Andrew Furst's Blog, page 135

Verse Us – Threads – A Two Dimensional 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.  

Threads – A Two Dimensional Poem

I recommend viewing this in full screen.

Wait to Speak

The barn paint wears on it a weariness from a season or more.
The new woven threads of smoke
contemplate the dark wood’s temperament.
Will our plans have the cloth needed?
The line is in the cold needle,
As our mothers stitch the cloth of wintertime.
I’m looking forward to exchanging this shirt
for the smell of the garden season.

The Cloth It Wears

Looking forward, the line of wood smoke smell
speaks of the dark season.
The new paint needed on our barn will have to wait.
I’m exchanging the garden plans for the needle’s thread,
As our mothers contemplate the wintertime temperament.
Woven in to the cloth of this shirt is a stitch, or more,
a weariness, from the cold season.

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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)

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Tiny Drops – Sonographia

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.

 Sonographia

Click on images to view the full size slide show.

f holeharmonica combharmonicamandolin bridgemandolin neckpianoGet Each Week's Tiny Drops in your email box

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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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Say What? – What A Pain

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 A Pain

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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)

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Compass Songs – Monadnock in Early Spring

 
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.

Monadnock in Early Spring

by Amy Lowell

Cloud-topped and splendid, dominating all
The little lesser hills which compass thee,
Thou standest, bright with April’s buoyancy,
Yet holding Winter in some shaded wall
Of stern, steep rock; and startled by the call
Of Spring, thy trees flush with expectancy
And cast a cloud of crimson, silently,
Above thy snowy crevices where fall
Pale shrivelled oak leaves, while the snow beneath
Melts at their phantom touch. Another year
Is quick with import. Such each year has been.
Unmoved thou watchest all, and all bequeath
Some jewel to thy diadem of power,
Thou pledge of greater majesty unseen.

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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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Dialectic Two-Step – What Is Your Advice For Better Meditation?

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  

Question: What is your advice for better meditation?

Response: This is a broad question, so I’ll break it down a little:

“Better” meditation? This is a little bit of a trap.  If we’re  seeking a better meditation, can we truly be engaged in the meditation we’re in? From a high level, letting go of the concept “good”  and “bad” meditation is good advice.Success – It’s good to start out with reasonable goals. A brief daily practice of 5-10 minutes is a good start.  Taking 5 breath breaks during work is also useful.  These short meditations offer immediate relief and build confidence in the value of the practice.The Five Hindrances- there are teachings on things to look out for in  meditation and how to address them.  The hindrances are sensory desire, Ill will, sloth or torpor, worry or restlessness, and doubt. A quick overview of the antidotes are as follows – (to read more go to Five hindrances)  Desire  - first be mindful that desire has arisen, then meditate on it’s impermanence. Ill Will - loving kindness practice (compassion)  Sloth-Torpor  - having confidence in the path, finding the natural source of energy, seeing the beauty that is exposed via mindfulness…. (joy) Worry-Restlessness - developing contentment and equanimity   Doubt  - Good instruction, confidence in the path.

The  last thing I’ll offer, is the confidence I’ve developed in the benefits of meditation.  Persisting with this practice has offered me boundless benefit.  I hope that you can  benefit from  it as well.

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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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One Minute Meditation – Falls Brook

 

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. 

Falls Brook

This week’s video is from the first trek I’ve taken this spring.  It was Easter day and my dog Waffles and I trekked through no small amount of snow to see Royalston Falls. The hike was well worth it, the falls are magnificent. However, that will come later.  This video is of a small gorge in Falls Brook leading to the greater falls.

Melting Snow

The source of oceans
drip from these snowbound mountains
leaving me with peace

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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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Sunday Morning Coming Down – Guess I’m Doing Fine

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

Guess I’m Doing Fine – Beck

I think enough time has passed since the Grammy Awards to sit back and enjoy some Sunday Morning Beck. The Sea Change record, which my friend Michael Powers introduced me to, has a warm  cozy place in my heart.

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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)

 Guess I’m Doing Fine

by Beck

There’s a blue bird at my window
I can’t hear the songs he sings
All the jewels in heaven
They don’t look the same to me

I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind

It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine

All the battlements are empty
And the moon is laying low
Yellow roses in the graveyard
Got no time to watch them grow

Now I bade a friend farewell
I can do whatever pleases me

It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine

Press my face up to the window
To see how warm it is inside
See the things that I’ve been missing
Missing all this time

It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine

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Verse Us – Senryu – 1972

Verse Us - Poems I write: haiku, senryu, mesostics, free verse, random word constructions, I might even use rhyme or meter once and a while.  

1972

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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)

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Modern Koans – No Spirituality Without Bureaucracy!

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

 

No Spirituality Without Bureaucracy!

By fate or mistake, I received an email from Rabbi Aryeh (Robert) Klapper imploring me to support the Center for Modern Torah Leadership! In his email (I truly love the way that Rabbis explain things) he makes the observation:

 “No Spirituality Without Bureaucracy!” is unlikely to make any list of Top 10 Religious Slogans.

He then continued on to the inevitable “but,”…

His point is at the core of a tension that exists between organized religion and the teachings of our revered spiritual masters. It’s not hard to see how leaders and practitioners of a religion can act in ways that seem blatantly at odds with their scriptures and ideals.

God is not a Christian. God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist. I honor my tradition. I walk through my tradition. But I don’t believe my tradition defines God. It only points me to God. – Bishop John Shelby Spong

One important question I find myself asking myself pretty regularly as I wander down the path of Lord Buddha is this:

Is what I’m doing in service of the institution of Buddhism or in the interest of all sentient beings?

The answer is informative in a lot of ways.  It tells me a few things:

Who is benefiting? As a Buddhist teacher and author, I am drawn by desires for fame and fortune.  In these moments, I construct plans and activities to build and sustain a growing Sangha, with traditions, resources, and facilities.  In many ways this is a good thing.  Making the way of the Buddha available to more people is something that I believe is helpful.  But I have to be careful that my plans and aspirations serve others and not just myself.Who is being harmed? Looking at the long history of abuse  inflicted on people by religious leaders and followers, this is an important question. In Buddhist countries like Burma and Sri Lanka there are movements that are actively targeting Muslims.  They have made claims that the Buddha’s teachings are consistent with their combative approach and Buddhist all over the world are divided about it.  It seems to me that these actions are prone to do harm. Its an interesting question and something we each have to answer for ourselves.Is it consistent with the Buddha’s teachings? At the core of the Buddha’s teachings is the desire to understand and reduce suffering.  When I do things in the name of Buddhism, will they only cause me suffering?  Will it cause others to suffer?  Using my first example, if I aspired to grow a large organization, would the bureaucracy take over my life and create the political strife that goes hand in hand with any institution?Should what I’m doing take priority over other things? A perfect example of this is maintaining the balance between work, life, and religious practice.  Taking on more and more responsibilities in any of these areas will impact another.  Often times, I’ve taken on more than I can handle with my meditation group.  My family suffers for it.    It is a balance.  The Middle Way explicitly calls on you to find the balance.

When I can say that what I’m doing forwards the cause of the institution of Buddhism and helps all sentient beings towards liberation, then I think I’m on the right track.

What’s the balance you strike?

Is serving others more important than serving your religious institution?

Would we be better off without religion?

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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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Complete Awakening

Buddha on Awakening

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