Andrew Furst's Blog, page 118
July 25, 2015
A Buddhist Political Party? – 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
A Buddhist Political Party?
A Few Words On Political Parties.
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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 A Buddhist Political Party? – Say What? appeared on Andrew Furst.
Tiny Drops – Rock
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.
ferry beach rocks
in your ear
MOS BridgeGet Each Week's Tiny Drops in your email boxFirst Name:
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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 – Rock appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 24, 2015
ThinkingModern Koans – Some Legitimate Gripes With Buddhism?
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
Some Legitimate Gripes With Buddhism?
If you’ve read my blog before, you know that I have a rebellious streak when it comes to Buddhism. I think holding up doubts about your religious faith in the light is healthy. It’s one of the reasons I came to Buddhism. I could not reconcile my doubts about Christianity, so I left.
Here is my blacklist of Buddhist concepts:
Reincarnation – Its an answer to a question that we cannot know the answer to. It smells like unsubstantiated dogma. I’m inclined to assign it to the category of Asian cultural baggage that really has no business in the business of Buddhism. Here’s why I think that –
Reincarnation doesn’t appear to support or bolster the teachings of the Four Noble Truths. I might even suggest that it could contradict, or at least complicate the understanding of impermanence.
It doesn’t seem to be called for in the Eightfold Path. One might expect it to fall under Right View. While Karma is pointed out here, reincarnation doesn’t seem to be identified as relevant.
Some Interpretations of Karma – I’m good with the idea that actions have their consequences. I’m even able to grant that the moral consequences of your actions can come back and bite you. But I think that some extensions of this idea are absurd. Prescribing that you will be reborn as an ant, because of your actions in this life is speculative dogma that carries the same stench as Christian fire and brimstone preaching.
Buddhist Mythology – There is a long list of stories about the Buddha which I feel need to be treated as mythology. They seem to contradict, to the modern reader, Buddhism’s empirical bent. For instance:
When the Buddha was born his mother stood holding the branch of a tree with her right hand while the gods Brahma and Indra took the child painlessly from her side. – interesting.The infant stood, and took seven steps, and proclaimed “I alone am the World-Honored One!” – to me this is on par with the virgin birth mythology of Christianity. Which I struggle with immensely. When he was twenty-nine years old, the prince had a vision in which all the Buddhas of the ten directions appeared to him and spoke in unison saying, Previously you resolved to become a Conqueror Buddha so that you could help all living beings trapped in the cycle of suffering. Now is the time for you to accomplish this. – I hear Pat Robertson say something like this every month. I don’t pay attention to him either.What do you think? What are you’re gripes with Buddhism? What’s your response?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
Get Each Week's Modern Koan in your email boxFirst Name:
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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 – Some Legitimate Gripes With Buddhism? appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 23, 2015
One Minute Meditation – Butterfly Days
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 seems to fly in on the wings of butterflies. The final deed of breaking through our winter cocoons happens, when are hearts flutter with the passing of these insects. The rebirth promised in spring is well underway when the butterfly spreads it’s matching wings in the sun. Don’t forget to smile during these butterfly days.
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 – Butterfly Days appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 22, 2015
Verse Us – Everything We See – A Video 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.
Everything we see is either God or not God
Everything we hear is either God or not God
Everything we touch is either God or not God
Everything we smell is either God or not God
Everything we taste is either God or not God
Every thought we have is either God or not God
Do you see it?
taste it?
smell it?
feel it?
hear it?
Do you believe?
The post Verse Us – Everything We See – A Video Poem appeared on Andrew Furst.
Tiny Drops – Metal
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.
chopper
harmonica plate
wrought iron peacocksGet 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 – Metal appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 21, 2015
Is Buddhism About Rejection? – 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
Is Buddhism About Rejection?
A Few Words On Rejection of the World.
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 Is Buddhism About Rejection? – Say What? appeared on Andrew Furst.
Compass Songs – February 23 by David Lehman
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.
I have a special place for this poem in my heart as the 23rd of February is my wife’s birthday.
February 23by David Lehman
Light rain is falling in Central Park
but not on Upper Fifth Avenue or Central Park West
where sun and sky are yellow and blue
Winds are gusting on Washington Square
through the arches and on to LaGuardia Place
but calm is the corner of 8th Street and Second Avenue
which reminds me of something John Ashbery said
about his poem “Crazy Weather” he said
he was in favor of all kinds of weather
just so long as it’s genuine weather
which is always unusually bad, unusually
good, or unusually indifferent,
since there isn’t really any norm for weather
When he was a boy his mother met a friend
who said, “Isn’t this funny weather?”
It was one of his earliest memories
Get Each Week's Compass Song 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 Compass Songs – February 23 by David Lehman appeared on Andrew Furst.
