Andrew Furst's Blog, page 126
June 13, 2015
Say What? – What Happens After Death?
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
What Happens After Death?
A Few Words On Death.
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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 Say What? – What Happens After Death? appeared on Andrew Furst.
Tiny Drops – Salmon Falls
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.
A Cinemagraph of Salmon Falls in Shelburne Falls, AM.
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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 – Salmon Falls appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 12, 2015
Modern Koans – Come See
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
Come See
“Buddhism is always a question of knowing and seeing, and not that of believing. The teaching of the Buddha is qualified as Ehi-Passiko, inviting you to come and see, but not to come and believe.”
Ven. Dr. W. Rahula, ‘What the Buddha Taught’
Ehi-Passiko is a Pali word used to describe the investigative nature of Buddhism. Discouraging blind faith alone, the Buddha encouraged his disciples to “come and see” his teachings for themselves; to witness the fruits of the practice through direct experience.
Ehi-Passiko is the foundation of language, philosophy, and science. We speak to each other in words, phrases, and sentences that use as their building blocks our shared understanding of the world. When we speak of truth, we intuitively speak about the veracity of our language. When we have shared experience with the ideas expressed in an assertion, we sense truth. When we have little or no point of reference, we sense ambiguity, error, or falsity.
The video below puts in plain terms where we are capable of Ehi-Passiko (coming and seeing) and where we cannot claim or share knowledge.
Do any of your religious beliefs fail the test of Ehi-Passiko? What other beliefs do you have that fail? Do you harbor unconscious superstitions? If you’re Buddhist, what do you think about reincarnation, karma, etc in the context of Ehi-Passiko?
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
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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 – Come See appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 11, 2015
One Minute Meditation – Morning Garden
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.
Open the front door
Robins call to the garden
inhaling deeply
First 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 One Minute Meditation – Morning Garden appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 10, 2015
Tiny Drops – Fauna
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.
Bungie profile
bungie the destroyer
cicaida
spider profile
stinkbug 1
stinkbug invertedGet Each Week's Tiny Drops in your email box
First 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 – Fauna appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 9, 2015
Say What? – The Meaning of Life?
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
The Meaning of Life?
Meaning of Life
A Few Words On The Meaning of Life.
Get Each Week's Say What? in your email box
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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 Say What? – The Meaning of Life? appeared on Andrew Furst.
Compass Songs – Bright Star
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.
by John Keats
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
Get Each Week's Compass Song in your email box
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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 Compass Songs – Bright Star appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 8, 2015
Dialectic Two-Step – Do We Need a Reason To Be Happy?
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
Question: Do We Need a Reason To Be Happy?..and if yes then should it be tied to a person, goal or what?
Response: I think you have another alternative. First, happiness is a temporary thing. More precisely happiness is as temporary as the things that we tie it too. If we seek happiness in quick fix bursts – like sugar, sex, or shiny things – our happiness will be short lived. If we tie it to things that are lasting but more difficult to attain, happiness can be hard to come by.
The drive to attain happiness is an addiction. Once the last bit of it wears off, we’re like a junkie, driven to the next fix, whatever it takes. If we’re looking for a reason to be happy, we’re limited by the availability of the next thing. We often don’t find what we’re looking for.
But what about looking within for happiness? If there were such a thing, we would have an endless supply. Being within, we’d always be able to access it.
This is one of the benefits of meditation. By settling our mind and body to the rhythm of our own breath, we can find peace, relaxation, and escape from the cycle of addiction. The best explanation of meditation is to experience it for yourself. Take a minute or two try it.
Find a comfortable seat. Close your eyes. Take three deep breaths. With each breath allow the thoughts, tensions, and worries of the day briefly melt away. After the three deep inhales, let your breath return to its natural cadence. Allow your mind to rest on each inhale and exhale.
Follow it for ten breaths, or maybe twenty. If your mind wanders, don’t worry, it always will. Just gently return your awareness to the breath.
After a minute or two, stop. Notice how you feel. It’s not exactly happiness. I call it contentment, openness, and freedom. The practice of meditation is the opportunity, every day, to return to this peace. A peace that is always available from within. As long as we have our breath, we can have contentment. No reason, no object, and no fix required.
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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 Dialectic Two-Step – Do We Need a Reason To Be Happy? appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 7, 2015
One Minute Meditation – Melrose Cascade
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.
All the snow – gone. The temperature hit the 70’s. I found a local treasure in the book Waterfalls of Massachusetts. This one is called the Cascades. It’s in Melrose, MA in the heart of the North of Boston suburbs. I took the short hike, not expecting such a wonderful spectacle. If you’re local to the area and haven’t been, I recommend a visit.
North of …The warm sun on my face and the rocks.
A willing flow of spring water.
A little turn of the lips and a drop of the eyelids.
Watching it all pass, weightless and content.
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:
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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)
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 – Melrose Cascade appeared on Andrew Furst.
