<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Yoshizen&#039;s Blog]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://yoshizen.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[yoshizen]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/author/yoshizen/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Selfless&#8212;-What ?]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><strong>&#8221;  Misunderstanding of  Selfless  in the Western  Buddhism &#8220;</strong></p>
<p>My career in the Buddhist&#8217;s talking is only 10 months long.  I&#8217;ve lived my life just as my life and</p>
<p>I just happen to be a Zen Buddhist.&#8212;&#8212;- I didn&#8217;t find any needs to talk about other than make a joke.</p>
<p>One of the reason why I didn&#8217;t talk about is (any how nobody likes religious talk ) I didn&#8217;t know</p>
<p>the existence of this kind of talking forum.</p>
<p>So that I was not familiar with the Technical term  / Jargon of the Buddhists  in English.   Nor, what is</p>
<p>the Western style Buddhism.&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;- (all of my Zen books and Mantras are in Japanese )</p>
<p>Then what I discovered is, especially from  the criticism against Buddhism  which says</p>
<p>&#8221; Killing (or sacrifice ) the Self is no good for the human nature.&#8221;</p>
<p>The cause of this misunderstanding seemed to came from the choice of the translation, the word  SELFLESS.</p>
<p>In the East, this Buddhist&#8217;s term has been understood as  No Mind  (<span style="text-decoration:underline;">Wu shin</span> in Chinese,  <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Mu shin</span> in Japanese)</p>
<p>since, Mind often causes too much thinking (hence indecisive, and too slow) or wrong thinking under Ego,</p>
<p>so that,  get lid of altogether and leave the matter to the Subconscious wisdom.  (In the concept of  Tsu-nyen</p>
<p>in Chinese or  Ji-nen  in Japanese &#8212;&#8212;Exist as itself / Bore out from itself / Nature.</p>
<p>Which originated from  Taoism,  this Wisdom  is the deepest original nature of the oneself,  and the wide nature)</p>
<p>And this &#8221; Subconscious wisdom is not from the Self &#8221; is a Buddhist&#8217;s concept.  Where else its came from.  Obvious.</p>
<p>Though, from the truth of  Dharma, by which we are a Part of it, This Subconscious wisdom belongs to the Dharma.</p>
<p>(&#8212;- So What. It&#8217;s a tiring  rhetoric.<strong> Spread your hands wide,  embrace the  world.  This is the Dharma.</strong> )</p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;</p>
<p>Equivalent of Selfless in Japanese is  Mu <span style="text-decoration:underline;">shi</span>.  This SHI mean private, or self (antonym of Public)</p>
<p>One of the most well known author in Japan,  Soseki Natsume wrote in his book &#8221; The Gate &#8221;</p>
<p>using the words to describe this state of Mind as Non-Emotion,  away from the matter of the</p>
<p>ownership of the Mind.  ( Though, I haven&#8217;t found Who taught Zen to him yet ).</p>
<p>( Just for the sake of convenience I&#8217;ve been using  this word  Selfless from the beginning though,</p>
<p>as I repeatedly writing  <strong>&#8221; Selfless is not sacrificing a self, far from it, it release the one from </strong></p>
<p><strong>the bondage of the emotional Ego, therefore it liberate and empower the life.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;</p>
<p>As I wrote somewhere,   &#8220;&#8212;&#8211; otherwise  Gynecologist can&#8217;t do their business &#8221;    The Buddhist&#8217;s Selfless</p>
<p>( in its true form ) is almost same to a  Medical Doctor&#8217;s &#8221; Clinical Detachment &#8221; or  Sociologist&#8217;s</p>
<p>&#8221; Value Free &#8221; &#8212;&#8211; but its having more universal applications to all aspects of the  life. &#8212;&#8212;that is why it is</p>
<p>directly connected to the &#8221; Clear Eyes &#8220;.  ( Does anybody ever heard a complaint from Doctors or</p>
<p>Sociologists of their occupational hazard, Loss of the Self ?  &#8212;&#8211; far from it, they are getting the</p>
<p>benefit of it by achieving much higher efficiency in their life.)</p>
<p>The allegation against the Buddhism has been emanated from the misunderstanding of so-called  Selfless,</p>
<p>both by the Buddhists and ignorant Critics. &#8212;&#8212;- As a matter of fact,  even earliest Buddhists had this</p>
<p>confusion,  as they didn&#8217;t have the knowledge of the Subconsciousness.   Thus struggle to define elusive</p>
<p>Mind and the Self,  which was taught by Buddha in metaphor.  Considering the followers and the audiences</p>
<p>of Buddha,  they were not  the scholar or epistemologist, far from it, they are the ordinary people on</p>
<p>the street who never read a book nor familiar with philosophical term (the people who was educated was</p>
<p>the Vedic  Brahman&#8212;-antagonist to the Buddha&#8217;s teachings) so that the complicated terminology such as in</p>
<p>the Abidhama Cosa Mantra couldn&#8217;t be in the Buddha&#8217;s words,  therefore  they are all later addition</p>
<p>and the guess-work done by professional monk hundreds of years later.</p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;- Since we have new insight to the structure of the human mind, we need to have correct</p>
<p>understanding of the so-called  Self,  which Buddha himself had observed then.</p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;</p>
<p>I also wrote somewhere &#8221; To do the practice with absolute obedience &#8221;  is not only the matter</p>
<p>for the Buddhists, it is what the life is.</p>
<p>No one can do  Rock climbing  half-heartedly or no  Surgeon can operates  without concentration.</p>
<p>It needs to have 100 % unconditional commitment.</p>
<p>It will kill the Ego certainly,  but if anyone still cringing to Ego, just leave Buddhism or Operating Theater.</p>
<p>Buddhism is to give the most efficient state of the Mind for the life. Thats all.</p>
<p>Who need to ask more ?</p>
<p>.</p>
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