Andrew Furst's Blog, page 90
December 7, 2015
The Great Ocean – Gateless Gate
Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
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Dialectic Two-Step
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Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
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Meditations on Gratitude
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The Cost of Things – Dialectic Two-Step
To those complaining about the cost of accepting Syrian refugees and how it will impact the poor and under served here in the US – It’s not about the money. It’s about how we choose to spend it.
The wealth of the world is concentrated in the west. In the US, we’re swimming in it.
But generally we’re oblivious of this fact. In the most peaceful and prosperous time in all of history we bicker about closing the gap in healthcare, because it would cost too much money. We complain about welfare and vote for politicians that feel we don’t need to fund the VA system.
We’ve been spending the last 8 years fighting over renewable energy. Better to drill baby drill than find cleaner and more sustainable energy resources. Where does all that money we saved by doing nothing go to? Into the hands of the Koch brothers, Haliburton, and the Massey Energy who in turn destroy the environment, risk workers lives, pocket huge profits, and hoard wealth.
I’m not saying we’re innocent victims here either. Spending money is how we make choices. Here’s what it tells us about ourselves. We complain about teacher’s salaries and we worship the ultra-wealthy. We put our trust in Hollywood actors, but won’t support political parties and candidates with integrity. We live in a country where everyone knows what the word McMansion means, but thinks that paying people a living wage is putting too much burden on business.
I saw my first Lamborghini when I was in my twenties when I traveled to Newport Rhode Island. They were rare. Now there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t see a Ferrari, an Aston Martin, or a Maserati.
We’ve got the money to take care of our vets, our poor, and our homeless. We’ve just made the choice not to invest in those things.
This isn’t something new. This natural tendency to be focused on ourselves is the basis for our current system of economics. Free market theory relies on the fact that people will always look out for their own best interest. When they do, the reasoning goes, markets will be optimized and generally turn out the best allocations of resources.
However, there has always been a weak spot in this model. That weak spot is the public good. A public good is an interest which is not optimized by a free market. The best examples are defense and foreign relations. People rarely come together spontaneously and effectively to defend themselves as a group or community. If we apply selfish interests in this endeavor, we’ll naturally prefer to have our neighbor risk their life in our defense, but not necessarily the other way around. It’s a conflict.
We can look at taking in Syrian refuges in this way. As individuals, communities, or even states, it does not appear to be in our interests to take in Syrian refugees. It costs money, it seems as though it would decrease security, and refugees will add to the pool competing for resources and jobs.
But what are the goods associated with taking them in? History has shown that it’s a winning bet. This country has grown strong by capitalizing on a steady stream of immigrants from all over the world. It’s also very likely that as the world’s most powerful economic and military superpower, how we are perceived is important. Considering how much we leverage our strength to force other nations to conform to our wishes, showing some good will, compassion, and generosity seems critical to balance our image. Being a target of terrorism is not a function of how kind we’ve been. It’s because our policies in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America often have significant negative consequences.
True we supply those countries with plenty of money for their troubles, but cash rarely soothes the wounds of oppression meted out by governments propped up by our dollars and arms. Consider the ire that we direct at the fat cats of Wall Street for crushing our economy and uprooting the lives of millions of America. Compare it to the anger of a Palestinian whose home has been torn down by an Israeli bulldozer. Imagine the resentment of an Iranian family who lost loves ones under the rule of the Shah. Consider Iraqi ambivalence to their American liberators after the flow of American dollars helped keep Saddam Hussein in power. Imagine Afghans hearing about America’s great recession, when they subsist on an average annual income of $4000. The average US income is $50,500.
Yes here in the US, we have problems to solve and not enough resources or will to solve them all. But we should put them in perspective, lest we persist in feeding our rightfully earned title of global whiners. We should apply a little wisdom in where we choose to invest our resources, how we consider what’s truly in our interests, and how we maintain relationships with the others sharing this small blue planet of ours.
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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Dialectic Two-Step
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Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
Meditations on Gratitude
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December 6, 2015
Harbor Waves – A Four Minute Meditation
From the end of Commonwealth Pier the Boston harbor waves gently swell, carrying resting gulls as they rest in the mid afternoon.
Meditation:
Resting,
Our bodies need it.
There are times when students have fallen asleep in meditation.
This is wonderful.
It can be what the body needs.
Listen for what is needed.
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.
Get Each Week's Minute Meditations in your email box First Name:
Last Name:
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In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
Weekly Series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
Meditations on Gratitude
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.
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post Harbor Waves – A Four Minute Meditation appeared on Andrew Furst.
December 5, 2015
Perspective Dude? – Say What?
Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, enlightenment, hallelujah!
Perspective Dude?
Say What? is an ongoing series of laconic exchanges on Buddhism in the format of a comic strip.
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One Minute Meditations
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Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
Meditations on Gratitude
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The post Perspective Dude? – Say What? appeared on Andrew Furst.
Baltimore IV – Tiny Drops (Photography)
Part four of a series of photos I took in Baltimore.
Baltimore
Pen Station Baltimore
The City is Ours
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Dialectic Two-Step
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Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
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Meditations on Gratitude
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December 4, 2015
Blogs I Read ( And You Should Too)
5 kazillion channels and nothing the watch! Such is the internet. If you like my site, you might be interested in my regular go to blogs.
Richard K. Payne – Critical Reflections on Buddhist Thought: Contemporary and Classical.
O at the Edges – Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.
That’s So Zen – Written by Gesshin (Claire Greenwood) a Soto Zen nun living in Japan.
Tinfoil Ushnisha – home of Pulp Buddhism and the Naropa Prairie Dog Players, a work of fiction for Tibetan Buddhists, in particular, the Greater Karma Kagyu. Not for the faint of heart.
karen maezen miller – paradise in plain sight. Karen writes beautifully and is a Zen Buddhist priest at the Hazy Moon Zen Center Los Angeles, California.
A Day in the Brine – Unkempt Mind dribbling in the swash. Smiling Toad (a.k.a Autumn Jade – a.k.a?) beautiful photography, poetry, and writing.
Broken Light: A Photography Collective. Photographers living with or affected by mental illness; supporting each other one photograph at a time.
leaf and twig – where observation and imagination meet nature in poetry. Catherine Arcolio’s short and beautiful images and poems. Just the right amount.
Johnny Lists – Cool, useful lists and links
The post Blogs I Read ( And You Should Too) appeared on Andrew Furst.
Secular Buddhism – What’s Your Take? – Modern Koans
I just finished Stephen Batchelor’s latest book After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age. While I would say I didn’t agree with everything he had to offer, the book struck me as an authentic scholarly examination of the Dharma. He makes some very compelling arguments, based on an examination of the Pali canon, for stripping away much of the metaphysical trappings of modern Buddhism. The book is similar to some of the modern works on the historical Jesus, moving beyond the Buddhist texts for corroboration as well as probing the text for hints of edits and biased later additions. Anyone interested in examining the historical Buddha and the Sangha as a means to discern what might be considered the authentic teachings of Gautema, will like this book.
The book offers some of Batchelor’s translations of early Pali texts, including one of my favorite, the Sutra of the All (or as I learned it – the Sutra of Totality). The book’s afterward ends with his pondering the question he posed in the title – how should the Dharma evolve in this secular age. He offers something of a definition of Secular Buddhism, by way of the following ten theses:
Ten Theses of Secular Dharma
A secular Buddhist is one who is committed to the practice of the dharma for the sake of this world alone.
The practice of the dharma consists of four tasks: to embrace suffering, to let go of reactivity, to behold the ceasing of reactivity, and to cultivate an integrated way of life.
All human beings, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, and religion, can practice these four tasks. Each person, in each moment, has the potential to be more awake, responsive, and free.
The practice of the dharma is as much concerned with how one speaks, acts, and works in the public realm as with how one performs spiritual exercises in private.
The dharma serves the needs of people at specific times and places. Each form the dharma assumes is a transient human creation, contingent upon the historical, cultural, social, and economic conditions that generated it.
The practitioner honors the dharma teaching that have been passed down through different traditions while seeking to enact them creatively in ways appropriate to the world as it is now.
The community of practitioners is formed of autonomous persons who mutually support each other in the cultivation of their paths. In this network of like-minded individuals, members respect the equality of all members while honoring the specific knowledge and expertise each person brings.
A practitioner is committed to an ethics of care, founded on empathy, compassion, and love for all creatures who have evolved on this earth.
Practitioners seek to understand and diminish the structural violence of societies and institutions as well as the roots of violence that are present in themselves.
A practitioner of the dharma aspires to nurture a culture of awakening that finds its inspiration in Buddhist and non-Buddhist, religious and secular sources alike.
— Stephen Batchelor
Secular Buddhism – What’s your take? Is this blasphemy? Has Batchelor abandoned the Dharma, or has he uncovered its untainted essence? Is he just creating a new age Buddhism, or is this a gift?
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 Koan in your email box First Name:
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In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
Weekly Series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
Meditations on Gratitude
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
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December 3, 2015
Snowflakes – Zen Proverb
Quotes -The path to right view is an arduous walk through fields of manure.
Get Each Week's Quotes in your email box First Name:
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In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
Weekly Series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
Meditations on Gratitude
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post Snowflakes – Zen Proverb appeared on Andrew Furst.
One Minute Meditation – January Morning
The winter months are host to the swimming season. My son, who was captain of the high school team last year, needed to arrive at the Y at 5:15 AM 4 mornings a week. I had the honor of accompanying him as chauffeur. Most mornings, I’d sit in the lobby and write, which was actually a nice treat. Sunday’s practice began before the Y opened, so I was forced to entertain myself for the 2 hours until the practice ended. On this particular January morning, near the end of the season, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to shoot the predawn hours.
That Part of the Clock
These unfond hours
still hold the promise of day
cold, but sure and true
A Thousand Skins (Part 2) (No Vocals) by Josh Woodward is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
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.
Get Each Week's Minute Meditations in your email box First Name:
Last Name:
Email address:
In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
Weekly Series:
One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
Meditations on Gratitude
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.
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post One Minute Meditation – January Morning appeared on Andrew Furst.
December 2, 2015
Final (ity) – A Poem – Verse Us -Finality
Once and for all
I will.
I will try
I will succeed
I will not fail.
I
Will
Not
Fail.
Once and for all,
I will whisper.
I will whisper my apologies to your troubled mind.
From a jumble of expressions.
Expressions tied with a belt,
blue jeans
and this oversized black shirt
and this half trimmed beard.
From under this half trimmed beard;
One last time.
I will.
I will fumble through half-truths
and self-righteousness
Chisel it in stone.
I will find it.
I will find it at the top.
At the top of this mountain,
past all the false peaks,
a precious
final (ity)
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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In addition to a monthly email you can also subscribe to the following weekly series:
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One Minute Meditations
Tiny Drops (Photography series)
Compass Songs (My Favorite Poems)
Dialectic Two-Step
Modern Koans (interesting questions)
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Music Videos)
Relics (Timeless Republished Articles)
Say What?
Quotes
Verse Us (Poems I Write)
Meditations on Gratitude
If you enjoyed this post, please like and share.
The post Final (ity) – A Poem – Verse Us -Finality appeared on Andrew Furst.
