Andrew Furst's Blog, page 10

The Sketchbook Project and a Special Offer on Patreon

My wife Samantha got me the perfect Christmas gift: an entry into the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook project.  The project is a crowd-sourced library that features over 40,000 artists’ books from 135+ countries.

My entry went into the mail on Sunday and will be digitized and placed on the website. The physical copy will live on the shelves in Brooklyn.

I’ll be creating unique reprints of the book that will be available to people who sign up for the new art patron tier ($10) by January 30th, 2019.

Get Your Signed Sketchbook

 

The sketchbook is a series of prints titled “transmission”.  It is a symbolic road map of the human growth process. Influences include Kurt Vonnegut, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, interpretations of my own childhood drawings, Joseph Campbell, and others.

I’ll be posting segments of the sketchbook here over the month of January.

There will be a limited number of unique signed sketchbook project reprints, so get over to Patreon to sign up for the new art patron tier ($10) by January 30th, 2019.

Get Your Signed Sketchbook

 

Singularity/Wu/Opening the Peep Hole

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A Few Thoughts On Reincarnation – Collections

Here is a collection of thoughts on Reincarnation. It includes articles, questions, answers, etc. They’re drawn from a number of regular series including Modern Koans and Dialectic Two Step.

How Should a Buddhist Deal with Discarding Erroneous Beliefs? – Modern Koans


Modern Koans, Writings




























If We Are Reborn, How Does Population Grow? – Dialectic Two Step


Dialectic Two-Step, Writings






















Last Chance For Nirvana? – Dialectic Two Step


Dialectic Two-Step, Writings






















Modern Koans – Some Legitimate Gripes With Buddhism?


Modern Koans, Writings






















A Conversation With an Evangelical – Dialectic Two Step


Dialectic Two-Step, Writings

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Top 10 Posts for 2018 from Andrew Furst

Here are the top 10 posts on andrewfurst.net for 2018:

Comics Gallery
Natural Bridge in North Adams MA
Secular Buddhism – What’s Your Take? – Modern Koans
ESPecially Nuts? – Say What?
At What Point are We No Longer Human? – Modern Koans
Piano Reflection – Tiny Drops (Photography)
Nesting in the Rain – A Two Minute Meditation
Sea by Tom Pickard – Compass Songs
People are Strange – Quotes
If God Existed, Could He Create a More Powerful God? – Modern Koans

It was a weird year.  Next year promises to be just as weird.  Keep breathing. Keep company with good friends. More experiences, less things. Lift your heart and smile once in a while.

At Patreon you can make small monthly micro-contributions that help support my work. If Patreon doesn’t work for you, then drop me a one time contribution at PayPal.me

 

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What Mistakes Prevent People from Meditating Effectively? – Modern Koans

Question:

What mistakes prevent people from meditating effectively?

Response:

Bring on the mistakes. They are why we meditate. From a Buddhist perspective meditation offers tranquility (Shamatha) and insight (Vipassana). One feeds the other like yin and yang.

Mistakes are the teacher. Mistakes are our responses that lead to suffering. Unless we’ve been endowed with equanimity at birth, mistakes are the food that Buddhas feed on.

Here are some examples:

During and after I meditate, my body aches – no mistakes here. You learn (insight) that if you don’t pay attention to your posture and find balance, your body will very plainly tell you (by aching). Your job is to listen and learn. When your body hurts. adjust; move towards balance and tranquility by letting yourself respond to the message that your too stiff.
While I meditate I have thoughts – no mistake here. As I’m fond of saying, there may be only one way to eliminate thoughts and you won’t like it – death. The mind is a lush green pasture for thoughts. These mental butterflies come and go, tickle us when they land, and carry us along with them. Your job is to notice how you respond to thoughts.

If they produce disappointment, ask yourself why. Are some thoughts bad and some good? Do they have the intention of doing you harm? Are the inherently evil? Pshaw, no such thing. If we respond negatively to a thought, we must root out the cause. We will learn that we make intentional or unintentional choices in our response to stimuli.

More often we instinctively respond based on past experiences. We learn that it is not the thoughts that are the problem, but our unmindful responses. Applying this insight, we can discover more tranquility.

Serve me up a big helping of mistakes please.

If you enjoyed this post,  please like and share.

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Modern Koans is an ongoing series that recognizes that good questions are often more important than their answers.

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man. ― G.K. Chesterton

Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst

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Sculpture Rocks – A One Minute Meditation

Sculpture Rocks, Groton, NH

The Waterfall Series – A significant part of the minute meditation series are these waterfall videos I’ve been taking for many years now. Most of the falls are in my native New England.

If you’re a waterfall chaser here, I highly recommend the New England Waterfalls Guidebook. It’s the best way to locate, select, and get to the falls.

Click here to see a map of the waterfalls I’ve visited as part of the minute meditation series.

If you enjoyed this post,  please like and share.

Minute Meditations is an ongoing series of short videos, poems, and commentary intended as a meditation.  Offered as an opportunity to step back from your cyber routine and settle into a more natural rhythm, if only for a minute.

Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst

Subscribe to My NewsletterJoin me for a little peace through reflection, art, video, sound, and poetry

Leave this field empty if you're human:

These videos are produced for those of us who spend an inordinately large amount of time in the cyber-world.  They are not a substitute for unplugging from your devices and taking a stroll near trees, water, or a patch of unkempt grass.  Getting out into the world – touching, smelling, hearing, and seeing nature is the best way to reconnect with our prime purpose.  

What is our prime purpose? We are feeling and sensing machines.  We are the universe looking back on itself. We are witness to the wonders and dangers of living in this corner of the cosmos.  We are the seekers looking for connection a little further beyond yesterday’s borders and boundaries.

But sitting and staring at the screen robs us of the sustenance that we rely upon for wonder and sanity.  These videos are an opportunity to bring the sensations of nature to you, while you’re in the cyber-world. Its an opportunity to relax your gaze, resettle your posture,  and regain some depth in your breath.  Listen and watch the video and allow your self to open up and recharge.

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Dr. Seuss on Christmas – Quotes

If you enjoyed this post,  please like and share.

Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.

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Dr. Seuss on Christmas

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Peace of Mind Unchecklist

Peace of mind unchecklist – file under meditation techniques

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Self Awareness and Enlightenment – Dialectic Two Step

Question:

How can I increase my self awareness and become enlightened? Is this even possible?

Response:

Can you increase self awareness? hmm. Can you decrease it? How would you measure self awareness? Could you use some type of monitor to test when you are above or below critical levels?

What is it that you are aware of when you are self aware? Can you be aware of something, but not self aware at the same time?

These are either very difficult questions that either require a level of nuance to answer or they are completely absurd.

To complicate things further we’ve added enlightenment to the mix.

From a Buddhist perspective, self awareness and enlightenment would be an odd couple. There is the view of anatman (not-self) that warns us that the illusion of self is not who we really are. It tells us that suffering is caused by attachment to the self. So it seems difficult to equate an increase in self awareness with enlightenment. It feels like the wrong approach.

But why the human pre-occupation with the self? Why are we often inspired to live an authentic life? To be true to ourselves? To search for who we really are? And why is it so hard to find?

This urge to find something seems almost universal, natural, and thus something that can’t be offhandedly dismissed. So perhaps the questions aren’t absurd. Perhaps the answers are nuanced. But regardless, its embarrassing to speak so assuredly about our “self”, yet be at an utter loss to point to it.

They say that the job of a teacher is to point the student at themselves and let them discover. I might offer some rules of engagement.

Enlightenment is a terrible word
It makes complete sense to all of us to speak of the self.
The self is not likely what we think it is
When it comes to you, you won’t be able to unsee it (because it’s always been there)

If you enjoyed this post,  please like and share.

Dialectic Two-Step  is an ongoing series of my thoughts on questions that come my way.

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio

Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst

Subscribe to My NewsletterJoin me for a little peace through reflection, art, video, sound, and poetry

Leave this field empty if you're human:

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Thoughts on God – Collections

Here is a collection of posts with my thoughts on God.

What if God exists outside of scientific detection? – Modern Koans


Modern Koans, Writings




























Does God Discriminate? – Modern Koans


Modern Koans, Writings




























Does God Think? – Dialectic Two Step


Dialectic Two-Step, Writings




























If God Existed, Could He Create a More Powerful God? – Modern Koans


Modern Koans, Writings






















Chicken or the Egg? – Say What?


Cartoons, Say What?






















Which God is the Right One? – Modern Koans


Modern Koans, Writings






















If You Were God – Modern Koans


Modern Koans, Writings






















Can You Recognize Evidence For God? – Dialectic Two Step


Dialectic Two-Step, Writings

















Load More

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The Best Articles of November 2018 from Andrew Furst

Here’s a selected list of what people were reading here on andrewfurst.net in November 2018:

Memories of Past Lives? – Dialectic Two-Step
What’s the Big Deal With the Buddha? – Modern Koans
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant – Compass Songs
Learning Buddhism Systematically? – Modern Koans
On Being Right – Dialectic Two Step
The Flower by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin – Compass Songs
Henry Rollins on October and November – Quotes
Thoughts on Impermanence – Collections
Kidder Brook Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
The Oxherd Series – Riding the Ox Home – Modern Koans

At Patreon you can make small monthly micro-contributions that help support my work. If Patreon doesn’t work for you, then drop me a one time contribution at PayPal.me

 

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