Andrew Furst's Blog, page 57
June 12, 2016
Abbey on Society – Quotes
Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
Get Each Week's Quotes In Your Email Box
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post Abbey on Society – Quotes written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
This pretense of casual disinterest – Verse Us (Poems by Me)
.
For me a dress shirt
Is a collar;
A noose of sized fabric
Carrying in it the smell of burned and discomforted skin.
Some ancient karma and
nucleotide directives colluded
in raising this aversion.
Behind this pretense of casual disinterest,
Sits an ocean of anxiety
Circumambulating my larynx.
An ocean into which I might one day
surrender
Fully in peace.
Verse Us - Poems I write: haiku, senryu, mesostics, free verse, random word constructions, I might even use rhyme or meter once and a while.
Get Each Week's Poems In Your Email Box
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post This pretense of casual disinterest – Verse Us (Poems by Me) written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 11, 2016
And With You – Say What?
Say What? is an ongoing series of laconic exchanges on Buddhism in the format of a comic strip.
Get Each Week's "Say What?" Comic In Your Email Box
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post And With You – Say What? written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 10, 2016
Clouds Tell Us is Now Available on Amazon
Clouds Tell Us, my second book, has been released on Amazon for only $6.99.
Poetry – Buddhism – Nature – Humanity
“Clouds Tell Us” is a collection of poetry exploring the intersection of nature and our humanity. What does it mean to be awake? What is it like to actually be alive? What could be more important than being awake for life? Nothing brings us back to it more than spending time in nature. This book hopes to inspire you to rediscover your connection with nature and rekindle your humanity.
Of course the best way to get my books, artwork, and other goodies is to support my work on Patreon
where you can make
small monthly micro-contributions
that help support my work.
The post Clouds Tell Us is Now Available on Amazon written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
15 Things I Get Wrong Every Time – Modern Koans
Here’s a list of fifteen things I get wrong every time.
Folding fitted sheets
Choosing the right lottery numbers
Trying to change someone else’s mind
Losing weight
Figuring out what God is
Trying to solve other people’s problems
Finding four consecutive integers whose product is a square
Go on the internet and not get side tracked
Writing
Knowing what’s right and wrong for someone else
Writing a comprehensive list
Making someone else achieve enlightenment
Avoiding confirmation bias
Proving someone else wrong
Making a point
What’s your list?
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
Get Each Week's Modern Koans In Your Email Box
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post 15 Things I Get Wrong Every Time – Modern Koans written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 9, 2016
Auden on Helping Others? – Quotes
Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
Get Each Week's Quotes In Your Email Box
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post Auden on Helping Others? – Quotes written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
Doane’s Falls – A Two Minute Meditation
Located in Royalston, MA Doane’s Falls is featured on the cover of “New England Waterfalls: A Guide to More Than 400 Cascades and Waterfalls“. If you’re enjoying the meditations that I’ve offered featuring waterfalls, I recommend you get the book and experience them in person. No video can ever do the experience justice.
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
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.
Get Each Week's Minute Meditations In Your Email Box
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.
The post Doane’s Falls – A Two Minute Meditation written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 8, 2016
Post Card Art Project – Night and Day
Here’s the next installment of the Post Card Art Project. Night and Day.
The artist (and let me know if there are mistakes) are shown below in the same position as their card:
The Post Card Art Series
This is the one of several posts I will be offering titled the Post Card Art Series. Its a collaborative art project done on post cards.
Using an image divided into four sections, I created four post cards. I printed 200, pre-stamped them, and mailed them out to patreon supporters, friends, and blog readers who expressed an interest. They applied the art, mailed the cards back. Now I'm assembling them.
The results are fun and unique.
The post Post Card Art Project – Night and Day written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 7, 2016
Rumi’s Ramadan Poem – Compass Songs
June 6th is the start of Ramadan
O moon-faced Beloved,
the month of Ramadan has arrived
Cover the table
and open the path of praise.
O fickle busybody,
it’s time to change your ways.
Can you see the one who’s selling the halvah
how long will it be the halvah you desire?
Just a glimpse of the halvah-maker
has made you so sweet even honey says,
“I’ll put myself beneath your feet, like soil;
I’ll worship at your shrine.”
Your chick frets within the egg
with all your eating and choking.
Break out of your shell that your wings may grow.
Let yourself fly.
The lips of the Master are parched
from calling the Beloved.
The sound of your call resounds
through the horn of your empty belly.
Let nothing be inside of you.
Be empty: give your lips to the lips of the reed.
When like a reed you fill with His breath,
then you’ll taste sweetness.
Sweetness is hidden in the Breath
that fills the reed.
Be like Mary – by that sweet breath
a child grew within her.
– Jalaluddin Rumi
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
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post Rumi’s Ramadan Poem – Compass Songs written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
June 6, 2016
Can Meditation Take Away Pain? – Dialectic Two Step
Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
Question: I’ve been meditating for a few weeks. Sometimes it produces peculiar effects: something that would be painful may no longer be – for as long as I am in the meditative mind-state anyways. How can meditation take away pain?
Response: You should look into the Jhanas which are described in the Right Concentration arm of the Eightfold Path. Specifically the fourth.
Pain and pleasure are temporary states that pass through your awareness. As we open up in meditation things begin to flow through us more freely. Pain and pleasure become more like ebbing and flowing qualities of energy than discreet concrete states.
When we are open to all sensations, our BodyMinds become less reactive. A typical response to pain is to clench and hold it. The irony is that holding it tighter prolongs the discomfort and takes a heavier toll on the BodyMind. Lama Surya Das described it like this, the tighter you hold on, the worse the rope burn.
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
Get Each Week's Dialectic Two Step In Your Email Box
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post Can Meditation Take Away Pain? – Dialectic Two Step written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.
