Zen Parable of the  Monk and the Samurai ~

A big, tough Samurai once went to see a little monk.

“Monk!”

He barked, in a voice accustomed to instant obedience.

“Teach me about heaven and hell!”

The Monk looked up at the mighty warrior and replied with utter disdain,

“Teach you about heaven and hell? I couldn’t teach you about anything. You’re dumb. You’re dirty. You’re a disgrace, an embarrassment to the samurai class. Get out of my sight. I can’t stand you.”

The Samurai got furious. He shook, red in the face, speechless with rage. He pulled out his sword, and prepared to slay the Monk.

Looking straight into the Samurai’s eyes, the Monk said softly,

“That’s hell.”

The Samurai froze, realizing the compassion of the Monk who had risked his life to show him hell! He put down his sword and fell to his knees, filled with gratitude.

The Monk said softly,

“And that’s heaven.”

Commentary:

do we want to create hell or heaven? the celebrated Franciscan, Richard Rohr put it this way, “What we don’t transform, we transmit.”

like all emotions, anger carries an energy, a particularly intense and hot energy. if we don’t meet our anger with skillful means – mindfulness and an open heart – we can burn ourselves and those around us up. anger not attended to, can be harmful and destructive to ourselves and others. it can lead to aggression, violence, and suffering. we can become stuck and lose ourselves, becoming ghosts of who we once were.

we can, however, meet anger with open-heartedness, understanding, and compassion, we can look deeply into anger mindfully. perhaps the anger is pointing to a deeper unresolved fear or hurt. perhaps anger manifests because we see an injustice or harm taking place. the energy of the anger can be used as a motivator to end the harm. anger can be our wake up call that something needs to be taken care of.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

*come sit with me this weekend for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays at 10am PT as we practice meditation. free or by donation. $10 suggested. link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#anger #aggression #compassion #clarity #equanimity #meditation #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

join me this weekend for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays at 10am PT for a 1 hour guided Mindfulness Awareness and Lovingkindness meditation practice. no prior experience necessary. sessions are free or by donation, $10 suggested.

links can be found here:  https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

#meditation #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #metta #meditationclass #meditationteacher #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

it’s #WorldPoetryDay ✨

here’s a poem i wrote some time ago out of personal experience that i think speaks to the challenges and heartache of this time of loss for so many. how do we engage our losses, our heartache, our suffering? can we see the value of our heartache, our tenderness and vulnerability?

for me, love is the answer to both of these.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

#heartache #OpenHeart #tenderness #love #life #EngagedBuddhist #path #practice #poetry #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

Taking a walk

I saw

a wildflower.

Not knowing its name

I saw

its beauty only.

~

Ok-Koo Kang Grosjean

🌼

in a relative way, labels have a function and can be useful. we use them to communicate and to understand a particular aspect or aspects of something or someone, but labels are limiting and not representative of the entirety of something or someone, which is to say – the absolute truth, which is far more spacious and expansive than mere words or concepts can hold. the absolute can’t be held (so let go!). 

when we view something or someone, we can also drop the labels, the story, and just experience them.

this can be a practice. dropping our labels and instead, just experiencing something or someone as they are, without thinking, investigating, analyzing, critiquing, judging, and simply allow space for the object or being to speak to us, to reveal themselves to us, to be truly seen by us. 

this is a practice in generosity, allowing space. 

this is a way of loving, of embodying love.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

#DropTheStory #DropTheLabels #listening #seeing #presence #flower #beauty #life #path #practice #awareness #relative #absolute #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

everything changes. 

life is movement. 

what once seems cold and dead, we find, is simply life preparing to awaken. 

may we move with life, with love as our practice.

happy Spring Equinox dear friends!!

~j

#SpringEquinox #FirstDayOfSpring #Spring #life #Tao #EngagedBuddhist #path #practice #JinpaLhaga

yes, meditation practice can bring benefits such as reduced stress, reduced tension and blood pressure, improved focus, improved memory and sleep. these are great! but ultimately, this practice is a practice of love. a practice of loving this life. we are here in this life and to be with it, in each moment, offering our attention to it, offering our open heart to it, in all of its ways with all we are experiencing, is not just a brave way to be or a gracious way to be, it is a loving way to be. 

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

i’m guiding mindfulness awareness and loving kindness meditations today, Sunday, at 10am PT. if you’d like to join me for free or by donation ($10 suggested) click link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#love #life #path #practice #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #meditation #meditationclass #meditationteacher #JinpaLhaga

we are here. now. just this moment, these feelings, these thoughts, this health, these relationships, this state of world. where else can we go? where else can we practice our love, our compassion, our patience, our tenderness, our curiosity, our bravery? where else can spaciousness and awareness arise? where else can life be? 

the past is a ghost, the future is a dream. the present is life. if we want to live, we engage our lives here, where we are, in this moment, with how we feel, what we are thinking, who we are with, and on and on. this is the practice, returning to this moment, offering our attention to it, offering our open heart to it, offering our life to it.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

want to practice together? join me for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays this weekend at 10am PT. free or by donation. $10 suggested. 

link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#life #practice #path #training #HereAndNow #ThisMoment #JustThis #meditation #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #OpenHeart #EngagedBuddhist #Zen #enso #art #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 🍀

long before practicing Buddhism and meditation, i had been drawn to Ireland, Scotland, and just about anything Celtic. i have two Celtic tattoos – a Celtic dove of peace and a Celtic Trinity knot with an interwoven circle. something about the connection and closeness to nature and our relationship to it and all things attracted me and felt familiar…perhaps an early inkling and awareness of our interdependence, which i now contemplate often in my Buddhist practice.

grateful for such universal teachings and wisdom carried from across diverse cultures around the world through generations.

in the spirit of interconnectedness and relationship, an offering of a familiar Irish blessing for you:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face.

May the rains fall softly upon your fields…

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

PS – today my Patreon contributors received a high quality digital print of this image for free. become a contributor today for as little as $3/month to receive rewards and bonus perks like digital prints of my photography and artwork. link: http://www.patreon.com/jaysenwaller

#StPatricksDay☘️ #TrinityKnot #clover #Celtic #interdependence #interconnection #BWphotography #photography #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

it is the work of a lifetime (… or perhaps life times) to engage the difficulties and challenges of life in an equanimous way, that is to say, with a sense of balance, steadiness, and calm. we spend much of our time avoiding the fires in life, and if we find ourselves in them, we burn right with them.

but we have the capacity to step into the fire and not be burned or spread the flames. we have the capacity to relate to our world in a different way. it is possible, with practice and work, to engage this world with a sense of equanimity. not indifference or an action, but care and action that is rooted in balance, steadiness, resilience, clarity and calm. not being pulled into extreme emotions and reactivity, but moving from a place of sanity and open-heartedness, choosing how to act beneficially, transformatively, and with healing.

this is the bodhisattva path. the work and practice begins within ourselves and our own hearts and minds. how we relate to the world has an influence on others. this is the practice of meditation.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

join me this weekend for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays at 10am PT. free or by donation. $10 suggested. link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#bodhisattva #path #practice #vow #meditation #mindfulness #awareness #equanimity #balance #steadiness #clarity #resilience #calm #lovingkindness #OpenHeart #JinpaLhaga

when we practice gentleness with ourselves, when we practice pausing, noticing our thinking habits, and opening our hearts, we are engaging in a revolutionary act. 

this is a way of relating to ourselves more compassionately, which helps us to relate to others more compassionately. engaging ourselves, others, and this world in a compassionate way is revolutionary. we are no longer satisfied with our regular patterns of distraction and discord, of relating to the world by sticking our head in the sand, or through self-preservation, which is to say through greed and aggression.

we can practice relating to ourselves and the world in this way and this is what the world needs while facing the insanity, harm, and destruction we are seeing – people who are engaging the world in a sane, compassionate way.

join me this coming weekend for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays at 10am PT, to practice some breathing, mindfulness awareness, and lovingkindness meditation. free or by donation. $10 suggested. link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

#revolution #revolutionary #breathe #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #metta #path #practice #meditation #OpenHeart #MeditationTeacher #EngagedBuddhist #JinpaLhaga