from wiki:
"Tokimune was overcome with fear when the invasion finally came, and wanted
to defeat cowardice, so he asked Bukko (his Zen master) for advice. Bukko
replied he had to sit in meditation to find the source of his cowardice in
himself. Tokimune went to Bukko and said: "Finally there is the greatest
happening of my life." Bukko asked, "How do you plan to face it?" Tokimune
screamed "*Katsu!*" ("Victory!") as if he wanted to scare all the enemies in
front of him. Bukko responded with satisfaction: "It is true that the son of
a lion roars as a lion!" Since that time, Tokimune became instrumental in
the spreading of Zen Buddhism and Bushido in Japan among the samurai."
"Besides national boundaries, the Zen Buddhism of Hojo Tokimune and his Zen
master Bukko had gained credibility, and the first mass followings of Zen
teachings among samurai began to flourish. This also marks the first use of
the word kamikaze ("Divine Wind"). It also perpetuated the Japanese belief
that they could not be defeated, which remained an important aspect of
Japanese foreign policy until the end of the Second World War. The invasions
were also the only time that enemy nations would mount an invasion of any of
the main four islands of Japan."
--------------------
I had a very strange dream last night.
One that stuck with me.
Haunted me in the morning.
I told it to Lu when I woke up.
It took place on a large a horse ranch of my mother's. Sorta like the
place she does own, but bigger, also, more sloped and southerly, A sunny
clime, open spaces. Lots of lean-to stables and corrals. In the dream it
felt like late summer, not too hot, toward evening, the air full of a
golden, slanting light.
The people present were my mom, my brother and people who seemed familiar
- old co-workers, guys I haven't seen in a while, nobody specific, all of us
together and milling around outside, listening to the radio, and they were
waiting their turn to talk on the radio - some sort of national show.
Again, nothing specific. They were waiting for my brother to finish and
his on-air diatribe held their rapt attention; him spouting his expertise
on world events and permutations in the futures market and stuff like that;
sorta like he always does. Stuff I never care that much about but in this
situation, because there's like an international crisis and all, his
expertise is being enthusiastically sought.
I wanted to make a point, but just to those around me - my mom, my brother
and the guys standing waiting. I didn't want to get in line to talk to the
unseen air. I wanted to communicate an idea to those around me.
They were all obsessed with the current problems with the current reactor
meltdown in Japan - issues of rads and absorption and likliehood of
currents of air and the technical details - the consequences of a
meltdown, in empirical terms I guess. I was trying to communicate a
different problem. At root, the same issues - life on the planet - but what
was trying to get across was more basic and earthy than radioactivity and
its effects. I was trying to explain the ripples of consequence in the
world as it is - food and fuel issues. I was frustrated and unable to
communicate my points.
I was going about it all wrong, somehow. I tried to convey my own message's
importance with heightened emotional intensity, but that was everybody's
gig. Everybody was trying to be heard and was using emotional intensity to
convey how important their message was. I sounded just like them. It was
very trying. My main technique was falling flat due to inexplicable reasons.
I'd try and lead them down a logical ladder, starting at the basic point
and then going on, step by step from there. To my thinking, the simplest
and most obvious and most natural first question was, "what does a nuclear
reactor produce?"
That one is easy. "Electrical Power" was what I had in mind and that was
the answer I needed from them to go down the next step toward making my
point. I thought this was the proper dialectical way to go. Socrates
himself couldn't ask for more, but the great frustration of my dream was
that not one single soul I asked this question from me mum to me chums to
me bro, had any idea how to answer.
I couldn't figure out why. They were already thinking in the track of
answering, "spent fuel rods" and "nuclear waste" and "radioactivity" which
was not my point. When they'd offer those answers I'd wave my hands in
their face and go "No, no, no, no that's not what I mean. I mean, what was
the purpose? Why do humans create this structure? Make it a real thing
upon the planet? Why do we make nuke planets? Plain and simple - why?"
Trying to get them to follow me down this path, see. But they didn't see.
When I'd ask them more directly in this way, they'd stop trying to answer.
They'd just sort of assume that that was my point. That I was making the
question rhetorically, like "why do we do this to ourselves?" and they'd nod
their heads wisely and go back to listening in on the national conversation
about dealing with the effects.
Leaving me sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for them to say the
obvious answer, "electrical power", so I could pounce with "Exactly! And
now that these reactors are toast, fini, never to produce electrical power
again, what next?" My idea was that they'd see that this electrical power
would have to be replaced soon, as a practical matter and the only practical
solution for a quick enough replacement would be one that burned fuel oil.
That was the main point of my dream. But something shied them off, time
after time, each and every one, mo' to bro'. it was almost like they
couldn't grasp electricity in my dream. It was just there. Like water to a
fish. They were on their own track and they couldn't get off. I was
standing at the switch, and they refused to go there.
I wonder if Socrates ever had days like this, it was very frustrating.
They are all waiting in the line for the phone. Their chance to speak. For
after all, One of their own, my brother in fact, was on the air , and they
knew as much as that guy (not a hard target... there, but we won't go there)
and all were mesmerized by the sound of a voice of their own, coming back
to them over the ether.
I analyze my approach, second guessing myself, shift away from focusing
on a trippy first step, I should maybe offer them the conclusion first,
grab 'em with the headline, as they are used to. But even in my dreams I
toss the idea aside as worthless, knowing there that the conclusion "your
WORLD is about to CHANGE!!!" was one with which they agreed completely,
already knew, and were standing in line to explain to others who thought
like them, and they weren't really in the mood to listen. It was blocking
them.
They had these sorta nebulous but equally apocalyptic ideas of their own,
driven to madness by recent events and thus any message there would be
drowned out by their own copious fulfillings - things even that are true, in
some ways. Peak Oil! , the coming doom!. The petering out of man's energy
deficits! When you take out more than you give, evolution has karma slaps,
baby, you wouldn't believe. Man's disability to live with his means and
getting smacked up the head by mother nature herself ( who loves her whales)
doesn't surprise me and all of us see it coming and feel the sting. So
that's not gonna work. Old news. Everybody knows, the dice are loaded.
Everybody knows, the captain lied.
My wife and kids weren't there. I don't know where they were I didn't
think of them. Just a feeling of frustration, haunted me, all day,
obviously, cuz here I am writing and describing it.
All I wanted to get across was that we're gonna see a rise in the demand for
oil, right at a time when there's lots of demand for oil, and it's gonna
take a bit more than govt. paper printed in Japan, to convince the crazy
arabs ('nother story completely) to part with their black gold...
Which I couldn't get across in my dream, because everybody already knew
that.
That, and farmland. It was all these hungry japanese people standing
amongst waves of demolished agricultural structures and needing
electricity. And since my brothers and all his friends were always talking
about futures and markets and money and into this stuff, they oughta see
something big coming... another kind of tsunami effect (pesky things,
waves.) and realize that all you need to really foment rebellion is
incentive. And Japan bidding with their printed dollars vs. ours, for this
oil commodity... well... It was a lot bigger tsunami than a little friendly,
irradiated tickle.
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