Dear friends – Happy New Year from me and my Child 🙏🏻

2020 has been a tough year. Unbalanced in so many ways, but also a year of clarity, of clear seeing of the inequities that exist in our society and a rising up and engagement from everyday citizens passionate for beneficial change. We are the spark…

There have also been heroes, people strong in the Force – the healthcare professionals, essential workers, and again everyday people willing to take the simple steps of wearing a mask and social distancing, willing to tap into their empathy and then choosing to act with compassion. sacrifice. service. offering.

May we all be such people – open-hearted, warm, empathetic, kind, compassionate, and willing to speak up and take action for the benefit of others, especially those who are oppressed or marginalized, because we are one in the Force and there really is no “other”. We are interdependent. This is the light the world needs and we can begin by finding it within ourselves. This is the way.

So grateful for family and friends during these challenging (yet still beautiful) times. Community is a blessing.

May The Force Be With You and your loved ones throughout 2021!

~j

#NewYearsEve #HappyNewYear #MayTheForceBeWithYou #TheForce #ThisIsTheWay #TheChild #Grogu #Jedi #TheMandalorian #StarWars #EngagedBuddhist #JinpaLhaga #JMWphotography

*Background taken and adapted/altered from The Force Unleashed

when in doubt, when feeling confused, when feeling lost, when feeling off balance – just love, choose to love.

what does this mean?

it means to stay open, to not close up shop or build walls up around our hearts, as we are often apt to do. it means to trust our own vulnerability, tenderness, warmth of heart and remembering that we too should be the recipient of our own gentleness, warmth and compassion.

~j

#JustLove #OpenHeart #practice #buddhanature #EngagedBuddhism #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

Please take a moment to appreciate this natural world, right here and now. Take this moment to stop your distracted thinking, sit still, and appreciate the birds, the breeze, the play of sun and shadow, the air around you—even the human sounds.

~

Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara

stopping. paying attention. appreciating all that is passing, arising and then falling away.

these are such simple practices, but also deeply profound. at their heart, they are simply just being with life as it is at this moment. what could be more beneficial, more stable, more opening than that?

~j

#practice #nature #life #JustThis #EngagedBuddhism #Zen #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

As you breathe in cherish yourself. As you breathe out cherish all beings.

~ HH The 14th Dalai Lama

a beneficial contemplation for ourselves:

what does it look like to cherish oneself?

what does it look like to cherish the life of others? how far does that cherishing of other life extend?

how are these two – cherishing oneself and cherishing others – related and how do they act in relationship to one another?

can we think of examples of where we see cherishing of self and others out into action?

~j

#cherish #life #practice #love #EngagedBuddhsim #enso #buddha #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

Merry Christmas friends!

may the gift and wisdom of the Christmas story not be lost on us. that Love enters the world in the most humble and vulnerable of places, in the outcast, the refugee, the homeless and poor – the very things we strive so hard not to be, and the very people we so often turn away from. 
perhaps this is the greatest lesson of Christmas, teaching us to open our view and look for the divine and sacred where we least want to and when we feel our lowest, knowing that Love has also come into this world as us.

may we feel grateful for what we have, where we are, and who we are. may our hearts open to all who feel alone, marginalized, or oppressed. and in this year especially may love carry and comfort all who are quarantined alone, all who have lost loved ones, their homes or jobs.

thank you to all those who have sacrificed so much for their families and communities, wearing masks, social distancing, and not traveling during these holidays. deep bows of gratitude for you.

much love and health to all of you, dear friends and your families, on this auspicious day.

~j

#Christmas #Love #Zen #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences.

What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature, and its power is never diminished.

~ Deng Ming-Dao

#nonaggression #nonviolence #TruePower #TrueInfluence #moon #nature #EngagedBuddhist #zen #art #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

The thing about love that I’ve discovered in my life is that one love leads to another. It just gets bigger and bigger. You can let it start anywhere; it can be really tiny. You can start with a flower, but if you sincerely see it and if you sincerely love it, then it’s like the key. The flower is like a key to a big, big, big storeroom. Then everything becomes something that is lovable.

~

Alice Walker

the path and practice is love, from our hearts, extended out into the world.

~j

#love #path #practice #OpenHeart

bandages are great, but where surgery is needed, we need to do surgery 🙏🏻

…also please read “him” as “them.” the struggle and need for compassion are gender inclusive.

~j

#BrokenSystem #poverty #struggle #empathy #compassion #LoveInAction #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga

like most things in life, gratitude is a practice. perhaps one of the most important, since it has a way of subtly coloring our perspective on all areas of our life.

practicing gratitude is made all the easier when we are surrounded and supported with such immense love and friendship as i have been.

thank you all for your many birthday wishes and kind, generous words. i am so grateful.

on this past Thursday, December 17th, i turned 46 in honor and celebration of our newly elected 46th President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris (and also because i was born in 1974). it’s a what will hopefully be a fresh start, a new opportunity for better things to come. life is always offering us such opportunity and moments, but it is easier to see sometimes on a grander scale.

i had a beautiful day. i am fortunate enough to be quarantined with family and they made my day truly wonderful, filled with good meals (french toast breakfast from my sister and Chipotle’s for dinner from my parents) and a fun ice cream/donut party with my nieces and nephews. i also got to participate in a three hour meditation session with some of my fellow meditation teacher trainees from Tibet House. the day was concluded (as always) with a Star Wars movie.

this life passes so quickly. turning 46 can put a perspective on that, but time means loses its hold when one feels and knows love.

wishing you all the same, not just on your birthdays, but every day!

~j

#gratitude #birthday #46 #love #life #Zen #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

“Someone has said, ‘To be a saint is to have loved many things’ —many things — the tree, the dog, the sky, the flowers, even the color of someone’s clothing. You see, when you love, you love, and love extends to everything all the time and everywhere.”

~

Richard Rohr

the path and practice is love, from our hearts, extended out into the world.

~j

#love #path #practice #OpenHeart #JMWphotography #photography #JinpaLhaga