Andrew Furst's Blog, page 130

One Minute Meditation – The Patience of Time

 

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. 

The Patience of Time

Where do you reach for patience?  When you’re in a pressure cooker situation, how do you access calm and perspective? Knowledge is important.  Knowing that you can apply the brakes in situations is helpful. But, just like driving, you need practice.  This week’s video – The Patience of Time – offers a little of both.

In this time lapse meditation, you see the steadiness and patience of the clock against the backdrop of the busy movement of people.  I shot this in lobby 7 of MIT’s Roger’s building during a busy weekend event.  The visual of the slowly moving clock, reminds me of that we have a choice of what to do in the span of an hour.  These kids were having fun and they show it with their excited pace.  But this video would look a lot different if there was a meditation event happening in the same spot.  You might mistake the movement  of the clock as the frenetic happening.

Knowing you can choose your pace is important.  Practicing setting it is perhaps more important.  Try it now. watch the video, listen to Chris Zabriskie’s soothing music, and discover the benefits of life in the slow lane.

There’s Probably No Time by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://chriszabriskie.com

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Tiny Drops (Photography series)
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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. 

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Verse Us – Missing – 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.  

Missing

 

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Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
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The post Verse Us – Missing – A Poem appeared on Andrew Furst.

Tiny Drops – Our Home Without

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.

Our Home Without

Click on images to view the full size slide show.

airport geometry 5bottom brackethingemandolin stringsRiverway Bridge with Duckviolin cupboard 1Get Each Week's Tiny Drops in your email box

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 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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Say What? – What Makes Life Worth Living?

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 Makes Life Worth Living?

 

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Compass Songs – There’s A Moon Inside My Body

 
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.

There’s A Moon Inside My Body

by Kabir

THE moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it:
The moon is within me, and so is the sun.
The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it.

So long as man clamours for the I and the Mine, his works are as naught:
When all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done.
For work has no other aim than the getting of knowledge:
When that comes, then work is put away.

The flower blooms for the fruit: when the fruit comes, the flower withers.
The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass.

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Dialectic Two-Step – Is Atheism Causing Despair?

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  

Is Atheism Causing Despair?

My online compatriot Kenneth Justice has a great blog titled Culture Monk in which he deftly  handles the topics of religion and politics.  I frequently read and comment on his articles.  It’s good stuff. In series of two articles he asks “Is Atheism Causing Despair?”  He makes the case that, for many, the promise of an after life is the only thing between them and despair.  One person responded with a great question “Is offering false hope better or worse?” Here’s my response: 

Myself I’m torn on the false hope, hope, no hope thing as well. Certain readings of the Gospel, especially in the context of Judaism – the Torah is silent on an afterlife – would indicate that Jesus’ message was apocalyptic and the Kingdom of God would be here on earth and with very strict rules – not some cozy gated community on cloud nine.

We also need to consider the anxiety that heaven’s alternative introduces. If you live in a secular western country and abide by our cultural norms, then I’m sorry, you’ve got NO HOPE. You’ve turned your back on the law that Yahweh will be using to judge you. We’re going to hell in a hand basket.

That said, I don’t think that Christianity’s offer of hope is what the poor, destitute, and forgotten are clinging to. It is a modern cultural narrative that leaves out the nasty theology.

I think the hope is worthwhile for the people Ken mentions, and yes, I think it’s a Santa Claus size fib that they’re being offered, BUT it’s not our business to take it away. It is however on our backs (“our” meaning the latte brigade) that we don’t step in to offer something more substantial than a low probability euphemism like heaven.

So back to the gist of the article, I do object to Kenneth’s correlation between atheism and despair. I think this is false. First, I think he may be tossing out a wobbly premise. Despair is on the rise REALLY?  Second, if it is, attributing that rise to a fringe population (6% of Americans are atheists) sounds a lot like scapegoating.

In his defense though, I think Kenneth has struck on the the right path forward. He has spent the time in the homeless shelters, the jails, and the rehab clinics, reaching out. Despair comes from being marginalized, ignored, and unheard. Sitting down, listening, and chatting over a cup of coffee will offer more hope to someone in need than any flavor of religious or anti-religious mumbo jumbo.

To borrow and modify Bill Clinton’s campaign strategy – It’s the community stupid! Community is at the core of our humanity. Religions have offered it for eons, but with strings attached. Let’s dump the mumbo jumbo and be there for each other.

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One Minute Meditations
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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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One Minute Meditation – Higher Ground

 

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. 

Higher Ground

What does it feel like to weather the storm with a sense of calm? How does it feel to sit gently in the midst of a maelstrom? Does it come naturally to you, or is it something that you need to work hard at?  I’m the second type. I have hypertension, and as I grow older the diagnosis reveals itself in very tangible ways.  There are many days when my meditation is mostly about releasing body tension.

When my mind gets caught in a spin, I  feel it later in my shoulders and hands, my hips and my spine. As I’ve said before, the mind and body are two facets of one thing. Tension can arise from a chaotic mind, and mental exhaustion can take hold because of how we hold and operate our bodies.

In this weeks meditation, there is a juxtaposition of calming music and chaotic and dissonant movement.  The time lapse was taken in Lawrence, MA at the Merrimack River Dam. The shot takes in both the cascading waterfall on the dam and the busy traffic hurrying along on the O’Leary Bridge.

Where does the world want to take you?  On whose terms must you go? As Stevie Wonder reminds us

I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin’
Till I reach my highest ground

Lontana, Dolcemente Sospesa by Fabrizio Paterlini is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

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Dialectic Two-Step
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Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
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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. 

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Sunday Morning Coming Down – Teach Your Children Well

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

Teach Your Children Well – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

The month of May is being curated by my eldest son Ian.  This is Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Teach Your Children Well (more old school).

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 Teach Your Children Well

by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

And you, of the tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well, their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix,the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

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Dialectic Two-Step – Has Science Killed God?

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  

Has Science Killed God?

I think that Religion (and to qualify, I am religious) MUST reckon with the facts that science has demonstrated about our world. American Christianity has been something of a poster child for what can go wrong with religion. At the turn of the twentieth century, there was a surge in religious fervor that was capitalized upon by what I would characterize as snake oil salesman. The product of this period was a religious fundamentalism that has been accepted all the way up to the Presidents of our great country. This phenomenon has led to

• Characters like Pat Robertson presuming to speak on behalf of God.
• People speak familiarly of Gods intentions, plans, preferences, and so on.
• Armageddon is predicted regularly.
• Corruption and justification of sinfulness are found in twisted interpretations of the Bible. God wants you to be prosperous! God wants your preacher to own 3 cars.
• Religion has typically stood in the way of social progress. Scripture has been quoted from the pulpit to justify racism, sexism, homosexuality, banning intermarriage, so on and so forth.
• Religion has consistently stood in opposition to science (from Galileo to the Scopes monkey trial)

But this phenomenon isn’t restricted to Christianity. I’m Buddhist and we have our own demons; corruption, sexual predators, and hate mongers all live within the fold. The institution of religion is one of society’s most efficient incubators for death, destruction, and darkness. This is quite a contrast to the hope that people look for when turning to a faith tradition. Richard Dawkins and his pack of friends don’t have to work very hard to develop a cogent and appealing argument for anti-theism.

There are decent people, strongly dedicated to carrying out the message of wisdom and love that Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, all proclaimed. These people find a home and support in the temple, church, and mosque. In this way religion offers hope and great promise. But the church also harbors and abets the demons, hate mongers, and criminals.

People have two choices when it comes to dealing with the problems associated with religion in the US. They can stand up and fight within the church. Or they can vote with their feet. The decline of religiosity in the US is a testament to the latter.

Perhaps the nobler cause would be the former – taking up the fight. But its hard work and the institutions of religion are designed to repel such reform. The charges of heresy and blasphemy await those willing to take on this mantle. To enter the door of faith we’re conditioned to lower our guard and suspend disbelief in ideas that would otherwise be considered contradictory to what we know is true about the world. Religion can have the effect of intellectually disarming us.

Now despite my tone, I do believe there is some mystery to be explored here. I feel strongly that religious exploration is worth the effort. But ignorance is not a viable path in this endeavor. The world is what it is, whether it was created by God or not. Through our curiosity, we have discovered that buried within the inner workings of the universe lay clues to its origin. The most effective tool in the history of mankind to do this work has been the scientific method, not religion.

However, religion harbors some wonderful and important questions. But until the current collection of faith traditions get out of their own way, they are going the end up like Atenism, Mithraism, and Tengriism (religions that are now extinct).

I see a future where a collaboration of science and seekers of the divine will produce a much deeper and richer religious experience. In fact, there are many who have probably enjoyed this experience already. My hope is that religion will not stand in our way.

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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 – Has Science Killed God? appeared on Andrew Furst.

One Minute Meditation – Babbling Creek

 

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. 

Babbling Creek

This week’s one minute meditation is one of a series of videos taken on vacation at Acadia National Park. This is an annual pilgrimage my family takes. This minute meditation is taken on the Valley Peak trail on the quiet side of Mount Desert Island.

Making Our Way

The ocean awaits
for some it is not too far
Know you’ve never really left

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Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)

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