Andrew Furst's Blog, page 80
January 24, 2016
David Bowie – Lazarus – Sunday Morning Coming Down
Continuing in tribute to David Bowie, this is the first of a few looks at his final album Blackstar.
Sunday Morning Coming Down is an ongoing music video series. The songs fit my definition of music for a lazy couch bound Sunday morning.
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January 23, 2016
The Post Card Art Project Parties
So the parties have started! Here is the first picture from Vermont. There are about 160 post cards out there. I can already tell that the results are going to be far beyond what I could possibly imagine. I so look forward to seeing your cards in the mail.
Send me pictures of your post card party – whether you’re doing it alone or with a dozen people. 
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On A Boat? – Say What?
Say What? is an ongoing series of laconic exchanges on Buddhism in the format of a comic strip.
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Acadia II – Tiny Drops (Photography)
Click on an image below to view in the lightbox
Acadia Berries
Eagle Lake
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January 22, 2016
Meditations on Gratitude – Ken and Paul
Over the last few years our family has had its share of adjustments. We’ve had a cluster of events including the passing of dear family members, health issues, and financial anxiety. Many of my old ambitions have been tempered as we’ve had to shift priorities. But in the way that nature abhors a vacuum, it appears gratitude is boundless in its capacity to find things to appreciate.
For many years I’ve doggedly persisted in offering my weekly meditation class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading. It was a great disappointment when I had to temporarily cancel the group’s sittings for several months.
Months later though, the urge to restart the group was overwhelming, but I could not make the commitment to be there every week. To my rescue came two long time group members, Ken and Paul. For the last year they have picked up several classes a month, allowing me the flexibility to be away when I need to and relax and be with my family too.
They’ve resisted accolades and offers to be called co-leaders of the group. But I am going to call them out today in gratitude for everything they’ve done for me and the group.
Both are quiet, soft spoken gentlemen. They act free of ambition and in a way that has been a lesson in humbleness and humility for me. I have learned from them a healthy suspicion of institutions and over organization. They have reminded me that beards are in fact cool (and we had beards long before it was cool). They have taught me that the act of being awake is the teacher; not me, not the Buddha, and certainly not a book. Most of all they have affirmed that this is an individual journey which requires authenticity, a sense of humor, and acceptance of the world as it is.
Ken Flanders and Paul Selkirk, Thank you for being the co-leaders of the Buddhist Meditation Group at UUCR.
Meditations on Gratitude - A weekly series of people and situations I’m thankful for and a short meditation.
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Does Emptiness Justify Killing? – Modern Koans
Question: Can the Buddhist teaching of Sunyata (emptiness) be used to justify killing another human being?
If suffering is inevitable and if Sunyata is in essence being freed from that suffering, then could one not interpret killing as freeing the victim from suffering, And thus morally acceptable?
Response: Sunyata is not freedom. Realizing emptiness gives you to capacity to do away with the causes of self-imposed suffering. I think the question you want to ask is simpler. Since killing someone ends their suffering at some future state (after death), does that justify killing?
Two responses:
Your act of killing causes suffering, to the victim and you.
On what basis can you assure that there is no suffering after death? Of all the possible outcomes of death, do we know for sure that suffering ends? What do you know about experience after death?
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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January 21, 2016
Friedrich Nietzsche on Convictions
Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
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Screw Auger Falls – A One Minute Meditation
Twelve thousand years
ago, glaciers carved our
world
Nature’s slow thoughtless
hand teaches the way
perfectly
These Meditation Videos Are Best Viewed In Full Screen
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.
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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 20, 2016
Jewels – 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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Urban Nymph – Tiny Drops
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