Happy 4th of July! 🇺🇸

a day we celebrate our independence and liberty.

just this past Friday, the last day of Pride month, the Supreme Court ruled that myself and other LGBTQ+ individuals do not deserve protection from discrimination from business owners who are uncomfortable with our existence, and do not want to serve us. they ruled that such individuals/businesses have a 1st Amendment right to discriminate against us, based on who we are as queer people, because who we are doesn’t fit within what they believe their religion approves.

i love my country, but it’s important to recognize that not all people have enjoyed the same liberty and liberty is continuing to be attacked and chipped away.

enjoy your hot dogs and hamburgers 🤗

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#JulyFourth #July4th #USA #IndependenceDay #liberty #equality #LGBTQIA #queer #StatueOfLiberty #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

on this day in 1908, the heroic Civil Rights activist, attorney, US Supreme Court Justice, and namesake of my alma mater college at UCSD, Thurgood Marshall was born.

oh the distance between his character, integrity, and jurisprudence, and the vacancy of such virtue in the conservatives Justices we have today!

may hearts open, may sanity arise, and may more Justices like Thurgood Marshall rise up and be seated on the Bench.  

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#July2nd #ThurgoodMarshall #SCOTUS #integrity #character #jurisprudence #virtue #history

RIP Alan Arkin 🙏🏻

oh, i enjoyed him so much! people most likely know him best for his Oscar, Golden Globe, and Tony winning performances, and for so many movies (Little Miss Sunshine, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Gross Pointe Blank, Argo, Django Unchained, Get Smart, The Santa Clause 3, Dumbo). if you want to see a fun movie with him, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine check out Going In Style. i’ve also recently enjoyed him in The Kominsky Method opposite Michael Douglas.

he was also a seeker and found meaning and influence within Eastern thought both from Buddhism and Hindu traditions. he taught for more than a few years at the Omega Institute and wrote a book Out of My Mind discussing this. 

he lived here in San Diego County in Carlsbad, and a friend of mine studied improv from him and became friends with him. she adores him. at the beginning of the pandemic, with his permission (he told her to “share the hell out of it!”) she shared a little video of him on his front porch playing ukulele singing a song about taking selfies. with all the seriousness of what was going on at that time, it was the medicine needed to remember the importance of joy, laughter, and smiling.

“I don’t know why we have to put things in boxes of superlatives. That isolates them. Life is fluid, and the minute you start trying to put a line around something, it will deceive you and go away. Somebody introduced that idea to me about six or seven years ago. And the more I thought about it, and the more I tried to live by it, the happier I got.”

~Alan Arkin

“I wrote my epitaph: He started out a particle and ended up a wave.”
~ Alan Arkin

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#AlanArkin

in the delusional world of the conservative majority within the Supreme Court, systemic racism and unequal access to resources no longer exist. 

equally delusional is the view of “color blindness” as if not seeing someone in all their diverse beauty is somehow not racist and disingenuous. the conservative majority within the Supreme Court seems to be suffering from the too often seen symptom of privilege – selective amnesia. 

today’s ruling is harmful and plays right into the pathetic and destructive hands of White Nationalism.

uff. what a time, seeing such hard won progress struck down in an instant.

may we buoy our hearts and minds, friends, for all that is happening and ahead. may we find practices to keep our hearts open, and our minds clear and steady. practices that birth the best of who we are and can be – our authenticity, empathy, tenderness, kindness, fierce compassion, clarity, resilience, and balance. 

while others seek to destroy and harm, may we be a sanctuary, a refuge, and a place of healing and protection for all those affected.

may we rise up in voice, action, and art.

love sees color and celebrates its beauty, and love will win.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#SCOTUS #AffirmativeAction #EqualOpportunity #Racism #WhiteNationalism #Harm #EngagedBuddhism #OpenHeart #Empathy #Kindness #Love #Healing #FierceCompassion #Path #Practice #JinpaLhaga

🌀

contemplating impermanence.

just because something ends, doesn’t take away its original beauty. it doesn’t make it any less sacred. perhaps its limited time makes it more so. 

the beauty still lives in the now, in the living memory within our hearts. sometimes we just need to look a little deeper, a bit longer, with eyes of love. 

the truth is, life and death are always present. the underlying reality is always present, arising and falling, then arising again. our perception is linear, but reality is all at once, it just IS. by whatever name, it IS.

i think of loved ones and friends who have passed and they can seem so alive in my heart and mind. something of them is still there, still so close, as intimate as this breath and every cell in this body.

perhaps it’s the love. 

perhaps we never really lose anyone or anything, even though it may seem so at times, especially when we want a hug. 

we are so used to perceiving with our five senses. as miraculous as they are, they are also limited. maybe we should also try perceiving with love. LOVE is still here. so be kind to yourself and give yourself a hug with the same love you have shared with others. the love that is always present.

~j

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#impermanence #magnolia #beauty #nature #flower #life #death #OpenHeart #path #practice #Buddhism #photography #photo #FlowerPhoto #FlowerPic #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

remember:

we embody love.

be beautiful.

be you.

EVERY DAY

not just Pride Month 🌈

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

#pridemonth 

#LGBTQIA

#Queer

🌀

…i’m not very strong.

but, it’s a practice. muscles to grow. a heart to open wider and wider. a mind that begins to allow for the waters to settle.  

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#life #strength #calm #quiet #peace #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #YogiBhajanQuotes

🌀

“Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.”

~ Hans Margolius

try to find a few moments of quiet today, friends – even one, two or three mindful breaths, here and there throughout your day. this is almost all i have time for most days in caring for my father. step outside, go sit in your car, or find a quiet corner of your home.

breathing in, feel the in breath – Life! breathing out feel the letting go – also Life!

allow the noise to be the noise. it comes and goes. that’s not you. you are the quiet center. you are.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#silence #QuietMind #meditation #JustBreathe #presence #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #photography #Buddha #HansMargoliusQuotes

☀️

How would you see the Sun 

outside of you, 

if you didn’t have the Sun 

within you?

~

Phakyab Rinpoche

Happy Summer Solstice beautiful people! shine your light with an open heart and love.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#SummerSolstice #LongestDay #sun #shine #light #YouAreGood #OpenHeart #ShineOn #TrueNature #buddhanature #InnerLight #bodhicitta #love #LoveWins #TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #PhakyabRinpocheQuotes

JUNETEENTH, also known as Freedom Day, originated in Galveston, Texas, when Union Army General Gordon Granger proclaimed by order the freedom of enslaved people in Texas. this was a 2 1/2 half years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

ironically and sadly, here in 2023, some states including Florida and Texas are making it difficult if not illegal to teach this history due to racism based in ignorance and fear, in an effort to control a narrative fiction regarding US History. 

in the spirit of JUNETEENTH and the divine truth that a free life devoid of oppression and subjugation is an inherent right for all, we must continue to inform with the truth of our history (all parts – bad and good) through political engagement, education, and art.

of note – the US Congress with President Biden signing into law on June 17, 2021, made JUNETEENTH a Federal Holiday.

~j

♥️🖤💚

#Juneteenth #FreedomDay #EmancipationProclamation #GeneralOrderNo3 #freedom #history #education #art #engagement #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #JMWart