Emotion
We tend to simplify the Notion, such as the Emotion, like thinking it as if it is only the feelings, Sadness,
Joy, Anger etc—– just see as an indicator of the mind, thus totally missing the point of its function behind.
The part of the brain which is dealing with Emotion is known as Limbic System, which situated under
side of the Cerebrum, and just above the Thalamus where body functions were kept controlled.
——————–
Structurally, this part of the brain is the older or original part in the evolutionary scale ( sometime its called
Old Cortex ) therefore common with other simpler animal.
(less number of Neural layers indicates this too ——primitive hence it is fundamental to the Life)
So, what is this Limbic System is doing as the main function.
Its function is to Assess the incoming signal (Information / Data ) according to the Self-interests.
Self interest is largely, the instinct of survival and own comfort. —— its mean, Ego.
( Though, highly developed human’s case, this ” Own comfort” include the feeling of Achievement ——
of which target may not necessary immediately link to his or her own gain, and it can be very spiritual )
——————–
And the action which was triggered by a stimulus such as a visual signal of the danger,
the evading action has to be continued for a certain length of the time, (just out of vision wouldn’t be enough)
it has to be kept by the chemical effects.———- (So, Adrenalin is high, tension is kept high )
Since the Limbic System is directly linked to Tharamus, effects are mostly Physiological,and the
secondary Psychological effects must be a later development, or even a cultural development and
the result of the Conditioning. (When to laugh or get angry etc are depend on the Culture, so that
small children don’t have same Emotion. They need to lean the manner, how to react and should feel !!!).
Programing of ” How One has to Feel”— is the basis of the development of HUMAN like human.
This is what we call ” ETHOS” —– since, it is in Emotion / Uncontrollable—– hence Imperative.
( Carl Jung called this ” Collective Unconsciousness” though it is only the end result. He didn’t know why )
( Most of the people know only their own culture and own emotion—– so, not aware of this)
——————–
To see a news “A boy was rescued after 8 days” may trigger an Emotion ” How lucky this Boy is” and
feel a joy, or dreaded with a thought ” What a poor boy to spend 8 days next to the Death” —– is
depend on each personality, still this news gave significant impression to both person —– as it
triggered their Emotion, but if it didn’t trigger the Emotion, this news couldn’t
even be noticed / insignificant Data to the person.
Even an exciting signal source such as a sexy object (person) may become boring subject after a while.
( Hence, ” Seven Years Itch” —— 🙂 )
———- Emotional perception is very subjective, hence changeable. So the importance of the Data as well.
Selfless (so-called) is to handle the signal while being Apathic to the Emotional Bias, which
bore out of the Ego or deluded idea.
And giving no significant weight to any signal, and treat all the incoming signal impartial is
The Open Mind. ( Sociologist’s Value Free )
Emotion is the part of Self-conscious feeling, noticeable side-effects of the Limbic activity.
Before the Large Brain / Cerebrum evolved and took over the Decision making process, this part of the
Brain handled the thinking function / assess the Data and decision making. —– Important fact is, its still
doing this subconsciously —– Hence it makes Double Layer System .
( Emotional feeling may started like an Allergic Symptom to alert the individual.)
——————–
In metaphor, the incoming signals were assessed and directed to each door. (One is a Trash bin)
And this signal leaving each foot print.—– Some of them might make very muddy big foot print,
even splashing sticky muddy water all around. ( Emotionally drenched. It’s a mess. 😦 )
Buddhism is making this signal to tread quietly, leaving minimum foot print and the noise.
When the foot step become silent, the Buddhist can hear the minute sound behind.
And some experienced Buddhists can even re-direct the signal and prevent it goes into the
door of House of Horror. —— (Shame, screaming Horror House may be quite exciting and fun 😀 )
Direct Transmission at work
Something amazed me is, soon after I put the words
” Spread your hands wide, embrace the world” This is the Dharma. (at [ Selfless —What ?] )
I started to receive Emails which saying ” This is the best / most impressive expression you ever made
in your blog “——— m m m. (what about another 50 odd posts ? ——Ha Ha Ha, I should be humble )
I know many of my friends are quietly reading my blog without putting comment publicly still
advising me to correct my pigeon English.
Yet I didn’t know they are reading my blog in such timing, soon after I have put it up.
——————–
What impressed me even more is, the response from those readers.
The expression ” Spread your hands—” was the Zen Direct Transmission.
( It is only the Action. No Notion contained there. Yet, it conveys direct Message to strike subconscious)
If you read that paragraph in the post, you may find, I was rather tired to write in the words, as I was
the one kept saying ” Stop talking, stop thinking, just do it —-” , so I changed the tact at that moment.
———- And it worked straight.
Non of those friends are practicing Buddhist, and if they know anything about the Zen, it may only learned
from my blog, yet still they grasped the meaning of the Dharma straight.
Yes, Direct Transmission does work. —– This is the living sample.
——————–
Learning from the suggestion ” Detached from Emotion “, ” Apathetic ” etc, some people could reach to
the deep understanding.——-By this Detachment, it exposes the soft tissue of Subconscious.
Let the most sensitive sensory to work, (Zen Master called this Shin-gan / Eyes of Heart) ——and able to see
the meaning behind. Like them, even non Zenist could able to notice the significance of that expression
spread the hands, and able to respond to it at once. This is the Zen.
By the Apathetic eyes and the mind, they could open their deepest Pathos. ( Paradox again )
This is the Buddhism and Zen at work.
East and West ( 2 )
To the people in the East, the huge scale natural disaster is a part of the Nature.
Even worse, they are coming every year like Hurricane, Typhoon, Earthquake, Land-slide etc.
So that, there is no possibility to conceive a God whose client is the human fork.
—– As far as the eyes can see, was their world. And see the flood of Yellow River as far as the eyes can see,
must be the act of Supreme Power above there. ———There is no possibility to imagine
any personally accountable, human shaped God. (Who speaks same language !)
If the God created this world, what is he doing with this devastation, not once, not twice, but every year !
What is the purpose of this for ? What a waste. Isn’t he got a brain ?
—– (Eastern emvilonment is not very good to the Western God )
——————–
Biblical Grate Flood which story was originated from a legend of a flood happened after the end
of last Ice Age and the rise of sea level, (So that, such legend / myth exist all over the world.
The Biblical story is the word to word copy of the Gilgamesh Myth of Mesopotamia ) and the earthquake
which was the back ground of the story, demise of Sodom and Gomorrah, such disaster were not
repeated again and again so, they could be construed as one-off punishment of the angry God.
So that this God can be imagined as the one who is working together with human —– a friendly type,
speak same language, hence he could answer your call.
Because of such convenient design, there is the free choice of ” If this God wouldn’t give me a divorce,
I’ll go to another” was possible. ( Free choice is a Western Idea, which is the basis of so-called
Democracy too, and that is why a kind of Democracy in the west doesn’t necessary work in the East.)
(A dubious Leader who happen to be elected by a number game, can not to be respected in the Eastern
psyche, though in reality, a politician who managed to fool the people with false Charisma is in power.
Yet still, originally, the Ruler in East was expected to be able to communicate with Heaven, that is why
the Emperor was called as the Son of Heaven in China and in Japan.)
——————-
Therefore, the Eastern Belief System goes to the abstractic Order of Universe, the Rules of
the Dharma or the Heaven ( note, Heaven is not an idea of Paradise. The Sky and the invisible Power
above there ) and not a humanized God figure. (Though, Pure Land Buddhists got different view )
In the same time, by observing the intricacy and the cohesion in the Nature gave the insight, that is
the Order is perfect, beyond the human comprehension, ” If the power and the wisdom is such superior,
there is no competition, we have to just accept and follow”. This the God in the East. ( The Hindu
idea of the Deity and its depiction, might be the Greek influence which came to India after
the Alexander the Grate. —— this must be an interesting field to study)
——- This Eastern God may not even be the religion, but the awareness, where we stand.
Because,even a non-believer couldn’t escape from this Order. When ship sunk under a Hurricane even
a Christian sunk too. It is the Karma affecting everybody, who took that ship, on that Day.
Selfless—-What ?
” Misunderstanding of Selfless in the Western Buddhism “
My career in the Buddhist’s talking is only 10 months long. I’ve lived my life just as my life and
I just happen to be a Zen Buddhist.——- I didn’t find any needs to talk about other than make a joke.
One of the reason why I didn’t talk about is (any how nobody likes religious talk ) I didn’t know
the existence of this kind of talking forum.
So that I was not familiar with the Technical term / Jargon of the Buddhists in English. Nor, what is
the Western style Buddhism.———- (all of my Zen books and Mantras are in Japanese )
Then what I discovered is, especially from the criticism against Buddhism which says
” Killing (or sacrifice ) the Self is no good for the human nature.”
The cause of this misunderstanding seemed to came from the choice of the translation, the word SELFLESS.
In the East, this Buddhist’s term has been understood as No Mind (Wu shin in Chinese, Mu shin in Japanese)
since, Mind often causes too much thinking (hence indecisive, and too slow) or wrong thinking under Ego,
so that, get lid of altogether and leave the matter to the Subconscious wisdom. (In the concept of Tsu-nyen
in Chinese or Ji-nen in Japanese ——Exist as itself / Bore out from itself / Nature.
Which originated from Taoism, this Wisdom is the deepest original nature of the oneself, and the wide nature)
And this ” Subconscious wisdom is not from the Self ” is a Buddhist’s concept. Where else its came from. Obvious.
Though, from the truth of Dharma, by which we are a Part of it, This Subconscious wisdom belongs to the Dharma.
(—- So What. It’s a tiring rhetoric. Spread your hands wide, embrace the world. This is the Dharma. )
——————–
Equivalent of Selfless in Japanese is Mu shi. This SHI mean private, or self (antonym of Public)
One of the most well known author in Japan, Soseki Natsume wrote in his book ” The Gate ”
using the words to describe this state of Mind as Non-Emotion, away from the matter of the
ownership of the Mind. ( Though, I haven’t found Who taught Zen to him yet ).
( Just for the sake of convenience I’ve been using this word Selfless from the beginning though,
as I repeatedly writing ” Selfless is not sacrificing a self, far from it, it release the one from
the bondage of the emotional Ego, therefore it liberate and empower the life.”
——————–
As I wrote somewhere, “—– otherwise Gynecologist can’t do their business ” The Buddhist’s Selfless
( in its true form ) is almost same to a Medical Doctor’s ” Clinical Detachment ” or Sociologist’s
” Value Free ” —– but its having more universal applications to all aspects of the life. ——that is why it is
directly connected to the ” Clear Eyes “. ( Does anybody ever heard a complaint from Doctors or
Sociologists of their occupational hazard, Loss of the Self ? —– far from it, they are getting the
benefit of it by achieving much higher efficiency in their life.)
The allegation against the Buddhism has been emanated from the misunderstanding of so-called Selfless,
both by the Buddhists and ignorant Critics. ——- As a matter of fact, even earliest Buddhists had this
confusion, as they didn’t have the knowledge of the Subconsciousness. Thus struggle to define elusive
Mind and the Self, which was taught by Buddha in metaphor. Considering the followers and the audiences
of Buddha, they were not the scholar or epistemologist, far from it, they are the ordinary people on
the street who never read a book nor familiar with philosophical term (the people who was educated was
the Vedic Brahman—-antagonist to the Buddha’s teachings) so that the complicated terminology such as in
the Abidhama Cosa Mantra couldn’t be in the Buddha’s words, therefore they are all later addition
and the guess-work done by professional monk hundreds of years later.
———- Since we have new insight to the structure of the human mind, we need to have correct
understanding of the so-called Self, which Buddha himself had observed then.
——————–
I also wrote somewhere ” To do the practice with absolute obedience ” is not only the matter
for the Buddhists, it is what the life is.
No one can do Rock climbing half-heartedly or no Surgeon can operates without concentration.
It needs to have 100 % unconditional commitment.
It will kill the Ego certainly, but if anyone still cringing to Ego, just leave Buddhism or Operating Theater.
Buddhism is to give the most efficient state of the Mind for the life. Thats all.
Who need to ask more ?
.
Harmony in Dharma / Origin of TONAL SYSTEM
When I was small, long before the school, I made the most Fundamental discovery,
“ Fundamental Element of the matter is the ASH “- – – – that’s what I thought. Though, nobody was
impressed, despite this is the unquestionable FACT. Look, To burn anything, Wood, Grass, Coal, Charcoal,
Fish bone, Paper, Cotton, Woolly things —— what ever they are, all burn to the ASH.
And even burn ASH further, still it remains as the ASH. —— This is the Truth, isn’t it ?
But I only got the words ” Silly boy ” without any explanation.
(World is twisted, they are blind and rotten ! ! ! 😦 )
——————–
Another question which captured me ——in fact many years, was “Why all the music were composed
in the same Do, Re, Mi, Fa scale, and can be played on the same simple instrument ? ? ?”
On that time, one of my pass time was to listen the radio VOA ( Voice of America Far-East Netwok/
American propaganda, aiming to the communist Russia and China ) and listening latest American
Hit-Chart. And I was writing down the short passage of each tune to music score.
( Regardless, whether the tune is A or C—– the matter is just relative scale of the note )
( And this interest led me start to listen many ethnic, such as Indian Music — It was the time of Ravi Shankar)
——————–
German Sociologist Max Weber wrote a book about the evolution of the music scale,
from Natural Tonal Scale to Equi-distant Tonal Scale ——– etc, kept my question alive and so on.
Many years later, when I needed to design electronic tone generator, and while watching the frequency
table of music tones, such as A=440 Hz, E=660 Hz etc—— I realized, all the tones in the music scale
are having 1:1.5 ratio, which can create Pentatonic easily. ( This is why Pentatonic is so common in
any folk cultures in the world )
1 :1.5 ratio mean, if you shorten the length of the String ( if it was C / Do ) to 2/3rd,
the tone become 1.5 times higher to the 5th (E / So) and so on.
(Press a string and play, if the shorter side sound octave higher than the other side, it’s the 2/3rd point)
In short, Do (524 Hz)—> So (786 Hz)—> Re (1179/ Octave high of 589 Hz)—> Ra (880/ 440 Hz)
—> Mi (660 Hz) ( Save, few Hz deviation, which wouldn’t make audible differences)
Here all the Pentatonic Notes of Do, Re, Mi, So, Ra were created. ! ! !
——–Much more interesting Phenomena is, those tones are not human invention.
They are naturally existing.
All the materials vibrates. (If you hit, they makes a sound, except shock absorbing soft material)
They vibrate not only in its fundamental frequency, but also all the harmonic frequencies of x2, x3, x4, x5 etc.
(Though even number of the harmonics are in the Octave, and its sound is indistinguishable.)
So that, those odd numbered harmonics are 524 Hz (C / Do) x3 /2 = 784 (G / So), x 5 / 4 = 654 (E / Mi),
x7 / 8 = 457 (A / Ra), x9 / 8 = 588 (D / Re) —-> Do, Re, Mi, So, Ra —– Pentatonic in the Nature. ! ! !
This is the reason why the Dominant Harmony is [ Do, Mi, So ], as they are naturally there, and
sounding in perfect Harmony.
——————–
The Nature having such amazing structure, Isn’t this the beauty of the Dharma and the Rules within ?
——–When I realized this, I thought ” Eureka ” then noticed, this is what Pythagoras found 3000 years ago.
My brain was 3000 years slow.
—
Compassion
Compassion is, as the word suggest, it’s the
matter of the passion and the deep feeling.
It is not in the domain of consciously operated
logics or like a coöperation which need to have
a lots of intellectual deliberation in the brain.
It seems there is a kind of invisible
communications operating behind.
Strange fact is, as every body knows, we
still able to distinguish if nice smile, sweet words are genuine.
Even just looking a face we can see the character and what kind of the person.
I collected 20,000 faces found in the Net, and analyzing such as, why those looks same 2 faces give
different impression.——- It may emanated from a dormant memory in the Subconscious Data Bank,
even from a genetic memory. And this invisible communication making us almost automatic reaction,
when someone need a help we give a hand.
I don’t think this is from the emotion which is entwaind with Ego, but from much dark depth of the
Spirit ( in fact I don’t like this convenient word —– but as we don’t have suitable word, I just use it
for a convenience) it is like a respect or awesome feeling as to be in kinship of a life form, as its apply
to even to a small insect. ( Except cockroach !—– they are the evil. —–Without our compassion,
they can thrive and survive even after the extinction of human ) 😀
Direct Transmission
Direct transmission is the way to communicate using purely in one’s sensory and put the signal
straight into one’s subconscious / old layer of the data process system, without relying on the word / notion.
(Though this signal can be just a sign. And this sign trigger the feeling, dormant memory in the spirit).
Especially if the subject is too ambiguous or too complexed, too big to convert to the notion or
even the word is not existing.——( like a word / notion of Subconscious in the time of Buddha )
Buddhism is the teachings, challenged to tackle such subject, Dharma.
Superficially the meaning of the Dharma has been explained though, it contains too many meanings
and notions therefore too complexed to define, and its deep meaning in its totality is almost unknowable.
Still, funnily enough, it’s everywhere, hence it is on front of you as everybody is seeing it
and you are a part of it. This is not an invisible Atomic Sub-particle’s theory.
So that the Buddhist spend hundreds of years to analyzing and trying to define it, resulting the
mountain of Abidharma Mantras.
——————–
Buddha himself didn’t explain it, since it is on front of our eyes and can be seen by anybody, yet
unexplainable by the words.—–And make the people to discover its deep meaning by themselves
through the practice, is what he was teaching.———-There was, and still is, no short cut.
So that, the famous ” Flower Summon ” comes in, ( though, this story only appeared in the
Chinese Mantra ——since they are pretty good in this kind of symbolic expression originated
from the Taoism, such as the huge blanc space express the rich notion of “Wu” (Mu in Japanese))
———- if you see the Dharma there, this is the Dharma what Buddha meant.
( If you see ” Oh, Master, you decapitated poor flower. You killed it”——– you see a dead flower. 😀 )
———- It is like your stomach up-set. You know it but you can’t explain exactly what it is in the word.
And only the other who got the same, may know it. So, to know it you have to bite onion, plenty of it.
( In Zen term, blanc white paper may be the expression of the whole Universe,—- or Nothing.
Therefore “Noting” can be the whole existence / the Dharma )——so that,
a small room in the Vimarakirti’s house can accommodate 3000 bikkus. )
Voice of Dharma
The reader who has been kept reading this Blog may have now realized
What is the Buddhism and the function of its practice.
——————–
The fanction of the practice is to remove the noise of the activities of Notion ( Conscious Thinking )
which is masking the inner layer, Raw Data Processing System or Old System ( Subconscious ).
Since the Old System has been evolved with the history of the Life, its memories retains the
billion of years wisdom and still retains the ear to hear the signals of the Pineal Grand, which
seemingly able to sense the signals from the Earth and the Universe.
Therefore, in the state of absolute passiveness / Selflessness, we may able to receive those signals
through the Old System.( even Unconsciously )
———- What is the signal ?
When asked, Buddha didn’t give answer.
Hence in the Buddhism tradition, it can not be taught neither described in the word.
(Obviously it is the Voice of the Dharma, though the deepest meaning of the Dharma is not explanable
which the one has to see by himself, thus Buddha didn’t explain. His action itself was the teaching.)
So that, when we meditate, first, silence the thought, then expose the sense of the inner
layer, Old System in the absolute passiveness——-so, you may feel even the flow of dead still air.
This is the way, we might be able to hear the voice of the Dharma.
(But mind you, Dharma doesn’t speak English. Its a sign. Ha Ha Ha 😀 )
——————–
( As I wrote before it can be done not only by the sitting, but also even by cutting a lemon.
So, it is your turn, try, just do it. ——- It is just a matter of you to open your Subconscious in
absolute passiveness.)
Non-Belief System
It seems the most popular Belief System now, is the System of Non-Belief.
An absurd contradiction of those non believers are, they are still saying “I’m a Spiritual Person”.——-What ?
(He might have meant, I’m a noble person better than you ) 😀
——————-
Some years ago there was a very intriguing report ” The Heart seems to have its own Mind “ which
was based on the research, the recipients of the Heart Transplant operations, had apparently changed
the personality, preference of the food taste, choice of music etc, to the taste of the donor / previous owner
of the heart, supported by the another discovery, the heart is having quite complexed nerve system
far more than the necessity to produce the timing pulse.
——— Heart is one of the earliest organ appeared on the evolutionary history, long before
the Nerval system, primitive Brain was developped.
So, it is no wonder, if its got a kind of controlling system to respond to the environment by its own,
and its legacy is still here in our heart.
Though, so far I haven’t seen any following research or further discovery. May be because of the
Belief System of Non-Belief, such controversial ( against the idiosyncratic Belief ) research
was suppressed by cut of fundings.
Yet strange facts are, the Chinese character which symbolizing the Mind ” Shin “, its shape was
originated from the pictorial depiction of a Heart organ . And obviously, the English word ” Heart ”
is the description of an elaborated kind of Mind, and in the same time, the name of Heart organ.
Its mean, 5000 years ago when Chinese developed their writing system and the characters, they
had the observations ( remember they are the people who discovered the acupuncture etc without
any help of Medical Technology we have now ) that the Mind / Heart is in the Heart organ.
——– Even though, the society of Non-Belief couldn’t support such research which I said above.
(If Non-Belief couldn’t be an Open-Minded, what is it for ? They might just got a Cult of Ego, that all)
Shame. 😦


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