Self — Subconsciousness

With the incredible advancement of the technology, medical science etc, now we are becoming aware what is the Self in totally different aspect. (Though, those stories were based on the net news, Youtube kind = second, third source.  Take this lightly.)

With the forefront study of the monocular biology and the brain science using MRI kind of scanning = observing the activity of the brain, in relation to the internal flora of the bacteria, virus, even the parasite in our guts, are becoming clear. —— Why guts and the brain is linked ? you may say, = those organism in our guts are making many chemicals and those are circulating in our blood and reaching, affecting the brain, and the emotion, even high level decision-making and the behavior pattern.

You might heard the story of the parasite who manipulates the brain of ant to go top of a grass, in order to be eaten by a sheep, then lay their eggs there and it will be spread by the sheep’s droppings then go into the ant again = So, this cycle will be repeated and continues. —– those organisms can produce quite sophisticated chemicals, enzymes which can manipulate even our brain’s thinking and the emotion.  Though, who designed this incredible system is nothing but THE mystery.

Our mood, emotion which affects our thinking, behavior could easily be influenced by those chemicals, brain transmitters, hormones. (Though, we may not know what IS the condition of “Without” = co-havitating bacteria and its chemicals could be the NORM of our existence.) = Remember, “Mitochondria” in our body-cells, they are in fact, just co-havitating foreign organism = we didn’t create them = they got their own DNA !

Long since, we human has been using the term / words, such as Guts Feeling, Intuition etc = we can not clearly know but only vaguely feel the effect, the invisible influence or resulting deep mind, which we call “Subconsciousness” —– IS in reality, a result of the balance of the neuro hormones include the chemicals from those bacteria, parasite, and not much to do with spirituality.  So, true Self could be a product of the bacteria or parasite you are harboring in your guts.  Sound great isn’t it ?    😀

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Reverse Engineering of ZEN

As I often wrote before, my approach to Zen Buddhism is a

way of reverse-engineering = disassembling a product to

analyse the structure and components etc. to find the reason

why it was designed in such a way, for what purpose and for

what advantage.

Then able to see even a philosophy behind of it.

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In a case of Zen, to see what sort of practice in such as

Tea-making or Martial-art etc. which were well known to be

a part of Zen culture, and see what is the common factor and

common philosophy, how they are related to Zen teachings.

—– from those observation, it was

easy to see that the key-word was the [Mushin], and

to attain, it was achieved by the years of repeated practice.

—– But, what repeated practice to do with [Mushin] ?

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For me, it took many years of search until I connected it to

the neurological phenomenon, which is the threshold of the

perception rose against the same repeated signal, and

become immune to it.

It was almost an Eureka moment to me. —– With this,

how the emotional tension decay after while, or how we get

used and overcome a fear, even become apathetic, all became

clear and able to make straight connection to the Zen.

Then, I realized that this is the reason why all the Buddhism

sects are using the endless repeating practice as a part of their

teachings.  (whether chanting the same or banging the drum,

walking round and round etc etc —–

Lord Buddha said to have used the way of breathing as a practice)

—– All for getting the state of [Mushin]. —– And I realized

that the continuous action such as cutting the log in a mountain

shelter, or even Disco-dancing which automatically reflect to each

element of music I did, had in deed having had the same effects.

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Mushin is not only to abandon the thinking process

but more importantly, it disconnects perception 

(coming signal) to the emotion. = This is exactly what

Buddhism says [Detachment] which is behind the

[8 Right path]. (I wouldn’t presume that, it included a

Disco-dancing though. 😀 )

And as a neurological fact, detached emotion cause a

detachment even from a conscious of Self and the own belongings.

= Detachment from primordial Instincts, Ego and

Greed, is exactly the State of [Selflessness] and not 

attached to any fixed tendency is the [Middle-way] = 

Hence, all the peculiar phenomena in the Buddhism became clear.

(In fact, all those [Mushin], [Selflessness], [Middle-way] even

[Mindfulness] are all created by the [Detachment] of the nerve

signal from the Emotion = actually they are the same one

phenomenon, but named it seeing from different angles.)

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As all those phenomena was the core of

the Buddhism teachings, it’s mean,

Lord Buddha did know all those mechanism in our mind

though, to trace back all those to his teachings in the scripture

is not straight forward, such as metaphor and his real wording

may not been correctly recorded and translated.

—– A description in the Vimalakirti Sutra “If you have a mind

that you are giving, it is not true giving” or in a typical

Mahayana expression “Giving as not-giving is the giving” are

in fact all meant “Giving in Mushin or in Selflessness”

(without conscious of action).

—– All the religion require the active mind-set, “Complete

attachment to the Belief which was written” but only the

Buddhism teaches [Detachment] = this is the very

distinctive point though, to describe something

which is not there = [Empty mind] is very difficult.

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The trouble of the Buddhism is, virtually no reliable written

record exists.   It’s a pile of hearsay after 10^th, 100^th of Chinese

whisper.  🙂   And seemingly, the person, good in writing may

not be the person who actually reached Mushin or Selflessness

— otherwise such as Abidharma-kosa was never been written.

And on top of this, even though the matter is all in the depth

of murky subconsciousness, there was no understanding of

psychology neither a notion or word to describe was existed then.

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In such an environment, to pretend to be a Master and boast,

creating yet another Mantras was very easy, but to disprove

it was difficult. = all came down to the political power game of

the sects. Winner takes all and justify their righteousness,

regardless of its authenticity —– hence, created utter

mixed-up-Buddhism (in fact, it was a Tantra mixed Hinduism

with some idea from the Buddhism)

for a sake of populism and a commercial success. =

(It’s easier to sell, “This God would save you” than “Need to

know, Suffering is not exists” —– after a death nobody ever

came back to complain “God wasn’t there”= So, its sale’s point

has never been disproved and able to keep assume that the

dead are in Heaven. 😀 )

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Obviously, it is necessary to re-examine and to see what was

the original teachings, even though it might be yet another

guess work. —– Still, my approach, which is based on the

neurological mechanism, can explain all the Buddhism

phenomena. —– If not what else could explain it ?

(Leaving the matter to mythical unknown power and

its blessing ? —– Joking !  We are in the 21^st century ! )

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This neurological, psychological response is common to

all human being (hence it was described that everybody

born with it) it is applicable to anybody and many area of

human activities. (In fact it has been used a lot.)

And it will prove that the Buddhism has a tangible substance.

(unlike any other religion, which is based on a fantasy which

is only exists if it was believed) —– As the Buddhism is based

on the tangible substance, not on the imagination or belief,

it was often classified as a philosophy not a religion.

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Selflessness – Detachment

” How to get selfless state of the Mind “

After reading the previous post ” Selflessness Demonstrated “,  you may convinced

that the selflessness is nothing special and it is everywhere in our life.

Then you may start a question ” If everybody has selflessness, can all of us make

good Buddhists ?  ——- Not quite.

To become a Buddhist, one has to cross over the first varier, which is to learn to brake

off from the Ego, by doing the repetitive practice, unconditionally.

To accept this Duty  unconditionally, and able to keep doing it indicates, you have gave up your Ego.

( May not necessary the proof of  non-Ego, but Not accept is definitely the sign of  Ego )

Keep doing its practice endless times, you become get used with it and able to do without

thinking, and it will became your mundane daily routine.

In order to survive this boring tread-mill, your mind become apathetic, and become

emotionally detached from what you are actuary doing.  ———–( In Neurological term, the

threshold of the signal  became higher, therefore incoming repetitive signal loose the significant impact )

——It may looks a contradiction, while doing it in full commitment ( so-called mindfulness / full hearted )

but disconnected from the emotion, in the same time able to carry out perfect practice.

——————–

The emotion is not an essential component to do the perfect business,  in most of the situation

it is more of the destruction, otherwise a  Gynecologist couldn’t do their business.

Another example appeared in the brain scan analysis of the

Alzheimar’s cases, the reason why a patient loose the ability to recognize a family face is,

its visual signal lost the connection to the emotional region of the brain, while visual cortex  is still intact.

It is the matter of the control of the signal connection or to make association.

Even without making connection, each faculties of the brain can  works perfect.

——————–

As the emotion is directly connected to the basic instincts, such as the feeling of hunger or

I want to have this, I want fuck this woman etc etc, its forms fundamental part of the Self and Ego.

————First, detached from the raw basic emotion, then connect the signal in the brain

to the Spiritually conceived Notion or Ethos and to the activity of the life , is the Zen and the Buddhism.

Even though observing the self doing something, without having the emotional connection, it wouldn’t

produce the conscious of being as the Self,   This is The Selflessness.

Once a person mastered this control, it can be applied to other practice and to the whole life.

( This is why Half Buddhist or Thinking Buddhist couldn’t see the Buddhism. —- need to cross the varier first)

——————–

(Some of the reader may not want to agree with  this, as this theory seems (as far as I found) the

first of its kind in the history——-Neuro-scientists would confirm this, soon or later.  But the fact of that the

Zen monk is not emotional is medically tested and established fact—— simply nobody ever thought why )

—–

Fortunately or unfortunately, I went through this first varier in my youth, in the mountain.

To climb the mountain, we just accept the situation, and keep walking, days even a month.

Most of the time, there was no margin to exercise Ego.  We just carry on walking without cry.

———————

(I’m going to discuss spiritual (or even super natural) aspects of the Zen in near future)