360-Degree Compound Eyes

In my previous job, I was fortunate to meet many respectable supervisors who gave me valuable advice, most of which was very useful. Some of them phrased their advice in analogy rather than in direct suggestions or instructions. I found these analogies very useful, not only at the moment, but also in solving problems I had in my later experience. The most impressive advice was that I should have "360-degree-view compound eyes."

When a person becomes enthusiastic and focused on doing something, he or she tends to be narrow-sighted, leaving the person unable to see anything but the work he is concentrating on at that time. This is the moment in which obstacles are prone to hit from unexpected angles, ruining the work that was the person's exclusive focus. Having 360-degree-view compound eyes enables a person to look at a situation from all angles to better anticipate potential problems.

There is an ancient Chinese fable telling about how danger exists in our lives. Once upon a time, there was an aristocratic politician who enjoyed hunting. One day he went hunting and found a bird that he had not seen before. Wanting to get the bird, he took his bow and arrow and aimed at it.

Suddenly, the aristocrat became aware that the bird was focusing on something. The aristocrat found that there was a mantis on a leaf near the bird. The bird aimed a blow at the mantis. Taking a closer look, the hunter noticed that the mantis was trying to hunt a locust on the wood trunk.

The mantis was hunting the locust, and the bird was aiming at the mantis. The aristocratic hunter was trying to shoot the bird. He shuddered with horror because he felt that somebody or something else was trying to hunt him. He threw away his bow and arrow as he started to run. The hunter only wanted to get away from the place as soon as possible. A park guard caught him on his way back to his horse. This occurred in the national park where hunting was prohibited. The hunter was right; the park guard had been watching him as he focused on the bird.

The guard released the aristocrat because he was not a professional hunter. The aristocrat was lucky to learn to be wary of things behind him. He needed to learn to pay attention to all of his surroundings including both sides, the front, and behind him. He would not have gotten caught if he had compound eyes capable of seeing in every direction.




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Oriental Concept of Causality

My grandmother has been dead for 40 years now. I have not thought about her much until quite recently. Since I started to write articles and blog posts on Buddhism, Taoism, and Oriental philosophy, I have often recalled what my grandmother told me when she was alive back when I was just a little boy. Today, I remember that my grandmother used to mention about causality. She often said that good things would come to a person if he does good things to others. In contrast, she said that bad things would fall upon those who do bad things.

Asian concept that is largely based on Buddhism theory calls it "Inga Ouhou." The direct translation of this Japanese expression is "causality." The English proverb "What goes around comes around" has the same concept as "Inga Ouhou."

In Hiroshi's neighborhood, there was a vacant house. The house had been empty for several years. Somebody bought the house and started to repair it. In the process of repairing the house, the new resident cut the big tree in his backyard. Hiroshi was not an expert of shamanism. He had minimal knowledge about this spirituality concept. He believed that everything on earth has a spirit. Being a part of the house or the land to which the house belonged, the tree must have a spirit for maintaining balance of nature. Hiroshi hoped that nothing bad would happen to the new owner.

Hiroshi did not exactly know what had happened, but the new owner stopped maintaining the front yard. Soon they stopped cleaning the house walls and the sidewalks in the front yard.

After about a year after the new owner moved in, Hiroshi found the house was vacant again. It appeared as if the new owner ran away from the house. Hiroshi knew there was no logical explanation regarding the causality of the them abandoning their home, but he was absolutely sure it was the result of the new owner cutting down the tree.

The story ends here. My friend Hiroshi still did not know what exactly happened to the new owner. I can imagine my grandmother would tell me there's no doubt the owner's problem was caused by him cutting the tree. My grandmother would say that one never knows what protects the house, land and the surrounding nature. If one destroys the object that gives protection, the protection is lost.

My mother never believed my grandmother's words when she was young. I remember whenever my mother cut wood in her backyard in Tokyo, there was almost always something unusual that happened. Something unusual includes my father breaking his leg or her son (I) failed examination. It was almost as if driven by an invisible and unexplainable causality.

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Butterfly Dream

While Zhuangzi, an ancient Chinese philosopher, was taking a nap one spring day, he dreamed that he was a butterfly. He enjoyed being a butterfly and flying through the air in this dream. Zhuangzi was not aware that he was dreaming and actually believed that he was a butterfly. Suddenly, he woke up and discovered that he was Zhuangzi. As he thought about his dream, he could not decide if he was dreaming about being a butterfly or if the butterfly was dreaming about being him.

This is the most beautiful story written by Zhuangzi. It is a picturesque description of a nap on a spring afternoon, a dream, and a butterfly. The original Chinese work is a poem rather than an article. This story also contains profound implications. The philosopher describes the inner world of the human mind, which is subconsciously aware that the world is transient like his dream of the butterfly. Whether Zhuangzi is dreaming of a butterfly or a butterfly is dreaming of Zhuangzi, this world is nothing but a hologram that appears in our brain. Therefore, it is not important if he dreams about the butterfly or if the butterfly dreams about him. The butterfly is Zhuangzi, and he is the butterfly. We simply perceive the world in our brain.

This story reminds me of a scene in the movie, The Matrix. Morpheus takes Neo inside the matrix for the first time. In a space that contains nothing but Morpheus, Neo, and two chairs, Neo touches one of the leather chairs and asks Morpheus if it is real.

Morpheus asks Neo what "real" means. He wants to know its definition. He says if what is real can be defined to be anything Neo can feel, smell, taste, see, or sense in any way, what is real is simply determined by electrical signals interpreted in Neo's brain.

We see our world as our own image created inside of our brain. If we saw our world as terrible, horrible, or devastating, we would consider it unbearably awful. In contrast, if we felt our world was a beautiful, wonderful, or pleasant place, our world would become a fantastic place. Some people handle adversity better than others. On the other hand, some suffer more from the same occurrences. Their perceptions of tragedy are different in their minds.

This Zhuangzi story of the butterfly dream provides us with a splendid breathing space. It tells us that if we think the world is a bright place, it will be a nice place. It warns us not to take things too seriously. If you are too pessimistic, the world will become an unbearable place. It does not depend on how it actually is, but on how we see it.

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Multilingual Service For the Mega-Earthquake in Japan -2

On Friday, March 4, an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 9.0 hit northern Honshu Island, Japan, around 3:00 p.m. local time in Japan. A massive tsunami followed this major earthquake. The number of casualties and actual damage has not yet been determined. Although several news media announcements have provided some early damage estimates, I would rather not mention any specific figures until more is known. I would like to express my heartfelt sympathy for the people who lost their lives, their families, and their homes in this natural disaster. I was quite fortunate to confirm the safety of my mother living in Tokyo. She also confirmed that there were no casualties and only minimal property damage among my family or friends.

Cell phone and email services were unable to handle the large increase in use and became overwhelmed in the aftermath of the disaster. Social network sites played a major role in obtaining updated information on this tragedy. My family and I could watch CNN in English, China Central TV News in Chinese, and NHK in Japanese. However, these television stations were only interested in broadcasting information about their own nationalities. NHK focuses on Japanese. CCTV only broadcasts about Chinese living in Japan or visiting Japan at that time. CNN talks about Americans.




While it is understandable for Japanese news media to focus on the safety of their own citizens, I believe we should not ignore the safety of other nationalities living in the disaster area or of foreign visitors. Their family and friends must have been frustrated by the lack of information available in their languages.

I learned about this service by accident. I contacted my translator friend on another work and found she was forming this service. I took part in this service adding Chinese and Spanish posts. They broadcast the most updated information concerning the earthquake and tsunami in many different languages. They are volunteer service of foreign language translators in Japan, and my friend played a leading role in forming this service. Some of the languages provided by the service include English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and more. I was fortunate enough to connect with this service and advertise its benefits using other social network services and my own blogs. The service broadcasts updated information about the aftermath, including information regarding damages, causalities, rescue efforts, and more. Let me show you how the service works:

- You can browse the posts in different languages which show or link to updated information on the disaster in your language.

- If you have specific information you need, post the request in the group in your language. A translator will pick up your post and respond to your request.

- The translation work in relation to this disaster is free, since the group is formed by volunteer translators.

If you hope to access to the detail of this service and the link, please refer to my blog post on March 12, entitled "Translation Help for the People in Need on Mega Earthquakes in Japan.", as the link provided below:
=====================
Anyone who needs his/her urgent message to be translated, in relation to the recent mega earthquake in Japan, please use #honyaquake found in twitter.  http://twitter.com/

今回の北日本大地震に関連し、外国語のサポートが必要な方はTwitterの#honyaquakeを参照下さい。http://twitter.com/

任何人需要翻译他/她的紧急消息，与最近的日本大型地震相关，请使用 #honyaquake。http://twitter.com/

Cualquier persona que necesita que su mensaje urgente sea traducido, en cuanto al enorme terremoto reciente en Japón, por favor use el #honyaquake.  http://twitter.com/
=====================
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Multilingual Service For the Mega-Earthquake in Japan

Re-posting for the people who are still in need for language help.

Anyone who needs his/her urgent message to be translated, in relation to the recent mega earthquake in Japan, please use #honyaquake found in twitter.  http://twitter.com/

今回の北日本大地震に関連し、外国語のサポートが必要な方はTwitterの#honyaquakeを参照下さい。http://twitter.com/

任何人需要翻译他/她的紧急消息，与最近的日本大型地震相关，请使用 #honyaquake。http://twitter.com/

Cualquier persona que necesita que su mensaje urgente sea traducido, en cuanto al enorme terremoto reciente en Japón, por favor use el #honyaquake.  http://twitter.com/



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Our Daughter Xuer became 2 years old - 2

Mega earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Plant problem are hitting Japan.  I believe that we should not forget relaxation of this kind of time.  I decided to post three more pictures of our dog, Xuer.

I wish these pictures would be able to bring some relaxation and smiles to the people who are suffering.



Xuer wearing all  of her favorite.



She was asked to "sit and stay".  That is why she looks a little tensed.

She looks like a white fox in these pictures.

White fox is a part of God in Japanese Shinto Religion.

I learned recently that a white dog also carries a spiritual power to protect good from evil.

Our family including Xuer, with spiritual power, would like to send our best wishes to the people who are suffering from recent mega earthquakes in Japan.

With regard to Xuer's mysterious spiritual power, please refer to the following posts:

http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-our-new-family-member-gave-us-1.html
     ~
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-our-new-family-member-gave-us-7.html













Anyone who needs his/her urgent message to be translated, in relation to the recent mega earthquake in Japan, please use #honyaquake found in twitter.  http://twitter.com/

今回の北日本大地震に関連し、外国語のサポートが必要な方はTwitterの#honyaquakeを参照下さい。http://twitter.com/

任何人需要翻译他/她的紧急消息，与最近的日本大型地震相关，请使用 #honyaquake。http://twitter.com/

Cualquier persona que necesita que su mensaje urgente sea traducido, en cuanto al enorme terremoto reciente en Japón, por favor use el #honyaquake.  http://twitter.com/

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Translation Help for People in Need on Mega Earthquake in Japan

Anyone who needs his/her urgent message to be translated, in relation to the recent mega earthquake in Japan, please use #honyaquake found in twitter.  http://twitter.com/

今回の北日本大地震に関連し、外国語のサポートが必要な方はTwitterの#honyaquakeを参照下さい。http://twitter.com/

任何人需要翻译他/她的紧急消息，与最近的日本大型地震相关，请使用 #honyaquake。http://twitter.com/

Cualquier persona que necesita que su mensaje urgente sea traducido, en cuanto al enorme terremoto reciente en Japón, por favor use el #honyaquake.  http://twitter.com/



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Our Daughter Xuer became 2 years old

When I say "daughter", I refer to Our dog, Snowy.  However, she is very important family member.  She is our Lucky White Dog as she gave us this house we all are living.

For the details, please refer to the following posts:
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-our-new-family-member-gave-us-1.html
     ~
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-our-new-family-member-gave-us-7.html

She became 2 years old on February 22.  My wife, my wife's mother, and I gave her several birthday present.  We, all three, talked and planned together the largest birthday present to her this year.

Since she was brought to this home, she was naughty.  She took down a drape of a window.  She broke several chairs.  She destroyed one sofa and a love chair. After one and half years old, she became very nice.  She does not make any mistake in our house, she does not destroy anything any more.  So, we decided to take out her kennel and give her entire freedom inside of our home.

Only the problem she still has is mails.  She gets excited to see mailmen.  Whenever a mailman comes, she barks like crazy and try to get mails.  It is okay to get mails.  The problem is she breaks mails by biting.  We built special anti-Xuer mailbox and our protection to the mails was complete.  We decided to take away Xuer's kennel.

The position she is sitting in the photo right is the place where she used to have her kennel.  We took it away.  She is now totally free to go anywhere in our home.  She does not have to be put in her kennel when other family members go out.  She is "FREE".





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Binding Power, Ju

Have you ever felt your sixth sense sharpen as you read a book about supernatural power? I once found a book that gave me this kind of feeling. It was a book about Seimei Abe, a Japanese Shamanism master who lived for three hundred years. Myths tell that his mother was a white fox whom his father saved on a mountain. He had supernatural powers which resulted in paranormal activity in eighth century Japan. He was under the protection of the most powerful aristocrat's family. When the head of that the family was cursed, Seimei Abe gave a white dog to the leader. When evil forces tried to strike this aristocrat, the white dog became a white knight and defended the aristocrat.

Seimei Abe was a master of "Ju." The Japanese word "Ju" is generally translated "curse" or "grudge" in English. However, Seimei Abe taught that it meant "binding," and he said that anything binding is "ju." An example of something binding is a person's name. A person was given his or her name; therefore, he or she could be recognized and differentiated from others by it. On the other hand, people were more or less bound by their names. A boy, named after a great man from a history, struggles to be as great as his name. Some would become successful and honor their names, but some would fail. They were bound and profoundly influenced by their own names.

In one of his myths, Seimei Abe was called Emperor. A supernatural being stole the Emperor's guitar, they said.

Seimei Abe was called because a supernatural being was involved. The Emperor asked him to bring his guitar. Seimei went to the East Gate of Kyoto Imperial Palace, where the music of his royal guitar was heard. Two other people accompanied him-a Samurai warrior named Hiromasa and a Buddhism monk called Kan-ei. When the three of them arrived at the gate, they heard the guitar music coming from the roof of the gatehouse. Seimei approached the person playing guitar on the roof, and asked his name. It turned out he was the ghost of a deceased member of an aristocrat family who was against the Emperor. He asked for the names of the three visitors, and they told him. Seimei lied, though, saying his name was "Masanari."

A moment later, the spirit called their names one by one: "Hiromasa, Kan-ei, and Masanari." The other two answered their names, but Seimei remained silent. The ghost spelled out their names, and suddenly Hiromasa and Kan-ei could no longer move. They were bound by the spell. Seimei was not bound by the curse of the ghost. He continued to intentionally tell the ghost fake names so that he would not be bound by the spell. Seimei spelled a word to get rid of the ghost so he could take back the imperial guitar.



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Know the Power of Words

A while ago there was a scary movie called "Ju-on." The English name of the movie was "Grudge." The movie was about the ghost of a brutally murdered woman that stayed in the crime scene and killed anyone who visited her home. The soul of the woman was bound in the place where her husband had murdered her. The Japanese word "Ju-on" means a curse that stays in a place or a person. It comes from strong anger, resentment, sorrow, regret, or from a curse. Until quite recently, I had thought "Ju" simply meant curse. I found, however, that the origin of this Japanese word is not simply curse, but has a more profound meaning that refers to "binding."

According to the Chinese theory of the origin of nature known as "Yin Yang" (meaning dark and bright), "Ju" means "binding," "association," or "engaging." Ju does not necessarily mean curse or grudge. In this sense, the smallest ju is our name. Before we are named, we all are human beings. Unlike cats, dogs, or any animal, you and I are human beings. Without a name, you will not be able to be differentiated from others. Your name gives you your own definition, separate from others. At the same time, your name binds you to your own character and personality. We are able to use names to classify people, such as "John" is a tall person, "Susan" is thin, and "Sean" is smart. At the same time, you will be bound by the images or personalities attached to your name. A name finds a person. Therefore, names are ju.

Words give definition to things, matter, or phenomenon. They use words, which are ju, to bind the object that was referred to by the words. Words have a more profound binding power. One may think that he is free to select his words. Therefore, words are his slaves. However, words bind you and your activities once they are uttered. You do not want to be called a liar. Therefore, you must act on what you said. After you speak, you become a slave to your words.

During ancient times, people in many Asian countries were well aware of the power of words. There were gods of words, festivals for words, and temples and shrines for words. People thought highly of the words they used. High-ranking aristocrats were killed, seriously punished, or lost their positions because they did not believe in the importance of words.

Some bloggers do not want to reveal themselves because what they write does not truly represent who they are. They feel the need to hide forever because of the words they used. We should be fully aware of the power of words and use them carefully. Do not be cursed or bound by words or become a slave to your words. Make use of them.


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