Andrew Furst's Blog, page 136

One Minute Meditation – Austin Breezes

 

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. 

Austin Breezes

I’m a stranger to Texas.  I’ve only ever passed through. Over a three day weekend last year while the lion was roaring in the month of March, I was visiting Austin and Georgetown with my family.  My son was accepted to Southwestern University and he was exploring the campus before deciding which school to attend.

The night before we’d roamed Congress and Sixth Street watching the college students and other twenty-somethings carouse the bars and tattoo parlors. I absentmindedly meandered by Coyote Ugly, completely unaware I’d walked by the famous landmark.

The next day, after dropping my son  at the Southwestern University campus in Georgetown, we took a wrong turn and ended up by a rough but beautiful cemetery.  The day was uncharacteristically cold and windy.  The gravel earth, in the colors of Texas limestone, the unfamiliar birds and trees told me I was in a different world.  My only frame of reference was the old cowboy films I watched as a kid.  Memories of Clint Eastwood and Gunsmoke came to mind.

What stood out the most was that even in the biting wind, some trees dared to bloom in purple.  Others clung to a few remaining seed pods and nuts from year passed.  The tree in this video was one of the latter.  It had patches of birch white.  It’s seed pods invoked memories of hawthorn and swaths of bark reminded me of beech. I have no idea what species it was, but it was pleasing and haunting to look at there in the limestone cemetery.

Austin Breezes

Flat limestone gravel
covers graves and feeds the trees
in the biting wind

The song “The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan” by Chris Zabriskie is used under the creative commons “Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.”

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One Minute Meditations
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)

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Verse Us – Birth of the Buddha

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

The Birth Of The Buddha

April 8th, in some circles, is considered the birth date of the Buddha.  In celebration, I offer this poem.

As always, I recommend viewing this in full screen.

The Birth Of The Buddha

Gautama was conceived in the purifying water of the monsoons,
a sweetness aliting to invite the morning bell.
He came to a wealthy world, somehow impoverished,
yet bathed in the crimson light of life;
Blind and unable to shine our gaze into the void.
We complain of distance – when really
there is none between hearts.
Millennia later, the gratitude is mine,
only in the sense that I do not resist its source,
the light.

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Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)

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Tiny Drops – Buddha’s Birthday

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.

Buddha’s Birthday

Click on images to view the full size slide show.

amitabha amrta landamitabha angle landamitabha close landamitabha from above landKsitigarbha portNo FearGet 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? – Is That A Real Poncho?

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  

Is That A Real Poncho? What is Ontology?

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Compass Songs – Immortal Love, Forever Full

 
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.

Immortal Love, Forever Full

Immortal love, forever full,
Forever flowing free,
Forever shared, forever whole,
A never ebbing sea!

Our outward lips confess the name
All other names above;
Love only knoweth whence it came,
And comprehendeth love.

Blow, winds of God, awake and blow
The mists of earth away:
Shine out, O Light divine, and show
How wide and far we stray.

We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For Him no depths can drown.

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet,
A present help is He;
And faith still has its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.

The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.

Through Him the first fond prayers are said
Our lips of childhood frame,
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with His Name.

O Lord and Master of us all,
Whate’er our name or sign,
We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call,
We test our lives by Thine.

The letter fails, the systems fall,
And every symbol wanes;
The Spirit over brooding all,
Eternal Love remains.

- John Greenleaf WhittierGet Each Week's Compass Song in your email box

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In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
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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Dialectic Two-Step – Buddhism and Easter?

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  

Buddhism and Easter?

What’s a western Buddhist to think about Easter?  My religious trajectory started in Christianity, shifted by default into varying degrees of agnosticism and atheism, and then settled on Buddhism.  So you can probably surmise where I lie on the question of the resurrection of Christ. It was a deal breaker for me.

I’ve offered and you’ve probably heard the euphemisms provided by Buddhists, Pagans, Agnostics, and Atheists. We acknowledge a shared understanding of the holiday whilst avoiding confrontation on the issue of the plausibility of resurrection.

I feel we can all agree on the meaning of these events within the framework of mythology.  All religious traditions carry with them lessons rife with the supernatural. The Buddha is said to have been born from his mother’s side. Upon birth, he was said to have taken 10 steps and proclaimed “I am the world honored one.” He spoke with the Gods and instructed demons. Pagans come from a tradition filled with immortals, magicians, and the like.  Even famous agnostics and atheists use the language of God.  Einstein famously said that “God does not play dice.” But we have vastly different interpretations of what these stories mean.

I believe that the framework of mythology is the most conducive way to talk about religious beliefs in a plural society.  Not so much  to avoid confrontation; that is self censorship, but to suspend the reactionary explosions that fall out of questioning core religious tenets.  All religious and non religious people acknowledge an  innate human thirst for knowledge. At the center of this hunger is the desire to know who we are and our relationship with the world. Science and religion are both avenues to explore these questions. Where these two approaches are in conflict, we have to ask why.

Science and religion have constraints and advantages which put boundaries on their effectiveness. Science is constrained to answering questions that can be tested.  Religion is constrained by its history, doctrine, and structure. Science can’t answer questions about God.  Religion has a difficult time correcting itself in the face of evidence contrary to dogma. Science offers a flexible, self correcting mechanism for advancing knowledge.  Religion offers a moral perspective on how to view the progress of science.

On the topic of Easter, the rebirth of life in spring is a blessing that the heart rejoices.  I see the resurrection of Christ in this context and deeply appreciate hearing Handel’s Messiah with this in mind. We can and should put aside our theological differences to join the age old chorus celebrating the spring blossom.  In this we share with our ancestors the taste of the mystery that drives us to seek.  But when we rejoin the conversation of how religion and science should be engaged in structuring our society, we should speak plainly and honestly on the facts.

Happy Easter!

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Say What?
Quotes
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One Minute Meditation – Wonderland

 

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. 

Wonderland

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 at Wonderland on the quiet side of Mount Desert Island.

It’s important to plant the seeds of peace. If we only plant the seeds of impatience, consumption, and anger, how can we find – in ourselves – the peace we so dearly need?

Planting Drops

Kids ocean playground
touching crabs, algae, sea air
parent’s fond memory seed

Wonderland Get Each Week's One Minute Meditation in your email box

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In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
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Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
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Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
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Sunday Morning Coming Down – Since I’ve Been Loving You

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

Since I’ve Been Loving You – Led Zeppelin

Just wow.  Set aside everything that Led Zeppelin means in pop culture; guitar heroes, heavy metal pioneers, or R&B players from another dimension. Their music pulls you in if you let it. At the 7:15 mark in the video, you get a sense of what it was like to see Led Zeppelin in concert.  No headbangers, no bic lighter salutes, and  no air guitar solos in the audience.  The image of the young Asian woman sitting pensively, gently smiling with the lilt of the song’s movement matches the feeling I get when I listen to this song. Since I’ve Been Loving You is one of those little gems that sits on the back burner for ages, but deserves a Sunday morning listen.  Enjoy.

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Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
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 Since I’ve Been Loving You

by Led Zeppelin

Working from seven to eleven every night,
It really makes life a drag, I don’t think that’s right.
I’ve really been the best, the best of fools, I did what I could. (Yeah)
‘Cause I love you, baby, How I love you, darling, How I love you, baby,
My beloved little girl, little girl.
But baby, Since I’ve Been Loving You (yeah). I’m about to lose my worried mind, oh, yeah.

Everybody trying to tell me that you didn’t mean me no good.
I’ve been trying, Lord, let me tell you, Let me tell you I really did the best I could.
I’ve been working from seven to eleven every night, I said It kinda makes my life a drag
Lord, that ain’t right…
Since I’ve Been Loving You, I’m about to lose my worried mind. (Watch out!)

Said I’ve been crying, yeah. Oh, my tears they fell like rain,
Don’t you hear them, Don’t you hear them falling?
Don’t you hear, Don’t you hear them falling?

Do you remember mama, when I knocked upon your door?
I said you had the nerve to tell me you didn’t want me no more, yeah
I open my front door, hear my back door slam,
You know, I must have one of them new fangled, new fangled back door man.

I’ve been working from seven, seven, seven, to eleven every night, It kinda makes my life a drag…
Baby, Since I’ve Been Loving You, I’m about to lose, I’m about to lose, lose my worried mind.

Just one more, just one more, oooh, yeah,
Since I’ve been loving you, I’m gonna lose my worried mind.

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Say What? – Do We Have Freewill?

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  

Do we have freewill?

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Relics – When The Mind Doesn’t Tell You, Listen To The Body

The Relics series are throwback articles from previous years. They seem timeless enough to be relevant today.

Try as you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic of the human heart, love. - Victor Hugo 

Note: This article was published last year.

I recently had a significant wake up call at work. Let’s say I failed to keep a few important people happy.  In many respects, it was my own damn fault.  In the stress of the last few months, I became less and less mindful. The result was a series of poor decisions that blew up in my face.  I lost my mental discipline.  But in retrospect my body was there for me.  The so-called mind-body connection is a powerful one.

I work at an incredibly successful company that’s rocketed from being a startup to a growing public company.  One of the downsides is the stress that comes with keeping up with the success.

Over the last few weeks the pace and multitasking has shot through the roof.  I move from meeting to meeting all day making quick decisions and directing staff to shift focus on a dime.  I see the toll it takes on them. But I failed to see the toll it was taking on me.

Going Through the Motions

Mindlessness feeds on itself like a snake swallowing its own tail.  A false sense of success drives you to accelerate.  But all your really doing is tightening yourself into a knot.  I began to get shorter in temperament and communication. I become myopic and my mind was racing. Signs first showed up in my meditation practice. So, I increased my practice. But each time I went to the cushion, the distance from my here to peace was always substantial.

What finally came through for me was my body.  It wasn’t a heroic rescue, more of a dope slap.  I began having difficulty sleeping. My restless leg syndrome symptoms dramatically increased.  I was popping Advil like candy for my arthritis and neck tension.  My body was screaming at me to pay attention.

Karma at Work

What’s ironic is that this is my karma, my pattern of suffering. I’ve had a couple of life events like this one.  At the time I’m writing this article, it is my 20 year wedding anniversary. It’s also an anniversary of one of the most memorable examples of my mind body link.  In the weeks leading up to the wedding, severe back spasms set in.  I had no idea why.  The doctor said he could find no reason for the pain.  He declined to give me cortisone shots, saying in all likelihood it was psychosomatic.  I was puzzled.  Everything else was going great.  I was getting married to the woman I loved.

So, our wedding day arrived.  I was barely able to drive.  My future wife had to carry everything for me, including some heavy boxes of champagne. We got there in time and managed to tie the knot without incident.

Now get this. An “I do” and a few sips of champagne and miraculously I was healed.   The pain went away not to return for almost a decade.

A few weeks of tension and anxiety leading up to my wedding and my body broke down.  But I went on clueless, never talking with anyone about it, never connecting that I might be a tad nervous on my way to the alter.

Mind Body Connection

I don’t like the term mind-body connection.  The phrase implies that they are separate and we need to do something to notice the link.  Just listen to the body.  It will tell you on no uncertain terms what’s going on with your mind. The message it delivers is not just to improve your posture or take your medicine.  It’s a pretty unveiled threat to  pay attention or else.

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