Mistake in Philosophy — Answer in ZEN

You might heard a story to extract latent memory from a witness or surviving  victim, by way of hypnotism,

such as a profile of assailant or even from pass-by, the car number parked on the street then.

The car number may be utterly trivial and useless to a pass-by, still we may remember surprising detail.

They are the Subconscious Memory or our Hidden Data bank.

When we consciously watch the scene, we only pick up the information which we got interest.

And this selection is not consistent.  It will be biased by the preceding event, experience or a suggestion.

If you are interested in fashion, you may pay great deal of attention to the shop windows and

somebody’s style, but remember nothing else, as the mind was just stuck there.

But when our mind is free and open we can see the scene as it is, and able to memorize everything.

Of cause those data are not just visual, but also the information from other sensors, and the internal feeling,

subconscious thoughts as well, which has been accumulated since you are born.

From those immense amount of data, only minute part of them, which  matches to the precast category or

notion, it become conscious memory and it can be transferred to higher legion of the brain (New Cortex)

to be used for the conscious thinking process.

—– Hence, the data available to such as the linguistic, logical thinking process, are only a miniscule part of

the whole data bank, the answer or conclusion we make is always inadequate and ” Not the exact Truth ”

which we knew it. —–  So. we always say ” Don’t think in your head. Find the answer in your heart”.

—

It is obvious, our Hidden Memory, Subconscious Data bank retain the whole information of our environment,

and ourself.  In other words, the faithful picture of the world and the information of ourself / True Self.

And they are not just a static images but their dynamism, tendency and the Rules,how the things

work, and how this True Self has been behaving and prefer what etc.

Its mean, The Dharma / The whole existence and its Rules within, are all mirrored  here.

This is the very meaning of ” Everybody possess the Dharma inside”.

And literally the Self is a part of it, the Dharma, and as everything in there are without any

partition, no separate awareness watching the Self or Subject, there is no feeling of alienation.

———- Many years ago, somebody asked me whether a mad-man can have The Dharma in him as well.

I said, yes.  Because, even a mad-man got the same body and its function, feel the same pain,feel the

same hunger, see the same, hear the same, and may have more or less the same emotion — the process

of those information may be different, so that from the same image of black cat,  he may interpret it as

a Devil —– still, his Data bank having much more accurate picture of the world than his twisted thinking.

In the same context, even an idiot who lack the higher process in the brain, still having more or less

the same Data in his subconscious, it is nothing but the Dharma.

—

When we think, quite often we use a notion which we have imported ( in other words not emanated from our

own Data bank, but intellectually learned ), since it didn’t have the original source and the process to

deduce, it couldn’t have an accord to the person.  As a matter of fact, even a notion the person knew well

still,as its using the notion of the words, it is no more than a proxy.  The complexed idea having the situation

even worse.  Even an idea constructed from the own Data bank (which came from own experiences and the

observation) when it was  imposed to the phenomenon, it doubles the uncertainty. —— Observer and

be Observed.—– The word (a notion) HAPPINESS is just a name of category, so that, its realities has

millions of variations, and an observer is just one of 40 billions.

The certainty is only the statistical probability. There can not be any absoluteness exist.  Despite this,

Philosopher often impose his own idea to interpret a phenomenon.  Hoping, his words can covey

what he conceived. (and expecting others can guess the same )

Against this fundamental jeopardy, Zen abandons the conversion to the notion and the words.

( Hence, relying on the Direct Transmission)

And abandons the stance to be an observer, or more precisely, abandon to be an observer as an Ego.—

When facing a phenomenon or others,

Zenist just open his mind in Mushin. (without Ego without Thinking—– hence no conversion)

And leave the matter to the perception in his Subconscious = Dharma’s judgement or reaction.

(As the Observer and be Observed are both naked, both of the Dharma fuse together.

And the equilibrium will be spontaneously prevailed in the accordance of the Dharma)

This is the Ichijo (Oneness) in Zen —— the answer to the jeopardy of the Dualism.

___/\___

—-

Mistake in Philosophy

The most fundamental and fatal mistake of the western Philosophy lies in their basis of Dualism,

and seemingly it is originated from their notion of the God.

Against this notion, the SELF = ME became its counter notion as rigid as the God.

As the concept of Self is there, the Self is the one who see the subject ( of cause, you may say, who else

saw and talked about the subject in his book, in his philosophy.  And say, Is this a Zen Mondo ?  🙂 )

( Shut up  🙂 )  As long as the subject is somebody else, there is no problem, hence scientific, objective

rationality works well and yelled this impressive western technological civilization.

Because of the objectivity is Selfless in its definition. Anyhow, the nature and its phenomena,

physics are there before human existence. We are just the observer regardless whoever the Self.

—

But when the Self try to see the Self ( or True Self what so ever the context ) and the phenomena around it.

The perpetual question of  Who is the Self came into the play. Therefore, the matter related to

themselves, psychology, human science, social phenomena, etc, it always plagued by its view-point = Self.

In fact, from ancient Plato to modern Phenomenology etc, they misbelieved that they can objectively see

the human affair and able to construct the philosophy as well.  And they stuck in the cul-de-sac.

Because even an  Atheist, started exactly the same stance, The Dualism. —– God and Me / Me and

the Subject / Observer and be Observed,  the uncertainty of the Self is still persistent,

hence its stance of view point,  reliability itself is in doubt.

The fundamental trouble of this stance is, we can’t objectively observe the Self or the phenomena

attributed by ourself. —–  we always end-up in unseeable and unknowable.

On the end everybody just resigned to say  ” Don’t bother, there are thousands of truth ”   🙂

So that, some Philosopher try to grasp this unknowable with the notion of  Transcendental though, made

further  mistake try to convert it to explanatory words by thinking. ( You may say, What else ?  😀  )

This was the very situation, which Buddha encountered soon after he got his enlightenment,

Should I teach this to others or not.  Can this be transmittable by the words ?

( This is why, the Buddha’s teaching has been conveyed by the practice and metaphor )

—

While we are thinking, most of its process ( some says 90% of it ) are taking place in our

subconsciousness. —– And so-called Self is a mere temporally mock-up model by guess-work, since it

never stays the same, moment to moment and never rationally configurable like our thinking process.

Hence True Self which reside in our subconscious is ever invisible and remained undefinable.

This was the reason why Buddha said  ” Don’t bother there is no such thing like Self exists”  :-D.

The situation was made even harder, as the basis of our thinking are also contained in the immense

amount of the Data or information which we accumulated without aware of its existence.

—– so, am I talking hopeless ?  Am I giving cold water to the Philosopher’s pleasure to express themselves ?

The answer is again in the Buddha’s words ” Don’t take a word, think yourself “

And to against the fundamental flaw of Dualism, the Zen giving the answer ” Ichijo ”  Oneness.

In Ichijo we can overcome the alienation of the subject, alienation of the Self.

The barrier between observer and be observed disappear.

( Which I’m going to talk further in the next post )

___/\___

—

Creative Mind (2)

In my life I might have seen billions of images,  I’ve seen hundreds of thousand of Art images include

the artistically well designed commercial products.  And I met hundreds of artists. With a curiosity of

how those artists create their art,  how they conceived the original image or idea. ( Secret of Creation)

It seems there are some distinctive types of creative mind and its mechanism and the tendency.

In most of the cases,  there is the original image or real existence which inspired the artist.

The great artist, Pablo Picasso created many ( too many  😀 ) mind-boggling extraordinarily images,

yet he never created any new image.  He only created new style to show the same subject.

Even heavily decomposed, deformed cubist paintings still maintain the image of the original subjects.

Same apply to Salvador Dali.  Unless the clock with needle hands exist, his melted clock never appeared

in this world. ( Think if it was a digital clock with LCD face, the image couldn’t be so striking as we are

much familiar with  funny shaped plastic products )

So, only pure abstract art deals with totally new image, still, what inspired Mondrian was the Japanese

house interior design which Bruno Taut brought to the attention of the west.  And even looks like abstract

expression of Henry Moor’s sculptures still shows the woman as woman, unmistakably.

Yet still, some artist create utterly incomprehensible image which is not a result of random chance.

Some people are able to conceive pure image which seems to have no origin.

( Here I’m not talking about the twist of ordinary idea such as ” If the bloom handle is straight stick,

why not an useless twisted metal ” or ” If the public display has to be decent and acceptable, why not

smelly animal dung ”  kind of idea ——- it’s still in the logic, only a negative process.  Nothing  new.)

I had chances to talk with those artists who create utterly incomprehensible images and found

they are not necessary aware creating strange image  ” Ah,  I just like it.  It’s  who I am ” —–  ! ! !

It seems there is a completely different type of brain exists.  Naturally they seemed to have very

different perception and the handling of their life style too. —— not necessary street-wise or

smart to sell their art, since they are neither a good communicator. ( often talks incomprehensible

though, the line on the palm indicating, the person got well developed brain )

___

They are the person of  True-Self as the one born to be = as the Dharma created. ——– So, would they

make an Enlightened person or at least good Buddhist ?

Good question, and this question signify the clear distinction What is the Buddhist.

——— Once, Master Dogen questioned  ” If everybody born to have the Dharma within, why the past

Great Masters needed to have practice to get it ? ”

The small children are the angels, as they are so natural and innocent ——- as they are in their True Self.

So, the cliché was created.   Of cause, it is only a nice flirtation and the myth. If it has even a shred of

viable significance, 99% of world population is the great artists and the Enlightened people, —— and

the Child Parliament with Child PM governing the country. ( Why not  😀  )

—-

True Self in the Buddhist term is not simply the self as a person happened to be born with.

It is the Self once denied Self.  ( So, the process is much more important than the result —– in the first

denial,  Selfish Ego and the Emotion would be eliminated.  Hence, in the second denial when the Self was

revived, the Ego and Emotions are missing —– or came under the control.  Self itself looks the same though )

T—

In the zoology, to define whether the particular animal can recognize the self / if the conscious

of SELF exist in them, scientist use a mirror to observe their behaviour. (If the animal can see a   reflection

of him as him or the other animal —– and become aggressive or see behind of mirror etc )

Just to be the Self as he was born, is easy as all the animal is living in this way.  But able to have the

conscious of Self and able to differentiate behavior ( control ) needs to have much evolved brain.

Control  what ?   Control, mainly the instincts, and suppress the emotion. Then able to do something

more complicated projects / preconceived plan with observation feed-back and judgments.

To control the behavior in order to have a harmony with environment,  the observation of outer world is

of cause essential,  and in the same time observation of  the Self too.  This is the Self-conscious.

So that the matter is  if the one can detach the view-point and watch the Self from a distance, objectively.

But, this is nothing but a  Self alienation.   This Self alienation is the trade-off, necessary compromise to

survive in the social environment.  Hence, we social animal / human being was forced to live with the watchful

eyes of the Self.  Then, where is the estranged True Self, became a perpetual conundrum.

—

In the Buddhism, the matter of Self and the  Selflessness seemed to be a bit over emphasized  because of

Buddha denied its existence in the first place,  in order to differentiate with the popular Vedic teachings.

But, as I explained afore, the restrain of the raw Self / Ego is the basic rule to live in the society.

( So, we often use the expression ” Play a roll ”  ( Away from  being in the Self )

Even in a pack of the animal, pecking order (control of the greed ) or breeding right of the alpha-male

(control of the sexual desire) etc —— the denial of one’s Ego is the essential rules of the survival.

Buddhism is not asking the follower to do anything special —— just be a sensible member of the society.

Same apply to the Ten Commandments, it didn’t need to be given by the God. It exist long before the Myth

was invented.  Otherwise the primitive society could be fallen into disarray and couldn’t be survived.

—

Japanese language having one of the most complicated honorific expression system.

How polite,  has to be exactly matched  to the social scale —- too polite to a junior person mean blunt despise.

( Even a man of respectable position in his forties could lose the trust in just one word . —— I still regret

a word to my professor when I was 25 —— even if it was meant to be a joke )

So that, it is very easy to assess the quality of the person (and their up bringing / family ) just see the wording

in a letter or listen the tongue. —- trouble is, the person  may not aware the situation and what he is speaking.

Here, the clear eyes to see the Self and the reference data to judge the situation is essential.

Yet True Self is ever more reclusive.

___

Most Fatal Joke in BUDDHISM

Most fundamental and fatal joke in the Buddhism I found is,

” If the SELF is not existing, Who is the one get Enlightened or Reincarnated ?”

———- the reason why this Joke exists is,  it’s based on the misunderstanding of the SELF.

What  Buddha  meant was,  the SELF who is consciously thinking Self, in another word ” Selfish Mind “.

To clinging and obsessed by this  Mind of  Self / Thinking Self  is the cause of the trouble in the Life.

The Self in one’s subconsciousness is the True Self  which is not visible, hence it exists as not exists.

Being in this True Self is in fact, in MUSHIN (in the Mind of NO Mind, since it exists out of consciousness)

( Ironically, unless this hated figure of  Thinking  Self  start to think

” I need to be wiser, I need Buddhism”  nothing would start.

This is why the Buddhists spent past  2500 years to argue about this complication and the Paradox)

When this True Self was absorbed in the Dharma or the subject, it is the Ichijo (Oneness).

And when this True Self is fully engaged with the subject, it is the Mindfulness.

The True Self, in Ichijo with  Dharma is in fact the Enlightenment.

——————–

Pinch your cheek.   Yes, definitely you are here.   Though, the one who is reading this, how you came here ?

Was that because you Book-marked this blog or just by chance you stumbled here ?

Who made you to read this post ?   What has driven you to read this ?   Why you need to read this ?

Who you are ? ? ?

Don’t waste the time to think about those questions.  Because you can not define it, since it isn’t there as a

solid entity.  ( Since it is a constantly changing relative existence , like a reflection on the moving  water )

Yet,  this blog is on front of your eyes now.  This is not an illusion.   Read this again.  Try hundred times.

This is the task you got on front of your eyes on this moment.  Just Do It.

NOW YOU ARE DOING  ZEN.

( Wasting time by thinking  Who You are,  wouldn’t take you anywhere.  Since, no such things in

the first place.  That’s why the repetitive task  was adopted in the Buddhism practice. )

So,  this will change you, from wondering thinking time-waster to Active Zen practitioner.

This is the very first step. ———– Read this again without any question.  And again.

( Now, You started to Re-program your Subconscious / invisible True Self )

This is The ZEN,  and What the BUDDHISM is.

The matter is to reach other side of water.  You may use modern grass boat or bamboo raft what ever,

though there is no motor engine, so you have to puddle  ——- (can be million times ).

Then you can reach there.  ( Believe me and Believe yourself,  You can do it )

( PS: Yet in case if you drifted down the torrent, don’t call me.  Because Hinayana Buddhist  would only say

” Enjoy a journey ” ——– Raft-ride  might be quite an exciting activity. ( Shouldn’t  be too bad.  😀  )

And when you survived, then later, you must be realized  ” I needed to have that rough ride, that’s why

Buddha made me to have it “.  Some people were born to have longer rough ride to reach other side )

Buddha makes no mistake.   ___/\___

—

True SELF

While ago I’ve stumbled an interesting blog site of a Japanese artist.

Her site  ” ciharukaido. wordpress.com ” showing not only her art

but in fact everything, from poetry to food ——-.

And when  I put a comment to an amazing sculpture

” La geometrie du coq” 2007 ( Photo left ) she replied

” Sometimes your hand would tell you what you

want, rather than thinking ”

——– this is the remarkable words from such young artist.

Among the so-called artists, not all of them reached to the level,

able to conceive the idea in the depth of subconsciousness.

( Lots of them just manufacture it in the process of thinking ——–what is new,  what is in fashion,

how to make it looks sensational  etc, choosing, improvising  from the existing knowledges )

Yet still, some of them are able to do it almost unconsciously with their intuitive imagination, and some are

aware of the difference between the conscious and unconscious process of creation, such as Ciharu here.

——————–

Amazingly, but not surprisingly, this is the same situation of the Mushin ( Selflessness ) and

awareness of the True Self in the Buddhism.

( Incidentally, this is also the same thing to the  Wu-wei ( Mu-i in Japanese ) in the  Taoism, which

was remarkably adopted as the name of new theme in the WordPress Blog design.)

It is no doubt, in many philosophies and the religions, the matter of True Self is the main subject, yet to

some people it is not a subject to seek or debate, but naturally being there.

So, it is no wonder, the art created by this Chiharu Kaido has strange indescribable impact as if it was

a long forgotten memory or genetic vague memory of far far ancestor.  ( So, we say ” I lost word ” )

( Since it was expressed direct from her subconscious without involving linguistic notion / thinking, neither

the viewer can catch clear notion but strange impact of what she felt——eroticism out of word and the time )

This is the sample of the artistic communication between the two subconsciousness.

( If you can see and feel, this is it. ———- If not, forget it   😀 )

So, to be an artist, to be in the true self is an advantage, though whether its Self is compatible with

society is the totally different matter.  They may not aware social convention or responsibilities etc.

The artist I’ve talked about, has just disappeared without delivering the piece, even though it was

paid in advance.  (Some said, never trust artist, only give a money in exchange with the piece  😀  )

Seems it is true.

——

Starting Point of BUDDHISM / Enlightenment

Well  well  well, this blog is coming to exactly the one year since its started.

So,  I should write something very fundamental.  This is the final piece of the jig-saw.

——————–

Unlike any another religion,  the Buddhism doesn’t have a myth or the story of the creation.

Since,  long before the existence of the human being,  long long before the arrival of Buddha,

the  Dharma  exist from the beginning.   Nobody know why. ( Ask scientists. They don’t know neither.    😀  )

As Buddha had absolute faith and the respect to the Dharma, he refused to give even his

interpretation of it, since it is unknowable to the human being and made up a story is

nothing but a disrespect and a treachery to the Creator / Dharma.

Therefore the Buddhism has to start from here “to unconditionally accept the one’s existence ( as he

or she ) as it is,  and  to see own existence as a part of  the Dharma”.

Therefore,  to give a person’s own  interpretation as a thought of the self, is nothing but an arrogant trespass.

Since,  the self is not definable by the person but only by the Dharma.

——————–

If anybody having an understanding,  that the Buddhism deny the self,  it is utterly wrong.

A person here is the Noble creation of the Dharma,  hence, try to give own interpretation or definition of it, is

a transgression,  therefore such thought has to be denied. ——– (Denying the thought of self,  not

the awareness of the self  itself) ——- In metaphor, ” Appear in person, not by a photograph ”

(a Copy or  Made up Description is not Yourself / its your wishful or distorted imagination)

The person’s  Imaginary Self  is a delusion,  its got to be in flesh as it was created and  it is keep changing.

So that,  to live as the True Yourself,  not as an imaginary fixed self,  is the key.

And this is the meaning of  ” To live in MUSHIN ” and  Just Do It,  Just Live.

So,  this is the starting point of the Buddhism,  and  its  goal.  ( Very simple and easy  isn’t it    😀  )

———- This is the reason,  why it is so simple and ubiquitous like as a dog sit,  but as difficult as

making the people puzzling  2500 years. ( People has been expecting to see glorious secret, Holy Grail   😀 )

As long as a person is puzzling, while expecting to find something over there,  it is not the Buddhism and

far away from the Enlightenment.  Enlightenment is within yourself——- as where the Dharma is.

And when the person abandoned such attempt and start to just live ——- is the Enlightenment.

——————–

But, to learn the way to accept and just do it, the person may need to practice repeating practice.

( I’ve fully explained its effect and the psychological mechanism in the past blog posts —–Please refer them )