Perpetual Cherry in Full-Bloom !

This is the same Cherry tree appeared 4 times before in this blog  ! —– because of her

very unusual character = flowering all through the year ! 

(Obviously, her internal clock is also working normal.)

As in the real season, she is now in full bloom, and I’m so glad to see her full dress-up.

So, I guess this might be the same feeling of seeing a daughter in her wedding dress.  🙂

(Though, I have no child, it is only a guess.)

When the nature is in its full bloom, that is where their beauty lies. 

We may not need to add any further decoration. =

straight shot, which shows just what it is, might be all we need to do.   —– still, I’m

thinking to make yet another attempt of pinhole photo or double-exposure kind.

(Before flower finish, and a calm, no wind weather permitted ! )

It is not for the sake of the beauty of the flower but the sake of soft-focus photography.  

It’s my Ego, Sir.     Ha ha ha   😀

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Machine in MUSHIN — Where KAIZEN came from ?

The people who read the previous Post [Zen is DO —- ] feed me back

“It explained the Zen mechanism extremely clear, — then the question is,

you wrote Zen also liberate the mind and the creativity — How a

Machine like mind can have a creative idea in the same time ?”

—– I knew this question would come soon or later. 🙂

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A Japanese working practice called [Kaizen] (改善) is now even in the English dictionary

(but not in this spell-check yet. :-)) = It was translated “continuous improvement”which is

widely practiced in the Japanese work-front.

Japanese worker’s almost machine like accuracy, consistency and the

dedication toward their work is notorious to the west. = Their work ethics

is nothing but the traditional  Zen  which forms the basis of the Japanese

psyche.  = Hence, they work like a machine = in Mushin.

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But, to have [Kaizen] is yet another feature on their work-front.   [Kaizen] is, to have

better adjustment of the way of production to a modification of the machine, even a

production line’s configuration —– in fact anything, for the sake of better quality,

productivity, or for the safety of the working environment, which was conceived or found

by the workers who has been doing particular job. (Hence knows it best.)

If its adjustment is not too big, it could be done by themselves. Otherwise the modification

may be carried out by the expert engineer, who follows the proposal. (of cause, proposal

should be studied by the senior engineers first, or even management level discussion.

I’ve seen this process in the Honda factory in Suzuka by myself.)

—– So, machine-like worker is still capable to analyse the situation and

able to find the better adjustment or alternative approach.

This is a proof of “Machine-like Mushin” and “Open-minded free thinking”

can exists side by side, in the same time.

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As a matter of fact, to create the Samurai Sword, and to push its quality to

a level of the technical limit has been achieved by the endless efforts to work

better, hence make the Sword stronger. —– It’s mean a man-machine with

a hammer, work in Mushin still has the eyes and an active brain to analyse

and find the better approach.

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Being in Mushin, hence having no useless thought or a thought anything else

of the work-on-front, mean the mind is completely filled with the subject

—– say, the Sword-Making. = Zen described this

“the Sword Master is in Ichijo (Oneness) with Iron and a Fire”

—– (a western (a bit wrong) translation in “Mindfulness”)

Still, the hands are working exactly like a machine, perfect accuracy and the consistency

thanks to the perfectly programmed Motor-region of the brain.

Superficially, we calls it Mushin because of no conscious thinking is there,

instead we do it without conscious, so, the brain is not blanc or idle, far

from it, unconsciously the brain is working with full conviction.

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While walking on a street, we never consciously think how to move each foot.

Because the whole movements and to keep the balance of whole body has been perfectly

controlled by the Motor-region of the brain, like the most advanced self contained machine.

While leaving its walking business to the autonomous machine, we can have a freedom for

watching nice bottom etc or pay attention to traffic, even find a philosophical answer.

Likewise, while Sword-Maser hitting the iron, even if the hands moves

automatic, his eyes can see the minute details of the work-piece. = any

short-coming should be noticed.    As, all the process were handled

subconsciously, this minute detail were observed in the at-most silence of the

perception.  Any noise, useless brain activities would mask this minute sign.

= The matter is, to open this subconscious perception by eliminates the noise.

Lord Buddha called this Clear eyes.

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If you take the meaning of Mushin as just [empty the THINKING]  you miss

the part, concentration of your subconsciousness = Mindfulness.

(In fact, Mushin and Mindfulness are not separate notion or psychological phenomenon =

those are just different words.)   Because of subconsciousness is invisible, it is impossible to

objectively manipulate, or discuss in words, let alone to teach others.

(remember, how to learn to ride a Bicycle.  🙂 )

This is the reason why Buddhism, Zen teaches the people by the repeating practice.  Unless

you learn and become able to follow this subconscious mechanism, you can’t learn Zen.

And that is why, talking or reading about Zen is utterly useless. 

Only the way to experience and to learn is by Doing.

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Crucial point in Doing is, unlike imagining or having fantasy, to find a way of

improvement, it got to be rational and technically feasible = even an intuitive

idea, it never be mambo-jumbo, but quite scientific.  No body imagining that to

sprinkle a holy water from a church could solve a malfunction of the machine.

Even in the darkness of subconscious, our mind is very rational and sane.

(Well, in most of the case, among most of the people.   😀 )

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So, let this subconscious to see, listen and perceive = as this perception is

completely open, therefore, able to see almost invisible, inaudible = we

can see the better solution.    Or conceive the idea, which has been blocked

by the idiosyncratic thinking.   This is the liberation of the Mind, in Zen.

= And this is the mechanism behind the creativity or  [Kaizen].

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Zen is DO — NOT sitting Idol

Life was not made by what the one (wishfully) think (most of the thinkings

are to find a justification, excuse) but by the deed, what the one did and

do on the moment.

It is the matter of how to deal with the situation.   The situation shows what to DO.

We only need actually DO. When the situation forced us to respond, in most of the case

it is not our choice but the MUST = hence we have to DO unconditionally = and very

little chance to indulge with own EGO = in other words, be in SELFLESS.

We become almost a machine to carry-out the task. —– This is in fact,

what the Zen is.   Zen is not a fancy mind-game.

It is the systematized clarification and the direction of what and how

we have to DO, and to live.

So that, to follow the way how to make a tea could be a Zen. How to fight with a sword

could be a Zen too. —– Found a Cherry blossom, and to try a “Why not” kind of

approach to shoot, and struggle to DO it, is also a Zen. Ha ha ha 😀

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— Who said, Zen is to sitting and meditate = meditate in Mushin ?  Joking.

All the Indian religion takes Meditation as a traditional practice though, do nothing and

sitting is not a Zen. (Such as Yoga Meditation is said to be aiming to have a harmony

with the soul of the universe = to fuse one’s Atman to Brahman.  Though

Lord Buddha himself denied very existence of such Atman.)

So, the idea of Zen Meditation must be invented by very lazy monk to excuse his work.

—– “Don’t be lazy, do something”   “Yes, I’m busy sitting” !   😀

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—– Do something in Mushin will increase the efficiency of the work,

therefore able to achieve more productive life.

In contrast, Do nothing and in Mushin mean Body is idol, the Brain is empty,

it’s just a rug-doll isn’t it ?  Still the Mind is wishfully believing, such practice

could make the person “noble” and reaching to higher consciousness (Really?)

Isn’t it strange ? If it was Buddhism, the Mind supposed to be empty, yet still

having such wishful thinking is a self contradiction.

It is nothing but a delusion. 😀 😀 )

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Zen is to grasp the situation and clearly see what the task on front.

And carry-out its task without any quibble or hindrance

as if nothing else is on the table.

With a clear awareness, that no-one-else would do on my behalf, and no-one

but myself can do, kind of confidence and the determination.

And DO it as if it is the only and the last chance to DO in the whole life —–

to a task, even if it is yet another daily chore.

—– Sound very heavy isn’t it ?   Though, there is a knack, to make it so easy,

just DO it in Mushin.

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= When you face its task straight, there is nothing else you can conceive,

because there is no thinking of alternative, or escape, hope of help from

others, even a notion of next-time, because of Mushin.

Since, the task was carried-out almost machine like accuracy and the efficiency, it will be

cleared without having even a time to have a complaint, therefore, what you feel is

only a sense of achievement and a satisfaction. =

Having a sense of fulfilment and relaxed peace.

This is the Zen.   Having the life all through with this sense of fulfillment

and the satisfaction, on the very end, what can you complain ? =

There only be a peaceful Nirvana.

—– This is the Buddhism of what

Lord Buddha taught.

___/\___

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Soft Effect by Double-Exposure = Cherry Blossom

This is yet another attempt to create an effect of  “Fire-fly floating in the air”  like image in the

Cherry blossom photo.  I think, this technique is better than Vaseline on the fish-eye lens  🙂

Cherry tree is the same one as before but after few days, it’s having more flowers.  

And the photography was done by double exposure with flashlight while changing the

focus and F-aperture.   (Hence, large halo of bokhe appeared around the center image.)

(Once, this technique was used by Minolta in their Portrait Mode by shifting the focus

during the exposure,  in order to give a soft effect )

This photo was in fact the first attempt with primary lens  (Canon EF 20 mm F2.8) ——

The trouble in double exposure while changing the focus is = the size of images also change. 

Hence, the off-focused image radially spread out of focused image.  = To compensate this,

I used the Zoom Lens (Canon EF 24~70 mm F2.8) so that, top two (it’s the same photo but just

clopped) photos, focused image and off-focused image was not exactly the same focal length.

—– it’s a nightmarish operation = to remember the same size on the view-finder,  yet still

a devil wind blow the flowers off position etc etc.  😀  😀

So, it was a fun with a lots of unpredictable elements and human-error.   

Life is a fun in deed.   Ha ha ha  😀

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Spy-Chips in a Net-Device

Past ten years or so, for my connection to the Internet, I’ve used most of the provider next

by next. = In another words, those provider gave me more trouble than a satisfying service.

The one gave me hidden charge, the another gave me double charge from their internal two

accounting system.   And another’s connection was so unreliable, or another’s setting has been

kept changing again and again which seemingly pressurised me to call their engineer to

sort out the problem with extortionately high charge. (= It’s their way to make money)

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And there seems a tendency, if the provider’s program is in the computer, it try to

connect even their device is not there, then if new device and its program try to connect,

a message appeared “Another device is using the connection, please set us as a default”

—– so that, I accustomed to remove the program of the old device.

So far it has been worked well except [Three G] = When I dis-installed / removed

their driver program, one file was stubbornly refused to go.

I thought it was a kind of their Ego to keep showing their foot print with their logo.

—– Though, few months later when I try to remove it again   (photo above)

When I clicked “Remove” a small window appeared which is in fact list of my selected documents.

=  It seems, if I remove this last remaining [Three G] file, all those files of my document could be

deleted as the elements of [Three G] file.

—– So, to avoid the risk, I had to abandon the attempt to remove [Three G] file.

= Then I realized that this must be the conspiracy which American Government,

Defense Authorities has warned, “As a risk of espionage had been

pre-programmed in the Chinese communication-chips —– Don’t use them”.

And they are quite serious = to an application of Japanese communication giant Soft Bank to

buy American communication company, American government gave a condition

“Provided, not to use Chinese equipment for the Mob-Phone Business”.

—– (If I connect my old computer to Internet, my files could be automatically

sent-out to Espionage Head quarter where tens of the thousands of their staffs

filtering millions of files from all over the world, to seek gold-dust. It is an

opportunist’s blanket theft.  To stumble good file, it would make a good sale.

Otherwise, why list of my documents needed to appear as the files of [Three G] =

I shouldn’t connect my old computer to the Net, unless I copy and remove

all of my files before-hand. —– Even though, there is no valuable file.  😀 )

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Pre-programmed spy-chip seems really existing, and it could be in your

net-device as well.

(My [Three G] Internet USB dongle was made by Huawei and the another

company the American has named was ZTE = both Chinese companies said to

be working with Chinese Army Intelligence Unit)

—– it’s another seriously rotten world.   😦

(Among the readers, any body knows about this matter, please put a comment here)

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Decoding the Human Dream

There is a very interesting report in the SCIENCE Magazine, that the

Japanese researchers had successfully decoded the man’s Dream.

(In fact, I’ve read the article in the Japanese news though, to save a work of translation

I quote the Abstract in the on-line magazine, of which you can see its original in this link.)

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[ Visual imagery during sleep has long been a topic of persistent speculation,

but its private nature has hampered objective analysis. Here, we present a

neural decoding approach in which machine learning models predict the

contents of visual imagery during the sleep onset period given measured

brain activity, by discovering links between human fMRI patterns and

verbal reports with the assistance of lexical and image databases.

Decoding models trained on stimulus-induced brain activity in visual

cortical areas showed accurate classification, detection, and identification

of contents. Our findings demonstrate that specific visual experience

during sleep is represented by brain activity patterns shared by stimulus

perception, providing a means to uncover subjective contents of dreaming

using objective neural measurement. ]

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The actual studies were to match MRI patterns during the dream (of cause, while sleeping)

to the patterns when the volunteer actually seeing the photographic image of each objects.

Hence, when the same pattern appeared while sleeping, the image in the

dream should be the same object which the volunteer could tell.

And this test has been repeated 200~250 times on the 3 volunteers. —– I guess, those

volunteers must be very very patient to be a guinea-pig who was asked to SLEEP and

DREAM while wearing the helmet with electrodes as well !

What a nightmarish pains-taking experiments !   (While sleeping, the MRI live image was

observed and when dreaming brain activity was detected, the volunteer was wake-up

and asked what was in the dream. = Once the cohesive consistency was established,

observer can tell what was in the dream, before volunteer reviled the contents. )

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After all, virtually all the brain activities are in the business of matching

the pattern.   Cognition mean capture the pattern.   Then matching its pattern through

categorization to lexical pattern. = Thence, we can process it in the pattern of word.

If its pattern matches to the knowledge or existing memory pattern, we say

understand.   And if it matches the pattern what we deduced from other

pattern, in logical process or inference, we say comprehend.

So, the same pattern of stimulus trigger the same pattern of reaction = hence consistency

maintained.  (If expected amount of oxygen doesn’t come = pattern was broken, we die.  🙂 )

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Pattern of brain activities doesn’t necessary to be a visual objects. It can be a word or even

a notion.   So that, in near future, human mind could be peeked or even spied rather fancy way.

Only a trouble I see is, existence of particular visual pattern such as car or mountain doesn’t

define any meaning.   Same image could appear in totally opposite context.

Even if I saw Osama bin Laden in the dream and it was detected —– it doesn’t mean I’m a

terrorist.   Far from it, in the dream, I could be a soldier chasing him. 😀

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So, it is not much different from an Access Pass-word by Pr-registered Finger-print Pattern or

Voice Pattern kind.   It is still long way from meaningful practical application

to decipher human mind though, it’s definitely a start.

(To discover general = common to any body’s brain activity Pattern is crucial)

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Soft Focus Fisheye Images — Early Cherry Blossom

This Cherry opens its flowers much early than most of the others (Somei-yoshino variety),

so that, I think this is the Yama-zakura (Mountain Cherry) which is the same variety, 

I posted the photos before as [ Early Cherry Blossom ],  last year.

I wanted to photograph this flowers like fire-fly floating in the air.  Hence, use of  soft focus lens,

and a flash-light under the dim evening sky.   So, I put soft filter onto my Fish-eye lens though,

the effect was not enough. = I may need to try again with different tactics.  🙂

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Soft Focus Fisheye Image

My quest to the soft image, I tried a kind of soft  filter  onto my fish-eye lens.

= In fact, it was like a Vaseline on the lens and it was aimed to take photo of Cherry Blossom,

which you will see in the next post.

I think it wasn’t too bad.  I like double-density pinhole more though, pinhole on DSLR

wouldn’t give us wide angle image, so, this make-shift filter is a temporally alternative.

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Buddhism = Science

—————————————————————- ( Buddha 2009 )

While giving a thought to the well known established notions in the Buddhism, after

Lord Buddha’s teachings, such as “See the things in Clear eyes” “Detachment”

even “Selfless mind” then “Don’t believe, but Think yourself” and the fact that

Lord Buddha did ignore the question which was beyond our scope (unknowable),

such as what about the after-life or what is the structure of the universe.

(Stark contrast to other so-called Guru who pretend to know by telling the made-up stories.

—– Who does ever know about the next life or heaven or hell, not mention perpetual soul.)

= I realized, isn’t this, What the Science is ?    Or the attitude to be a Scientist.

When Enlightened man told the truth, he dare to tell groundless story.

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“Right thinking” meant to be nothing other than a Rational thinking.

See the things with Clear Eyes meant to be “See the FACT”, and “Think

YOURSELF” meant, it shouldn’t be any enigmatic special belief but the

Truth which can be comprehensible in anyone’s rational thinking.

As all the factual phenomenon follows the rationalism, anybody knows,

Nothing appeared from nothing.   Nothing happens without cause.

—– Based on the facts, and with the way to observe and analyse it in

strictly objective and rational way, then deduce the truth, is THE Science.

In this process, there shouldn’t be ANY bias of personal thinking, judgement,

preference or special belief = it got to be absolutely Detached from the SELF.

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Truth is independent from any person, let alone anyone’s Fantasy. =

Whether you believe or not, it’s there. —– This is the Science and what

Lord Buddha taught.   (Yet still he was aware of notoriously unreliable our

perception, he spent great deal of his teachings to deal with this matter and

found a technique to eliminates the cause by way of the practice which lead

a person’s mind to a state of  Mushin.) =(This is the core of the Buddhism)

Therefore, if there is so-called Buddhist’s teaching which say anything other than a fact

and beyond the rational comprehension, it is not his original teaching. (Only a problem was,

in this world (in the Dharma) there still be the Unknowable exists.  There is a sect called

Tantra has been trying to deal with it without any tangible answer —– If they could give

any reliable result, they could have been employed by the Pentagon or Russian KGB though,

on the history, deeply spiritual noble “Third eye” which said to be in contact with the Dharma,

still not able to predict such as Earthquake even a single occasion. = If science can’t handle nor

Buddhism can.)  So that, any fancy stories were later invention only to glorify Buddhism.

Buddhism is to Enlighten a person, beyond the personal Life and one’s Mind is out of scope.

What Lord Buddha taught was, how to get clear eyes to see the truth in the life

by get rid of the dubious belief and the delusion, by emptying the mind

(get Mushin), not to trap into yet another dogma.    Dogma is not a Science.

Truth is like a dry skeleton, it has no decoration. —– and needn’t to be. 😀

(This is why my Buddha 2009 is bare minimal skeleton and the head is a clear

void which reflects the Wheel of the Life.  And the heat keep moves its pattern

continuously = never stay the same = This shows what the Dharma is.)

___/\___

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Still Blooming = Perpetual Cherry

This is the same Cherry tree,  I’ve shown you three times before, but always out of season.

Last time, it was a month ago.   And since then it kept blooming without a brake.

In order to highlight the flowers,  this time I photographed her with flashlight.   🙂

But for the reference, the photo above, center is without flash.  And right photo is another

ordinary cherry tree which shows no sign of flower yet — may be takes another 2 weeks ?.

This tree never in full bloom still,  always some (20% ?) = so far, continuously blooming

since last October,  November.  —– Now, the end of March, its mean even Kan-zakura

(Winter Cherry) is in the end of the season.  = in other words, this tree is different from

any other variety = This is the Perpetual Type ?  🙂  — Beyond this time, I should keep

watch how this tree does in the Summer. (I should have done it in the last Summer.) 

As you might noticed,  I was totally fascinated by this Cherry tree.  😀

What caused her to keep blooming continuously ?  (It’s not weather or sunlight.  So, What ? )

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PS:  Now in the middle of April, this Cherry is in full bloom.  🙂

More photos and the comment on this post.

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