Andrew Furst's Blog, page 13
August 29, 2018
Glendale Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
The first real heat of summer
warmed bodies, strewn lazily on rocks.
Swung feet with downward gazes.
Waters traipse the boulders down
following July’s reveries,
flotsam on the currents of mind.
Those mountain laurels seem something out of place;
like tuxedos on a sweltering Sunday morn.
Glendale Falls, Middlefield, MA
The Waterfall Series – A significant part of the minute meditation series are these waterfall videos I’ve been taking for many years now. Most of the falls are in my native New England.
If you’re a waterfall chaser here, I highly recommend the New England Waterfalls Guidebook. It’s the best way to locate, select, and get to the falls.
Click here to see a map of the waterfalls I’ve visited as part of the minute meditation series.
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
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.
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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Join me for a little peace through reflection, art, video, sound, and poetry
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.
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August 25, 2018
Summer 2018 Bits – Tiny Drops (Photography)
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Summer 2018 Oddservations
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All Tiny Drop photos Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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August 17, 2018
Can I Learn Buddhist Super Powers? – Dialectic Two-Step
Is there someplace in the world where they teach Buddhist super powers?
Response:
What exactly do you mean by super powers? What super powers are you interested in? Would you take anything anyone had to offer? To what end would you want to use this super power?
The King Midas story offers a good view into the drawbacks of super powers. Everything he touched turned to gold. He found that he couldn’t eat or drink as all his food and wine turned to gold when he touched it!
Here’s another perspective I would offer with regards to super powers. We already have them. Human beings are one of the most successful species on the planets (bacteria are the most successful). Millions of years of evolution have adapted our species, allowing us to survive, even thrive, on this planet. On top of that our accumulated wisdom, passed down for ages, has given us the means to find contentment.
If we have bodies and wisdom sufficient for contentment, what purpose would a super power fulfill?
I’d categorize the options as
Compassionate, altruistic purposes
Selfish purposes
Starting with the latter, acquiring superpowers for personal gain will likely create more suffering for you and for those around you. This is a lose-lose situation.
With the former, I see trouble too. Your power would need to reduce the suffering of others. Right? Experience tells us that we cannot solve other peoples problems. People also don’t learn by having people try to solve their problems. So, the only super power I can imagine that would benefit others would be to magically let people learn from their mistakes the first time they make them.
Is Those Super Powers, or Are You Just Happy?
Wow, what a super power that would be! But alas, just like with King Midas, this would be a blessing, but mostly a curse. Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes. Little ones, big ones, and in between. Let’s take the example of making an remark about someone’s father being cruel. In most normal situations, this kind of remark would be considered a mistake. If I were to learn that this was a mistake, it would mean that I would never say that again about anyone’s father.
Now imagine you witness a friend’s father beat him. If you had learned to never call a father cruel, how would you respond to the situation? You would be impaired from telling the truth and be helpless to aid your friend.
Human learning is far more complex and flexible than our scenario assumes. In fact, our power to learn from mistakes is infinitely more refined and capable than any super power we might dream up to improve things.
To your question about where in the world you can go to learn super powers, my answer is simply this; stay right where you are. Live an authentic and natural life. Recognize and appreciate the super powers you have. Find contentment and don’t keep your light under a bushel.
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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
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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August 11, 2018
Did Religion Create Evil? – Modern Koans
Did religion cause evil? Did evil cause religion, or is evil just evil period?
Response:
Mind created evil. There is no other source. Only within mind and in language is there evidence of something being bad or good. Further, these concepts are known differently from mind to mind and can change from situation to situation.
Religion and other social contracts are an invention of mind to contend with morality. A moral system is a great tool for finding common moral ground and establishing a system to monitor and regulate behavior.
Show Me Evil?
While there is opportunity for a great deal of variance and ambiguity around what is moral, there are certainly examples of communities that will have a great deal of common ground in the context of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Murder is universally considered wrong, though our social contract allows for varying degrees of it and subsequently different punishments. Similarly theft and libel are considered wrong.
Religion is likely to have come much later than morality, so religion isn’t the cause nor didn’t create the concept of evil. However, religious institutions have demonstrated abundantly that they are capable of enabling people to act badly.
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I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Modern Koans is an ongoing series that recognizes that good questions are often more important than their answers.
The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man. ― G.K. Chesterton
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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The post Did Religion Create Evil? – Modern Koans written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
August 7, 2018
A Collection of Waterfall Posts – Collections
Here is a collection of latest waterfall posts I’ve created over the years. There are are still photographs and video meditations.
The North Adams Cascades – A Two Minute Meditation
Authors, Meditation Videos, Meditations
Enders Falls – A One Minute Meditation
Meditation Videos, Meditations, Waterfalls
Bears Den Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
Meditation Videos, Meditations, Waterfalls
Spirit Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
Meditation Videos, Meditations, Waterfalls
Beaver Brook Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
Meditation Videos, Meditations, Waterfalls
Cook Canyon Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
Meditation Videos, Meditations, Waterfalls
Spot Pond Brook Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
Meditation Videos, Meditations, Waterfalls
Under The Skin – A One Minute Meditation
iPhoneography, Meditation Videos, Meditations
waterfallThe post A Collection of Waterfall Posts – Collections written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
August 5, 2018
Poem: Forty Eight Miles – Accepted for Publication
My poem “Forty eight miles per second every million light years” was just accepted by Levee Magazine It will appear in the Fall Volume 1 issue later this year. I’ll be sure to announce when it is released.
This poem being accepted was particularly unusual. It was my first draft. That never happens.
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Verse Us – Poems I write: haiku, senryu, mesostics, free verse, random word constructions, I might even use rhyme or meter once and a while.
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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August 4, 2018
The Best Articles of July 2018 from Andrew Furst
Here’s a selected list of what people were reading here on andrewfurst.net in July 2018:
Natural Bridge in North Adams MA
Islamophobia, but no Christianphobia? – Dialectic Two-Step
Sun Runes – Work in Progress
Are You True to Yourself? – Modern Koans
As I Walk with Beauty – Traditional Navajo Prayer
Song by Bill Knott – Compass Songs
The Fish – Work in Progress
Going to This Great Place – Verse Us (Poems by Me)
Fall of Songs – A Two Minute Meditation
People are Strange – Quotes
At Patreon you can make small monthly micro-contributions that help support my work. 
If Patreon doesn’t work for you, then drop me a one time contribution at PayPal.me
The post The Best Articles of July 2018 from Andrew Furst written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
August 2, 2018
Mind (Dry Ice) – A One Minute Meditation
Mind (Dry Ice)
My teacher once said “all is mind.”
Such beautiful nonsense
seeing Everest’s bitter cold
aside a summer dumpster.
Mind is all of a fool
And so there is truth in it.
Dry Ice evaporating on a loading dock in Cambridge, MA
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
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.
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
Subscribe to My NewsletterJoin me for a little peace through reflection, art, video, sound, and poetry
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.
The post Mind (Dry Ice) – A One Minute Meditation written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
July 31, 2018
Scream Collage – Work in Progress
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Scream Collage
I created this image by overlaying a profile picture of me onto a photo of All Saints Way in the North End of Boston. Fortunately I was able to meet the man who created this labor of love. He is a devout Catholic, well into his 80’s, who knows every parish in the greater Boston area. He asked where I was from and he rattled off St. Theresa’s, the local church where my kids spent every Tuesday evening at Scouts. If you get the chance to head over to the North End, make a point to stop off to see the alley and maybe the artist.
The profile picture of me, which I refer to as the scream, was not intended to be a scream, but it was used in a collage inspired by Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit. I took the “selfie” to depict me singing a soprano note (which is impossible). The piece was titled “Voice Piece for Soprano” after the prompt in Ono’s wonderful book.
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Work in Progress - updates on art I'm working on lately including prototype images, drawings, collages, concrete poetry, etc.
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July 30, 2018
White Supremacy? – Thoughts on Humans
As we consider the sad conditions of the past, whites have found a new way. To make amends we’ve slowly begun to offer people of color citizenship in the economic and spiritual promised land they were previously excluded from. They are slowly gaining access to the benefits of our culture. But at what cost?
What is this wealth but the legacy of slavery’s free labor. What is this opportunity, but the empty promise of greedy corporate con artists who have created wealth inequality and a generation of wage slaves? And what is this virtue but the culture of genocide and the spirituality of dominion? How is this new way different from our former delusions of supremacy?
If we were to carefully examine our position, we’d find ourselves wanting for the virtue we espouse and falling short of the moral standards of those we consider beneath us.Andrew Furst
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Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
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