Mulberry

Every year, in the middle of August, there will be my annual event to go to see the Mulberry tree

and eat its berry, as one of my special ritual. ( After this, it will be the Blackberry’s season  🙂  )

—

There is a Japanese song called ” Aka-Tonbo ” ( Red Dragonfly, and its appearance heralding the coming

Autumn  /  end of the summer) —— it was dubbed as the second Japanese National Anthem.

Some Japanese expatriate would tear when they sung this, even though they may not necessary ever

eaten this berry in their life.

Song is about a childhood memory,  when he (she) was piggy-backed and  saw  the red evening sky,

the flying  Aka-Tonbo,  and the memory of picking the Mulberry. ——– (sob  sob)

My childhood memory itself was nothing like in the song,  still when ever I saw this Mulberry tree

my thought just goes to this song.   ” This is the Mulberry of  Aka-Tonbo song ” ——– still,  it is

almost a mystery, why this Mulberry having such significance and  Aka-Tonbo song  makes the

Japanese cry ——- though, it is a touchy subject I never dare to ask others ” Why you cry ? ”

—-

I can describe,  the size and how its berry looks like (it looks similar to Blackberry —– if  you click

the photo and enlarge it twice, it will be about 80% of the life-size) though I can’t tell what is the taste

and how it is distinctive.  Unlike the light or sound, there is no chart to plot or even measure its

distinctiveness.  (We only able to measure the strength of each taste,  very strong to very weak.

But we even don’t know what sort of difference or similarity  between the taste of apple and the grape)

So that, we can not objectively describe or think about the taste— Only able to detect, it’s there or not.

—-

Among the sensory stimuli, the visual signal is the most indirect stimulus.  It detects the light

reflected on the surface of the object and the signal has to be reconfigured as a pattern in the brain

—– otherwise its  signal / stimulus wouldn’t have any effect as a stimulus,  as if it is not existing.

In comparison, sound signal stimulates  the hearing nerve direct.  As long as it’s there you can not escape.

But the sound is a by-product of something vibrating, and transmitted through the air, if we block

the air path we can annihilate its existence.

Though, taste and the smell is the direct chemical effects created by the particular monocle of

the material or ingredient, so the monocle itself needs to touches the nerve.

Second direct sensory are the touch feeling.   It will be detected by the direct touch but needs to feel

and assess.  So that the same stimuli of such as touching a wire-brush —— very slight ticklish feeling

to itchy feeling and if it was pressed too hard it is painful —— its dependent to the interpretation.

Some people feel even pleasure by piecing the skin by needle. (I wonder what sort of process there ?)

—

The more direct the stimulus,  its effect goes deep straight, even hit one’s physiology straight, since it

by-passing the process of the brain,  and evoke the subconscious reaction, revive the latent

memory and hit the emotion direct, we can not control —— sob !

When a monocular of chemical which is unique to the Mulberry, touches our taste-bud, specific

signal was transmitted from there (scientists still don’t know the mechanism, is it the pattern of pulses ?

if it was the case, can computer mimic the pattern and recreate the same sensation of taste ?

or even create the similar but slightly different pattern hence new taste ? ? ? ) we perceive specific

sensation and  as its sensation is unique, it will be strongly associated with its particular

situation —— hence, its revive the strong memory and the associated emotion.

—

Yet, me to go and pick Mulberry is not only for indulging child memory,  but I rather feel a kind of duty

to remember  our humble origin.  We human being came from the savannah  as the hunter gatherer.

We survived while picking fruits, plant roots, sea-shell etc etc —– thanks to the nature and

ultimately the energy-source, the Sun. ——- (Fruits comes from the tree, not from  Tesco 😀  )

We never created foods.  We are just a sucker of the nature and a part of the food chain.

Especially to be a Buddhist, we shouldn’t forget that fundamentally  we are the  bikku (beggar ).

So, thanks to a tree in a park, I can pick this Mulberry, free of charge.

( Though, I’m not alone.  It seems I’m competing with another picker and the Birds —— early Birds got

better chance and upper hand / upper wing  to reach top of branch.  I got only few left over.  Sob  😀  )

——

Why Subconscious (1)

Many of you who have read some other posts here, may wondered Why I’m bothering

Subconscious so much ?

(1)  The first reason is;  Fundamentally the  Selflessness appeared when the incoming

signal of visual, sound, linguistic etc what ever, has not been connected to the emotion.

This brain activity is taking place, in deed, subconsciously.

And only in the Selfless state the one can see and communicate with the Dharma.

Therefore, to gain a control of this process, we need to access into our subconscious.

——————–

(2)  The second reason is;  If we need to control our Ego, Selfish-Self, Delusions etc,

which is hiding in our Emotion or primitive region of our brain, not to mention the troublesome

our instincts, we have to deal  with very subconscious.

——————–

(3)  The third reason is;  as all of our brain activities are carried out without our conscious.

We only know the end result when it was converted to the linguistic context (to the words) or

visual image or action of muscle etc, without even knowing how this result has been deduced ,

induced or inferred by the algorithm there( which all the attempt to simulate by Artificial Intelligence (AI)

had failed ) So that,  we can not discuss the matter while avoiding to touch the matters in subconscious.

On top of this, the basis of those process are relying on our accumulated knowledge, or

[ Data Bank ] (I discussed this in earliest post) which we gathered mostly unconsciously.

Even worse, some part of our  [ Data Bank ] seemed to contain even the Genetic Memories which we

inherit from remote ancestors, which we may only see under the heavy trans like state of the mind.

Trouble of those hidden file is, it quietly influence our perception, way of thinking  and the life itself.

——————–

Of cause, non of the Mantra said anything near to this kind of observation, because of it is not

visible and easy to explain, and anyway, the notion of subconscious was not exist in ancient time.

Still, the Buddhism  managed to control those matters in subconsciousness without knowing how its works.

So, it must be said, the one who discovered this phenomena, Buddha had really incredible insight.

He had seen the invisible phenomena which hadn’t have even the notion or the word to describe it.