Andrew Furst's Blog, page 117
July 31, 2015
Modern Koans – The Self Doesn’t Exist?
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
The Self Doesn’t Exist?
Did the Buddha say that the self doesn’t exist? It is an assertion that I typically hear from Christians trying to show that Buddhism is a Nihilistic philosophy. I don’t think anyone can say that the self doesn’t exist. My understanding of the Buddhist teachings are that the qualities of “self” exists in the same way that anything else we observe exists. How we think of ourselves is impermanent. Meaning our qualities shift and change. Today we can feel special – it might be our birthday or we’re recognized by our peers. Tomorrow we might feel down and worthless. What the Buddha warned us about is that if we think that our special-ness or worthlessness are who we are we end up deluded. These qualities are contextual temporary things.
So can I feel special and be a Buddhist? Can I enjoy it, feel it fully. should I not feel down, because there is no me to feel sad?What do you think? Is Buddhism Nihilistic? Or can we be ourselves and Buddhists at the same time?I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
Get Each Week's Modern Koan in your email boxFirst 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 Modern Koans – The Self Doesn’t Exist? appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 30, 2015
Quote – Shinran on the Supernatural
The Supernatural
The post Quote – Shinran on the Supernatural appeared on Andrew Furst.
Two Minute Meditation – Bald Head Cliff
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.
A view from the Cliff House Hotel in Ogunquit, Maine. These are the Bald Head Cliffs, from which the hotel takes its name. This morning shot caught a beautiful sail boat tracking the shore. Enjoy.
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.mc4wp-form input[name="_mc4wp_required_but_not_really"]{display:none !important}
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)
If You Watched The One Minute Meditation, How Do You Feel? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
The post Two Minute Meditation – Bald Head Cliff appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 29, 2015
Verse Us – Im|possible- A Minimalist Poem
Verse Us - Poems I write: haiku, senryu, mesostics, free verse, random word constructions, I might even use rhyme or meter once and a while.
A minimalist poem
The post Verse Us – Im|possible- A Minimalist Poem appeared on Andrew Furst.
Tiny Drops – Up Close
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.
Click on images to view the full size slide show.
driftwood
pine cone petal
stamenUp Close
Get Each Week's Tiny Drops in your email box.mc4wp-form input[name="_mc4wp_required_but_not_really"]{display:none !important}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 AMITOFOThe post Tiny Drops – Up Close appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 28, 2015
Where Does Buddhist Morality Come From? – 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
Where Does Buddhist Morality Come From?
A Few Words On Morality.
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 Where Does Buddhist Morality Come From? – Say What? appeared on Andrew Furst.
Compass Songs – Those Winter Sundays
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.
This poem reminds me of my youth when cold houses were not a distant relic of a bygone era.
Those Winter SundaysSundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
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 Compass Songs – Those Winter Sundays appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 27, 2015
Dialectic Two-Step – Are Buddhists Peaceful?
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 Paz
Are Buddhists Peaceful?Question: Why do Buddhists claim they are peaceful while they kill Rohingya Muslims in Burma??
Response: Buddhists are humans. Humans have an innate capacity for violence. Anybody who claims that Buddhist are inherently peaceful, is not living in reality.
Get Each Week's Dialectic Two Step 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 Dialectic Two-Step – Are Buddhists Peaceful? appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 26, 2015
One Minute Meditation – Secret Tunnel
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.
Here’s another video from Brackett Pond in Harold Parker State Forest. The stream the feeds the Pond from the North makes its way under the path through a stone conduit, a secret tunnel.
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.mc4wp-form input[name="_mc4wp_required_but_not_really"]{display:none !important}
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)
If You Watched The One Minute Meditation, How Do You Feel? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
The post One Minute Meditation – Secret Tunnel appeared on Andrew Furst.
Sunday Morning Coming Down – Waiting For My Real Life To Begin
Sunday Morning Coming Down is an ongoing music video series. The songs fit my definition of music for a lazy couch bound Sunday morning.
When Colin Hay started putting out acoustic songs 20 years after Men At Work, I was amazed.
Get Each Week's Sunday Morning Coming Down in your email boxFirst 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)
Waiting For My Real Life To Begin
by Colin Hay
Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I’ll keep checking the horizon
I’ll stand on the bow, feel the waves come crashing
Come crashing down down down, on me
And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart
Let the light shine in
But don’t you understand
I already have a plan
I’m waiting for my real life to begin
When I awoke today, suddenly nothing happened
But in my dreams, I slew the dragon
And down this beaten path, up this cobbled lane
I’m walking in my old footsteps, once again
And you say, just be here now
Forget about the past, your mask is wearing thin
Just let me throw one more dice
I know that I can win
I’m waiting for my real life to begin
Any minute now, my ship is coming in
I’ll keep checking the horizon
And I’ll check my machine, there’s sure to be that call
It’s gonna happen soon, soon, oh so very soon
It’s just that times are lean
And you say, be still my love
Open up your heart, let the light shine
Don’t you understand
I already have a plan
I’m waiting for my real life to begin
On a clear day I can see, see for a long way
On a clear day I can see, see for a long way.
The post Sunday Morning Coming Down – Waiting For My Real Life To Begin appeared on Andrew Furst.
