Andrew Furst's Blog, page 107
September 18, 2015
Morihei Ueshiba on Heaven
The post Morihei Ueshiba on Heaven appeared on Andrew Furst.
Quote – Morihei Ueshiba on Heaven
Heaven
The post Quote – Morihei Ueshiba on Heaven appeared on Andrew Furst.
Can Buddhism Help With Mental Health? – Modern Koans
I was diagnosed with depression some time ago.. For me the practice of meditation, or open awareness, gives me the space to notice when my symptoms are increasing or decreasing. This allows me to engage coping strategies and communicate with my doctor and therapist about my mental health issues.
I do know other people where practices like meditation do not help. It can create a space for rumination and dwelling on negative thoughts. But other aspects of the Buddhist view can be helpful to different people.
Medicine and therapy is the first line of defense, but for me Buddhism has been very helpful.
Do you have mental health challenges? Have you found Buddhist practice or philosophy helpful in dealing with your symptoms or the stigma that comes with mental illness? Has it backfired for you? What warnings would you offer to someone considering Buddhist practice as a supplement to medical treatment?
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 then their answers.
The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man. ― G.K. Chesterton
Get Each Week's Modern Koan in your email box
First Name:
Last Name:
Email address:
In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
The post Can Buddhism Help With Mental Health? – Modern Koans appeared on Andrew Furst.
September 17, 2015
The Best of Tiny Drops (Photography)
I’ve gone through 4-5 years worth of my photography and collected them in one place. You can view them here or on this page. Enjoy
#bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .image_browser_images_conteiner_0 * { -moz-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .image_browser_images_conteiner_0{ background-color: rgba(245, 245, 245, 0.90); text-align: center; width: 100%; border-style: none; border-width: 2px; border-color: #F7F7F7; padding: 4px; border-radius: 0; position:relative; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .image_browser_images_0 { display: inline-block; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0; text-align: center; max-width: 100%; width: 1000px; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .image_browser_image_buttons_conteiner_0 { text-align: center; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .image_browser_image_buttons_0 { display: inline-block; width:100%; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_image_0 { background-color: rgba(235, 235, 235, 0.80); text-align: center; /*display: inline-block;*/ vertical-align: middle; margin: 2px auto; padding: 4px; border-radius: 0; border: 1px none #F5F5F5; box-shadow: ; /*z-index: 100;*/ position: relative; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_alt_0{ display: table; width: 100%; font-size: 15px; font-family: segoe ui; color: #000000; text-align:center; padding-left: 8px; word-break: break-word; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_img_0 { padding: 0 !important; max-width: 100% !important; height: inherit !important; width: 100%; } @media only screen and (max-width : 320px) { #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .displaying-num_0 { display: none; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_alt_0 { font-size: 10px !important; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_watermark_text_0, #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_watermark_text_0:hover { font-size: 10px !important; text-decoration: none; margin: 4px; font-family: ; color: # !important; opacity: 0.00; filter: Alpha(opacity=); text-decoration: none; position: relative; z-index: 10141; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_image_description_0 { color: #000000; display: table; width: 100%; text-align: left; font-size: 8px !important; font-family: segoe ui; padding: 8px 8px 8px 8px; /*word-break: break-all;*/ border-style: none; background-color: #EBEBEB; border-radius: 0; border-width: 1px; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .tablenav-pages_0 a { font-size: 10px !important; } } /*pagination styles*/ #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .tablenav-pages_0 { text-align: center; font-size: 12px; font-family: segoe ui; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; margin: 6px 0 4px; display: block; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .displaying-num_0 { font-size: 12px; font-family: segoe ui; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; margin-right: 10px; vertical-align: middle; display: none; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .paging-input_0 { font-size: 12px; font-family: segoe ui; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; vertical-align: middle; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .tablenav-pages_0 a.disabled, #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .tablenav-pages_0 a.disabled:hover, #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .tablenav-pages_0 a.disabled:focus { cursor: default; 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text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; height: 100%; cursor: pointer; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_contain_0{ display: table; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; height: 100%; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_cont_0{ display: table-cell; text-align: ; position: relative; vertical-align: ; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_0{ display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; z-index: 10140; width: px; max-width: 0%; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px ; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_text_0{ display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; z-index: 10140; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px ; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_img_0{ max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.00; filter: Alpha(opacity=); position: relative; z-index: 10141; } #bwg_container1_0 #bwg_container2_0 .bwg_none_selectable { -webkit-touch-callout: none; -webkit-user-select: none; -khtml-user-select: none; -moz-user-select: none; -ms-user-select: none; user-select: none; }
« ‹ 1 of 21 › » Photo Gallery 1
#bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .image_browser_images_conteiner_1 * { -moz-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .image_browser_images_conteiner_1{ background-color: rgba(245, 245, 245, 0.90); text-align: center; width: 100%; border-style: none; border-width: 2px; border-color: #F7F7F7; padding: 4px; border-radius: 0; position:relative; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .image_browser_images_1 { display: inline-block; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0; text-align: center; max-width: 100%; width: 1000px; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .image_browser_image_buttons_conteiner_1 { text-align: center; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .image_browser_image_buttons_1 { display: inline-block; width:100%; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_image_1 { background-color: rgba(235, 235, 235, 0.80); text-align: center; /*display: inline-block;*/ vertical-align: middle; margin: 2px auto; padding: 4px; border-radius: 0; border: 1px none #F5F5F5; box-shadow: ; /*z-index: 100;*/ position: relative; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_alt_1{ display: table; width: 100%; font-size: 15px; font-family: segoe ui; color: #000000; text-align:center; padding-left: 8px; word-break: break-word; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_img_1 { padding: 0 !important; max-width: 100% !important; height: inherit !important; width: 100%; } @media only screen and (max-width : 320px) { #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .displaying-num_1 { display: none; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_alt_1 { font-size: 10px !important; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_watermark_text_1, #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_watermark_text_1:hover { font-size: 10px !important; text-decoration: none; margin: 4px; font-family: ; color: # !important; opacity: 0.00; filter: Alpha(opacity=); text-decoration: none; position: relative; z-index: 10141; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_image_description_1 { color: #000000; display: table; width: 100%; text-align: left; font-size: 8px !important; font-family: segoe ui; padding: 8px 8px 8px 8px; /*word-break: break-all;*/ border-style: none; background-color: #EBEBEB; border-radius: 0; border-width: 1px; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .tablenav-pages_1 a { font-size: 10px !important; } } /*pagination styles*/ #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .tablenav-pages_1 { text-align: center; font-size: 12px; font-family: segoe ui; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; margin: 6px 0 4px; display: block; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .displaying-num_1 { font-size: 12px; font-family: segoe ui; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; margin-right: 10px; vertical-align: middle; display: none; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .paging-input_1 { font-size: 12px; font-family: segoe ui; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; vertical-align: middle; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .tablenav-pages_1 a.disabled, #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .tablenav-pages_1 a.disabled:hover, #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .tablenav-pages_1 a.disabled:focus { cursor: default; 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opacity: 0.70; filter: Alpha(opacity=70); } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_image_desp_1 { display: table; clear: both; text-align: center; padding: 0px 5px 0px 5px; width: 100%; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_image_description_1 { color: #000000; display: table; width: 100%; text-align: left; font-size: 15px; font-family: segoe ui; padding: 8px 8px 8px 8px; word-break: break-word; border-style: none; background-color: #EBEBEB; border-radius: 0; border-width: 1px; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_image_alt_1 { display:table; clear: both; text-align: center; padding: 8px; width: 100%; } /*watermark*/ #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_watermark_text_1, #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_watermark_text_1:hover { text-decoration: none; margin: 4px; font-size: px; font-family: ; color: # !important; opacity: 0.00; filter: Alpha(opacity=); position: relative; z-index: 10141; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_image_contain_1{ position: absolute; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; height: 100%; cursor: pointer; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_contain_1{ display: table; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; height: 100%; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_cont_1{ display: table-cell; text-align: ; position: relative; vertical-align: ; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_1{ display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; z-index: 10140; width: px; max-width: 0%; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px ; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_text_1{ display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; z-index: 10140; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px ; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_image_browser_watermark_img_1{ max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.00; filter: Alpha(opacity=); position: relative; z-index: 10141; } #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 .bwg_none_selectable { -webkit-touch-callout: none; -webkit-user-select: none; -khtml-user-select: none; -moz-user-select: none; -ms-user-select: none; user-select: none; }
« ‹ 1 of 15 › » Photo Gallery 2
Tiny Drops is an ongoing iPhoneographic series. The images represent moments of noticing on my part. For you, they are an offer to pause, observe, and take that noticing into your life. All photos are mine unless noted otherwise.
These works by Andrew Furst are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Get Each Week's Tiny Drops in your email box
First Name:
Last Name:
Email address:
In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
FIVE LIMITLESS THOUGHTS
May all living beings have happiness and its causes
May all be free from unhappiness and its causes
May all dwell in equanimity, free of attraction and aversion
May all quickly find the great happiness that lies beyond all misery
May all enjoy inner and outer peace now and forever
NAMO AMITOFO
The post The Best of Tiny Drops (Photography) appeared on Andrew Furst.
Summer Breeze – A One Minute Meditation
One 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.
Summer Breeze
foot falls heavier
the dog’s pull is less urgent
more time for the breeze
Meditation: Each breath is closer to your last, spend a few minutes being in love with your breath.
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.
Most of these are best viewed in full screen
Get Each Week's One Minute Meditation in your email box
First Name:
Last Name:
Email address:
In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
The post Summer Breeze – A One Minute Meditation appeared on Andrew Furst.
September 16, 2015
September Says – Verse Us
What part of the summer remains?
And where does it settle?
The atmosphere will give way to the smell of cider
and the influences of crisp, cool, autumn mornings.
Indian summer might offer reminiscing,
but my mind will be firmly under the spell of fall.
Under the din of metal tines scratching the grass,
a random itch or twitch or twinge
will give rise to thoughts of ticks, and Lyme
and coming aches reliably born in the fourth and final season.
But, a singularly strong fondness
holds sway over my heart this time of year.
Being seems to come most freely in fall;
to flow from my eyes to my heart unobstructed.
How could my judgment be false,
where purity of experience seems to support my intuition?
A tall order of expectations
may infect the experience
of this next season.
And, sorrows may have seeded their anniversaries amongst these times,
the cornerstone of autumn lay secure.
Setting the boundaries
of this assemblage of memories and reveries.
Verse Us - Poems I write: haiku, senryu, mesostics, free verse, random word constructions, I might even use rhyme or meter once and a while.
The post September Says – Verse Us appeared on Andrew Furst.
Black & White V – Tiny Drops (Photography)
Tiny Drops is an ongoing iPhoneographic series. The images represent moments of noticing on my part. For you, they are an offer to pause, observe, and take that noticing into your life. All photos are mine unless noted otherwise.
These works by Andrew Furst are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Black & White V
meters bw
Narcissus Close bw
Manchester window bwMunicipal Artifacts
Get Each Week's Tiny Drops in your email box
First Name:
Last Name:
Email address:
In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
FIVE LIMITLESS THOUGHTS
May all living beings have happiness and its causes
May all be free from unhappiness and its causes
May all dwell in equanimity, free of attraction and aversion
May all quickly find the great happiness that lies beyond all misery
May all enjoy inner and outer peace now and forever
NAMO AMITOFO
The post Black & White V – Tiny Drops (Photography) appeared on Andrew Furst.
September 15, 2015
Satisfied? – Say What?
Say What? is an ongoing series of laconic exchanges on Buddhism in the format of a comic strip.
This shirt is dry clean only. Which means... it's dirty. - Mitch Hedberg
Satisfied?
A Few Words On Being Satisfied
Get Each Week's Say What? in your email box
First Name:
Last Name:
Email address:
In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
The post Satisfied? – Say What? appeared on Andrew Furst.
The End of Summer – Compass Songs
Compass Songs is an ongoing series of works by poets that I enjoy. Poetry, as the Zen Masters have said, is like a finger pointing to the moon. It speaks the unspeakable.
The End of Summer
by Rachel Hadas
Sweet smell of phlox drifting across the lawn—
an early warning of the end of summer.
August is fading fast, and by September
the little purple flowers will all be gone.
Season, project, and vacation done.
One more year in everybody’s life.
Add a notch to the old hunting knife
Time keeps testing with a horny thumb.
Over the summer months hung an unspoken
aura of urgency. In late July
galactic pulsings filled the midnight sky
like silent screaming, so that, strangely woken,
we looked at one another in the dark,
then at the milky magical debris
arcing across, dwarfing our meek mortality.
There were two ways to live: get on with work,
redeem the time, ignore the imminence
of cataclysm; or else take it slow,
be as tranquil as the neighbors’ cow
we love to tickle through the barbed wire fence
(she paces through her days in massive innocence,
or, seeing green pastures, we imagine so).
In fact, not being cows, we have no choice.
Summer or winter, country, city, we
are prisoners from the start and automatically,
hemmed in, harangued by the one clamorous voice.
Not light but language shocks us out of sleep
ideas of doom transformed to meteors
we translate back to portents of the wars
looming above the nervous watch we keep.
Get Each Week's Compass Song in your email box
First Name:
Last Name:
Email address:
In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
The post The End of Summer – Compass Songs appeared on Andrew Furst.
