Flow-Chart of Buddhism Teachings

Flow-Chart or the Steps in the Pathway

1) Do anything which has a fixed pattern.

2) By doing it repeatedly, 100s, 1000s even million times =

3) Because the nerve signal dealing with its action has

the same pattern, our Perception and Emotion’s threshold

level rose, hence the significance of the signal will be

lost and disregarded.

4) As the action has been repeated, its pattern will be

programmed into Motor-region of the brain and the action

become automatic routine.

5) As the effects of 3) and 4), the action can be carried-out

without thinking, even out of one’s conscious.

6) In the same time of 5), the one doing the action without

one’s conscious mean, it is in the Selfless state of the mind.

7) Once the one is in its Selfless state, the things become

distant objects as if it is somebody-else’s matter, =

Detachment = the one’s Ego or Greed wouldn’t be triggered.

8) To apply the same state of mind to other aspects of the

life, the one can see everything in distance = objectively

= Clear eyes.    (Gradually, the one acquire this, and once

mastered, it become free to control, if detached or not,

or which one to concentrate or ignore.)

9) And the one can see even the Self detached, objectively,

as if it is one of public, the social action start to follow

common-sense, not self-centred. (Centring self isn’t there) 

10) And able to act or help others without Ego and do the

things as much as possible. (Strangely, we instinctively do

it better ! Even if it is not in competition with others and

even to useless things, it’s mean, it’s not for Ego or Greed.

—– Fundamental Pleasure ? 🙂 )

11) From those aspects, it is rational to conclude, Ego itself

is not one’s imperative, so is the Self. = Self is not naturally 

exists but a product of one’s imagination or thinking.

12) Without having the Self, Ego and Greed which tend to

creates trouble and discontent = could any suffering be left ?

[]

It must be clear from this chart, all the process is pretty

natural as it follows the natural mechanism inherent to

our brain which is common to anybody, so that

Lord Buddha concluded that the Dharma which

rules us is Selfless and as it is common to anybody,

in other words, all of us has it within and Selfless.

— And it become clear, the so-called Rules of “Do this and

Don’t Do that” had been written by the person who hadn’t

actually done the practice to reach Selfless state by himself

hence, didn’t have a knowledge how the human mind

naturally works. (Real selfless person need no instruction,

nor such instruction would stay in the mind.  😀 )

[]

It must be clear. —– Is there any argument ?

___/\___

[]

PS : Though, in addition to this Chart, applying the context

of “denial” not only to the Self and suffering life, but to the

“Idea of Denial” itself, therefore, instead of being enlightened,

“being suffering” seems to be more natural = and this idea

became the stance of Mahayana Buddhism. —– Hence, Zen

says “To see NO enlightenment is the Enlightenment”

= (Anyway, no Self, what’s the matter ! )

[]

Tablet ZEN

Last night there was an essay read by a philosopher Julian Benjamin

on BBC Radio 3.   In it, he talked about how our attitude had changed

during the rapid advancement of the technology.

And he typified it in the situation to use a gadget such as a Tablet

saying “Matter of Familiarity taken over the Understanding

or Comprehension” —– we may no longer able to understand

how those quantum theory is working behind the electronics and

its design neither need to be, but have to become familiar

with its touch-pad operation and each function.

[]

He found an interesting talking point though, his thought didn’t

go deep enough that in fact the situation has been always the

same even in the time of our ancestor, Hunter Gatherer’s day.

I don’t think even a good archer did know a theory of

Aerodynamics or effect of air resistance etc yet, as long as familiar

with the use of Bow and Arrow, he could have a good hunting.

= And that was what THE matter for them.

[]

You believe or not, this is exactly the point what

Lord Buddha taught, hence this is the Zen Buddhism.

Even though some of the people loves and attached to their gadget,

say a Tablet so much, and using it all day long for everything, still,

funny to say, virtually all of them are completely detached from

the questions of what this Tablet is and why such thing exists.

They accepted it almost granted as a part of their life.

—– Except the programmer working for App design, very few of us

know the code of its OS, even fewer people know it in the hardware

level, let alone the theory behind of all those micro electronics.

Instead, we just accept it, as it is and just concentrating practical

aspect and try maximise smooth operation and the efficiency,

in order to have own life fulfilled.

To be a master of Tablet, we needed to become a machine 

to operate it. = even finger moves automatic,

without conscious !

[]

As I said, this is not a Tablet phenomenon, but derived

from our inherent processing system in the brain ! =

This is the System to maximise the efficiency of our life.

—– The way to extend and apply this Operating System

to all aspect of the Life, was what

Lord Buddha taught as the Buddhism.

—– (Bemused ? !    Just open your eyes and see it.  😀 )

___/\___ 

[]

Hacking Business

There was an interesting incident targeted to this Yoshizen Blog.

Soon after I’ve put my last post [Three times BUDDHA] somebody

hacked into my account and try to tamper my text.

As always  🙂 when I found a miss-spelling and try to edit my text,

WordPress’ Auto-save told me that there was an auto-saved

another version exists.

Looking into the script, I noticed that somebody had attempted

to delete a part of my text as you can see on the screen shot.

The target was a paragraph “to fabricate so many so-called Buddha

in Mahayana Buddhism”

Lord Buddha has used the words such as [Land Deity] [Moon Deity]

kind of name (may be for a convenience in the conversation) though,

never used such as a Sanskrit Deity, Brahman, because of the only

who, who rules whole universe is the Dharma, nothing else.

And the Dharma was not personified. = It is invisible yet spread

whole universe, down to the inside of ourselves.

That was what he believed and taught. — So, he got angry when a

Disciple couldn’t get correct understanding of the Dharma, saying

“It’s a disgrace to the Dharma” = he was quite serious.

Therefore, under the name of Buddhism, to creates another object

of worship other than the Dharma, especially importing its

figure from Hinduism is nothing but a contempt of

Lord Buddha and the Dharma.

[]

Hacking into well protected WordPress Blog is a serious business.

I wouldn’t assume it was done by a whim of silly individual = got

to be a professional, hired by the organization.

So, who was the one came through a gap of floor board like a

cockroach, instead to put a counter opinion through the front door ?

Is this a mind-set of the organisation or the sect ? — Blime !

[]

My blog is open for anybody to put a comment or two (though, any

spam which is other than a genuine comment has been completely

rejected —– except few exception, who got an interesting family

business to advertise. 🙂 ) hence, if anybody got different view,

to express its view as a comment is welcome, but don’t use

dirty hacking. —– It doesn’t work as the original was

composed on Word, re-load the same can be done in 10 min’.  🙂

And it’s counter productive to the hacker, because it would only create

another funny post like this, and that’s why my blog got 127,000 hits.

—– though, I know, quite few of hits were mislead by a search term

“xxx nude figure” kind, and end-up to see wire sculpture here. 😀

___/\___

[] 

Three times BUDDHA

There is an interesting story in the Agama Sutra

(of Buddhism ! = there are many.) —– one day,

Lord Buddha met a horse trainer (other versin said Village Chief).  

Then asked to the horse-trainer  “How to teach a horse ?”

Horse-trainer replied that there are three ways to teach horse.

Gentle way, Hard way and Gentle / Hard mixed.

Lord Buddha asked him further “If all three ways failed,

what do you do with that horse ?”  

The trainer answered “Kill the horse” and he asked back

“How you teach your follower ?”.

Lord Buddha answered him, “There are three ways to teach,

Gentle way, Hard way and Gentle / Hard mixed, but if all

those teachings failed, kill him”.

Hose-trainer was horrified and shouted “You been telling us Don’t kill,

how dear you kill the follower ?”

Lord Buddha smiled back “Well, I just stop talk to him.

Completely stop talk, is the same to deny his existence,

same as to kill him, isn’t it ?”

[]

This episode sound like just a casual funny story though,

this was the episode which gave the most important clue to the

so-called “Unanswered Questions”  You must be realized that

Lord Buddha’s No-answer was not just a rack of word but it

was the massage as strong as to kill the person !

[]

There is an often used phrase in Japanese “Even Buddha tolerates till

three times” (Hotoke no kao mo sando made. 仏の顏も三度まで)

—– I didn’t know, this phrase was in deed, originated from the Scripture.

—– And this story showed rather realistic attitude of

Lord Buddha, contrary to the popular belief, he was not a

bottomlessly gentle and kind teacher.   As once a hard-core

austere, he was not an optimistic person, as he defined what

the life is, such as in the Four Noble Truth.

From here, in a process to idealize and idolize him, even worse,

to fabricate many so-called Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism,

( in fact, it was the mix-up with Tantrism and Hinduism )

crux of the original teachings was lost.

[]

What Lord Buddha himself taught was, to have the Detached Eyes.

Detached Eyes mean, detached from the Mind / Emotion, hence there

was neither attachment to the subject or person.   In other words,  

there was no attachment even to his followers.   Hence, as long as

Lord Buddha committed to give guidance to the person, he was in deed

committed it to 100% (and try to teach in three different ways) though

if it was failed, he literally ex-communicated the person.

Once excommunicated, the person became invisible.

Even visually saw the person, it wouldn’t connected to any

emotional memories, hence there were no anger or feeling of

disappointment etc. —– Because of there are nothing to cling

past Mind / Emotion, only the matter is what on front of eyes,

on its very Moment. (This IS the very Zen mind-set)

(After you practised long enough, and gained this condition / Mind-set 

then you know what Detached Eyes and Detached Mind can help you.)

(And how to practice to gain Detachment, please read the post under a

category of [Lemon Zen] in the right column.

[]

You may feel, it’s sound very cruel and not-Buddhist like,

it’s because So-called monk or teacher is not really understood, or only

making diplomatic smile and pretending to be friendly, in order to

sell to the mass.

Because of this confusion, one of the greatest novelist, Soseki Natsume

described it in his book, [Mon (門) / Gate], when a priest of Zen temple

has told to him, “Mind of Zen is Hijo (非情) / No Emotion” he felt even

alienated. —– (To describe Mushin (無心) / Mind of No-Mind, this

priest used more realistic word Hijo in stead, because he knew the

Zen Buddhism deeper, and didn’t mind to sell it to the mass.)

[]

Load Buddha didn’t give his teachings to give false optimism,

or fancy dream but the Truth.

In this aspect, he was quite harsh.   Telling the followers to get rid of

their possessions even their family (little consideration to an agony of

the family left behind, not mention to his own Royal lineage).

(This was the reason why

Lord Buddha bared the women to join his follower’s sanga.  

Since, to a woman, to abandon the child is out of question in the

first place = woman may have conflict to follow his teachings.)

[]

—– Still, with detached eyes and the mind, there wouldn’t be

any matter left to worry about, because the psychological

source of worry = emotion itself had been already detached.

The mechanism to feel any suffering has no longer exists.

= Peace of mind !   😀 

—– though, I’m not an enlightened man, hence mixed with

failed person and teasing them or teased by them are fun.

This is what the Life is.      Ha ha ha   😀

___/\___

[]

Last event on Stubnitz

While I’m putting this post, the Ship Stubnitz is leaving  Canary Wharf and taking

a voyage to Normandy, France.

So, the last night, there was a kind of noisy farewell party on the ship.

(I went there with my Sound-reactive Flushing Pendant. = one of my disco regalia.   🙂 )

It was called  Algorave.  And the Info’ here was copied from their web site.

[ Featuring Cursor Miner making dance music in the frequency domain, Ardisson augmenting his tb303

and tr606 acid house with gamelan, Alo Allik twisting his audio/visual algomusic into beat-driven techno,

Alexandra Cárdenas live coding minimal techno from supercollider impulses, Martin Klang making

Euclidean acid with hybrid digital/analogue algorithms, Shelly and some Mandelbrots uniting

Birmingham and Karlsruhe with three-way live coded house, and Meta-eX leading us into the night by

live hacking an extended build up with code and controllers..

plus algorave residents Slub (with guest Elvi$ Ca$h) and Sick Lincoln. ]

Some of their music creation were quite experimental  (hence, not necessary natural to

a body to dance, or even impossible to follow.)  😀   and some were quite aggressive, still

good to dance.  (Loud drumming doesn’t necessary mean strong beat.  The matter is the

syncopation and minute gap, which gives instantaneous tension to the body movement.)

Live means,  lots of adjustments, conjuring, connecting / disconnecting cable,  

moment to moment on the spot, etc. etc.  —– looks messy business.   😀

Any how, it was a very enjoyable vibrant evening. 

(May be I was the one, dancing most.)   😀  

Good luck to Algorave and the ship Stubnitz.

Huineng vs Shenxui — Poetry Contest

Provably the most well known Zen story was a contest to became

6^th Patriarch of the Zen.

For the contest, the most respected top monk in the monastery,

Shenxui wrote a poem as the answer to the 5^th Patriarch, Hongren

who request to show the Zen mind,

“Mind is like a mirror, I polish the mirror diligently for

no dust to settle on it”

When an illiterate low-rank monk Huineng who has been working

in the kitchen of the temple heard this, he asked friend monk to

write his poem contesting Shenxui’s,

“Since Mirror is not exists in the first place,

where dust could settle”

Hongren saw Huineng has much deeper understanding of Zen,

he chose Huineng for his successor.

[]

This story showed what all about the Zen and its pathway

in amazing clarity.

Shenxui was a well educated, well learned monk, hence he must

have read hundreds of scriptures and understood the attitude to be

a good Buddhist. (in this extent, his answer / poem was quite

appropriate and correct though, it was more like a posture of

Theravada monk, still on the way to the enlightenment, in other

words, he hadn’t broken the barrier, or gone to the other side yet. )

In contrast, Huineng had showed exactly what the notion

of Void in Zen Buddhism.

— How Huineng could get this, while working in the kitchen.

[]

As a son of peasant, Huineng had no education and illiterate hence,

he had no chance to read and study Buddhism other than just pick

up the words, what other monks were talking about.

Anyway, he had to work every day as a casual labourer in the temple,

still, those every day’s continuous repeating work gave him to gain

the essential mind-set to be a Zen Buddhist = Unconditionally

accepting (humble) to be a lowest working monk, hence there

couldn’t be any possibility left to have desire or even an Ego.

And as day by day, the same work continues, the mind

became empty = just the hand repeating the work.

Yet still, by keeping eyes clear, he could see the crux of human

existence = how the Life exists = what the World and the Dharma is.

And he was able to make the straight connection of his state of mind

and the observation, to each notion.   In effect, he had mastered the

Zen in DIY.   Zen doesn’t need to be literate but to have clear eyes to

see inside and outside, with the direction of few key-word.

(This straight connection is behind of

“Sudden Enlightenment” and the “Direct Transmission” )

[]

And this observation lead me to see an amazing parallel in

the history of Buddhism.

Founder of Zen, Master Bodhi Dharma had to establish the way

of Zen in DIY, as there was no text book exist then, even worse in

foreign country. And the situation was more or less the same, when

Lord Buddha started his own teachings = NO Buddhism

textbook at all, of cause, let alone whether even Vada was

available to the public in written form. 😀

Shen[]

But this is what the Buddhism is.

Since, it is the matter of one’s mind-set and the programming of

one’s subconscious = the one has to do it by oneself.

It is literally Do It Yourself / DIY = A book might give a hint, still

the one has to DO the work (practice with good insight) =

Book wouldn’t do the work on behalf. 😀

(Put Buddhist book in a memory of “Automatic Voice Generator”

and make voice out-put of script, wouldn’t make

the Machine enlightened — very fancy though. 😀 )

[]

—– Whether the stories (given in the Platform Sutra) has true

historical fact or not, to make the story in this way itself, was the

reflection of their understanding then = and expressing

supremacy over other sect of “Just reading scripture and sitting”

Illiterate Huineng was THE very typical sample in Zen.

___/\___

[]

PS :   Still, there are many questions left.   Zen understanding could

be gained without words, since it is not knowledge based intellectual

understanding but to customising the perception and behavioural

pattern in the subconscious level though, whether to compose

a stanza without having enough knowledge of lexical pattern is

possible or not ?   And the script telling the story, “Platform Sutra”

was written long after with a lots of diviating history.

—– Yet the fact is, the mummified body of Huineng has been kept

in the monastery till today and still sitting there !

(you can see the photo by Googling it) —– If he was not such a

great Master in real life, no such things could ever have happened.

[]

ZEN Photography

There was a very tricky question, what is Zen Photography.

Before talk about photo, what is Zen is harder enough.

Still, in few occasions, to see a photo — m m m ? !

THIS must be the Zen !

[]

The Matter is, how the visible image contains beyond of what it shows.

= How invisible, unknowable element has been captured in the photo !  

Not a mere suggestive image but has overwhelming power of existence !

Which has been seen by the clear-eyes of Zen, and captured in Mushin.

= Mushin mean without a manipulative intention.  

It is even better if it was in Ichijo with the subject, or the photographer

was completely absorbed by the subject.

And such photo starts to shows its own “raison d’ etre” as strong as the

existence of the subject itself, because the Dharma of the subject and

the Dharma of the photographer has been fused together, or in Ichijo.

[]

There are some different approach among the so-called Zen paintings.

Some did symbolical approach, such as a drawing of a Potato.

—– Humble, ubiquitous, utterly insignificant object, still, because it is

utterly insignificant, this could be the Universe or the Dharma.

But this is a very intellectual approach, expecting the viewer to see it

in Zen context. —– To convey this concept, may be it’s even better to

leave a paper blanc, hence, [nothing] could mean everything =

the whole Universe.   

In the same time it would save a ink and a time, bother to draw anything. 😀

—– Something similar but different approach is, just one straight line or

a circle on the paper = in this case, it is not only a superimposed idea in

a drawn-line but the action to draw it, was the Zen.

[]

In the photography, the same symbolical approach wouldn’t necessary work.

A photo of one potato would leave little imagination of anything else.

It is just a potato = “Is this a symbol of Universe ? You got to be Joking” 😀

In the other-hand, photography is very easy to make an ambiguous

confusing image, by just make it out of focus, burred image or almost

disappearing over-exposure, under-exposure, even with multiple exposure,

and those vague image makes our brain to abandon to read the

meaning of the image,  we were left in the blanc mind, wordless.

[]

Intellectual symbolism works in a way = “It shouldn’t be just a boring

Potato. It must be something behind, otherwise the painter wouldn’t have

worked to draw this”

In contrast, it is very difficult to see a meaning from a photograph,

since even in a photo with intentionally placed potato looks the same as

an accidental photo of potato.   (Drawing wouldn’t be made without

intention, still, even an accidental click makes one photo. :-))

Unless the meaning was clear, we wouldn’t go behind and the graphical

digital manipulation of a photo would rarely convey this meaning,

because we see it only as a graphical purpose in after process, not in an

original meaning, unless the effect match the subject naturally.

[]

—– in the time of film photography, high-temperature development of

high-speed film created rough-grain photo which showed harsh reality such

as in Sebastiao Salgado’s photo, though, to mimicking the effect with digital

manipulation in high-contrast only creates irritating harsh image =

photo looks harsh but not necessary make the reality looks harsh !

In other words, superficial graphical effect doesn’t affect much to the

meaning of the photo, let alone in its spirituality.  (In Paintings, spirituality

is relying on mostly in its narrative subject and our subconscious connect 

it to a spiritual legend or feeling of owe = it’s in our imagination.  

But in photography, it also emanated from its atmosphere or enigmatic

air which makes our perception suspicious.)  

[]

Spirituality in the photography lies in either overwhelmingly

strong reality of the subject which provoke our imagination, or

ambiguous depth of air in the image which strikes our emotion.

Therefore, the Zen photography (visual, not a wishful conceptual photo,

which can hit a subconscious of the viewer, before reading brah brah)

exists in two different direction.

One is finely detailed photo of overwhelmingly heavy subject.

Other is a hint of rather humble object still having full of

ambiguous air. —– Either case, the photo will hit the viewer

straight, with the former, facing with overwhelming reality, owe

to the Dharma, the later, with its unknowable field of infinity.

In either case, we just abandon the thinking,  standing alone

naked,  dumbstruck.

This is the Zen Direct transmission. 

[]

Spoooooky !

Last night I was invited to see huge art event somewhere in the south London

though, I can’t give any detail or location.

I only know this installation was created by an artist called Tea.  

—— may be  I can show a bit more photos and the details some time in future.  🙂

As a big event, many familiar faces are there.    And an added surprise, I bumped a man

and a woman after 20 years rasp !    He was yet another disco-king in a local night club

where I was dubbed as ” Dancer  in residents”  😀

And I knew the woman, also in there.   They are married and now they are the mum and

dad of three boys —– It’s 20 years !    (So, they are the people who knows my dancing and

with an admiration to the Japanese spirit, they have chosen the name of their kids  after

Japanese words ! )   —– I like this kind of sheer coincidence, with a smell of spookiness,

which can be described as an intervention of the Karma.  🙂

[]

Orange Blossom

This is a common garden plant / shrub, [ Choisya ternata].  

Commonly known as Mexican Orange Blossom or just Orange blossom.

I don’t think I saw this in Japan when I was a kids —– seemed to came

there in the 70s and I have no idea when this plant came to England.

When I saw this flower first time, I wondered why this one got a name  “Orange”  ? ? ?  

—– Flower looks similar to other Citrus plants though, I haven’t seen its “Orange” like fruits,

not only that, the leaf is completely different. ( Citrus has single leaf, not compound leaf).

Then, I remembered what Professor said = “To distinguish Citrus family is, whether the leaf

has oil-spot or not”,  when I needed to take picture of Japanese [Sanshou] and not mistake it 

with looks very similar plant [Inu-sanshou] (only genuine [Sanshou] has oil-spot on its leaf)  

= like the yellowish small dots on the leaf = on the photo right. 

[]

The oil-spot in Citrus family ( Rutaceae, in exact )  contain typically smelled chemical,

hence they has been used as a seasoning or flavouring  in many countries.   (On this occasion

I looked into Wiki and found that amazing spread of this “Spice” in many many region in the

world but very little in the west ! )

[]

Even in the same [Rutaceae] family, [Sanshou] or more commonly known [Szechuan pepper]

is completely different looks plant ( I never seen it in this country hence, no photo.  — Wiki

got only a photo of the seeds ) — any how, in Japan, [Sanshou] is strangely exclusively used to

serve with eel ( Wu-nagi no Kabayaki  🙂 )  and such as in Thai cooking,  I think their

“Tom-yam” and its distinctive flavour were given by this spice.

[]

The insects, especially the butterflies, their larvae eat exclusively one plant.  

In Japan, Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly only eats this [Sanshou] leaves.  

(And when those larvae of Butterfly was disterbed, they push-out a kind of tentacles out of

their body to spread the concentrated chemical they accumulated from eating the leaves

(and its oil-spot) to repel the attacker.  (The smell is diabolical. It’s a chemical weapon.  😀 )

So that, when I saw Yellow Swallow-tailed Butterfly in this country  (though, only once),

I astonished  ” What a hell,  where the [Sanshou] plant grow in this country ? ? ?”  

—– I wonder is there any Butterfly who eat this  Orange Blossom leaves in this country ? ? ?

[]  

Tatami-Kuyou — Japanese Buddhism ? ? ?

日本初、畳供養＝京都市〔地域〕

　約１０００年にわたって日本人の生活を支える畳に感謝する

「畳供養」が、京都市上京区の浄土宗大本山「清浄華院

（しょうじょうけいん）」で行われた。お 経が唱えられる中、

全国から届けられた１５９１通の「供養したい畳の思い出」や、

畳職人らの願いが込められた１７３枚の「畳の護摩ゴザ」が、

用意された １３０畳分の畳表とともに燃やされた。

主催した全国畳産業振興会などによると、————————————畳の思い出や護摩ゴザを燃やし、畳に感謝する畳供養

畳供養は全国で初めての試み。 ————————————————  ４月２５日、京都市上京区の清浄華院（松本一明撮影）

[]
最近の畳の年間需要量は、１９９４ 年の４６００万畳をピークに減少を続け、２０１３年には１４９０万畳に落ち込んだ。

夏は涼しく、冬は温かいという畳の良さと、長く続く畳文化を次世代に継 承する目的で、畳供養を考えたという。

清浄華院の執事で法務部長の畦昌彦さんは「当たり前のように使っている畳に感謝する気持ちが大切で、毎年開催したい。

畳供養が日本古来の伝統文化を見直すきっかけになってほしい」と話した。

清浄華院は平安時代、清和天皇の勅願で慈覚大師円仁が創建し、８６３年に落成。

法然上人２５霊場の一つとしても知られている。

大殿には２０７畳の畳が敷き 詰められており、畦さんは「畳寺としてより一層、親しみを持ってもらえれば」としている。

（2013/05/07-10:10）  (From Jiji.com = Click the photo for Link)

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I’m not expecting most of you can read Japanese text, but don’t worry

the matter is in the photo. = The photo shows a religious ritual of first ever

Buddhism Service for Japanese Tatami mat, sending its soul to the heaven !

(You know, Tatami mat has its soul too ! = Don’t fart while sitting on it.  :-))

(Yet another PR stunt for Tatami producers and the Temple = any news is a good PR ! )

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The Temple who performed its ritual was a Pure-land Buddhist Temple, —- though,

to look into the photo, a monk conducting it was wearing Singon or Shugen-do

(修験道) style costume. 　 Even more weird was a rope with paper hanging was a

Shime-Nawa (締縄) of Shinto (神道) which indicates sacred area, not mention the rope

on the back, which display off-limit area, Kekkai (結界) = All of them are noting to do

with Pure-land Buddhism. 　

This Situation typified the reality of the Japanese Buddhism.

(So, supposedly a Buddhist goes Shinto Shrine on new-year’s day. :-))

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Most of the people think, the Buddhism is the religion taught by

Lord Buddha, 2500 years ago. —– But in reality, most of the Buddhist’s

scriptures were written after mixed-up with popular cult of Tantrism

(though, being as the local popular belief, Tantrism itself was not a unified solid

region = thousands of Guru had been teaching their own Dogma, while making up his

convenient story) hence, deviated widely, often end-up utterly contrary to original

Lord Buddha’s teachings.

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—– The trouble was, even the old Chinese masters who translated Pali, Sanskrit,

Tibetan scriptures into Chinese, were not aware the situation and real imprecations.  

Even worse to Japanese Masters who founded the Japanese sects by studying those

Chinese scriptures. = This was the reason why the sect, who was not relying on the

literal study but the practice, was able to maintain the original teachings of

Lord Buddha, the most.

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(There was a funny story I’ve read in a Buddhist’s column = a Pure-land sect’s monk

was asked by a follower “Our father has been told to chant the name of Amitaba Buddha

(阿弥陀仏) and he did,  hence he was said to have gone to the Pure-land heaven, if so, why

us, the remaining family needed to have the annual ritual to send his soul to the heaven ?”

—– those annual rituals are the cash-cow of the temples and the monks).

—– still, for a layman, it doesn’t matter, they all looks same.

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何やら畳供養があったとの事ですが，それにしても護摩ｺﾞｻﾞを焚いているのは真言密教，あるいは

修験道の行者，しかも神道の締縄や周囲には結界の縄までが張ってある。

ハテ，このお寺は浄土宗でこのテの事はやらないものでは？

－－－それとも畳にナムアミダは通じないので，もちはもち屋とばかり，

特別に高野山から阿闍利の出張サービスを頼んだとか？ 😀

___/\___

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