Andrew Furst's Blog, page 133

Say What? – In a Past 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  

In a past life.

Get Each Week's Say What? 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 Say What? – In a Past Life… appeared on Andrew Furst.

Compass Songs – Song for Baby-O, Unborn

 
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.

Song for Baby-O, Unborn

by Diane Di Prima

Sweetheart
when you break thru
you’ll find
a poet here
not quite what one would choose.

I won’t promise
you’ll never go hungry
or that you won’t be sad
on this gutted
breaking
globe

but I can show you
baby
enough to love
to break your heart
forever

Get Each Week's Compass Song 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 Compass Songs – Song for Baby-O, Unborn appeared on Andrew Furst.

Dialectic Two-Step – The World In A Grain Of Sand?

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  

Can You See The World In A Grain Of Sand?

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

– from Augeries of Innocence by William  Blake

It’s a nice metaphor; the world somehow being uniform in its function.  Electrons and galaxies both contain the  calculus of everything and the ability to inspire us towards great wisdom and peace. The Blake reference is analogous to the Vedic notion of Indra’s net.  This is a web spanning all of space with a perfect jewel at each junction. The jewel reflects perfectly all the other jewels. The analogy can apply to people or to a piece of dirt.  Recognizing that the components of a grain of sand operate with the same set of rules as the stars and galaxies is a seemingly obvious but often disregarded truism.

There is also some boundaries established with this insight.  How might we set up a proposition that somehow, on given day, that we would expect to see an electron or a galaxy act in contradiction to normal function.  The human imagination somehow holds the power to do just that – invoke worlds where magic and the impossible are commonplace.  This is incredibly wonderful.  Out of this gift has come great works of fiction, abstract algebra, and string theory.  Science itself is deeply dependent on human imagination. For every hypothesis created, there is a certain magic that is invoked to see beyond what we currently know.

But this imagination is bounded by rules. Experience shows us when we’ve stepped out of bounds. Just remember the many tragic stories of people who were exposed to PHP and tried to fly with  tragic results.  How often do we have fantasies about improbable or impossible futures?  I do all the time.  How often do we accept too good to be true stories from politicians and marketers?  How often do we accept claims from religious and political authorities that are contradictory to how we know the universe operates?

The world is beautiful as it is. Wishing or insisting that it were otherwise, detracts from our ability to find joy and deal with tragedy in the real world.

Get Each Week's Dialectic Two Step 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 Dialectic Two-Step – The World In A Grain Of Sand? appeared on Andrew Furst.

One Minute Meditation – Breaking Free

 

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. 

Breaking Free

The last plates of ice on Martins Pond breaking up and flowing under the Burroughs Road Bridge into Martins Brook. Winter finally broke two weeks ago here in New England.Let the tension built up over the long winter melt like ice in the sun. Enjoy.

Let the tension built up over the long winter melt like ice in the sun. Enjoy.

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 – Breaking Free appeared on Andrew Furst.

Sunday Morning Coming Down – Hallelujah

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

Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley

Leonard Cohen’s majestic song intimately offered by Jeff Buckley

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)

 Hallelujah

by Leonard Cohen

Well I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth,
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Chorus: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Chorus

Baby I’ve been here before
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor (you know)
I used to live alone before I knew you
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Chorus

there was a time when you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show that to me, do you?
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Chorus

Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Chorus (repeated)

The post Sunday Morning Coming Down – Hallelujah appeared on Andrew Furst.

Say What? – The Middle Way?

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 Middle Way.

Get Each Week's Say What? 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 Say What? – The Middle Way? appeared on Andrew Furst.

April Showers – A Spring Haiku

 April Showers

Forsythia bright
Cool and damp April showers
Take nothing from your life light

 

 

The post April Showers – A Spring Haiku appeared on Andrew Furst.

Modern Koans – Why Right Speech?

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 Speech?

As I mention in the preamble above, the Eightfold path is both the cultivation and the fruition.  When you meet an enlightened person, you tend to notice.  They exude the qualities of goodness in their actions and their speech. These qualities exemplify the outward appearance of luminous mind. They effortlessly embody the precepts.

And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter: This is called right speech. – Wikipedia

How does abstaining from lying, divisive speech, and idle chatter help us to realize the end of suffering?  This seems much  more tangible and obvious.  Oh the tangled webs we’ve woven, the friendships we’ve ruined, and the reputations we’ve created by opening our mouths when keeping them closed would have been so much better!

Controlling our tongue also helps us develop the skill of listening.  The image of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara can be observed to have abnormally large ears. This is symbolic of hearing the wails of suffering in this world.  Deeply listening to the suffering of the world led this exemplar to become the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

But it’s not hard to see how the precept of Right Speech can be misinterpreted and misused. In Myanmar and Thailand, there has been uproar over what constitutes right speech.  In Thailand there are protests against the blasphemy of using Buddhist emoticons.  In Myanmar people are being charged with Insulting the Buddha.

If this Eightfold path is an introspective form of cultivation, are laws forcing you to comply beneficial?  Don’t we learn from our mistakes? Aren’t the consequences of our actions our best teacher?  If we are compelled to right speech by a government, aren’t we only learning to avoid getting arrested?

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

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 Speech? appeared on Andrew Furst.

Bruce Lee on Questions

Bruce Lee on Questions

The post Bruce Lee on Questions appeared on Andrew Furst.

One Minute Meditation – Royalston Falls

 

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. 

Royalston Falls

This week’s video is the second from this springs first trek.  My dog Waffles and I trekked through snow to see Royalston Falls. In the gorge below the falls the formation of ice is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  It’s as if the spray from the falls have frozen mid air.

Spring Detente

This year winter stays
longer than customary
Spring is unperturbed

 

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)

The post One Minute Meditation – Royalston Falls appeared on Andrew Furst.