ZEN in PRACTICE

There was an interesting experience lately.

A Chairman of an Internet Talking Shop asked me to join their mailing-list to invigorate the activity.

It was a small group of University alumni of which the members used to play a sports together, hence

the members consists of their 30^th to 70~80^th old-boy.

The mailing-list was said to be proposed and set-up by the core member of the group a year ago to

facilitate vibrant communication among the members, as the members live scattered all over the country

over a years, and not necessary knows each other in their different generations.

With a kind of marketing research considerations, I saw the characters of the group and their needs.

I found this is in fact a retired old boy’s talking shop.    Since, younger members are too busy

in their job and the family —– they may not have much leisure time left, and busy talking with

their colleagues etc. So that the real aim is to create the environment for the old members to

exchange and join the conversation.

—–

Zen is a way of the life to live the situation in 100% commitment. (So-called Mindfulness )

When the situation required to ply a role or to carry-out the task, to become the Role itself or

the expert of the task,  and Just Do It,  is the speciality of the Zen.

As my role is to invigorate the conversation, I started to talk as many as possible number of the

members I know before, while inventing all sorts of excuse or pretext of talking piece, in order to draw

them into the forum. Within a month the forum became pretty busy and started to have many new talkers.

As each member has graduated in each faculty and the specialized subject, they got their expert view

and the unique opinion, some time it went pretty deep in its subject and turned  out to be a very interesting

exchange of two different view etc etc. While receiving a congratulation mail from the other side of the

world as this member is working over there, which said “It is a great pleasure to see the forum invigorated

which  I  myself had proposed to set-up”

—–

Journalist ( or Ex-photojournalist precisely ) as I am, I was in certain extent, well suited to the role as I can

deal with many subjects ( like interviewer has to know the subjects, despite every time the subject

could be different ) —– though, the core members who proclaims they set-up the forum started to feel

the forum has been Hijacked by somebody unknown ( since I’ve been out of communication with them

40 years 😀 ).   And they started to say this is not YOUR blog site.  😀

Of cause, to draw somebody into the forum, I had to send the mile and when somebody sent a mail

with unfamiliar subject, still somebody has to answer, and many cases it happened me to reply.

When I gave an answer and sent PS: soon after, it was accused “from the same person, enormous

amount of continuous mail occupying the forum” 😀

It was exactly like a Hen’s chorus in the Animal Farm, even a man who congratulated the

invigorated forum, changed his colour and joined the chorus.   And a funny opinion to design a special

sports shoes talked  by other member which I just responded was still attributed as my fault   😀

When the attack came, it need to hit back like the sword master Musashi was also a Zen master.

But, if this is the situation. That is it.—– I’ve been there to talk not waste the time to argue with.

—–

Zen react to the situation Just as it is, like just handling a small thing, therefore no emotion or

personal interest involved.   As there is no notion of possession ( like, this forum is mine or I AM

the man in charge with )  when the requirement or the situation changes,  the commitment or

duty evaporate at once as if there was no such things ever existed.

—–

This mind-set, Full Commitment but without Emotional Involvement ( Ego, Greed, Arrogance)

and Instant Dissociate with no mind to cringe, is a typical Zen Practice.

( Fundamentally, member of 150 people’s Talking Shop, most of whom I don’t know and 40 years

out of communication, what anyone can expect from them ?    And what to lose by stopping it, if any ?

It is like a chess game on the street cafe table. Once join, still have to use full extent of the brain to win.

Yet it is just for a small fun.  Nothing to gain but nothing to lose.  Just Do it and Just Stop it.

This is the mind-set of the Mushin which respond to the situation which keeps changing.

—– And this is the Zen in Practice in the real life,  not in sitting.

___/\___

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SOCIETY

In the media reports of Japanese Disasters, a peculiarity of Japanese society was shocked the world.

“Why Japanese can keep calm and not express their grief ? “

I explained a back-ground —– their deep embedded Ethos / Fatalism originated from the

Buddhism —– in the previous post.

—–

But there is the another aspect which is even deeper and common to all the human-being.

We human-being is a social animal , we live, and have to live as a member of a society.

We are definitely a descendant of the packed animal like monkey, chimpanzee, not a lone panther.

Hence it is written in our gene, and so-called instincts are programmed accordingly such as the

gripping hand of a baby is to cringe to a mother.

To be a social animal, there is the order of the society and its rules. Any member who couldn’t

comply the rules, will be excluded from its society —– and slow death is the fate.

Where those rules were posted ? Ethos and those social code are not written but kept by the

member, the member themselves are the role-model / manifestation of the rules.

As society is operated by their member who possess the same Ethos and the Rules, and it is

almost the same even generation after generation, all the social activity, social systems are coherent

with the same Ethos. Everything shows the same manifestation and follow the same rules.

This exact coherency can be observed by even a small baby and learned by them and written

down into their subconscious memory. In fact this is the so-called Collective Unconscious.

But this is the case when the society is having universal, coherent system and the Ethos.

Among the member, some might become rebel though, the person is only temporally rebelling

or just behaving the reverse of existing rule —– nothing new just a reverse.

But when the population who is possessing fundamentally different Ethos, moved into other society,

it start to show completely different situation.

In metaphor, when non-thieving society received considerable size of thieving group, the Ethos of

both societies break down. ( Even thieving society and their way of life having their own strict rules,

taboo, who to steal or who is the senior thieves and the violent punishment who break its rules )

A kids of Non-thieving society learn the thieving, and a kids of Thieving society learn to

escape a punishment claiming his Human right 😀

Everything break down and only Ego exposed.

A baby start to see two conflicting systems and the rules, hence unable to figure out what is the Ethos of

the Society —– there couldn’t be a Collective Unconscious but just an attitude of

convenient cherry picking of excuse and the knowledge of “How to avoid “ —– it’s mean avoid

to be a member of the society. In fact there is no longer a society and its integrity exists.

—–

Fortunately ( or unfortunately ? ) Japanese society still maintain themselves as a society,

as foreign element is still negligible, even an outcast group Yakuza responded to the disaster, with

hundreds of truck load of relief supply delivered to the evacuated people.

Even though Yakuza were branded as the criminal organization, they are undoubtedly nobody else of

Japanese, and a part of the same society, hence share the same compassion and the sense of duty.

—– simply because, they grown up in the same society ( Even Yakuza was once an innocent

small boy,as you know 😀 ) hence build up the same Ethos as a Japanese.

—-

In reality, to make a baby to a Japanese, other than the teachings in a school and the family and the

circulating popular culture, such as everybody should have the same gadget and ware same kind (well

some pre-classified types) of fashion, there is a hidden secret of social pressure to a person

to conform the social code.

It is more akin to the chorus of the hen in the Animal Farm. When this chorus starts, even a person

who has been saying different opinion suddenly changes the colour and join a chorus, the louder the better.

This is a moment to a person to assess what is the majority and join them.

When the majority is behaving in a certain way, just do the same. To remain within the same group

and the society is the imperative in Japan. Whether it is true or not, right or wrong, just go with them.

So that, when nobody is crying –its mean, no-one should cry. The unwritten code says “Mittomonai

( It looks disorderly, and embarrassing ) “ Anybody brake-off from here, there is a danger to be ostracised.

As a result, everybody looks calm on the TV.

—

Funny side-effect of this conformative society is, as the expectation and the imaginary eligibility

of a man is fixed, such as socially acceptable income and the status etc, under the stagnated

Japanese economy, most of the ordinary man is no longer regarded to fit to marry —– hence

so many people are forced to stay single. ( A research found that among the eligible age-group,

only 6 % of men were regarded to fit the expectation of the woman, its mean, if a woman marry

other than rare 6 % , she will face a humiliation, a chorus of “Mittomonai”.)

—

When no dominant voice led the chorus, hens couldn’t know what to do.

Strangely, they still knows when somebody start to show up with unconformative opinion, they

overwhelm the opinion with their noisy chorus and suppress it. Therefore no fresh innovative idea

(other than imaginative Manga story) nor strong decisive idea coming out of Japan.

This is the situation in Japanese politics too.

Therefore, when they faced a crisis of Nuclear accident, they only try to avoid the Japanese public

fallen into a “Mittomonai” panic, by pretending nothing serious happened, thus do-nothing —-take

an emergency measure itself looks “Mittomonai”—– until it’s actually exploded.

Then everything got too late to take any measure. —– though, a criticism like this will be seen by a Japanese

as an act to expose “Mittomonai”Japan, hence has to be suppressed —-> So that , there wouldn’t be any

“Mittomonai”situation, therefore, able to keep calm face. Face is more important than the safety.

Beautiful isn’t it ?

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