PAIN CLINIQUE

HEALTH  WARNING : In this post, some description may give you a distress.

———————————-Anybody squeamish, may better avoid reading this.

With a release of a film depicting a man cut off his own arm to survive, when he was trapped under fallen rock

—– many more stories of the people who did the same has been appearing in the media.

To face such dreadful incredible situation, how human psyche works, became a topics of the neuroscientists

and the pain researchers.

And the scientists discovered an interesting phenomenon that the mind-set can control the pain.

—-

The man actually cut off his arm and  freed himself described the moment  ” There was amazingly not

much feeling or pain, hence able to sever the fresh and the bone with cool conscious,  as if it was just a

preparation of meat for a BBQ ”

A pain research lab did an experiment and found how human brain process the pain signals with heavy

involvement of the emotion, and found the emotional preconception influence the intensity of the pain.

If the emotion was cut off, in another word, dispassionate, even a pain signal doesn’t reach to the Brain.

( As a matter of fact, I did this to deal with my toothache.  Since I don’t take any medication, neither Dentist’s.

I just accepted the pain as if I were born with it.  So, there wasn’t a pain.

But able to do this resulted, no teeth left. —– sound awful isn’t it   You may say, it’s not Middle Way though,

it was not any extreme.  Simply there wasn’t a pain to endure.  It was just another day. 😀  )

But with exaggerated emotion and the fear, even the same stimuli can give far more pain.

———- These facts signify and prove the Phenomenon in the Zen Buddhism.

Preconception adjust the body’s physiology, such as rising Adrenalin level, hence heart rate etc, ready to

encounter the critical situation, but so often the case, it over shoots, setting the tension too high and making

a feeling and sensitivity to the pain even higher, then even creating an exaggerated image to be a miserable

victim etc, and making the life even more dreadful.

In the opposite case, if a man contemplated the situation and totally accept it and able to see that

” There is no way left and it is no use to complain or fight against it “ —– This absolute mind-set

(in Buddhist term, Mindfulness ) and absolute dispassion ( Mushin ), would even block the pain, and makes

the man to see the situation in cool head.    ( Because no emotion clouding the eyes )

—

This mind-set is —– as it involves the control of the emotion, it situated in the Old-Cortex deep in the brain,

right next to the Hippocampus, Limbic System, with its close proximity, it affects the physiology too.

The mind makes you to get ill, but in the other hand, it can alleviate your pain and misery as well.

—– Repeated Buddhism practice will make you to get lid of useless thoughts, and

the state of the no mind = Mushin  makes you to do the job dispassionately and efficiently.

—– Once you master this, you can free your mind in any situation.  You are no longer a prisoner of  Emotion.

You don’t need to learn this when you are facing life or death situation. —– So, buy Buddhism now, while

you can, while you are in Peace. —– It never cost you  for your arms and legs  😀

___/\___

PS:  No,no. The photo above is nothing to do with the story.  The beautifully tattooed DNA pattern is

—-–my  friend  Michael’s very active healthy arm.  Photo was just happened to be in my album and

—-–going to be published in a book, collection of the Scientific Tattoo.

—-–I haven’t asked him how much pain he had to endure though, I think it wasn’t much anyway  😀

—- ( It only scratched the skin, —–  never went to the bone ! )

—

My HEALTHY LIFE

Ha ha ha ,  I know it is utterly misleading. 00 Because I don’t have a notion of Healthy Life.

I am just living as I am. —– and just happen to be healthy   ( apparently  🙂  )

If I have to analyze any peculiar practice  which might be related to my health is ——

I’m keeping my hands, nose and throat as clean as possible —– or just wash them very often.

To keep the hands clean was especially essential to handle photographic films.

But to keep the nose clean was taught by a teacher in my junior school.  Which was to take water in

the hands and suck it in the nose, then blow it out three times ! —– All the pupils in the class were

horrified, saying it’s too dirty though I convinced at once —– it’s a good idea and very rational, why not. 🙂

So that, when ever I came back to my place, like take off shoes, to wash hand, nose and gurgle are

the automatic routine.  Though, it might be related to a sublimated Japanese Shinto Custom — keep clean.

And there is no such thinking which relate this practice to health matter exists.— Just doing it.

It is not possible to have objective comparative test of  IF-NOT.    We got only one life and I couldn’t

replicate my same life, but only having NOT washed hands, and see what would  happen.

Simple fact is I rarely get ill, nor catching Cold, Flu.  Still, I don’t know whether washing hands are anything

to do with my health.  —– very funny you may think though, I rarely use soap ! —– same as, I don’t

use washing-up liquid.   I have one in the bath-room and another in the kitchen though they last—-may be

six months or more ?   My view of the soap is —– mankind is using soap not more than one or two hundred

years.  Removing our own natural oil, then applying pig-oil with artificial fragrance, is not a good

idea and the waste of the money. —– If I were ever smelly soapless person, still  it’s not a problem at all,

since I wouldn’t come closer to others less than an arm’s length  😀

So is a shampoo, I just shower the hair removing a salt in the sweat and use a shampoo less than once in

a month.  The shampoo is notoriously bad to the head,  the reason why I still have full head of hair, in more

than three feet long  pony-tale might be because of  not using shampoo. (So, one bottle of it last years  😀  )

—-

I eat anything though, the amount has been reduced in comparison to when I was young.

( I still have the same body weight 60 Kg / 9.5 stone,since when I was 15 years old ! —– When I was

physically very active, such as climbing the mountain , eat twice amount was no wonder though, sitting on

front of key-board  blogging or making electronic circuit needs to eat less —– and I never eat chips)

For my cooking, generally I use one carrot, one onion, a grab of green or green pepper etc and 150g~ 200g

of protein, meat, chicken, fish or egg etc everything from fresh ingredients, except  fish-tin (tinned fish has

no artificial preservatives) and smoked fish or bacon (to make bacon soup ) tofu or fried tofu are the rare

processed food.  And cooking them in many different way (by the way, I don’t buy cooking oil —– oil comes

from ingredients such as chicken naturally) and eat them with rice, pasta, noodle  etc.

So, I’m eating more or less the same food every day with my own cooking —– in past 25 years ?

Buying fresh ingredients is the cheapest, but I buy a lots of not cheap fruits as well.

And cooking from the fresh ingredient may take a bit longer cooking time still, my electricity bill

for a quarter is only £40~£50  (I don’t have gas —- I knew it become expensive ) 1/3 of other people.

——

This is literally, humble life —– or some said almost a life in poverty  😀

And I don’t take any drag, never do gamble, stopped to drink alcohol , never eat junk-food nor buy

fizzy drink but drink 1.5 ~ 2 litter of the tea —– hence there may not be any cause to get ill.

( Arh, no chocolate !  😀  )

In addition,  I gave-up woman 25 years ago.  So, no psychological up and down. —– Peace ! ! !

On top of this life style,  I used to have very vigorous exercise  (which looks like dancing  😀  )

once in every week, and these days I’m still doing it, may be once twice a month.

—-

It is hard to define a reason  why  I live  without getting ill — was it thanks to my  food life, exercise regime?

But, one thing I can definitely sure is, not to ever think or worrying about it.

If there is no crime, there is no criminal law or such concept at all.  Once if somebody start to think about it

then the notion of such activity teaches the possibility or another menu to the mind.  Shall I try ?

In a same way, a notion of illness trigger the imaginal symptoms and it become noticeable.

(Noticing ? Feeling ? —– isn’t it just in the Mind ? )

Even an intellectual medical information, once it caught your attention, it remains in your mind.  And as

often you think it,  it become your long-term memory and the memory / mind deepen and goes into your

subconscious —– as subconscious is in the old cortex in the brain, with its close proximity, it start to give

an influence to hippocampus / limbic system of the brain,  where the physiological control of the body

is taking place —–> hence stress and imbalance of the hormones —–> real illness !

Mind makes people becoming ill. —– It is a vicious circle and the domino-effects.

Here the Paradox of the Buddhism again, as long as the one is bothering with the notion of Health

or Illness, no healthy life ever come.  Here require the teaching of Mishin again.

So, better start Healthy Life when you are healthy and having full of vigor, and make it routine.

To keep the same healthy routine is far easier than to change a bad habit or regime.

___/\___

—

I hate Plants

Well, it is ” I hate to have plants in the house” more precisely.

When I was a boy, I didn’t believe Harry Potter kind of magic, instead I was more fancied  Ninja.

And fascinated by the poisonous plants.  Instead dreaming with magic, I chose much more

feasible practical plot using a root of such as Aconite (Monks Hood)

—— (What a dangerous evil boy !  😀 )

Fortunately or unfortunately I couldn’t have an opportunity to test its magic portion  😀

So, I did make hundreds of pressed plants specimen along side the insects specimen.

Naturally, when I found rare specimen, I was so grad and delighted to pick it up —– then one day,

suddenly I realized that the one, I just picked up (and killed ) might be the very last one.

I changed to take photo of them instead of killing.

So that, when I was in the Uni’, as a member of the Alpine Club and has been doing Botanical Photography

often I was asked to help the botanist to go to the remote mountain or remote islands as a mountain guide.

—–

Though, when I witnessed those top academic people collecting the rare species in the industrial scale,

not one or two but hundreds in one-go, I really annoyed.  We are the one pushing the species to extinct.

( Botanical research institutes all over the world, exchange the specimen each other, therefore needs

to collect hundreds, as there may not be another chance to go such remote place, and the next time, that

species would have extinct then —– collect as much while you can ) —— m m m ? ? ?

—–

Since then, I stopped to pick a flower.  As a specimen, to have a flower is crucial though, it is just before

them to produce seeds, it’s a disaster for the flower and for the survival of its species.

And stopped to buy  potted plant, as I realized, I’m not entitled to have another life in my hand.

—– except a discarded dying plant I found on the street. Like a half-dried stem of a Cheese Plant.

Soak its stem in the water until its root and a bud appeared, then put it into a pot and let it grow.

—— To watch it revived and grow big, is an exciting pleasure — (on the beginning  😀 )

I don’t think I got green-finger as others say.  I just give a necessary care that’s all —– though, the plant

grow and grow —– Once before I had to (forcibly) give a Cheese Plant to my friend ( which was started

to grow from 10″ bare stem to 10 feet big )  when I suddenly needed to move out a big house.

A person who was  wealthy enough to have a space to accommodate 10 feet big plant, tend to have long

holiday —– long enough to dry up all the house plant ( —– its mean not wealthy enough to have

a butler to take care of the empty house  😀 )

—–

The Photo above is the plants I got in my kitchen window.   The left is a Sycad plant, dubbed as a living fossil

ancient species I found on the street.  Next is a Ginger plant which was started to shoot before I eat, so,

I had to put it in a pot.  And next two pot are so-called Money-plant, came from a friend’s place in miserable

state.  Then last long one is a kind of Cacti from the street.  Now I know why this Cacti was thrown out.

It just grow and grow,  3 feet long now. (not cute at all, and its thorn is very sharp  😀  )

Rescuing Plant —– its intention may not bad though, the window of my flat are all eastward, therefore

the sun light hit there only on morning,  not enough to the plants.  And the windowsill is not big enough

for the plant to grow big.  When it grow, I had to change the pot larger with pigeon dropping in the bottom,

—– with good fertilizer, it grow even more  😀   Head heavy plant fallen from windowsill, then I needed

to tie the blanches —– what the troubles.  People says ” Just chop them smaller ” which I don’t want to do,

since I had to put those chopped blanches into another pot to have the roots, then more and more plants.

To see a poor dying plant, it got to be rescued —– but,don’t expect rescued-plant is any docile-plant  😀

Plants got their own rationals / Dharma to live.

To give an adequate environment for the plants to grow,  I should move to much larger sunny place ?

( It must be the same headache to have a wife and a family )

—– I’m not sure what is the best.  Should I left the dying plant in her Karma.  Interfare it and try to rescue it,

was not a too simple emotion ?     This is why, I hate to have plants.  Ha ha ha 😀

___/\___

—

Virtue of DHARMA — What ?

Deep in the bottom of Dharma, there is the Physics.  And the basis of Physics, there are Atoms

which behaves or having its tendency according to their structure such as the number of

Electrons they got.  And the Atoms are made by the Nuclear particles, which were made by

the Sub-particles —– and those Sub-particles seemed consist even smaller Sub-particles —– and so on.

( According to the theories. —– Yet, nobody knows the truth, or it seems to be the unknowable.   🙂  )

I don’t think I need to listing-up the names of those and pretend to know anything about it.

Just leave the matter to the Nuclear Physicists —– as I’m not.  I’m only an outsider and merely qualified

to ask a question to the superficial phenomena.

Yet this question must be the ghastly fundamental serious one.

” Is DHARMA virtuous ? ”

M m m ———— So far what I found, the answer is Yes.

But if we take a  Humanitarian stance,  it is not necessary benign.

This was the reason why Buddha bluntly defined it in his Four Noble Truth, The life is suffering,

getting ill and get old and die, even though we are covered under the Dharma.

——

Long since a question of where the notion of Virtue in the Buddhism come from, was a conundrum to me.

The general morality is a necessity to keep the society’s unity and the peace, in other words it is the

obvious commonsense though, when it comes to a critical tricky situation, such as who should survive

when they faced to a crisis, blink of mass extinction, demise of the tribe such as a famine etc,

the compassion to others etc —– where those human virtue came from ?

To make it as a human duty to be compassionate, which appeared in the Buddha’s teachings from  its

earliest period, together with Four Noble Truth —– Its suggest, Buddha was fully aware that Dharma

is not necessarily kind to the man, hence need to take our own measure of helping each other.

Otherwise, Buddha would have said  “Ask your God to help you”  like all other religion.

But Buddha did know, No such convenient things in this world.  Buddha’s eyes were seeing

much larger picture ( Not having the man in the center, but the Harmony of the Universe in total)

—–

To see the nature and its evolutionary history, I can see the Dharma’s incredible kindness towards

the extremely rare existence —– the LIFE.

What sort of coincidence combined the some Atoms and created basic structural element like

amino-acid, and then simple virus / bacteria kind of Life form.

Far beyond the mathematical probability, while against the Principle of Entropy, yet congregated selected

Atoms and Molecules and to create Life, could not occurred in accident. ( —– If it was an easy occurrence

in chemistry, with today’s technology, artificial Lives could have been created already. )

Any moment in the history, in any global event, this process could have been halted and the Life could be

extinct long ago. —– But amazingly this history on the Earth continued till now —- billion of years,

as if there was a will to make it continue.

—

To make it continue, it is necessary the system of the existences has to be balanced,

ie; sustainable in today’s buzz word —– in other words intricate equilibrium has to be met.

This is What Dharma mean, and Buddha meant —– as only a part of the Dharma, man’s life

couldn’t be alone and trouble–free —– In fact, the man’s greed and the arrogance to expect and

imagine  ” It should be trouble–free”  is the cause of trouble in its own.

The balance is for the total system, not for the man’s convenience, since human is only a minute part of it.

Among the all the existences ( Dharma ), only but  the human, is having their own mind and the mean

to go against the Dharma’s Rule.

And this arrogant mind, greed is expecting more than the fair share of  which  Dharma allocated to man.

That is why the Buddha’s teachings says, to be humble and abandon the Ego / Self, in order to

achieve manifestation of the Dharma within —– Abandon the Self = Mushin ( Mind of No-Mind )

which mean let the Subconscious ( the reflection of the Dharma —> Please Refer to previous post )

to rule your life.

Like a compassion is in one’s Emotion / Subconscious (reflection of the Dharma ) inherently Virtuous. So, the

Virtue in the Buddhism teachings is not from the God or convention of the society,  but it is the Dharma itself. 

Hence, the teachings of Buddha is ” Not against, or struggle with Dharma, but live with it,

live in accordance to the Dharma.  It’s mean, observe it by yourself, and aware and listen the

Dharma deep inside of you.   And to live with the Dharma in Mushin, prevails the Virtue in you.

This is the Enlightenment, which lead you to the Nirvana”

—

When man-kind violated the Rules and destroy the balance of the Earth’s Climate Equilibrium,

the sea stream changed its course, and caused the heavy rain here and there.

Simply, the Dharma is adjusting new Equilibrium —– and, it happened to be in the Australia or Brazil.

It looks as if the Earth is intentionally giving a revenge. —– No it is not, it just happen to be there, where

no human used to live —– human is the one invaded the land.

Don’t exercise your Ego and Greed, and impose your own Idea. 

Virtue is not in one’s mind, but in the DHARMA.

Here a Paradox again, you can’t deliberately exercise Virtue, it’s appears in your Mushin.

___/\___

—

SUBCONSCIOUS again ? — is it a Face ?

Collection of images here are supposed to be a face, picked up by the Google Picasa Face-recognition

program.  Google is expecting us to make up a Web-album —– effectively  my own facebook.

Obviously Google want to tap-into the social-networking market therefore,  listing up the faces appeared

in my cyberspace —— then connecting the face to my Email etc by the name, to utilize their vast amount of

the information about my contacts, my interests, my search records, which they accumulated over the years.

So, Google can sell the AD ” Not just personally targeted, but also to their contacts / friends too ”

—— though, I’m not interested in that kind at all, yet still Google is keep scanning and making a face

collection without my permission ( I can’t remove this program —– do you know how ? ) while making

a number of mis-recognitions.—– So, I got an opportunity to collect ” False images”. 🙂

Some of those are looks like faces —– I can see too, though some are not at all, and puzzling how on earth

this image could be mistaken as a human face  / what made a computer to think this is ?

—-

I don’t remember the detail of  whose report though, there was a psychologist’s experiment, which showed

even a few months old baby can react to the photographic image of such as a tiger, and came to a

conclusion that the human has genetic memory of dangerous predator. We do not expect that a small

baby has learned knowledge of tiger yet—– its mean the reaction has to came from instinct, in another word,

its visual memory / basis of reference information is in our subconsciousness.

——– Whether it was a Genetic memory, Proto-image or just a mistake, we are very responsive to

the image of the face. And the Face recognition program which the human possess, seems to be a

very old / primordial program in the Old Cortex, hence it can function even a time of newborn baby.

——

In this blog, you might thought, I am using the word ” Subconsciousness ” as if it is a magic keyword.

But how do we know, such invisible, therefore unaccountable memories and the process can be reliable,

let alone a myth of Dharma is there or not. (Please read “Mistake in Philosophy — Answer in Zen” together )

——- The reason why I picked up Google Picasa program was, —– at least it is a rigid visible

counter reference. — In comparison,we don’t remember how many times ever mistook an image as a face,

let alone to know what % of probability.   So, this program showed a counter sample of the case when the

recognition was done by an artificial intelligence / computer automatic pattern, face recognition without

having any cross-reference (such as a flow of logic ” If it is a face, where is the body —-> false or true ).

So that it would show the worst case as a bottom line <—- Human got to do the better.  🙂

So far, Google Picasa picked up about 40 false images of faces out of 50,000 facial photos ( plus, may be

twice as much number of the graphic images in the saved Net files)—— 0.08% ~ 0.03% of False rate.

Statistically negligible figure ? —– still, one mistake could change one’s life, therefore significant ?

This is a very rough science or one might say, it is not even a science at all though, this is a DIY  Zen Blog,

hence, I would say, it is convincing enough to conclude, human can sense and able to accumulate

quite accurate information of the surroundings / environment. (Even a machine can do with

negligible false rate, why not a human)

—– Are you bemused ?   But this is the situation in our mind.

___/\___

—

Mistake in Philosophy — Answer in ZEN

You might heard a story to extract latent memory from a witness or surviving  victim, by way of hypnotism,

such as a profile of assailant or even from pass-by, the car number parked on the street then.

The car number may be utterly trivial and useless to a pass-by, still we may remember surprising detail.

They are the Subconscious Memory or our Hidden Data bank.

When we consciously watch the scene, we only pick up the information which we got interest.

And this selection is not consistent.  It will be biased by the preceding event, experience or a suggestion.

If you are interested in fashion, you may pay great deal of attention to the shop windows and

somebody’s style, but remember nothing else, as the mind was just stuck there.

But when our mind is free and open we can see the scene as it is, and able to memorize everything.

Of cause those data are not just visual, but also the information from other sensors, and the internal feeling,

subconscious thoughts as well, which has been accumulated since you are born.

From those immense amount of data, only minute part of them, which  matches to the precast category or

notion, it become conscious memory and it can be transferred to higher legion of the brain (New Cortex)

to be used for the conscious thinking process.

—– Hence, the data available to such as the linguistic, logical thinking process, are only a miniscule part of

the whole data bank, the answer or conclusion we make is always inadequate and ” Not the exact Truth ”

which we knew it. —–  So. we always say ” Don’t think in your head. Find the answer in your heart”.

—

It is obvious, our Hidden Memory, Subconscious Data bank retain the whole information of our environment,

and ourself.  In other words, the faithful picture of the world and the information of ourself / True Self.

And they are not just a static images but their dynamism, tendency and the Rules,how the things

work, and how this True Self has been behaving and prefer what etc.

Its mean, The Dharma / The whole existence and its Rules within, are all mirrored  here.

This is the very meaning of ” Everybody possess the Dharma inside”.

And literally the Self is a part of it, the Dharma, and as everything in there are without any

partition, no separate awareness watching the Self or Subject, there is no feeling of alienation.

———- Many years ago, somebody asked me whether a mad-man can have The Dharma in him as well.

I said, yes.  Because, even a mad-man got the same body and its function, feel the same pain,feel the

same hunger, see the same, hear the same, and may have more or less the same emotion — the process

of those information may be different, so that from the same image of black cat,  he may interpret it as

a Devil —– still, his Data bank having much more accurate picture of the world than his twisted thinking.

In the same context, even an idiot who lack the higher process in the brain, still having more or less

the same Data in his subconscious, it is nothing but the Dharma.

—

When we think, quite often we use a notion which we have imported ( in other words not emanated from our

own Data bank, but intellectually learned ), since it didn’t have the original source and the process to

deduce, it couldn’t have an accord to the person.  As a matter of fact, even a notion the person knew well

still,as its using the notion of the words, it is no more than a proxy.  The complexed idea having the situation

even worse.  Even an idea constructed from the own Data bank (which came from own experiences and the

observation) when it was  imposed to the phenomenon, it doubles the uncertainty. —— Observer and

be Observed.—– The word (a notion) HAPPINESS is just a name of category, so that, its realities has

millions of variations, and an observer is just one of 40 billions.

The certainty is only the statistical probability. There can not be any absoluteness exist.  Despite this,

Philosopher often impose his own idea to interpret a phenomenon.  Hoping, his words can covey

what he conceived. (and expecting others can guess the same )

Against this fundamental jeopardy, Zen abandons the conversion to the notion and the words.

( Hence, relying on the Direct Transmission)

And abandons the stance to be an observer, or more precisely, abandon to be an observer as an Ego.—

When facing a phenomenon or others,

Zenist just open his mind in Mushin. (without Ego without Thinking—– hence no conversion)

And leave the matter to the perception in his Subconscious = Dharma’s judgement or reaction.

(As the Observer and be Observed are both naked, both of the Dharma fuse together.

And the equilibrium will be spontaneously prevailed in the accordance of the Dharma)

This is the Ichijo (Oneness) in Zen —— the answer to the jeopardy of the Dualism.

___/\___

—-

日本の読者に ( To Japanese Readers )

ネットの片隅、ヨシ禅ブログにようこそ。

このサイトは褝仏教を全く新しいアプローチ、人間の神経生理、心理作用の角度から、三十余年に

渡って実験した結果を考察したものです。

しかし、せっかく御足労いただいておいて、しょぱなからー発かませるようですが、

ここにはキリスト教で言う福音のようなもの、俗に言ふ瘉しの甘言のようなものはー切登場して来ません。

読み進めるうちに明らかになりますが、仏教は救済幻想を語るものではなく現実に人間の心理生理を変え、

人を積極的な人生にかり立てる動因に外ならないというが当ブログの立場です。

－ーー　とにかく、やってみなさい。やってみない事には始まらない。やったらやったなりの事が在る。

ただしそれをやるのはアナタ本人－－－ホトケじゃないよ。

（そもそも禅つうものは自助に任せるので人に媚ない。）

日本で何故曹洞宗の寺がー番多いかと言えば、単純にお布施が少くて

すむからで、坊主自身あまり金集めに熱心でない。信者をたらし込んで金集めをする気も無いから逆に

甘く美味しいハナシでケムに巻く必要もないと言うのと同様です。

———-

どうせ誰もが死んでいく事だし、地獄も無い代りに極楽なんて逃げ場もない。つまり唯ーの問題は

苛烈なこの現世　（仏教では娑婆と申しますが)　をいかにスムースかつ積極的に生きるかに尽きる。

ーーーで、仏教史２５００年も経ちながら誰も気がつかなかったそのコツを只で書いてしまおうと言うのだから

逆に、それ以上のサービスはない。　ここに在るのはその発見記録、テストレポートであり、もし読者が

同様なアプローチを試みるとしたらそれなりのガイドにはなるというもの。

それにしては変な英語だと？ーーー黙らっしゃい！古人は教えを求めて遥々印度くんだりまで旅し、

聞いた事も無いパーリ語だサンスクリット語だというのをその場で学び、苦心惨たん教えを受けたものですぞ。

クリックするだけでブログを読んで、英語の訓練にもなるならマジ、ケッコウなハナシと思われよ。

ハッハッハ。（時間のムダにならないというのは保証しますよ)

Believe me  🙂

___/\___

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追記　：これは　右ｺﾗﾑ　The　Pages　［About　This　Blog］の日文の抜粋です。　しかし不思議なコトに私本人が

独立したポストに作った訳では無い。　（誰がやってくれたのかね？？？）

－－－で，どうせならと，元のポストに付けてあった　日文ポストヘのリンクを追加します。

法／ダルマと仏教の構造

 

禅の源流

 

 

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Mistake in Philosophy

The most fundamental and fatal mistake of the western Philosophy lies in their basis of Dualism,

and seemingly it is originated from their notion of the God.

Against this notion, the SELF = ME became its counter notion as rigid as the God.

As the concept of Self is there, the Self is the one who see the subject ( of cause, you may say, who else

saw and talked about the subject in his book, in his philosophy.  And say, Is this a Zen Mondo ?  🙂 )

( Shut up  🙂 )  As long as the subject is somebody else, there is no problem, hence scientific, objective

rationality works well and yelled this impressive western technological civilization.

Because of the objectivity is Selfless in its definition. Anyhow, the nature and its phenomena,

physics are there before human existence. We are just the observer regardless whoever the Self.

—

But when the Self try to see the Self ( or True Self what so ever the context ) and the phenomena around it.

The perpetual question of  Who is the Self came into the play. Therefore, the matter related to

themselves, psychology, human science, social phenomena, etc, it always plagued by its view-point = Self.

In fact, from ancient Plato to modern Phenomenology etc, they misbelieved that they can objectively see

the human affair and able to construct the philosophy as well.  And they stuck in the cul-de-sac.

Because even an  Atheist, started exactly the same stance, The Dualism. —– God and Me / Me and

the Subject / Observer and be Observed,  the uncertainty of the Self is still persistent,

hence its stance of view point,  reliability itself is in doubt.

The fundamental trouble of this stance is, we can’t objectively observe the Self or the phenomena

attributed by ourself. —–  we always end-up in unseeable and unknowable.

On the end everybody just resigned to say  ” Don’t bother, there are thousands of truth ”   🙂

So that, some Philosopher try to grasp this unknowable with the notion of  Transcendental though, made

further  mistake try to convert it to explanatory words by thinking. ( You may say, What else ?  😀  )

This was the very situation, which Buddha encountered soon after he got his enlightenment,

Should I teach this to others or not.  Can this be transmittable by the words ?

( This is why, the Buddha’s teaching has been conveyed by the practice and metaphor )

—

While we are thinking, most of its process ( some says 90% of it ) are taking place in our

subconsciousness. —– And so-called Self is a mere temporally mock-up model by guess-work, since it

never stays the same, moment to moment and never rationally configurable like our thinking process.

Hence True Self which reside in our subconscious is ever invisible and remained undefinable.

This was the reason why Buddha said  ” Don’t bother there is no such thing like Self exists”  :-D.

The situation was made even harder, as the basis of our thinking are also contained in the immense

amount of the Data or information which we accumulated without aware of its existence.

—– so, am I talking hopeless ?  Am I giving cold water to the Philosopher’s pleasure to express themselves ?

The answer is again in the Buddha’s words ” Don’t take a word, think yourself “

And to against the fundamental flaw of Dualism, the Zen giving the answer ” Ichijo ”  Oneness.

In Ichijo we can overcome the alienation of the subject, alienation of the Self.

The barrier between observer and be observed disappear.

( Which I’m going to talk further in the next post )

___/\___

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CLEANING

Currently in Japanese Twit-Sphere, a heated debate for the Cleaning their class-room is going on.

It started by a secondary school boy who is saying ” Its no use to clean the class-room by themselves.

It is not efficient enough.   Why not use the professional cleaning company ? ”

Against this, many people are saying  ” Its only a cheeky excuse, he just want to have a lazy life ” etc.

And others are saying, school is not just for studying knowledges but also for leaning the attitude for

the life, morality.   Some are saying even in religious context.

It is the same tendency, even in the western society, once it was spoken  in a religious context, the others

reacts at once,  in almost in allergic vigor —— saying feel uneasy, or even dubious.

—— It was in an unfortunate history, when a religion was spread, they always take over the morality

and the wisdom as a part of their own teachings, such as ” Thou shalt not kill, is their God’s commandment ”

—– But long before religion was invented, it was an established commonsense in the human society.

And, when a religion became out of fashion, because of even a fundamental  morality was mistaken

as a part of such religion, it became a target of rebellion.

—-

As a matter of fact, the tradition of cleaning their school room was originated from the Buddhist’s temple.

Since the school has started as the monks teaching the reading, writing to the local kids, the tradition

( in fact, it was a part of Buddhism practice ) to clean the room by the kids is an inseparable part of

the school’s teaching.  And by doing so, the kids learn and grown into a person of their own life.

Life is a violent imposition of the tasks to all the living things.

Nobody ever asked and born as it is.  Everybody came to this world,  without any expectation or

preparation at all.——- Somebody may born into a harsh desert country as an ugly boy or a pretty girl

in wealthy western society etc, as in a variation of fifteen billion. ——- Without question, without

complaint, the one has to live or start to live their own life.—– It is the harshest imposition.

So, the kids learn this reality, starting with cleaning the room, without question as everybody is equal.

( To ask somebody else to clean the toilet, always create the seed of discrimination in any society )

By doing so, the kids learn to be humble and to be selfless, and learn to act in equality.

In the same time, to find the best way to clean and master the skill —– it’s a training of the

trouble shooting, practice creativity.  On the end, even a kids can achieve to do the work in

Mushin (Mind of No-mind )

To have a clean class room for comfortable study environment —— is only one of the by-product.

——- Though, this kind of opinion seems not welcomed in today’s Japan —— to have a lecture from

somebody else is an invasion and interference to the individual’s human right. ! ! !

( in the point of political correctness )  Beautiful.   Ha ha ha 😀

—-

Make Rice-Cake in 15 Min’

O-Mochi, Japanese Rice-Cake is an essential ingredient in the Japanese New Year.

Without eating it cooked in O-Zouni, we don’t feel New Year has arrived.

As it is deeply imprinted to us with the strongest memory, the taste, it makes a part of the

fundamental Ethos to be a Japanese.  It is in deed, a part of the Collective Subconsciousness.

Imprinted into the subconsciousness almost a hard-wired program, it is the imperative.

( So, the Buddhism is relying on this mechanism of the human psyche )

A matter of fact, Rice-Cake is common in throughout southeast Asia.  Essentially it is a pounded

glutinous rice, hence it is a very very sticky soft cake and some time it was made sweet.

( By the way, when the cell of starch was pounded and broken, the gluten will be released and the long

chain of protein entangled and it become sticky, so that if you pound even baked potato, it

will become very sticky. —- try this in your home  🙂  )

When this rice-cake was dried and baked with soy-source flavor, it become rice-cracker, O-Senbei.

—–

Since I arrived to this country,  I tried to make rice-cake myself. —— I’ve steamed glutinous rice,

or boiled it and try to pound etc etc without success.

Every year when the season came,  I tried different way and on the end,   with a feeling of defeat and

resignation,  I did the most inconceivable cheat (to the Japanese psyche) —– use a glutinous rice powder

just mixed with water and heated in a microwave cooker. —- m m m, wao !  ( not Jaw-Dropping  😀  )

I found supplely sexy white body laying in a rice bowl and she was so soft and sticky  😀 —

She was a perfect Mochi  😀 ( In reality, I’ve experimented the amount of water and the setting of the

cooker from the Mochi to completely dried up and burned into the rice bowl to a soggy gluey staff)

Since I found this technique,  I accustomed to make the Mochi in a square plastic food container, or make

a mix in a bowl then cover it with prepared Red-bean sweet paste and heat it —- to make an  An-Mochi  🙂

Traditionalist would say, it is a dreadful cheat though —- so far non of the Japanese ever noticed

difference and didn’t aware it until I told them.  ( Anyhow it is the genuine glutinous rice  😀  )

So,  If anybody want to try,  here is the suggestion. You need to get Glutinous Rice Powder from Chinese shop.  One pound bag ( would be about £1 ) may

make more than two-pound ( 1 Kg ) of  Rice-cake.  The size of a cake in the top photo is 2″x1.5″x 0.5″ —–

half of a bag may make 9 of such cakes ( Using 4.5″x 6.5″ food container ) and it would be a good

amount for 3 to 4 people’s meal.  ( One such cake is equivalent to one bowl of a boiled rice ).

To start, mix the powder with small amount of water, then gradually adding the water to make proper mix.

It should be more soggy than a bread making dough.  Still, the mix shouldn’t run down even if the

container was hold 45 degree but it allow the air bubble to come up slowly when you hit the bottom.

( You need to hit many times, and pierce the bubbles —— or it will blow-up when heated  🙂  )

The mix should be less than 1/2″ deep in a container.  Never attempt to make thick big one  😀

( Instead,  you can stuck together many pieces of cooked  Mochi to make it big —->Kagami-Mochi )

When the mix is ready, put a cover and put into Microwave cooker,  Med’ High —– 5 minutes.

( You may better watching inside of cooker —– if the rid of container

was blow up, Switch off. )

When it was cooked, then have a good use of your brain to take the

cake out of container.  Use of potato starch would save the stickiness.

Cut the cake in your taste.  And it is good to eat straight. —— wrap up

with Sea-Weed (Nori ) with a cake a bit wet with Soy-source.

Or put into a  Soy-source based soup ( with chicken what so ever)

like dumpling.  It called O-Zouni.

Which ever the cooking,  it’s better to give a bit of baked skin which

would enhance crispy flavor.  Japanese use charcoal fire to bake them,

though,  I found a use of gas-torch is pretty handy and effective too.  Ha ha ha  😀

( The truth is, my electric grill has been used for storage of food staff, and full-up —– sorry )

To make O-Mochi from the Glutinous rice powder is, not only it is much cheaper but unlike

plastic wrapped Japanese Kiri-Mochi, it is free from any artificial additives and white breach

——- since, dry powder needs no preservatives.

Once you found your formula,  mixing and cooking wouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

So, try O-Zouni.  And have a flavor and taste of Japanese New Year.

___/\___

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