the intention, the aspiration, the practice is to wake up – to pay attention, to bring our attention to this moment in this fleeting life.

not so we can walk around feeling enlightened, but so we aren’t sleep walking through this life while around us there is suffering.

we pay attention, we wake up to be a force of healing, of fierce compassion to the suffering we see. this is Mahayana, this is the path of Bodhisattva.

there is harm being done.

we are in a precipice.

“The Zen master Ikkyu was once asked to write a distillation of the highest wisdom. He wrote only one word: Attention. The visitor was displeased. ‘Is that all?’ So Ikkyu obliged him. Two words now. Attention. Attention.”

~ Jenny Offill, “Bit of Poetry that Stick Like Burrs”

#WakeUp #PayAttention #TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #EngagedBuddhist #Zen #Enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga