Heaven or God ?

I just found those photos in the net and I do know not more than any fact of what the photo was telling us. —– may be the photo was genuine = straight record of the aftermath, showing the remaining gate of the Shinto Shrine.

A person who found the photos must be utterly amazed hence just up loaded to the net.   As I have no information of original source, I have no idea whether the photo was taken by the professional journalist or just a passerby, let alone any fact whether the subject was intentionally picked up (such as the survey of all the Shinto Shrine — and the one / only one Torii kept standing — or one of many) or just a coincidence.

—– yet still, seeing one more photo, they convinced me that there IS something.  Think, you were a person who encountered it on the spot.  Even if you didn’t bend your knee there, you must felt a chill on your back and felt, something like Heaven or somebody like the God is there and showing their providence.  (But don’t blame, why send a tsunami or ask why save only a Torii, not the city.   😀  )

This is THE basis of the Japanese Shinto.  We don’t need a fishy sweet words telling the Next life.  We are seeing and keep feeling it IS there.  Unlike an intentionally created, invented idea of so-called God, the supernatural power, or Heaven IS a part of our native sentiment or so-called spirituality.   (That’s why only few % of Japanese is christian. = To the Japanese, Disney like personified God is a joke that’s why no Christian, still almost all of them believe the Rule of a cause and the consequence / the punishment return by the Heaven = that’s their spiritual Ethos.)  So, we don’t steal, nor riot because we know the heaven IS watching us, or living with us.  We don’t need to be told and learn “The idea of Morality” = we have it.  Idea was an invention in the brain.  Japanese Ethos is a part of how we were born.  (Well, ideally —– we have Yakuza too. (But you know, Yakuza’s own rule is as tight as in the army)   And, if you know them, they ARE also nice people.   Ha ha ha   😀 )

___/\___

.

3-11

It is 3-11 again.

[]

It’s already 2 years since. It is the past though, still over 315,000 people in Japan

forced to live in their temporary accommodation, many of them are still not able

to find a job with various reason, it’s mean for them nothing is over yet.

And we couldn’t forget over 2,300 peoples are still missing.

[]

Zen doesn’t give a sit to the past.   Though, the trouble is, this trouble is

still very front of those people suffering = it is a burning issue on their hand.

So that, today lots of gathering has been held to commemorate the lost lives,

or protest gathering against the nuclear issue, but more importantly those people

working to take care of victims are doing their job same as yesterday.

(and has to do tomorrow as well).

[]

Some relatives of our Alpine Club’s member or their friends had been directly

affected though, the rest of us, fortunate enough not to have a hand burning are

exchanging the mail or gave a thought on their blog.

The words quoted in my friend’s blog “We are grateful still given to be here”.

(In my given life, I was rather lucky happen to be here, not under the Tsunami.)

So, my burning issue on this moment is, this very life given to my hand here.

Since the moment when I was given this life, my hand is burning.

(I know it will keep burning until the moment it cease off = Nirvana.)

So, if I were allowed to join the pray,

Peace to the people who happen to lost their lives,

and to the people who is still suffering.

___/\___

[]

Be in Emotion — or in Detachment

Gosh, it’s exactly a year from the Earth Quake

and the Tsunami in Japan.

After I caught a first short news, it took another

5 hours to know what has happened there in the Japanese

News site. The rest was, I don’t think I need to repeat here.

[]

Having one year anniversary, one of the literally left over

of the iconic land scape of the Tsunami = a Bus body left

stranded on the 10m roof top of the local town hall has

been removed. ( The photo left from the Jiji news.com site )

[]

There has been two opposing opinions among the local

people.  One was, as a historical, iconic monument,

the Bus should be preserved as it is.

But, the other opinion, as it recalls horrible memories = Don’t want to see it any longer, hence

it should be removed, was over whelming.

[]

Everybody has Emotion. It is the basic judgmental response to the stimulus, instantly created in

the old part of the brain, limbic system.   As limbic system also controls the physiological

reaction, an Emotion triggers the seclusion of the Hormone, Neuro Transmitter etc.

Unlike Nerve Signal which is an instantaneous electrical pulse, those chemical Hormone remain the body

system, so that, unlike a momentary come and go Thinking process, Emotion affects a person’s mental

condition and the physiology pretty long time, some time long enough to make a person fallen ill.

[]

This is the reason why and how the Buddhism invented the way to curve the Emotion by its

practice to enable a person to detach from it.

[]

While detached from the Emotion of the disaster —– to see the Bus stranded high-up on the top of the building,

must be really an amazing, unusual experience. —– Hence came to a thought to make it as a historical

monument, could be a good idea = can be only such a monument in the world.

Though, to the vast majority of the local people who have had literally run for the life or lost their family member,

close friend, the memories of the disaster were still too real.   And its memory re-creates the same Emotion,

hence the seclusion of the same Hormone = same reaction of the body, heart beat, blood pressure increase and

even having nightmare, and so on.

[]

In order to keep the compassion to the deceased and the fellow victims, it should be better to keep the memory

afresh, is the one opinion.   Though, to live one’s life in full potential, to keep the memories and to

be imprisoned by the same emotion has to be distinguished.

Time is the best cure for a sad memory —– the old say.

The Buddhism practice is to accelerate this aging process, and make a person to see its memory in a perspective,

in another word, in distance = detached = in Zen Buddhist’s term  Mushin ( Mind of No-Mind ).

By detached eyes, a person can see the situation and the possibility or the alternative, in much

liberated perspectives.   Hence able to make much better judgement in the life.

After all what local people needed was not a reminescence of the disaster, but the mind to look forward to

rebuilt the town and their life.   When a mountain of tasks on front, the emotion is nothing but the obstacle.

[]

How to learn one’s mind detached,  hence able to have turmoil-free calm mind-set is

what I’m talking about in this whole blog.

___/\___

PS : Further reading, how Buddhist’s practice works to achieve  Detachment > >>   http://bit.ly/yG6rph

(This post could be the most crucial post among the others in my blog )

—

SINSAI . INFO — A Website to Help Others

—

Only four hours after the Japanese Disaster, an information website called SINSAI.INFO started.

The site is giving the extracted information of what people tweeted or the report to tell what is the

situation there or needs of help in the Geological, Graphical framework.

On the beginning it was started by a small group of the IT engineers lead by Haruyuki Seki, though soon

many more volunteers joined through internet while communicating each other by the Skype Chat and

became a formidable volunteer work force.

And the persons who did similar work for Christ Church Earthquake Relief project, using

[Ushahidi Feed] open-source program which organizing and displays the information on the map

has joined, and the top expert of the web design, top expert to organize the information as the geomedia and

top expert for interfacing to other system by designing applications hence able to provide the information

through mobile-phone or to use with Android etc has all joined together.

It became a working group, almost a dream team, no commercial project can ever dreamt of, or

no commercial project can afford to employ them.

—

What was the key, How and Why, the activity like this started ?

Everybody wanted to do something to help, the sense of duty told them “Have to do something”

It was a spontaneous fundamental urge of the human psyche to help others, unconscious sense of duty,

when someone faced the situation which needs the help.

The situation  itself has driven the people —– not one’s intention or will, neither ideology.

This was a situation where the Dharma worked. And the people who is connected to the Dharma

spontaneously reacted. —– Since it was the Dharma, it was not an individual mind or intention.

This is the Selflessness of the Dharma.   And as the people having and following the Dharma,

every person worked selfless —– or it must be said, in their default state as a part of the Dharma.

—

( I doubt, if it was a commercial project, they would not have worked together in such selfless

manner.   In a commercial project, there are certain work convention exist, which limits what

the one should do —– what you ought to do must be compatible to what you were paid, and

within a reasonable working schedule —– it became a subject of relative assessment.

It mean, The Person is seeing the Work in distance / as an object = It is not in ICHIJO ( Oneness )

In contrast, free voluntary work has no limit —– free mean, no price =  priceless mean it can be

infinitum hence the quality has to be absolute and there wouldn’t be any limit of working time.

This is the condition of WHAT the MUSHIN meant and WHAT the MINDFULLNESS appeared.

The crucial point here is, they did this spontaneously / nobody asked them BUT they did

almost automatically —– How and Why ? —– Dharma inside of them, has DRIVEN them )

On top of it, the program system they have based on, Ushahidi ( Meaning “Testimony” in Swahili ) is

an open-source program. There is no monopoly or copyright control. Open-source is selfless.

And this program was best suited to organize the information in geological order.

—

The drive to start a voluntary work to set-up and run SINSAI. INFO Website was purely came from

its situation.   Dynamics was there in the Dharma and the Dharma has no self.

The situation, a phenomena of the Earth, cracked open.

As the drifting earth’s Tectonics plate collide and the stress increased, it had to be adjusted = then

the plates has moved causing big earthquake and its movement caused the huge movement of the

sea water as well, created huge Tsunami.

The movement of the plates followed the Dharma, in its Earth level action to regain the balance.

It was simply unfortunate to the human-being happened to be there.

—

Then, seeing the situation, the Dharma in Human level responded, since some of the people

were born to be good in their IT skill, for them to react in the aspect and the possibility in IT field was

their second nature.  They found the way to help the victims in their natural capabilities.

So that, their solution was the Information website [ SINSAI . INFO Ushahidi Feed ].

Since its starting point was the fundamental compassion, therefore Ego, Greed etc has no place

and the task and the requirement is Just Do the Best.

There was no place to accommodate useless thought.

In fact, they had barely enough time to set-up and made it functioning.

They frantically worked some time all through the night.

Yet still, their action has been following the Selfless Dharma, it was the right action, destined to succeed.

( Otherwise why the Dharma made them to start in the first place . And of cause,

the Dharma is the Universal force, it covers the Buddhists, and non Buddhists all alike).

This is really the Dharma at work.

___/\___

—

YOU are a part of the DHARMA

The people who is thinking to know or believing the Buddhism, might be believing that

Shakya muni Buddha started the teaching of The Dharma.

You are wrong.

—-

The Dharma exist from the beginning of the time and the space. —-– or even before that and

may triggered the creation of this world itself.

And the notion of the Dharma has been existing thousands of years before Buddha.

In fact, an ancient word Dharma is a headache of the scholars and the translators alike, as its contains

so many meanings.   All the existences is the Dharma, and the Rules among those existences is the Dharma.

And the Rules and the Law are also the Dharma. —– it’s suggesting it was the long-established philosophy

to see the world, visible and invisible, the existing world is an entwined system of the existences and

the relations and the rules between them.   It was derived from the basic attitude to see the things not

just as a material but to understand them in a spiritual context.  Typical in the Eastern Philosophy.

It is more akin to the general theory of the Universe which can define from the sub-particles

to the life-cycle of the stars and the universe.

What Buddha found was mainly the relation and the rules between Man and the Dharma.

But as the Dharma itself is the Rules, what he taught was the way to see and follow its rules in the Dharma.

And taught his followers, to follow and live according to the Dharma, it is the way to attain the Nirvana.

——

As everybody born with the Dharma within ( of cause, since we are a part of the Dharma ) every body

should able to see and easy to follow it. ( provided, to see it with clear eyes and the mind. 🙂 )

So that, Buddha ordered his disciples to see and think it by themselves —– not believing what others

said or written.

—– Why, the reason was?  Because, the Dharma is invisible and deep inside of each person’s

subconscious, only a fully opened mind, without any disturbance of the thought in the mind

can see it. Listening, reading somebody else’s words need to think the meaning —– utterly opposite of

what Buddha taught.   Of cause, no-one can write down and listing up what the requirement of the Dharma.

No human being is above the Dharma.

Even Buddha followed the Dharma and accepted his Nirvana.

—–

As everybody is a part of the Dharma, everybody is connected each other and to the natures.

As if you feel the pain of the injured hand in your whole body,  the pain and the agony of the victims

in Sendai hit the other people,  even a Yakuza in Osaka,  and made him to drive a truck to deliver the

relief goods to the victims.  It was his spontaneous actions and nobody needed to persuade him to do.

Thousand of volunteers like him are helping the victims of the earthquake, tsunami and evacuees of the

destroyed nuclear plant,  simply because the compassion in their subconscious,  which is no

other than the Dharma, has driven them.

Some volunteers may be the Buddhists or other persuasions but not necessary all of them.

Its mean,  the humanistic compassion is not a monopoly of the Buddhism nor any religion,  but

the Dharma and its virtues are the common among the all the human being.

Buddha pointed out this fact, and taught the way to see and listen it,  since he noticed the

mechanism and the tendency of the Rules in the Dharma,  by his insight while in Mushin.

What makes the Buddha’s teaching unique was,  that he found an active process to reach the

Dharma by sharpening one’s perception by the practice.  The practice to silence the useless noise,

the one’s thinking which is masking the Dharma.

—-

Fundamentally the Dharma is Selfless as it is,  say the Universal Soul,  the Rules of

the Universe,  it doesn’t belong to or favour any individual.

And its Rules are for the continuation of the Universe,  not necessary for a single individual.

Therefore, to see and listen what the Dharma is aiming, the one has to silence his own projection.

In other words, the one has to know he himself is not a single entity, only a part of the Dharma.

In metaphor, there is no such things of the sovereign independence of the Nation of the Self.

Strangely you might think, giving up the independence can bring much more benefit to a  nation.

( Don’t fooled by a silly sample of a farce in the European Community and the troubled  Greece and the

Portugal etc,   EC is not the Dharma.    Ha ha ha  😀 )

Of cause, the power of the Dharma and its aim of continuity is far grater than an individual.   😀

Its power ratio is the infinitum against virtually nil.   Better forsake useless own thinking and let the

Dharma to decide —– this is what Buddhists calls the Selfless-Life  or  Life in Mushin.

In another metaphor,  the Cloud Computing has more power than the set of program in an individual

PC. ( —– though, I don’t like the idea of Cloud itself,  since Google is not the selfless Dharma.

There is no such things like free lunch.  Think while using free Google,  what we gave up to them ?

To them we are completely naked. What we are interested in, what we are searching, what we are

talking with my friend etc etc and made ourself to just a target of the  advertisement )

—-

Once the individual thinkings were cleared off,  one’s subconscious,  and the Dharma which

has been masked underneath will prevail.

And it allow a person to react instantly without the hindrance of time-wasting thinking or

useless consideration of Ego.

This is what the Zen Buddhism is doing and what you can achieve with it.

___/\___

—

DISASTER in Japan

 

–

–

–

–

——————————————————– Here Everything was lost

—————————————————–anything remains is the HOPE

————————————————–and the WILL to Re-build the LIFE.

–

–

–

–

Seeing the Earth Quake and the Tsunami report from Japan is nothing but a heart-braking to me.

To see a photo of a flatten muddy field which caption says, There used be a town, its empty span of

nothingness shocked and made me wordless. Emptiness of almost perfectly flushed-out field.

—

It seemed, the western reporter, photographer prefer to pick up dramatically or even funnily

piled-up devastation. An orgy of destruction. ——— but to Japanese, as I am, it is not funny at all

nor the object to be amazed.

—

Another cultural differences appeared in the western media is, all the report found it is even strange,

the reporters unanimously says ” how Japanese can keep emotion in check and stays calm ?”

The emotion is the default feeling of the human-being, hence it is more or less the same to any

culture. Though, emotional expression is not instinctive, in other words, it is cultural.

Whether it is emotional or not, expression is a way of the communication, therefore even

an emotional expression is dependent on the situation.

—– there was an interesting psychological study and the video images of the small children.

When a small child stumbled and fallen, having a pain the child started to cry. —– You will think it is

a natural emotional reaction.

Though when the same child stumbled and fallen on the empty street where nobody else is in sight

( except a hidden video camera ), child didn’t cry, and stand up by herself.

This is the true nature of the human-being. —– communication is to appeal to others.

Having emotion is one thing. To express is other.

If there is no other person to help, no need to express. —– even small child knows this

and behave accordingly.

AAAAA

In the western culture, where the Ethos and the psyche was shaped in the cast of Judia-Christian religion.

In there, the God is a humanized image or notion. And the relation of the believer to

the God is one-by-one base. You have to stand before the God in person. Hence you have to talk or express

to him — otherwise you can’t to be heard.

Therefore, unless you express and assert your Self, you are not exist. And under this understanding

even a word expressed by a person may not necessary enough. Hence, a written contract became essential.

So that, express and express and make a claim is the basis of the psyche.

And as the relation to the God is one-by-one, when something happened, shout “ Why me “

AAAAA

In comparison, the Eastern God or the place of the mighty power is the Heaven,

or Buddhist’s  explanation is the Dharma. The rules of the Universe.

Regardless, whether you face it or not, believe or express yourself or not, you are under the Dharma.

As all the occurrences and the existences are in this Dharma or under this Dharma, hence even a huge

natural disaster may produced by this same Dharma, hence you can’t argue with it.

Nor there is no use to complain or express your emotion. —–  Shout and cry is no use. The matter is

just think what you can react to the situation. What you have to do the next.

And in the case of huge natural disaster, as the same fate has come to everybody, and as everybody

was created by the same Dharma, everybody has the same feeling and facing the same situation,

one crying wouldn’t make situation any better.

Thanks to Japan has very little foreign element in their psyche, everybody is sharing the same psyche

—– even to the people who was not affected by the disaster, they share the same pain,

hence the help started almost instantly. And no looting at all.

—

In the Buddhist’s explanation, this is the moment when the Dharma prevailed.

As everybody having the Dharma in them, when they sees the situation far beyond the human

comprehension, lost the word, hence lost any thinking, therefore the mind became

blank = blank open space = Mushin —> The Dharma, hence its nature of Charity and compassion prevailed.

And the Dharma is inside,  whether the police is there or not, no looting occure.  Since Dharma knows it.

—-

I only hope the people who had this disaster to recover and able to re-build their life.

( And in this given opportunity, Japanese can root out their rotten government and rotten policy in their

nuclear generating system )

___/\___

—