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the other day, my nephew’s high school received reports of a rumored potential school shooting. they worked with the police to assess the situation and determined it wasn’t a credible threat. some children were scared to go to school that next day. what if, right?

i’m thinking about the trauma these children are experiencing. seeing mass shootings, having drills, seeing armed security guards, police or teachers daily, having to carry the possibility of dying, all while trying to learn, make friends, and grow.

we often focus on the lives lost, but what about the lives of those who have survived but have been traumatized physically and emotionally? i’m thinking of them. 

i know someone who survived the 2017 Vegas shooting. at some point we may all know someone who has survived/not survived a mass shooting. maybe it will be us.

is this what we want? a reality where there’s access to a weapon that can mow numerous people down at a movie, a doctor’s office, a concert, a bank, a school, a park, a grocery store, a restaurant. what’s your plan? can you run faster than a spray of 30 or a 100 rounds?

all of this death and trauma, for access to a weapon that was made for war, then modified for commercial use so companies can make money feeding off fear and an unhealthy relationship to violence.

a poll in 2022, showed that 67% of Americans strongly or somewhat support banning assault-style weapons. 

the traits of mass shooters have spanned race, religion, ideology, gender, orientation, motive. but they’ve had one commonality – the weapon of choice that kills the most people and does the most damage in the least amount of time.

why are we allowing access to a weapon of war, a crowd killer, even at the cost of children being slaughtered?

why aren’t we elevating empathy, thoughtfulness, warm-heartedness, kindness, compassion, common sense, and wisdom? 

this moment in history is calling on us to RISE to this moment, this need, this crisis and answer with love and wisdom.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#GunViolence #Violence #Rise #Wisdom #Empathy #Kindness #Compassion #GunReform #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #Enso #Calligraphy #Art

resurrection is always happening and available. it is path and practice.

to awaken into a new life of love and wholeness emerging from a life of othering and harm which always brings a type of death (opposite of union with life). 

love has the capacity to hold and transform all. and love is calling us out of the graves we create. awaken, arise!

awaken and arise to the love and life already in you, that is you, my friends.

Happy Easter!

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#Easter #love #life #death #resurrection #spring #path #practice #haiku #enso #JinpaLhaga

wishing all my Christian friends who observe, a blessed Good Friday. 🙏🏻

i invite Christian and non-Christian friends alike to view the crucifixion as a political act (in addition to a metaphysical, mystical, spiritual act if that is your belief). the crucifixion, after all, was state sanctioned violence. and in the case of Jesus, state sanctioned violence against a Jewish man who was teaching a message of nonviolence, a message of including the excluded, of reaching out to the marginalized, a message of the outcast as embodiments of the sacred, a message of loving one’s enemies as a way of embodying one’s love for God. a message of love that disrupts the status quo (which almost always brings suffering to someone) and destabilizes the hierarchy of power (that almost always oppresses someone). 

and yet as the writers of the Gospels tell us, at every step, Jesus embodied nonviolence, even when facing the horrifically violent death of crucifixion. i recall the story of the Roman guard who comes to arrest Jesus prior to the crucifixion. Peter, Jesus’ disciple, cuts off the guard’s ear in defense of Jesus. who does Jesus’ rebuke? Peter, not the Roman guard! Jesus rebukes Peter and heals the ear of the Roman guard. imagine that! a path of nonviolence and healing, a path committed to inclusive love, even if it leads to death. it’s revolutionary.

it’s impossible to reconcile such a message of love and nonviolence with the violent, marginalizing, exclusionary rhetoric we hear today or with a love for weapons of violence and war, over the lives of children. Jesus’ message of love is still challenging us in these times.

may hearts open, may sanity arise, and may such a revolutionary love find a home in our words and actions.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#GoodFriday #Crucifixion #Jesus #JesusChrist #DeathPenalty #Nonviolence #Nonharming #Revolutionary #Love #OpenHeart #Suffering #Healing #Sacred #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #Art #Enso #Cross #ContemplativeArt

hard truths are not always polite. kindness is not always comfortable. niceness and politeness don’t want to stir the pot, do not want to disrupt, and in their avoidance, they protect the status quo.
kindness wants to treat the illness and cure the disease.

the Tennessee GOP led legislature overplayed their hand.

the Tennessee Three, especially and most particularly the two Justins, stood up for truth and love. the two Justins are not just the leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today.

~j
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Posted @withregram • @ibramxk
Tennessee Republicans can expel these two young brothers but they will never expel the resistance they represent.

🌀

the power of words. the power of presence. the power of standing in love and moving with the authority of love. life itself bears witness. 

this isn’t oppressive force. this isn’t aggression. this isn’t violence. it’s true power, prophetic power, calling out harm, calling upon conscience, calling upon that which is within us that is Love to rise up.

Love leaves no one out.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#OpenHeart #Love #NoOneLeftOut #FierceCompassion #SitDownRiseUp #TransLivesMatter #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga

Posted @withregram • @jamieleecurtis 

When the only people who are left are you, will you hate yourself?

🌀

there is a shortage of empathy, of compassion, warmth, and tenderness in this country for some. yet no shortage of fear, aggression, and willingness to engage in violence.

what a betrayal of this precious, interdependent life! what a grieving of the heart!

we each have the responsibility to look deep within our own heart, to face our own demons and grow up. 

we can choose fear, violence, and weapons of mass violence and carnage, or we can choose love. we need to choose love. survival depends on it. the myth is that our species has evolved only through force and dominance. and surely there is no shortage of that. history is bloody and filled with delusion. however, that’s not the whole story, it isn’t the entire truth – we have survived and thrived through cooperation, through sacrifice, through creativity and collaboration, through caring for the group not just the individual. empathy. altruism. compassion. embodied love.

may hearts open, may we embody love, may sanity arise.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#OpenHeart #Sanity #Empathy #Compassion #Kindness #Tenderness #Love #Path #Practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #MelvinMcLeodQuotes

love & support to all my trans friends today on #TransVisibilityDay 🏳️‍⚧️ & everyday. i see you & love you. gratitude for your embodiment of life & love. thank you for Being.

may this world continue to grow our hearts in love that we may recognize the sacred in all beings & beauty in all life. may we rise with empathy to stand & speak in love to defend from harm our trans community who are being marginalized & targeted. may we be instruments of healing, justice, & peace.

~j

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#TransDayOfVisibility

Christ Breaks the Rifle

by Kelly Latimore

(inspired by the work of Otto Pankok 2nd photo)

“…they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks…” ~ Isaiah 2:4

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 5:9)

“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.” ~ The Buddha (Dhammapada 129)

WE ARE DOING IT WRONG. to embrace a weapon capable of such fast mass killing, that has the capacity to mutilate bodies beyond recognition, a weapon of war in civilian hands, not meant for hunting or defending a home from an intruder, but intended for war and catastrophic injury and death IS a type of cultural, societal mental illness.

there’s one common denominator in all of these mass shootings, the weapon of choice for mass shooters. a weapon that gives little to no chance for the victims to survive. by the time a first responder (police, security, so called “good guy with a gun”) arrives or engages, a multitude can be dead.

a uniquely American horror story, fed by the greed of politicians paid off by the NRA, while they scapegoat anyone and anything other than the favored weapon of use, and then feed the fear of a minority of gun owners preparing for armageddon with a belief that it is their God given right to own as many and whatever kind of guns they want, even posing with them on Christmas cards as they celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. what a sick, tragic irony.

where is our empathy? where is our sanity? how many multitudes of children have to die?

“There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” ~ Miroslav Volf, Croatian theologian

may hearts open, may sanity arise.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#MassShootings #GunViolence #AssaultWeapons #Carnage #Death #Insanity #Soulless #America #BanAssaultRifles #SaveOurChildren #GunReformNow

a day late post for #WorldTheatreDay. there’s a particular show that’s been on my mind of late due to our current heightened (and harmful) rhetoric around LGBTQ+ community and also around immigration.

in 2003, i had the incredible privilege to be in the San Diego premiere of “Deporting the Divas” by Guillermo Reyes. what a play! i remain immensely grateful to Kirsten Brandt who directed, Chuck Zito who produced at Diversionary Theatre, and my castmates, George Gonzales, Juan Manzo, and Arturo Medina for such a rewarding, challenging, and creative experience. the play traversed the intersections of being gay, being Latino, of gender identity, the cultural and personal expectations around these, of immigration, and love. it was funny at moments, touching in others, and filled noir, and the fantastical. could i have imagined just how relevant this play would still be today – maybe even more so?!

theatre is so important to culture, to critical thinking, to growth. to sit with a group of people and be moved to think, to feel, as another group of people embody a story, bringing it to life. and i got to dip my feet into drag (i don’t think i’ll ever shave my legs, arms, chest, pits, or wear high heels again 😂) i have the utmost respect for real deal drag performers. i’m in awe of them, frankly. such gorgeous, incredible artists. so bravo and kudos to them, especially at this time as they field unwarranted, harmful, politicized attacks from ignorant buffoons. and the fact that they can still do it with such humor, sass, and style is simply FABULOUS.

~j

💅🏻🧜‍♀️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🤩❤️🙏🏻

#Theatre #Drama #Acting #Drag #DragPerfomers #GenderIdentity #Gay #Queer #LGBTQ #Latino #Immigration #DeportingTheDivas #DiversionaryTheatre #QueerTheatre #LGBTQtheatre #SanDiegoTheatre

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we don’t have to beat ourselves up.

one of the gifts of a regular meditation practice is the practice of “beginning again”.

when our attention drifts from our breath, the feeling of our breath, and we notice we have become lost in thought, we simply return to placing our attention on our breath and begin again. we don’t sit there criticizing ourselves, passing judgment, beating ourselves up. we simply (yet profoundly!) begin again. this is the practice over and over again. beginning again is gracious, it’s gentle, it’s kind.

we can live our entire life this way. showing up, doing our best, and beginning again when we go off track, hit a bump in the road, have a hiccup in our attention, our mindfulness, our lovingkindness, or our compassion.

our practice on the cushion, is practice for how to live, how to relate, how to beneficially be in this world.

less beating up, less aggression, and more making peace with ourselves, with life – a beautiful way to live!

path and practice.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#Life #PeacefulLife #Peace #Kindness #Gentleness #Compassion #Grace #Beauty #Meditation #MeditationPractice #OpenHeart #Path #Practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #AjahnBrahm #AjahnBrahmQuotes