Andrew Furst's Blog, page 127

Sunday Morning Coming Down – Loro by Pinback

Sunday Morning Coming Down is an ongoing music  video series.  The songs fit my definition of music for a lazy couch bound Sunday morning.

Loro by Pinback

This is Loro by Pinback, a mesmerizing song that immediately got me and my son hooked.
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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)

 Loro

by Pinback

And the Ripped Ones say goodbye,
While the others meet.
Attached somewhere.
At least they’re shared.

And the Ripped Ones never collide,
While the others…While the others…
While the others…

da da da da da da….. da da da da da da…
da da da dunna da da da
da da da dunna da da da

da da da da da da….. da da da da da da…
da da da dunna da da da
da da da dunna da da da

four, nine, five, three, one
four, nine, five, three, one

da da da da da da….. dada da da da da…
da da da dunna da da da
da da da dunna da da da

Four
(And the Ripped Ones say goodbye)
Nine, Five
(While the others meet)
Three
(attached somewhere)
One
(At least they’re shared)

Four
(And the Ripped Ones never collide)
Nine, Five
(While the others)
Three
(While the others)
One
(While the others)

da da da da da da……da da da da da da…
da da da dunna da da da
da da da dunna da da da

da da da da da da……da da da da da da…
da da da dunna da da da
da da da dunna da da da

Four, nine, five, three, one
Four, nine, five, three, one
Four, nine, five, three, one

The post Sunday Morning Coming Down – Loro by Pinback appeared on Andrew Furst.

Say What? – Do I Have Purpose?

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  

Do I Have Purpose?

Meaning of Life

 

A Few Words On Purpose.

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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)

The post Say What? – Do I Have Purpose? appeared on Andrew Furst.

Tiny Drops – Butterfly

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.

 Butterfly

 

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Butterfly

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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

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Modern Koans – Is Suffering Required?

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

 

Is suffering required for self-realization?

Suffering offers, in the clearest possible terms, all the ingredients for insight into realization.  But is suffering required? You certainly should not seek suffering or wait for it to pursue realization.

A devastating experience offers us a scientific experiment into the causes of suffering. If we can step back a little during trauma, we can discover that much of our suffering is self-caused. I don’t mean physical pain, or the loss of a loved one. I mean the suffering that comes from worry, disappointment, and regret. These secondary forms magnify real suffering and generate suffering from nothing. At the root is a misguided set of expectations and a confused sense of self.

Circling back, we realize that self-realization is realization that self is a barrier to realization!

Has suffering led you to insights into a better life?  Or has it been unbearable?   Is this idea that suffering is the path enlightenment bunk? Is suffering required to lead a better life?

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Get Each Week's Modern Koan 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)

 

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Quote – Nietzsche on Punishment

Nietzsche on Punishment

Punishment

 

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One Minute Meditation – Shelburne Falls Glacial Potholes

 

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. 

Shelburne Falls

This little gem in Shelburne Falls is a favorite .  The town is home to some good friends and this falls are a little magical.

A stones throw from the beautiful Bridge of Flowers is this natural wonder.  The glacial potholes are a reminder of the awesome patience and power of nature.  The potholes, bored out depressions in the granite, are a product of the glacial era.  As the great glaciers melted, producing torrents of water, whirlpools were formed.  With the aid of stones and pebbles of various sizes, these whirlpools acted as drills and created wells in the granite up to 39 feet in diameter (the largest recorded pothole is here).

Patient Water

strength in fluidity
the earth cedes mortality
water rests within

Another lesson that these falls have to offer lies in the history it generated.  These falls, known to the Penobscot and Mohawks as Salmon Falls demonstrate the magic that arises in the bounties of the earth. These falls, being so valuable as a source of food, served to ensure peace in the area in the form of a 50 year treaty between the two nations.  The treaty allowed all within a days walk to peaceably hunt and fish here.

Commons

In simplest form
peace arises from nature
food, water, shelter make equals

The post One Minute Meditation – Shelburne Falls Glacial Potholes appeared on Andrew Furst.

Verse Us – Tacoma Ain’t Got No Spine (Over) – A 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.  

Tacoma Ain’t Got No Spine (Over)

This poem is a mesostic.  A mesostic is a poem or other typography such that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text. It is similar to an acrostic, but with the vertical phrase intersecting the middle of the line, as opposed to beginning each new line. It was used extensively by the experimental composer John Cage – someone I have always admired.

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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)

Tacoma Ain’t Got No Spine (Over)

ASking, no, undulating words, as if seeking
a weak spoT or a resonance frequency.
A weddIng smorgasbord worthy of Siva
(see my Marianne, walking away, away)
I aspire to prUdently staying away.
Taking severaL paces retreat,
I thought I hAd kicked it.
But the Tastes, too syrupy
to bid any lasting adIeus.
As if consenting to be huNted
I shrug in lieu of aGreement

The post Verse Us – Tacoma Ain’t Got No Spine (Over) – A Poem appeared on Andrew Furst.

Tiny Drops – The Grind

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.

The Grind

Here is a cinemagraph of a music grinder in Boston Public Garden.

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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 Tiny Drops – The Grind appeared on Andrew Furst.

Say What? – A Few Words On Karma

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 Few Words On Karma.

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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? – A Few Words On Karma appeared on Andrew Furst.

Compass Songs – Invictus

 
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.

My youngest son’s favorite.

Invictus

By William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

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