Andrew Furst's Blog, page 36

Try My First Guided Meditation on Insight Timer

My first Insight Timer guided meditation has just been released. It brings together my long running series of minute meditation videos and my daily Pause, Breathe, Listen, Respond reminders.

Insight Timer is home to more than 1,300,000 meditators and it’s rated as the top free meditation app on Android and iOS.

My first guided meditation is titled “Pause, Breath, Listen, and Respond – Surf”. It’s a brief two minute meditation designed to let you quickly re-ground yourself.

Getting Started

If you’re a member of the Insight Timer community, open the app and click on “Guided”. Start typing “pause, breathe, listen, respond” in the search box, and it will come up. Click and enjoy.

I recommend the app and use it everyday. I’ve been a member of the community since 2013. Insight Timer is free and available for iOS and Android.

 

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Making a Buddhist Mala – Patreon Rewards

A friend was just telling me they were trying to restring a mala.  I thought I’d post a video of me making malas that I give Patreon Supporters and the instructions that I’ve been using

Instructions
Materials:

Silk thread .6mm 0.024 in (~ 48” per mala)
3 spacer beads – three beads, usually larger or of different material than the rest
Guru and cap beads
Sharp Scissors
Small bowl
Beading needles (curved and straight) – buy straight ones and curve one for stringing the guru bead
108 beads (8mm or 10mm are best)
Super glue for knots  
Embroidery floss (matching color of beading thread)
Sally Hansen Ultimate Shield for Knots and tassel winding.

Step 1: Beading Supply gathering

Collect the following items in your small bowl:

Beading string (at least 48”)
Guru bead
27 beads
1 spacer bead
Beading needles (curved and straight)

Step 2: Beading

String the Guru bead onto your beading string with your curved beading needle (try this video).


Switch to the straight needle
String on 27 beads
Add the spacer bead

Step 3: More beads

Gather these items in the small bowl

27 beads
1 spacer bead

Step 4: And More Beading

String on 27 beads
Add the spacer bead
Repeat steps 3 & 4 until 108 beads and three spacers are strung

Step 5: The Guru Bead and cap

Switch back to the curved needle

String the Guru bead onto your beading string with your curved beading needle
Switch to the straight needle
Thread both ends of the beading string through the cap

Step 6: Gather Tassel materials

Embroidery floss
Sharp Scissors
Glue

Step 6: Make the Tassels

(watch the video at 00:37)

Wrap the embroidery floss around your hands 8 times
Cut the floss into two equal sections (two cuts)
Tie the tassel atop the guru cap bead with a square knot and dab a drop of super glue on the knot
Let dry (a few minutes is fine)
Cut another length of embroidery floss about 12 – 16 inches ling
Fold a loop and lay the loop so it is over the guru bead and the floss extends past the tassel
Use the long end of the floss to wrap around the tassel (8-12 times depending on your aesthetic), leaving the loop exposed
Thread the long end of the floss through the loop and then pull the loop underneath the wrap to tie it off
Apply the Sally Hansen Ultimate Shield all around the wrap to secure it.
Let dry
Trim the end of the tassel to your liking

You’re Done

Micro-contributions Through Patreon

I wanted to remind folks about the opportunity to earn Patreon Rewards for making micro-contributions to support my work here on the web and beyond.  Patreon is a new way to pay your favorite creators for making the stuff you love. Here’s a short 3 minute video to learn more.  Watch it or head on over to Patreon to make a contribution. I’m just working on keeping the lights on.

So, please, if you enjoy what I offer, take refuge in a meditation, benefit from what I teach, find inspiration in something I write, or believe that the world needs to hear something I said, pay it forward.  Follow the link to Patreon and contribute.  Pledges start at $1 a month.  No amount is too big or too small.

Thank you and see you on Patreon.

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little tree by e. e. cummings – Compass Songs

[little tree]

by e. e. cummings

little tree

little silent Christmas tree

you are so little

you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest

and were you very sorry to come away?

see i will comfort you

because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark

and hug you safe and tight

just as your mother would,

only don’t be afraid

look the spangles

that sleep all the year in a dark box

dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,

the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms

and i’ll give them all to you to hold

every finger shall have its ring

and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you’re quite dressed

you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see

and how they’ll stare!

oh but you’ll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands

and looking up at our beautiful tree

we’ll dance and sing

“Noel Noel”

 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.

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Slowing Down – What Am I Doing?

What am I doing? That was one of the first questions that came up when I started on this quest to slow down.  One of the triggers that got me (re)started down this path was taking a peek at Leo Babauta’s sites mnmlist  and Zen Habits. In particular I ended up reading What Am I Doing Now?.  The best part was this:

That’s how you do it..

The page lists his priorities and he is apparently sticking to it.

So, for this to work for me, I thought I’d look to what I do best (Project Management, business analysis, etc) and come up with a plan to (re)start my most important project – my life. Projects have life cycles.  I work in software, which doesn’t quite feel like life, but I bet with some adjustments, everything will turn out fine (stop me if I start talking about putting myself through a compiler).

A Better Mousetrap

Here’s the steps to build good software.  Hopefully it translates to the project of life:

Gather Requirements – everything from software, to building a bookshelf, to writing a book should start with a list of things you want to accomplish. OK, you don’t have to start out this way, but I’ve found that if you don’t your project often fails.  Having the list helps to keep you focused on what your intention was and it also helps you measure whether or not you’re successful in the end.
Design – This can be a schematic, a schedule, a list of tools – whatever you think will get you to where you want to be.  Thinking about this stuff before you get to the workshop makes things go much faster.
Develop – This is the part where the rubber hits the road – partially.  You start putting the pieces together; making sure they fit.  Make sure you measure twice, cut once.
Test – People don’t always do this. But here’s where you start comparing what you’ve built with what you set out to build. Tragedy is often averted here.  Say you want to build a bookshelf to go into a tight closet.  You cut all the wood, and it suddenly occurs to you that if you put it together, it won’t fit in the closet.  Testing forces you to look back at your requirements and your design to see if they’ll actually work.  My advice – always test.
Deploy – OK actual sustained rubber on road happens here. Project launched, hurrah! Are we done? Oh no.
Maintenance – here’s where we all have challenges.  In this slowing down project, the irony is that if you do it right, you’ll have more time on your hands. Good right! Well… if you’re a busy body like me, not necessarily.  Here’s how things fall apart – Oh look more time!  I can do more stuff! Gah! We fall off the wagon. So part of maintenance is refreshing and revisiting the plan

So, What am I doing?

So first steps.

I’ve set up my list of what I’m doing now.
I start designing how I’m going to slow down and stay slowed down. More on that next time.

A short series on slowing down.  I'll be sharing some of the things I've been doing to pare my life down so I can focus on the things that I think are impoirtant.

Slowing Down - Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.  - Benjamin Franklin

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Freedom? – Say What?

Say What?  is an ongoing series of laconic exchanges on Buddhism in the format of a comic strip. 

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An Arboreous Meditation – Verse Us (Poems by Me)

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

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Maybe It’s That Day? – Dialectic Two Step

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

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December 1st, 1955 – Rosa Parks – Quotes

Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.

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Rosa Parks

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Slowing Down To – Well – Slow Down

.

An aphorism I hear in the business world is Slowing Down to Speed Up.  A quick google search on the phrase pulls up articles from Forbes, Huffington Post, Linkedin, and a bevy of other blog posts. No doubt there is some neat paradigm shifting and paradox straddling that might attract some open minded types. But, to my sensibilities the idea that we can speed up by slowing down sounds pretty foolish. I’m going to skip the new math that these kind of ditties seem to require in favor of something that feels like it lines up clearly with the intention.

To my sensibilities the idea that we can speed up by slowing down sounds pretty foolish.
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I’m at a place in life where the needle has been hanging in the red for a little bit too long.  After much prodding from my dear wife, I’ve found my feet and I’m going to be taking on some changes in life. My intention is to be slow on every front, including the changes themselves.

Don’t Look At Me

The next thing I need to say is that I suck at this. I’m writing this at the inauguration of one of many fits and starts I’ve made in life towards a less cluttered and mindful life. I’m not putting this out there in an attempt to impress upon you that I’m a guru in minimalism or some other mindful living movement. I’m letting you know because the change will affect our relationship.  One of the easiest ways for me make good on my goal of slowing down, is to reduce my output here at www.andrewfurst.net.

On December 1st, I will be slowing down. To, – well – slow down.

On December 1st, I will be slowing down. To -well - slow down.
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What does that mean? For you the reader, it means that I will be shifting from at least one article a day, to one article every three days. I’ll also be changing the frequency of my email notifications to subscribers. So by extension, I’m inviting you to slow down. Of course I have no delusions that there are people who wait on each new article (another good reason to slow down), but what my reduction in output offers you is a decrease in input. While we don’t always have control over the fire hose of life, this will be one less thing.

Why I Decided to Change

That’s a question I’ll be writing about over the next few weeks and months.  Like anything else, there are causes and conditions for change.  My desire to slow down was prompted by a lot of things coming together at this particular point in my life.  Here’s a list of what I see as contributing factors.  As always there are probably more that I’m I’m failing to acknowledge.

Job Change Time – I’m changing jobs very soon.  It feels like that transition will put me in a place where my life and habits will be most malleable.
I’m (really) out of shape – The nature of my job and my interests have kept me in a chair and in front of a computer screen for huge swaths of my day.  That’s not healthy.
Family – My family needs my attention – this is probably the most important reason.
Missing Out on Life – I feel like I’m often hurrying from one thing to another, missing out on the important small pleasures in life
Getting the Right Stuff Done – I need to make sure that I’m getting the important stuff done first.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll try to share some of my goals, approaches, successes, and failures. They’ll be coming slowly, but today, that’s a good thing.  Here’s to change.

A short series on slowing down.  I'll be sharing some of the things I've been doing to pare my life down so I can focus on the things that I think are impoirtant.

Slowing Down - Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.  - Benjamin Franklin

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The Day Lady Died by Frank O’Hara – Compass Songs

The Day Lady Died

Frank O’Hara

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday

three days after Bastille day, yes

it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine

because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton

at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner

and I don’t know the people who will feed me

I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun

and have a hamburger and a malted and buy

an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets

in Ghana are doing these days

I go on to the bank

and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)

doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life

and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine

for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do

think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or

Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres

of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine

after practically going to sleep with quandariness

and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE

Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and

then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue

and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and

casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton

of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of

leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT

while she whispered a song along the keyboard

to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing

 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.

Get Each Week's Compass Song In Your Email Box

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