Andrew Furst's Blog, page 146

Say What? – A Few Words On Emptiness

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  

A few words on Emptiness

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Compass Song – Dreamwood

  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.
Dreamwood

by Adrienne Rich

In the old, scratched, cheap wood of the typing standthere is a landscape, veined, which only a child can seeor the child’s older self, a poet,a woman dreaming when she should be typingthe last report of the day. If this were a map,she thinks, a map laid down to memorizebecause she might be walking it, it showsridge upon ridge fading into hazed deserthere and there a sign of aquifersand one possible watering-hole. If this were a mapit would be the map of the last age of her life,not a map of choices but a map of variationson the one great choice. It would be the map by whichshe could see the end of touristic choices,of distances blued and purpled by romance,by which she would recognize that poetryisn’t revolution but a way of knowingwhy it must come. If this cheap, mass-producedwooden stand from the Brooklyn Union Gas Co.,mass-produced yet durable, being here now,is what it is yet a dream-mapso obdurate, so plain,she thinks, the material and the dream can joinand that is the poem and that is the late report.Get Each Week's Compass Song in your email box

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Dialectic Two-Step – How can I make every day worth living?

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: How can I make every day worth living? I am 19 years old and working on my bachelor’s degree. I want to become IT entrepreneur. Can you suggest a way that I can live to not regret taking this path?

Response: I would turn the question around and suggest that you recognize everyday as being worth living. Adopt the attitude that you are responsible for appreciating it.  I am in technology. I’m entrepreneurial, work a  lot of hours, and have enjoyed being on the  cutting edge of the industry.  But I have a regular meditation practice, and I take time to notice the beauty and abundance that surrounds me. I have no regrets.

Make Every Day Worth Living?

You can’t make every day worth living, but you can enjoy  everyday because each one is precious.

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One Minute Meditation – Snow Day

 

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 weekend snow storm we had mid-January was a nice change of pace.  Everything was cancelled (including 5:00 AM swim practice).  It ended up being a busy productive day, but in ways  that were happily unexpected. We cleaned out one of the basement rooms, shoveled, built snowmen, and I put together today’s  one minute meditation. Enjoy.

Snow Day

Everything cancelled
Housework and snowman building
Shoveling is done

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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 – Lou Reed

Sunday Morning Coming Down is an ongoing music  video series.  The songs fit my definition of music for a lazy couch bound Sunday morning.
Satellite of Love by Lou ReedGet Each Week's Sunday Morning Coming Down in your email box

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 Satellite of Love

Satellite’s gone up to the skies
Things like that drive me out of my mind
I watched it for a little while
I like to watch things on TV

(Mm-mm-mm-mm)
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
Satellite of

Satellite’s gone way up to Mars
Soon it’ll be filled with parkin’ cars
I watched it for a little while
I love to watch things on TV

(Mm-mm-mm-mm)
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
Satellite of

I’ve been told that you’ve been bold
With Harry, Mark, and John
Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday through Thursday
With Harry, Mark, and John

Satellite’s gone up to the skies
Things like that drive me out of my mind
I watched it for a little while
I love to watch things on TV

(Mm-mm-mm-mm)
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
(Bum, bum, bum) Satellite of love
Satellite of

Satellite
Of love
Satellite
Of love (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
Satellite (Ooh)
Of love (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
Satellite (Satellite)
Of love (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
Satellite (Satellite)
Of love (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
Satellite (Satellite)
Of love (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
Satellite (Satellite)
Of love (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
Satellite (Satellite)
Of love (Ah, ah, ah, ah)
Satellite (Satellite)

 

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Relics – Grace

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 Grace

I want to continue on the topic of Pure Land Buddhism that I’ve been writing about in recent posts I have to admit, my path to Buddhism probably did start with David Carradine and Kung Fu. Before I set foot in a room with a true Buddhist teacher, I had a long affair with the martial arts. I read Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. I survived a philosophy degree and brushes with psychedelia. All the while my interest remained fueled by reading any book I could find on Eastern thought, always enamored with the concept of enlightenment

No doubt, I benefited from these experiences. But none of them offered a real step forward from a spiritual perspective. More than anything they showed me that books and fringe experiences don’t lead you to the truth about the world.

But still, I came to Buddhism. I came with a scientific bent, a philosophy degree, some life experience, and a sense that I could eventually figure it out.

When I joined my Sangha, my head was full of ideas, questions, and a confidence that I was just there to fill in the gaps in my theory of everything. Talk about the cup being already full.

But, there was one thing of value that experience had instilled in me. It was a balance of openness and skepticism. I think this was what I really needed to accept what was to come next.

Who Walks the Path?

The Buddha’s path is friendly to the scientific and philosophic at heart. It frames the problem clearly and offers a rational solution. It’s a well designed experiment that can be replicated. It has clear assumptions and conclusions. Everything someone like me would be attracted to.

The Buddha described the problem this way. Dissatisfaction with life is caused by ignorance of our true nature. If we look for satisfaction in things that are temporary, we will always fall short. If we look to the temporary aspects of ourselves for contentment, like our beauty or our youth, we’re in for a big let down. Relying upon this body for happiness will ultimately fail, for the simple reason that it will die.

The Eightfold Path is prescribed as the way to free us from ignorance. It introduces us to our true nature, invites us to relate to others in a way consistent with this nature, and gives us ways return when we stray.

The Path consists of Wisdom (Right View, Right Intention), Ethical Conduct (Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood), and Mental Development (Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration).

It touches on all the big questions. Wisdom tells us who we are and how the world we live in operates. Ethical conduct tells us how to relate to the world and others. Mental Development shows us how we can live in harmony and be content.

These are the big issues. We all struggle with them. What makes Buddhism’s answers special? For me, it goes like this: There is one truth and there are many paths.

Wisdom

Ironically, it all starts with wisdom. For me, wisdom is something you’d expect to come towards the end of the list. It’s an interesting twist. Wisdom is described as right view and right intention. What does this mean?

The Buddha said that looking to temporary things for lasting contentment is the first mistake. This is what is meant by Right View. Right intention is the commitment to act in accord with this. If we want to avoid dissatisfaction, we need to recognize how we misplace our faith in temporary things. Our intention must be to constantly re-center ourselves and realign our intention with the right view.

Easier said than done. When I get angry at someone because they’ve created an obstacle to some thing that I want, right intention requires me to stop, recognize that I am grasping and realign my actions with right view. This is an excruciating process of self examination. But it makes sense that the effort would reap great benefit.

In This Lifetime?

While we’re pursuing the path of Wisdom, we are forced to grapple with the messy parts. Our ego being at the forefront. Try it for a day. You’ll find its a monumental task.

Right view and right intention is a work in progress and demonstrates the power that our habits and patterns have over us. These habits and patterns are what the Vedic traditions call karma. We are always pulled by our karma. We constantly slip back into the mindset that if only I had such and such, or if only things could be different, then I could be happy.

Oddly we come to the right conclusion – that our karma is what leads us to dissatisfaction, but we often can’t see the way to free ourselves from it. Typically we end up reinforcing our karma by running through the same old patterns of behavior.

Here is where scientific aspirations and human imperfections arrive at an impasse.

Other Power

In Pure Land Buddhism, there are three cornerstones; Faith, Vows, and Practice.

Faith means faith in Amitabha Buddha’s Vows to rescue all who recite His name, as well as faith in one’s own Self-Nature, which is intrinsically the same as His (to recite the Buddha’s name is to recite the Mind).

Vows are the determination to be reborn in the Pure Land – in one’s pure mind – so as to be in the position to save oneself and others.

Practice generally means reciting the Buddha’s name to the point where one’s Mind and that of Amitabha Buddha are in unison – i.e. to the point of singlemindness. Samadhi and wisdom are then achieved.If you’ve ever prayed, sung, or chanted with great devotion, you know it has a great healing effect. Even if you haven’t, you’ll recognize it’s power. Imagine a great burden. If you are able to release that burden into the hands of someone more capable, the relief is tangible. This is the power of faith in Other Power, the power of faith in Buddha Amitabha.

Faith in Amitabha, is faith in our Selves. Not faith in the small “s” self which is weighted down with karma and ego. It is faith in the true undying eternal Self.

Faith in Other Power is the acceptance that we have very little control over our own circumstances. Our efforts to create happiness are fraught with failure and missteps. This is because all of these efforts arise from our small self, not from our true Self. When we release control and accept that in our true nature contentment exists, we rest in fruit of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path.

- Om Sarva Tathagata Pada Vandanam Karomi

I give thanks to the wise ones who have come before and passed along the Buddha’s Beautiful Way

1(Going Towards the Light and Master Rich Sittinger’s The Meaning of Namo Amitofo)

2http://www.amtbweb.org/tchet224.htm From the Namo Amitabha Pure Land Web Site, Introduction to Pure Land

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Modern Koans – Buddhist Bling

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

 How do Buddhists reconcile a rejection of materialism with ornate, gold-covered temples full of relics?

I think it’s a great question that Buddhists should ask themselves regularly. We are not materialists or nihilists.  The wise path is the between these two extremes. We should not get hung up on the importance and expense of these symbols, but we should not forsake them either.

My old worn mala carries as much meaning as a million dollar statue (Buddhist Bling) or the bone of a long dead Buddhist saint.  Not from an objective point of view, but for me.  Seeing a beautiful (and expensive) statue of Avalokiteshvara may bring someone to a sacred pause in their life into which the light can shine through.  I believe a dead leaf on the ground in autumn or a wasp biting us share the same potential for awakening us.

If we’re drawn to either adoration or disdain of the symbol, then we have strayed from the middle path and suffer.

But I think it’s fair to say that the opulence meter gets into the red.  A friend @QwertyVeg on twitter said:

I know different traditions have different degrees of spiritual materialism. The middle way is an easy excuse.

 The middle way is a way to settle the mind when engaging the world, but it often can be used in such a way as to quell strong feelings, for instance rightful indignation.  What is too much when it comes to ornate and expensive religious trappings?  What are the moral implications of asking people of humble means to contribute to the  sustenance of an institution that is in the possession of large amounts of material wealth.   How consistent is relic worship with Buddhist teachings?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

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One Minute Meditation – Lapse on Mass Ave

 

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. 

Today’s one minute meditation is truly different. We’re not sitting at a mountain stream or soaking up the rhythms of a gentle surf. We’re in it.  Jammed right into the middle of the cacophony of life. From a perch on the front steps of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the edge of Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge I filmed this minute long time lapse.

I particularly enjoyed this video and the process of shooting it. It was an exercise in patience and being present. With my new iPhone 6 I learned that the new time lapse feature produces 30 seconds of footage for each hour of shooting.  For this device junkie, this was a perfect diversion from my usual shoot for a minute and move on process.  So much of it was a wonderful meditation.  I had to do without my phone for more than an hour. Such a liberating experience. I was at a stand still, camped out next to my tripod in the midst of an ever shifting and moving mob of youth. The sense of stillness was exaggerated in the context of the circumstances. I felt like a rock in a coursing river.  As the crowd flowed around me, I was witness to so much.  Being there in a still way gave a whole new perspective on the cacophony of city life.

Life can be an overwhelming ocean of stimulus.  We can feel compelled to keep up with the prevailing pace. It is useful to examine the frequencies available to us. In the video, I found several rhythms that compete for our attention.  The most urgent is found in the frenetic pace of the people.  Time lapse photography captures the human condition as a jerky neurotic dance. On another plane, we see the more casual pace of the clouds.  Finally the patient passing of the sun, day into night, and natural light to electric. You have choices, find your rhythm, find yourself.

Lapse on Mass Ave

John Stockton Slow Drag by Chris Zabriskie – is licensed under Attribution License.

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Tiny Drops – Earth, Heart, and Heaven

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.Earth, Heart, and Heaven

Click on images to view the full size slide show.

fence hasselbars 2 purgaMIT Stairs Filterlego shadowwonderland filterbodhi scriptGet 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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Fine Art Prints – Another Way to Support the Dharma

I’ve just recently started making prints of art work I’ve been doing available at Fine Art America.

AndrewFurst.net remains free and takes more than a hundred hours a month to write and compile, and there are costs to sustain the site. If you find any joy and value in what I do, please consider purchasing a print, my book, or making a donation.

You can purchase my Fine Art Printsat Fine Art America

These prints and more are available

Go to Fine Art America to see all of my prints

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