Wasn’t that a Contradiction — or— Enlightenment ?
Somebody questioned me after this paragraph :
—– You have to see it by your eyes. Not from the stories.
Otherwise, Why You need to bother be a Buddhist.
To contact with all the fresh stimuli with your naked sense will
keep your brain young. —– Which was
the last paragraph of the last post = Meaning on the Hand.
“You (mean Me) been saying “See the world in Detached eyes.
Do the things like a routine without Emotion” but here you
say “Feel it with naked sense” — which is true ?”
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Aha, you are right. I didn’t pay enough attention.
It was a matter of the stage, while people gain the awareness.
= Going through the pathway, people gain the awareness and in
the same time perception, attitude etc everything will change,
but only stage by stage. It will not happen in one go.
—– With the endless repeated practice, the person may gain a
mentality to do the practice as a routine, out of emotion, and gain
an attitude to carry-out the work/dairy life in a detached mind.
Once the person mastered this mental state, in fact the person
became immune to the emotional up and down and became a
cool observer to his/hers own life. Once the person reached to
this stage, the person would be liberated from the Person itself.
This is the biggest Paradox in Zen. = As the person IS now free
from the SELF, there will be NO concern left = even the own life,
therefore free to commit anything. So, feel free, enjoy or cry free.
In fact, here is an Enlightened Person.
___/\___
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Meaning on the Hand
Well, this is the Post diverted and became its own from the previous post.
Hand is a body parts which got second highest concentration of
the nerve after the eyes. And especially we human got our hands
best developed among any animals, we have best and the most
delicate control of them. So that, not only its dexterity or the
physical function, its acquired the mean of expression as well.
We can read the meaning of what the hand is telling or symbolizes,
and the eyes tend to follow what the hand is expressing.
(I mean not only F**K or Peace kind of sign but also more delicate
mood of its operator as well.) 🙂
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Among the Buddhism, Tantra sect having not only their Dharani
(magic words) but also quite complicated form of the hand sign
(or finger twists which the followers do the same — and they are
showing off it each others “Look I can do better than you”).
It’s hard to guess where it was originated, = each
Buddhism Figures are showing their unique hand sign.
You may search their meanings or each name in the Wiki though,
I don’t think it would bring any worthwhile understanding of the
Buddha’s teachings. They are just the cosmetic style.
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= After all, the core of the teachings was, to reprogram the brain to
jump the process in the Emotional Region in Limbic System, where
the notion of Self-interests = Ego / Greed / Desire were induced.
It is the same situation to learn ride a Bicycle = reprogram the Motor
Region of brain to learn the body-balance on the bicycle = intellectual
understanding of “How to ride” wouldn’t work, but physical practice.
Lord Buddha’s last words in his death bed to the disciples was
“Don’t believe what others say or you head, but learn it yourself”
—– This episode signify
(1) His teaching could not be understood intellectually but only
a practical learning of the body and the mind could materialize.
Such as, you been reading this blog without noticing WHO is
reading this — ? = We are living without noticing the SELF.
Unless we assert “Me Me Me” Self is not there.
— With a practice, you will get a technique to apply this mental
mechanism to do the subject which was awkwardly entwined with
your Ego, without Emotion and without the so-called Self.
(2) The reason why
Lord Buddha had to say it in such a precious, last remaining
moment was that his disciples has yet necessarily mastered it.
—– And this fact explain why the Buddhism and its teachings of
“No-Self /Anatman” (No soul to Reincarnates) was misconceived
and mixed up with the Hinduism (which says Reincarnation) since
such early days.
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When we saw a hand and feel what sort of meaning it’s saying,
— we can feel but it can not be interpreted into the words.
Our hand express unconsciously = and we read it unconsciously.
= they are out of the lexical comprehension. —– The most of
Lord Buddha’s statue having the hand sign called “Semui” (in
Japanese) which said to mean “Don’t be afraid” — Can you see it ?
I can only see “Oh, what a big hand !” —– 😀
—– You have to see it by your eyes. Not from the stories.
Otherwise, Why You need to bother be a Buddhist.
To contact with all the fresh stimuli with your naked sense will
keep your brain young. 🙂
___/\___
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What is MUSHIN ?
May be I’ve talked about this ten of the times if not hundred.
—– Still, I was asked the same question.
So, this is the most up-to-dated straight answer.
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It is a well known medical symptom among the Alzheimer patients
who lost the nerval connection to the Emotional region in the Brain
lost the recognition related to the SELF such as to recognize own
possessions even to distinguish the face of the own family.
So, Emotion judge the interest of OWN — in other words, this is the
center of EGO, Greed, Well being, Safety, Security, all those Instincts.
Of course, they are the key to the survival though, the total amount
of the signal/Data the brain has to deal is burst, so that there is a
rationalized economical saving was designed = coming data was
selected according to its importance.
The harmless insignificant data or repeating same data, are ignored.
We wouldn’t pay any attention to the same boring TV CM etc. and when
we do the repeating same work, we do automatic without Emotion. = In
deed, in such a case, the Motor Region of the brain would be programed
to do such routine work automatic, involving no Emotion at all.
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So, if we block the data/signal reaching Emotional region, we can do
the job automatic, without the Emotion. (= With highest efficiency !)
Without Emotion mean without the feeling of “Mine” = SELF —
because of no feeling of Ego, Self interest (mean, no envy, jealousy to
others), Own Greed, even No Cling to own Life, be free from the SELF.
This state of Mind mean, no need to cling the past, nor need to imagine
a dream= in other words, just see the world on front of the eyes as it is
Now, without having any Thinking.—– This eyes IS clear eyes.
And this state of Mind IS the “Mind of No-Mind” = Mushin.
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In order to acquire “block the Emotional process” Buddhists use
the long repeating practice for the brain to learn “How to
Opt-out the signal process” and DO the job (or Life) automatic.
(Like, you can branding “The matter” same as to the boring TV CM
and make it no longer recognized to be exists —
we know it’s still there though, it became a remote landscape.)
In certain extent, Zen Buddhism is very cool, even cold.
But, use this to live the life very hot is the other stage of Zen.
___/\___
PS : The Related Readings :
Clear the Deck for 2013 Reverse Engineering of Zen
Emotion / Meditation —– they are good to read. = It’s amazing
how Google Algorithm worked out to see the contents !
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Crèche in the Zen Buddhism
There are quite few Crèche in the Zen Buddhism.
Such as Mindfulness, Middle way, to live in Now,Selfless etc etc
and indeed, I did talked about those topics in the early posts.
Yet still, funnily enough, in the Agama Sutra, there was no word of
Lord Buddha for about those topics. And I realized that, the talking
of those Crèche started to appear in the Mahayana scriptures,
typically like Middle way.
—– as a matter of fact, I too wrote in somewhere, the Middle way is
not in the both extreme, somewhere in the Middle.
Though, think about the extreme — in the Nature/Dharma, if it was
too little, we may not noticed it was existing. And if it was too much,
there is no such things in nature. It was only a product of imagination.
In other words, if we follow the Nature/Dharma, we are
naturally live in the Middle way. Likewise, to live in Now, if we don’t
cling Past, neither indulge imagined Future, we only deal with Now.
In the same way, Mindfulness is not a special notion, it was the state
of Mind, when there was no other imagined matter / things, but seeing
the subject on front = what else can you think of ?
— in short, there wouldn’t be any of those issues exists in the Mushin.
= Mushin mean, live Selflessly. So, it became to clear / too clear that
the script writer of the Mahayana has written those Crèche from an
overheard rumor “That the Enlightened said to live in Middle way,
live in Now and facing the life in Mindfulness”etc etc = and started
mimicking the antic = pretending of “Middle way” “Mindfulness”
“Live in Now”etc. and talked a lot blah blah — While not knowing
what the “Middle way” was = because he hasn’t even experienced the
Mushin, there was no way to know what the real “Middle way” was.
The people who doesn’t know, talk a lot, to pretend !
Still, the matter IS very simple. = once you vacated (emptied) your
Mind, what you can see is only the matter on front (= no memory
of the past, neither imagined future) = when the matter only on
front exists, what else to think about = this is Mindfulness.
And when you follow what you instantly conceived (on that Moment
= so-called intuitive perception) is the way of the Dharma.(what else ?)
(Because the Dharma is rational and harmonious as a whole system,
inherently, there is no extreme = this IS the very Middle way)
—– You see, it’s so simple in real (practical) life.
But, “talk about” the misconceived concept is much more complicated.
Because, such concept (=Crèche) is in the intellectual thinking, BUT
Zen Buddhism is a matter in the state of Mind (the way to handle the
data in the Brain) so, try to find the meaning by way of thinking is like
“To THINK HOW to ride a bicycle” instead to make own body to
“LEARN it”. 😀
___/\___
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Evolution of PINHOLE System
Till now, I made quite a lot of Pinhole to take pictures for my
Canon, Nikon and invented “Concentric-Double-Density Pinhole,
and Wide-angle Pinhole.
On top of those, even Double, Triple Pinhole, Tri-Color Pinhole
— on the end, it’s a mess. = In order to rationalize, I designed a
Convertible Type = Simple Single Pinhole, up-to-4 Multiple Pinhole
and Concentric-DD Pinhole with Selecting Tab, on the Nikon Mount
(Which is easily converted to the Canon) together with Detachable
Wide-angle Lens on front.
So, the sample images were, Top photo Left = by Single Pinhole,
Middle = Triple Pinholes, Right= Concentric-Double-Density Pinhole.
In this photo, Left is the Detachable Wide-angle (Diverging) Lens.
In the Middle, Triangle-ish panel which got 3 selection of Pinholes can
be moved to each position. Right is a NikonAI to CanonEF adapter.
Photo left is my kitchen.
Or you may call my work shop.
—– you may realized, how
my work is casual. 😀
Still, it’s OK to produce
properly machined like quality !
And the photo here showed the effect of = with or without the
wide-angle lens.
And the photo here, right, the panel shows 4 holes — by moving
rear panel, the selected Pinhole will come to the position.
Photos from the window —
Left = Single Pinhole, Middle = Triple Pinhole.
Right = Concentric-DD Pinhole.
—– So, I have to go out to make worthwhile pictures !
* * *
Incidentally, a test shot of “that rose” with this DD Pinhole was:
Considering it IS mere hole, without focus or any control, still
the image was somewhat comparable to a good German lens
—– isn’t this, amazing ?
—– Or, unlike the Leiz, the Zeiss might have kept their belief
on “Natural Optical Image” like this !
—– Mind you, the Pinhole is not a “Light-bending” Lens or a
Grass, therefore neither has aberration inherent to the Lens at all.
Still, the outer (larger) hole of Double-Density Pinhole here is
acting as a “Dispersed” Light-pass, hence showing similar effect of
the Spherical Aberration (= effect of light coming from not only the
center but the outer area of the lens as well which is not necessary
converges the light to the same point = make the image softer.
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Salmon Tofu — simple cooking
Indeed, this was the reason why I bought Tofu. —– I used to invite the people
to see my work, and in such a case, often I cook and eat the meal together.
Now, I don’t need to do that since I started to show the photo in my Blog,
even the short viz in the Youtube, = just tell the person “See the blog”.
Anyway, when I cook, Salmon Tofu which I invented was my regular cooking.
—– not because original but above all it is the simplest and easiest cooking.
(no complicated preparation of Dashi etc — just put together and heat) 🙂
Only three ingredients = Tofu, a chunk of Salmon and a fresh Ginger —
well, a drop or two Soy-source.
When the three were put together, place the bowl into the pan with shallow
water to boil = it’s mean, Tofu in the bowl was steamed. (7~10 minutes boil)
(Or put a cover on the bowl and cook in the microwave cooker for 5 minutes.)
The steam drip down through Ginger to Salmon and to the bottom of bowl
makes beautiful soup as well —– and its taste struck everybody. (so far) 🙂
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Although this is not a vegetarian, I regard this is the Zen cooking.
= everything was there as it is but nothing else.
And everything melt together and creates the best by themselves.
No complicated thinking or manipulation = just leave the process to them.
= the nature is having the best in its own. (Proof of the taste — you try !)
And this nature, we call the Dharma.
___/\___
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Still, this is the Zen
Seeing a scratch on the surface of the washing-up
bowl in my kitchen which I’ve been using since I have
started to live in this flat, I realised that the dirt or
stubborn coating on the surface of this plastic bowl
could be removed by just scouring hard. —– I was
thinking to remove such limescale mixed stubborn
dirt needs to use a strong chemical such as limescale
remover kind of acid.
—– There was the choices.
Throw away old bowl and buy new one.
Anyhow, it was only a couple of pound cheap item though, strangely
I couldn’t find the same shaped one in any shop.
Other choice was do nothing. = as it has been used 15 years, why not
another 15 years. — utterly lazy and sound hopeless though, to make
nothing happen is a kind of peaceful choice and cost nothing too.
One of the famous Japanese monk, Ryokan said to have one pail and
he used it for everything, to wash his foot to serve a rice. So, use one
bowl only for washing-up many many years wouldn’t make any crime.
[]
If I can clean it by just scouring, why not to try. = When a spoon edge
made a scratch, a scouring pad made by metal mesh should work well.
—- So, I did. (to the half extent) It IS a simple work = just scouring,
scouring and scouring. The more scour, bowl become the cleaner.
While scouring, I just scouring (=Mindfulness) = no thinking.(Mind is
in the Mushin / Void state.)
This is the Zen. —– soon or later, the bowl will get perfectly clean state.
Exactly the same process, the Japanese Sword was perfected. (Strangely,
we aim always the better — who asked ? or because of our nature/Dharma)
You may laugh though, the bowl which became clean is the equivalent
of the enlightened soul.
—– Yet another teachings may say, neither a bowl nor soul kind of
things was there in the first place, who get enlightened ?
Good question.
___/\___
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禅における Detachment = 無着無住の意味
表題としたこの言葉は，実は検策の為に書込まれ，ここにやって来た
もののーつです。簡単に言えば参禅者からの質問という事でしょう。
－－－で，この機会を使ってこれに対する僕流の所見を書いてみます。
禅を云々する上で最も決定的な大前提となるのは「禅は到達する
境地ではなく，悟りに至るプロセス，単なる作業修業のーつである」
という事です。禅は月ではなくそれを指す指，あるいは指している動作
に過ぎません。＝ ではその動作がいかにして悟りにつながるのか？
これは仏教史の中で完璧に見過ごされて来た事ですが，仏教の修業，
勤行の延々と続く繰り返しの中に鍵があったのです。
仮にぐるぐると歩くにしろ，太鼓をたたき続けるにしろ，延々と
続く作業の神経情報処理は人間の脳内でルーチンとして自動的に
処理されるようになり，一方延々と繰返される刺激に対しては
情動的閾値が髙くなり無感動で処理されるようになります。
これは毎日座り続ける座禅においても同様で，遅かれ早かれ人間の頭
には全作業を自動的，かつ無感情で処理する習慣が身についていきます。
実はこれが禅で言う無我無心に外ならず，このメンタリティを持って
物事に対処する事が無着無住と言う事です。
－－－で，これが悟りとどう関わるのか？
＝執着を離れ，情動に翻弄される事も無くなったら，後いったい何の
気懸り苦労が残るのか？ 気懸りなしに生きられるなら，そうして
気懸りなしに死んで往けるならこれ以上の自由（解脱）は無い訳です。
つまりこれが涅槃です。
－－－－－（あっけに取られたとか？）
___/\___
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追記：
反覆動作のルーチン化とか毎日通り過ぎる道端の看板を見飽きて
それが全く気に止まらなくなる（存在しているにもかかわらず，
存在しないのと同様になってしまう）現象は，本人が自分で経験
して把み取る以外には学びようがないものです。
つまり無我無心，無着無住と簡単に言う事はできても，
こればかりは人から教えられ言葉の意味を理解しても本人が
経験して身につけない限りは何の足しにもなりません。
何故ならそれは知的理解ではなく脳内での情報処理の短絡化＝
情動域（＝偏桃体＝入力された情報に自己帰属の夕グを付ける＝
所有物や家族を見分けられる）の関与の排除，そこでの処理の
ジャンプ（自己意識抜きに物事を処理する）なのでこの回路が
作られない限り無心としての処理は機能しない。
理屈や知識では自転車に乗れるようにならないのと同じです。
現実には直弟子ですら必ずしもそれを体得できていなかった為に
釈尊はいまわの際になってすら｢人の言葉を信じるな。自分で
体得せよ」と繰返さねばならなかったのです。
逆に見れば，仏教史に登場する異説異論は実は無我無心を体得
できなかった者が，その言い訳，目くらましの為にいい加減な
作り話しをやっていたのではとの疑いが涌いてきます。
この点から見ると龍樹（ナガールジュナ）あたりが最もクサい。
本当に無心無住の境に達していた人間がはたして龍宮のハナシまで
デッチ上げて，あそこまで派手なセールスキャンペーンをやるか？？？
『大乗印のエスパーベルト，これであなたも即，菩薩に変身〜！』
えっ！？冗談でしょ？
（実践に依る人間改造ではなく，思い込みを利用した盲信への変質です）
————————————
Mountain Tool box
Ideally, in here I should put a story and the photos from mountain or
at least a kind of hill walking. Ideally from Scotland or North Wales —
if not, at least South Down somewhere. — That’s what I’ve been thinking
though, now I would say “Shame” it may no longer a viable idea.
I missed the boat.
= As a consequence, quite a few of my possessions became redundant.
(Still, such as a tent could be used for a camping, and a cooking burner
for a party use etc — typically, a multi function knife is in my daily use.)
Among those who became redundant, my Mountain Tool Box must be the
top of “the object de reminisce”.
This was a Box accompanying me almost all of my active life more than 55 years
and in the mountain, this box could acted as the last resources for a survival.
(Over so many years, many of the original members were broken or replaced
by the better tool. —– So that, in the photo above, only a Pocket Torch Light,
2 Screwdrivers, a Tweezer and the small boxes with its contents remain original.)
Specially designed Sewing kit in a match-box (left photo )
Screws and the Nats etc and a Razor blade (center photo) = (If
anybody got Appendicitis, this Razer could be used for operation) 🙂
Spare-parts for Oil Burner and the Rivets etc (photo right)
Burner then was either kerosene use Radius, or white spirit use Phoebus.
And in the Alpine Club I only know how to repair, hence kept the spare
parts. So, this box was expected to have everything for repair work. (from
mending a Climbing Boots, stitch-up the Tent to tighten-up loose gear)
And in the mountain, able to put a
fire could be the most crucial matter
for a survival. Keep a match dry was
always a headache.
(Cheap gas-lighter wasn’t common then)
So, I kept a gas-bombe type gas lighter
for the last resources.
(After over 50 years, gas-bombe is still full !) —– and I reflect, it wasn’t a bad
start for a Hi-school boy to prepare and organize a Tool-box in this extent while
giving the detailed foresight of what sort of repair work could happen.
—– And it made me think, “Is this kind of mindset (prepare to fight-off all
the trouble beforehand) affected the Karma to exclude me to get an accident”.
= It is the question, when the burner was broken down —– frozen to death is
a natural fate, or the Karma gave me the way to fight-off ? Good Question.
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