (Even hand-held shot, if the exposure difference was within 3 stops, it works reasonably — not perfect though, don’t ask too much = effect is somewhat similar to put a big reflector to brighten-up the shadow.)

———- (Photo Left :  Straight Copy.      Photo Centre :  with HDR.      Photo Right :  HDR and + 1/3

———- Which one to choose would be depending on one’s tastes ? )    ( St. German-de-Pre, in Paris)

So, the sample photos here are the Digital Copy of the Film slide.  The Originals were the Kodachrome ISO 25 film.  (Almost  40 years old.)

Copy Camera was Nikon D810 with Micro Nikkor 50 mm, and using their HDR setting.

What ever a way when Copy was made,  whether by film or Digital means,  the range of the tones would be lost and became higher contrast. 

Photo Left : This was a straight Copy and the Right : was with HDR.

(Original Dynamic Range of the Kodachrome was squeezed into narrower range, hence lost its original sparkle = photo looks dull now) —– Mind you, the  original Kodachrome 25 has the detailed tone in its highlight and in the shadow as well. = Otherwise, where the details on Music Score came from. —– (Camera couldn’t create, if no image was there.)  😀

—– In this extent, the resolution of Digital Camera may surpassed the resolution of such as  Ektachrome film though, the Dynamic Range of the Kodachrome yet. 

= With the use of HDR, they may just come closer to emulate the film.

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(This Dupe was made using Flash-light and Canon 5D Mk-III without HDR, and the photo was brighten-up a bit on after tinkering process.  —– not much difference to above HDR photo.)

[]  There is a funny misunderstanding among the people  —– People has been fooled by a word / technical term such as “Number of BIT” = To express color depth by 8 bit or 12 bit etc. those number is an indicator of “How finely divided” (Say, 2 bit mean Black or White.  8 bit mean, the staircase of darkest Black to brightest White was divided into 256 steps, that all).  

From darkest to the brightest, how many times (in exponential scale) brighter is the Dynamic Range or in old term, Latitude. 

The B/W film was known to have a Latitude of 7 stops  ( = in metaphor, a grey become Black on F 22 but if the aperture was open 7 stops to F 2 the same grey will be captured as white.)  And the Color films and TV Cameras got only 5 stops of Latitude. (That’s why TV needs many lights.)

Even after the digital revolution, the situation hasn’t been changed much, since there is NO such things like a digital sensor = the sensors and the display units are all in analogue. !   All due to the limitation of those electronic components.  

(You know, the darkest black you can see on the screen is the darkness when you switch off your device. —– Is it dark ?  😀 )

(Usable linear part of their character is limited by such as quantum mechanics. ) 

[]The most of ignorant photographer who “worship” Raw File is believing it has more though, it is like a 1′ scale and a 30 cm scale.  Metric scale looks divided finer than inch scale, Raw is a bit finer that’s all.  Lossless JPEG compression wouldn’t make so much difference to Raw.

Raw doesn’t have extended Black outside of  30 cm or White on top.  

The total length is still the same.

[]The wide coverage of  the ISO setting in a DSLR was achieved by the higher amplification of the output from the censor = if the sensor was designed for low-light,  the highest output under bright light was also lower.  = Because, the sensor has almost the same latitude or dynamic range.  I wonder, if any DSLR which has 2 stops more Dynamic Range come to the market ?  

(Of cause with one exposure.   I don’t mind if it got digital signal process built-in for this purpose.  —– Or are they expecting the people resort with after process ? —– ( PS : Some information educated me.  Now such as Panasonic’s Lumix camera and their image processing program is even correcting the aberration of the lens = It is really the electronic company’s answer to the optical problem = not by the optical design but by their own trick = electronics !  )

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Home-made Light-box

Whether you believe or not, this is my Light-box.   It was made out of a Japanese cookie’s

wooden box.   Into the box, I put  a small fluorescent tube and a mirror board under the tube,

then covered with white perspex = So, it became a Light-box.  (So easy and cheap.  😉 )

In ostentatious principle, the light-box should have a Print organisation’s standard light souse,

5000K etc. though in practice non of the so-called Natural Light fluorescent tube got perfect

color balance anyway.   And all the light-box in the market were too big and heavy.  

I wanted to make it small and easy to carry, since non of my client has got one as they are just a

business office, not like an editorial room of a publisher.  When I deliver the photos of the

assignment and to show the transparency to them,  I needed to bring my own Light-box.

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Of course, a Light-box “was” an essential tool to a “Film” photographer, but not only that, it

is a very useful tool in general.  When I needed to analyse electronic circuit, I used a reverse

print of circuit track and a photo of component side, two prints together on the Light-box to

see through the connection.  😉 —–  And this time, I used it to copy the old transparencies.

Those photos were taken at the Spring Festival in Seville in Spain.  (1974 ! )

On the duped 35 mm Kodachrome ISO 25 (my regular film then) apparently lost some tone

and I may need to refine more though, still it is usable for a net-communication.

—– PS :  (Usable but, since I was not happy with its color, I made another copy using

flash-light instead of this fluorescent light.  😀 —– I’ll write about it soon. )

I can not stop imagining, these young  Guapa Chiquita now must be the good granny.   😀

They must have had a joyful life.  (Good dancer has less worry.  😀 )

———- (This is the Pipe Organ of the St. Michel Church in Hamburg, Germany.  

———- Taken by Pentax 17 mm Fish-eye lens on Nikon FE ) 

For some high contrast image, even a dupe on Home-made cheap Light-box, using 5D Mk-III

with 100 mm EF Macro is not too bad.

 I’m really happy, after almost 40 years Kodachrome retained its original color.  

(you may say “So, What”  😀 )

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