Andrew Furst's Blog, page 128

Dialectic Two-Step – Self-Realization & Great Suffering

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  

Does Self-Realization Come Only After Great suffering?

Suffering offers, in the clearest possible terms, all  the ingredients for insight into self-realization. But you certainly should not seek suffering or wait for it to pursue it.

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!Get Each Week's Dialectic Two Step 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)

 

The post Dialectic Two-Step – Self-Realization & Great Suffering appeared on Andrew Furst.

One Minute Meditation – Dragon Brook in June

 

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. 

Dragon Brook in June

Looking forward to what June has to offer.

Past, Present, and Future

We live in the past,
we live in our futures too
Looking forward helps

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 – Dragon Brook in June appeared on Andrew Furst.

Sunday Morning Coming Down – Something Good Can Work

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

Something Good Can Work  – Two Door Cinema Club

The month of May is being curated by my eldest son Ian.  This is Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club

Get Each Week's Sunday Morning Coming Down 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)

 Something Good Can Work

by Two Door Cinema Club

There’s a spanner in the works, you know
You gotta step up your game to make it to the top
So go

Gotta little competition now
You’re going to find it hard to cope with living on your own now
Oh oh, oh oh

Let’s make this happen, girl
You gotta show the world that something good can work
And it can work for you
And you know that it will

Let’s get this started girl
We’re moving up, we’re moving up
It’s been a lot to change
But you will always get what you want

Took a little time to make it a little better
It’s only going out, just one thing and another
You know, you know

Took a little time to make it a little better,
It’s only going out, just one thing and another
You know, you know

Let’s make this happen, girl
You gotta show the world that something good can work
And it can work for you
And you know that it will

Let’s get this started girl
We’re moving up, we’re moving up
It’s been a lot to change
But you will always get what you want

Let’s make this happen, girl
You gotta show the world that something good can work
And it can work for you
And you know that it will

Let’s get this started girl
We’re moving up, we’re moving up
It’s been a lot to change
But you will always get what you want

Let’s make this happen, girl
You gotta show the world that something good can work
And it can work for you
And you know that it will

The post Sunday Morning Coming Down – Something Good Can Work appeared on Andrew Furst.

Say What? – Why Do They Keep Hurting Me?

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  

Why Do They Keep Hurting Me?

 

Get Each Week's Say What? 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)

The post Say What? – Why Do They Keep Hurting Me? appeared on Andrew Furst.

One Minute Meditation – Hidden Corner 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. 

Welcome to another in this series of one minute meditations.  I’ve been producing these for a few years now and it just occurred to me that I haven’t provided a general introduction for newcomers recently.

So if you’ve only recently discovered this series, here’s a run down.  If you’re a veteran, you know why you’re here. Head on down to enjoy the 60 seconds of meditation you’re looking for.

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.

Hidden Corner Cascade

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)

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 – Hidden Corner Cascade appeared on Andrew Furst.

Modern Koans – Why Right Action?

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 Eightfold Path Series

This is the one of several posts I will be offering titled the Eightfold Path Series. As I've reflected on my experience, I've come to see the Path as both the practice and the fruition. As we inch closer to realization of our true nature, we discover that the wisdom, ethics, and concentration prescribed in the Buddha are the most natural expression of our being.

John Daido Loori Roshi's book Invoking Reality was transformational for me. In it Roshi turns the path on it's head in a way that uncovers it's challenge to us. The path and the precepts are not rules and regulations that lead to punishment by the karmic cosmos, but a way for us to see our true selves by looking through the prism of these personal dimensions. I see the path  and the precepts as questions, not rules.  Let's explore them.

Why Right Action?

Right action is usually described in three parts.

Abstaining from the taking of lifeAbstaining from taking what is not givenAbstaining from sexual misconduct

Action – it is the most visible part of our Buddhist persona.  It’s how we judge and are judged on our Buddhists-ness.  Are we vegetarians? Can we support the death penalty? What happens if, as a child, we stole a chocolate treat at the drug store?  Will we burn in Buddhist hell?  Will we need to wait another 10 kalpas to drink the nectar of liberation, because of a one night stand we had in our twenties?

We’ll be challenged by others and we will challenge ourselves on how well we emulate the model.  But really, can we possibly live true to Lord Buddha’s rule book?

What do these rules of conduct offer us?  If we are to live in the present moment, is judgement of our past actions productive? Should we dispose of these prudish dictums and find freedom in simply being awake?

In my experience, everything that’s challenging, confusing, and impossible about the Eightfold Path is also rewarding and fulfilling.  Its like a deep Mandelbrot set zoom, these lessons forever unfold in new, but familiar ways. As instructive as they are to young people as healthy moral boundaries, they also serve as a subject of meditation and a source of deep insight for long time yogis. Whatever our particular Buddhist tradition, be it Vajryana, Theravada, Pure Land, or Zen, our conduct in this world is the light that spreads from one candle to the next.

How do you approach Right Action? Are you vegetarian? Do you choose a life of poverty or minimalism? Is abstinence impossible or counter productive? What lessons have you taken away from living on the straight and narrow?  What challenges do you have as a new practitioner?  As a long time Buddhist, what problems do you have with you have with the rules?  If Buddhism is your birth religion, how were you taught the path, and how do you approach  it?

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.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)

 

The post Modern Koans – Why Right Action? appeared on Andrew Furst.

Quote – Napoleon on the Quiet Mind

Napoleon on the Quiet Mind

Quiet Mind

 

The post Quote – Napoleon on the Quiet Mind appeared on Andrew Furst.

One Minute Meditation – Summer Peepers

 

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. 

What does nature need to do to get your attention? Beg? Put up signs?  Scream at the top of its lungs? prod you with haiku?Peepers

Call, Nature’s assault
Dark muggy ritual lure
Dance, makes me notice

Here in the middle of the week, take a minute to reconnect to the rhythm of nature.

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)

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 – Summer Peepers appeared on Andrew Furst.

Verse Us – Dissonance – 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.  

Dissonance

The tyranny of being unconstrained left them listless, despondent, and ultimately uniform.

Dysfunction had flawlessly done its job replicating the traits most conducive to the ideal. Revolution was assured, on a timeline impossible to perceive or measure.

At the heart, a secret code embedded into all the objects of everyday living; the earth, the air, fire, and water. The design unintelligible, yet as plain as the single haunting thought that soaked the collective unconscious.

It turns out our faith is the fingerprint. Belief drives the unrelenting engine that forms our perfection. Unnoticed, unchanging, blending into nothingness, we become our own accidental deities. Our ragged, toothless offspring arrive to tear away our flesh and complete our purification. We are left bleached and dried in the charnel grounds of heaven, liberated from ourselves.

Thanks are unneeded, as there is no one to thank. The gods have long since been freed of the burden of hearing. As we cannot dwell in and be divine at once, we sacrifice to avert the annihilation implied by harmony.

This is our fear, above all, to create consonance where there once was only holy dissonance. Change, the essence of information, the destroyer, and the kernel of death is our foe and our lover.

We will fight, tooth and nail, to fail. Set free from our mission, by the blatant impossibility of it.

No point is accessible to itself, and in there lies its perfection.

Get Each Week's Verse Us 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 Verse Us – Dissonance – A Poem appeared on Andrew Furst.

Tiny Drops – Perpetual

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.

Perpetual

[image error]

A cinemagraph of a small creek on Wattatic Mountain

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 Tiny Drops – Perpetual appeared on Andrew Furst.