Zen in Action (3) — Latent Thinking

At moment, I’m in chaos of shifting the mountain of boxes again. Some of the regular readers

may remember, I said the same before, though it was for fitting new window but this time it

is for electric re-wiring. It’s mean, I have to shift those to the window-side to vacate the

wall-side for the electrician to access all the power-points, switches etc. (I’m not happy at all.

= so-called Electric safety standard has been changed and they say all the system has to be

kept-up, blah blah = keep industry busy to make money, but I’m dubious about

why the contract has gone to this company.)

So that, fortunately or unfortunately, I had to dig-up the boxes berried to the bottom which

I haven’t seen since when I moved to here.

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In common-sense, people only has what is essential to the own immediate life, the essential

for the daily life. —– ideally a Buddhist remained in their bare minimum though it’s the matter

of how the person define who he is = a Buddhist bikku (literally a beggar who forsaken all his

possession for a sake of seeking the truth) may needed to have one cloth to cover his body and

one bowl to receive food (then to drink, and take a water to wash himself etc.)

—– in this context when I found that the followers of

Lord Buddha had umbrella, I was very surprised (let alone the umbrella had been already

invented then ! —– this sort of analysis would lead to see the timing when Agama Sutras was

written, or its authenticity.)

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In fine day, still carry an umbrella for if it starts a rain, or carry a bowl in case if anybody

offer a food are all in the speculation (may happen but not on that moment) = in other words,

it’s only in the mind.     I wonder what Lord Buddha instructed to this matter to his followers ?

So, the teaching of “Live in the Moment” include the situation “Could happen next moment” too.

So, I carry a mountain of material to make something which could happen in any moment. 😀

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Don’t cling to your thought but leave the matter to the Dharma (occurrence of the Karma).

This “thought” meant be a kind of thinking we are doing in lingual form. —– as a matter of fact,

as Neuroscientists found that 90% of our thinking has been done subconsciously without convert

it to the lingual form. Even when we are in Mushin and totally occupied by one action, our Brain

is still in full working state unless we choose to have meditative state.

This “subconscious thinking” is no other than what we call [intuition], [hunch], and often giving

an [insight], or [inspiration] and those are the very “Latent Thinkings”.

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In comparison, what we learned in lingual form such as somebody’s words or what we learned

from the books will stay as the lingual memories.

We can say “I understood” is in fact, lexical understanding of an abstract notion of the word and

its meanings but not what it is in practice.

But what we experienced and learned in real life always carries the tag of emotion yet this

emotion is very difficult to convert and express in the words, because the tag in the emotion is

a part of the said “Latent Thinkings”.     In most of the case, lingual memory stay like a distant

objects and not necessary relate to the emotion hence, it is not necessary takes a part

in the “Latent Thinkings”.

The words “Be careful, it’ll bite you” stay as the words until after you were actually bitten =

Then, it will be imprinted into your subconscious with a pain, and “Be careful” become part of

your “Latent Thinking”.

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This is the very reason why actual practice or experience is so important to our life, and what

Lord Buddha said “Don’t believe  what others said but think yourself”

(better still through experiences).

—— (One of my Kinetic Sculpture “Cupidon / Archer” which was made mostly discarded material

—— I’ve picked-up, such as aluminium angles etc.  Except an Air-pomp (yellow one) I bought.  

—— The motor came from a Cooling-fan ) (Moving image is in youtube —> Click right column)

—– through experiences since my childhood, I knew, such as an aluminium angle is so useful

to make a structure, or such as a discarded printer contain very useful motor etc. = I collected

and stashed them in my room = hence made mountains of junks. So, when like this unexpected

situation occurs, I have to work hard to shift the boxes.

—– bad still, it’s an unusually hot summer.

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Folded Bag

I got notoriously bad (or very good = depend on how you see it) habit to picking-up something

interesting on the street or from a rubbish-dump.   It could be a discarded electric device or a

part of machine of which I’ve been looking for years, or something useful in my future projects.

(Sculpture featured in this blog, [Buddha 2009] was made by the discarded aluminum pipes,

kinetic piece [Cupidon] in my Youtube (kinetorori) is powered by a motor from a cooling-fan

I found road side and the motors rotating [Virtual Woman] came from Micro-wave Cooker, not

to mention a nude figure [Suppon-pon]  😀  😀

Virtually everything, but few exceptions were such as Chinese Toys I bought for £1  :-))

In order to carry it back, I always have some spare bag stashed in my pocket or

in my back-pack. —– may be three bags in the back-pack, one or two in my jacket’s pocket.

It’s the same idea to a motto of the Boy Scout “ Be Prepared” 😀

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To stash a plastic bag, they got to be neatly folded like the one in the photo.

In one occasion, when we Japanese friends went to a park and try sitting there, we noticed that

the ground was a bit wet.   So I handed my bags to those friends to sit on it.

Among those friends there were young women and one of them screamed

“Oh dear, it’s folded”.

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—– Now-a-day, statistics showed that about 20% of male population in Japan chooses not to

marry. —– Everything become very easy to carry-out the daily life without having a wife.

Just heat-up a pack of pre-cooked meal using a microwave-cooker in a Convenient-store.

—– Even a convenient Sex is available everywhere whether it was paid or not.

Those kind of conveniences may be more expensive though, on the end, the total cost would

be less than to have a wife, not mention able to avoid the troubles comes with marriage, hence

in average, the number of kids is less than two = reducing the population further.  (Of cause,

the life is not just a matter of cost. —– but this is the situation there.   Which caused the

other is a point of argument though, I don’t think Packed food was the cause of single man  :-D)

= in obvious consequence, the counter-part, women had to face this situation.

—– So that, there are lots of Magazine articles, Net advices, how to find a man to get marry

and what point to look at. = Good sign and the sign of the man, better avoid.

—– A kind of Psychological profile said, better not to chose a man who fuss about principles,

tidiness, cleanness etc. = “He would make your life in Hell while complaining your laziness”.

—– So that, a young woman cried (implying, I can’t take care of this sort) 😀

(So does, some can fold an umbrella neatly but others not, saying “Anyway it has to be open on

the next rain, why bother” = If this is the rhetoric, we don’t need to bother the life

or happiness because anyhow we will die soon or later. = it’s a choice)

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To folding a bag may not takes more than a minute and not much skill is needed

though, it need to have a certain mind-set. 

It’s a mind-set aiming it better or ultimately a perfection.

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A bag photographed here came from a Chinese Food-shop when I bought a bag of rice, may

be 6 months ago.   It’s mean this bag has been used to carry a shopping repeatedly 6 months

(and folded again.)   And it is an essential item needed to do a shopping such as in the Lidl who

doesn’t give a free bag. —– Financially, I may not be much rewarded to have own bag

though, the matter is not to save a couple of pounds in total but, I don’t like to carry their bag

which is showing too conspicuous logo 😀   Anyhow, we are getting too many bags on shopping

such as when we buy loose vegetables etc.   Too much already, and the situation is bad enough.

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To fold a bag is a way of  Zen.   Whether it has any merit or not, leave a bag in a

messy state is messy. Why not to make it a bit tidy.

Why spend a minutes ? —– if not, could we ever utilize that minute for

anything more productive in the life ? —– I quite doubt it.

A person, even wouldn’t bother to fold a bag couldn’t pay enough attention to the life.

(But, don’t ask me, “By folding the bag, why I didn’t become a millionaire or Prim-minister ?”

= it’s a matter of another mind-set.  Aiming to become millionaire need to take care of million

more factors, not just for one bag.   Folding a bag is only a start.  😀 )

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Zen only deals with its moment. = When see an empty bag => Do something = the best

is to fold and put it in a pocket. — When a moment which need to use a bag comes, just use it.

But not to walk on a street expecting to find something to pick-up.  When it comes, it has come.

—– though, no fixed obligation to pick it up. 

(But if you interested in, pick up at once = When you go back next day,  it’s gone already   🙂 )

= Zen decision has to be made on its each moment. (On its moment, the existence of

spare-bag was known to subconscious, hence to conceive [pick it up] was a viable choice. 

And why you were interested in was, because your subconscious knew that you need it.

= no need to dither like “I want to pick it up, but how to carry this back or not to pick up ?”

= ( having a bag increased the flexibility of this decision making  😀 )

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After awhile, the accumulated “Folded bags” became bag-full, and got to go for recycle =

recycling people might think “What a waste of the time. Why this guy didn’t just put them

straight to the bag ? Otherwise, he could have used the time more productively” 😀

—– It comes down to a mind-set of the Life. = To live tidy life is a life, still

live in a mess is also a life. = We can chose as we like. The matter is,

to know, which ever we chose, the consequence do comes accordingly.

(The troubled consequence of my habit is, the junk I’ve picked-up became a mountain =

“one day I’ll create something out of this junk” might be a wish-full thinking or

delusion = a curse to live as a kinetic sculptor.   Ha ha ha 😀 )

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CUPIDON by KINETORORI

Well,  KINETORORI is my Email name.  As  Youtube  is now own by  Google,  to have an account there I

needed to use the same User name.  (This is to avoid Spam and Fraud. —— it’s no use to defraud fake person)

———————

On the time of Rickshaw Gallery Exhibition,  I’ve shot video image of my work / Cupidon.  And I was going

to put it to this blog though met some technical complication.  I found it is easier to put it into Youtube first

and embed its URL into this blog.

But,  when I put it to Youtube,  the URL appeared as —– http://~~~_0518Q_AZ-o   (you can see this on top

of the screen,  and about this number,  please refer to a post  “ Is Dharma Directing Us ? “ )

I was shocked  ” Oh dear,  Buddha seemed to hate this ”

—— so,  instead,  I put still photo above which doesn’t blow-up condom. 😀

(If you click a link,  you may see the moving image and URL in there )

——————–

Then  next morning,  I saw some junk mails and one of them was from UNISEF asking  support to help

children in Africa.   And I noticed their phone number is  0800 158 3694.  And I felt again  ” Oh dear ”  but

this time I took this sign to  ” I should do the donation to them “.

How the same group of the number  8150 making Positive or Negative response ?

It is in the subconscious intuition.

It would be OK for the Cupidon to blow-up condom at an Art Exhibition as the visitors may not connect the

piece and maker to the Zen Buddhism  😀

Though this blog is about Zen Buddhism.   The same joke would seemed gone too far, therefore it was a halt.

If we were notified  ” I’m watching you ” it’s even herder to go against the common sense. (Be a good boy  🙂 )

———————–

The Exhibition at Rickshaw Gallery was happened just as a coincidence as I met the owner of Gallery at

the Royal British Sculptor’s Society.   Then at the Private View of Rickshaw Gallery,  I met the owner of

another Gallery / Unit-24, just round a corner of the Tate Modern , and she invited me to exhibit in her Gallery.

Everything has happened just as a sheer coincidence,  but what so ever,if I were invited,  I just accept and

deliver at my best  (Most of my works are pretty jokey,  so, they may not necessary an Art which I don’t care

—– still definitely they make the people to smile and they like good joke.)

May be Buddha likes me to make people smile,  it would be a cool breeze in this harsh Samsara,

hence he is making those coincidences.

So, just be here natural as we are.   And follow the natural flow of occurrence.

Don’t think too much and struggle.

Its good to be a Buddhist.  Don’t you agree ?  

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