Andrew Furst's Blog, page 55
June 25, 2016
Planting Trees – Say What?
Say What? is an ongoing series of laconic exchanges on Buddhism in the format of a comic strip.
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June 24, 2016
Can Only One Faith Be True? – Modern Koans
Question: Can Only One Faith Be True?
Response: I don’t think so. Experience gives me faith that the sun will rise tomorrow. When the sun does rise it will be true – tomorrow. Then maybe the next day, and maybe even all the days of my short life. I also have faith that spring will follow winter and so on. In this way many faiths are true.
The religious faith you’re talking about doesn’t have a track record like the sunrise and the sunset. In fact hundreds if not thousands of these faiths have been cast off by humanity for one reason or another. But the tides, and the seasons live in our hearts, the hearts of our ancestors, and the hearts of our children.
Where do you put your faith? What good does it do you?
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 then their answers.
The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man. ― G.K. Chesterton
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June 23, 2016
Are Democrats Failing at Gun Control? – Dialectic Two Step
Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)
The Question: After Orlando, why isn’t Congress passing sensible gun control laws? Why are they failing at gun control?
Response : Although all the gun control measures failed the senate on party lines, THERE WAS PROGRESS. Both Republicans and Democrats proposed bills. They’re talking. They’re disagreeing sure, but they’re talking. Why is the media portraying this as gridlock and touting it as a failure?
People, there is debate going on in the Senate about sensible ways to decrease the number of gun deaths in the US. These folks are using muscles that haven’t been used in years. We should be encouraging them. We should be talking about why one party doesn’t like this bill and the other doesn’t like that bill.
There are at least 2 reasons why sensible gun laws aren’t being passed.
Because the NRA doesn’t want anyone talking about it.
Because there is a dearth of sensible ideas.
For the moment, we’ve gotten past the first hurdle. But before anyone passes a law, we need to create a bill that will actually work. These politicians are thinking ONE THING. “What will get me re-elected.” If we tell them they’re failing at this, they won’t do it again. So all of you, ESPECIALLY DEMOCRATS, quit shaming and blaming. Let’s get the ideas flowing, let’s encourage this, let’s make something happen by doing something a little more substantial than complaining.
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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Wilde on Temptation – Quotes
Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
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Eagle Lake – A One Minute Meditation
Just stare all day,
Couldn’t ya
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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.
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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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June 22, 2016
Sunny – Tiny Drops (Photography)
A few shots taken at DeCordova Sculpture Park & Museum
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Lincoln Library Tree_clipped_TH_colored
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All Tiny Drop photos Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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June 21, 2016
The Summer Day by Mary Oliver – Compass Songs
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
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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June 20, 2016
The Problem of Who Created God? – Dialectic Two Step
Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s)
Question: Was God created in the same moment God created our world and would it solve the problem of who created God?
Response: The question itself is the problem. The question “Who created God?” is not a problem and so it doesn’t need solving.
To those who believe in God, answering the question “Who created God?” is not important.
To those who have no belief in God the question doesn’t make any sense.
To those who are unsure, it’s a problem only because exploring and debating about it leads to unnecessary suffering.
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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June 19, 2016
Steve Martin on Sunshine – Quotes
Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
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Meditations on Gratitude – Science
Hypothesis, Argue, Repeat
Debate, logic and rhetoric are wonderful things. They are the tools by which we capture hearts and minds. They are the nuts and bolts of leadership, politics, and philosophy. They are my tool kit for writing this article. I love them dearly and do not wish them vanquished. But what benefit do they have to offer? Are they calibrated for goodness or for truth? Do they produce facts (setting aside the argument on the Socratic Method). Do they create buildings, feed the hungry, or guarantee freedom and justice?
No. In fact they are very much like nuts and bolts, indifferent to the uses they are put to. Gandhi and Martin Luther King used these skills masterfully to produce great good. However, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, deftly used them to justify the murder and oppression of millions. High School coaches and politicians alike use these tools to stir our hearts or manipulate them.
I am grateful for these things, but also wary of them.
Hypothesis, Test, View Results, Adjust, Repeat
The scientific method however operates at a more fundamental level and can be calibrated for good. It operates on the assumptions that feed the rhetoric machines. Its articulation and use has produced great progress, prosperity, and peace. It has indirectly produced harm, but contains the seeds of self correction within itself.
From turbines, to the internal combustion engine, to hybrid cars. The scientific method has produced the carriages that have propelled us to a better standard of living and increased peace and stability. We’ve also been able to use it to correct the consequences of progress. Identifying pollution as a negative side effect and spurring new designs (and experiments) that reduce car emissions and increase efficiency.
The scientific method has also been critical in reducing the impact of rhetoric, by exposing false assumptions, supporting correct ones, and measuring the impact of new ideas.
In know that my children will live a better life than mine and in many ways science will play a part in that. I’m am deeply grateful for science.
Meditations on Gratitude - A weekly series of people and situations I’m thankful for and a short meditation.
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