Andrew Furst's Blog, page 20
January 31, 2018
Happy – Found Art
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Happy – This found art, inspired by Austin Kleon, arises from a new daily meditation practice – blackout (or in this case black, red, and yellow out) poetry. I’ve taken a book about Lee Hood (a pioneer in the fields of genetics) and, one page at a time, I search for and find poems.
I suspect one or more of this series will end up in the mailboxes of my Patreon supporters.
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Found Art - found poetry and other art in everyday objects
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January 27, 2018
Ferry Beach Surf – A Five Minute Meditation
.
In this five minute meditation
Allow your body to synchronize with the rhythm of the surf
At the end of each 1 minute interval, a singing bowl will ring.
Allow the sound to reverberate up and down your spine and throughout your body.
Let the sound bring your body, breath, and mind together into the present moment.
Ferry Beach, Saco, ME
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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.
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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These videos are produced for those of us who spend an inordinately large amount of time in the cyber-world. They are not a substitute for unplugging from your devices and taking a stroll near trees, water, or a patch of unkempt grass. Getting out into the world - touching, smelling, hearing, and seeing nature is the best way to reconnect with our prime purpose.
What is our prime purpose? We are feeling and sensing machines. We are the universe looking back on itself. We are witness to the wonders and dangers of living in this corner of the cosmos. We are the seekers looking for connection a little further beyond yesterday's borders and boundaries.
But sitting and staring at the screen robs us of the sustenance that we rely upon for wonder and sanity. These videos are an opportunity to bring the sensations of nature to you, while you're in the cyber-world. Its an opportunity to relax your gaze, resettle your posture, and regain some depth in your breath. Listen and watch the video and allow your self to open up and recharge.
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January 23, 2018
Life in a Crowd – Found Art
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Life in a Crowd – This found art, inspired by Austin Kleon, arises from a new daily meditation practice – blackout (or in this case yellow out) poetry. I’ve taken a book about Lee Hood (a pioneer in the fields of genetics) and, one page at a time, I search for and find poems.
I suspect one or more of this series will end up in the mailboxes of my Patreon supporters.
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
Found Art - found poetry and other art in everyday objects
Subscribe to My NewsletterJoin me for a little peace through reflection, art, video, sound, and poetry
The post Life in a Crowd – Found Art written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
January 19, 2018
Big Fake? – Say What?
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Say What? is an ongoing series of laconic exchanges on Buddhism in the format of a comic strip.
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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January 16, 2018
Downtown – Verse Us (Poems by Me)
The horizon is brought.
Out on the floor in Lowell.
Before the youth burst
And everyone’s ears are blasted,
There is the smell of urgency
That something real
will bloom;
On a riff, or some contact, or a word.
From this angle
the only advice I’d offer
Is
Don’t wait for it
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Verse Us - Poems I write: haiku, senryu, mesostics, free verse, random word constructions, I might even use rhyme or meter once and a while.
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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January 13, 2018
Love & Courage – Found Art
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Love & Courage – This found art, inspired by Austin Kleon, arises from a new daily meditation practice – blackout (or in this case yellow out) poetry. I’ve taken a book about Lee Hood (a pioneer in the fields of genetics) and, one page at a time, I search for and find poems.
I suspect one or more of this series will end up in the mailboxes of my Patreon supporters.
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
Found Art - found poetry and other art in everyday objects
Subscribe to My NewsletterJoin me for a little peace through reflection, art, video, sound, and poetry
The post Love & Courage – Found Art written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
How Has Awakening Changed Your Meditation Practice? – Dialectic Two Step
How Has Awakening Changed Your Meditation Practice?
Response:
If you are reading this, you are awake. If you are meditating, you are awake. I mean this in a common sense way and in the language of the Buddha.
Meditation is practice being awake. It is an exploration of the depth and subtlety of the awareness that is available to all of us.
There is a persistent misunderstanding of enlightenment as a transition from one persistent state of unenlightenment to a new state of enlightenment. This is why there are Buddhist Teachers. Awakening is not something that is absent one day and then appears the next. A teacher doesn’t hand over a prize. It is not like a new haircut or a new suit. Awakening is discovering our true nature; it’s finding ourselves. It’s there. It always has been.
My meditation practice changes every time, because everything changes over time. Ironically, being awake is the one thing that maybe doesn’t change, so it has the least impact on my meditation experience.
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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
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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January 10, 2018
Singapore by Mary Oliver – Compass Songs
I was listening to Many Miles: Mary Oliver reads Mary Oliver and her poem Singapore stood right out at me. I hope you enjoy.
Singapore
by Mary Oliver
In Singapore, in the airport,
A darkness was ripped from my eyes.
In the women’s restroom, one compartment stood open.
A woman knelt there, washing something in the white bowl.
Disgust argued in my stomach
and I felt, in my pocket, for my ticket.
A poem should always have birds in it.
Kingfishers, say, with their bold eyes and gaudy wings.
Rivers are pleasant, and of course trees.
A waterfall, or if that’s not possible, a fountain rising and falling.
A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem.
When the woman turned I could not answer her face.
Her beauty and her embarrassment struggled together,
and neither could win.
She smiled and I smiled. What kind of nonsense is this?
Everybody needs a job.
Yes, a person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem.
But first we must watch her as she stares down at her labor,
which is dull enough.
She is washing the tops of the airport ashtrays, as big as hubcaps,
with a blue rag.
Her small hands turn the metal, scrubbing and rinsing.
She does not work slowly, nor quickly, like a river.
Her dark hair is like the wing of a bird.
I don’t doubt for a moment that she loves her life.
And I want her to rise up from the crust and the slop and
fly down to the river.
This probably won’t happen.
But maybe it will.
If the world were only pain and logic, who would want it?
Of course, it isn’t.
Neither do I mean anything miraculous, but only
the light that can shine out of a life. I mean
the way she unfolded and refolded the blue cloth,
The way her smile was only for my sake; I mean
the way this poem is filled with trees, and birds.
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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
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January 7, 2018
If God Existed, Could He Create a More Powerful God? – Modern Koans
If god existed, could he create a more powerful god?
Response:
This is a logic trick designed to target the weakness in a theological definition of God in the tradition of Aquinas.
If a God were truly omnipotent, then it would be able to create anything right? This would include something greater than itself. The alternative would be that the God was not omnipotent.
Theologians aspire to use logic in the purposes of theology, but strictly speaking it is not useful and not applicable. The value of logic is to verify the structure of an argument. But the truth of the argument requires one additional ingredient – evidence of the assumptions. The omnipotence of God is beyond the human capacity to verify.
I’d abandon getting mired in the logical implications of theology as they are indefensible by the rules of logic itself.
You can only have these conversations – unchallenged – in a group that defines as its basis belief in a particular deity. Outside of that group these conversations are nonsense.
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I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Modern Koans is an ongoing series that recognizes that good questions are often more important than their answers.
The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man. ― G.K. Chesterton
Dialectic Two Step, Modern Koans, Verse Us, Say What?, and Minute Meditations all copyright Andrew Furst
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January 5, 2018
Poems – A Collection of My Most Popular Poems
Here is a collection of my my most popular poems.
Frog Pond Skaters – A Two Minute Meditation
Meditation Videos, Meditations
Final (ity) – A Poem – Verse Us -Finality
Verse Us
Verse Us – Tacoma Ain’t Got No Spine (Over) – A Poem
Verse Us
On Cider and Softness – Verse Us (Poems by Me)
Verse Us
The Nativity – Verse Us (Poems by Me)
Verse Us
The Not Rifle – Verse Us (Poems by Me)
Verse Us
Blackledge Falls – Verse Us (Poems by Me)
Verse Us
The Miracle of Dead Ends (Nuthin)- Verse Us (Poems by Me)
Verse Us
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