there is a well known Zen metaphor regarding teachings, doctrines, traditions that I will paraphrase, that says such things are “fingers pointing to the moon, they are not the moon.”

this quote from John Shelby Spong, is similar. there’s some humility here and awe. we can be curious and look for answers, engage the Great Mystery with an openness that isn’t bound by an absolutism (which has more to do with our own ego) that can devolve into a hubris that inspires war, oppression, and harm. such absolutism is more about fear and finding answers that give us comfort or a sense of security – even a false sense of security. it is also boring. with all the answers, there’s nothing left for life to teach us. life is always teaching, there’s always more to wake up to.

our path doesn’t have to be a specifically religious or spiritual one either. an approach that is open, curious, and filled with awe, is also a path of reverence, and allows life to teach us. this is the most important aspect – to not be closed off, to not feel we have arrived at all the answers, and have solved the entire mystery, even if we have had realizations, aha moments, and feel we have encountered the Divine or the truth. we can hold such moments and experiences with gratitude, even being devout in our practices and path, but we hold it all with an open hand, ready to receive, to learn, to grow, and evolve. even while having our own path or practice tradition, or none at all, we can be open to the wisdom and insight held in other paths and practices. this is the way life is. when we look at nature, we see such beautiful diversity, nuance, and interdependence. every part has its place that benefits the whole – an orchestra with varying instruments that together make beautiful music.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#religion #spirituality #traditions #path #practice #BeginnersMind #mystery #openness #FingersPointingToTheMoon #wisdom #insight #JinpaLhaga #JohnShelbySpongQuotes #BishopSpongQuotes

anger and courage, speak to action and engagement. 

engagement is what gives me hope. people who are engaged, willing to see the harm, willing to empathize, willing to be moved through their anger into fierce compassion and courage, into actions to end harm through focused, persistent – relentless, nonviolent action.

when there is injustice, harm, and destruction, anger arises. however, love doesn’t stay in anger.  love’s anger moves into fierce compassion, which births courageous action to bring benefit, healing, transformation. 

i believe love will have its day and way, as long as their are people willing to answer its call and be vehicles for the movement of love. may we be such people.

such movement, such people, give me hope. 

love gives me hope.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#love #anger #courage #hope #EngagedBuddhism #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #AugustineOfHippoQuotes

today is Vesak (also celebrated on May 8th or 15th depending on the country/area), a commemoration of the Buddha’s (Siddartha Gautama) birth, enlightenment, and death. the day is often marked with festivals, ceremonies, etc. for me, just taking some time to meditate, get outside into nature, recite Refuge Vows and the 5 Precepts. 

as always, i sit with the questions:

-how do i abide in, align with, and embody love, rather than fear and aggression?
-how do i live in a way that avoids harming and violence and instead brings healing and benefit?
-how do i flow with this life in a way that is awake, aware of our interdependence, and open-hearted, and also non-grasping?

these questions/contemplations seem ever more urgently needed. may we each find our way to the answers and may we do so together.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#Vesak #Wesak #BuddhaDay #TheBuddha #Buddhism #SiddarthaGautama #EngagedBuddhism #refuge #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

this.

self-care prepares us, buoys us, steadies us, to care for others and the world.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#meditation #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism

Posted @withregram • @ethannichtern

White supremacist mass murders. Abortion rights—and the right to privacy altogether—under assault from an illegitimate Supreme Court. A world literally on fire from climate crisis. All these things require action, but they also require our nervous systems to be healthy enough and our hearts to be open enough to meet the moment. Not telling anyone what to do, but this would be a good time to make sure your personal practices don’t get lost in the mix.

more lives taken by guns and racism tonight in Buffalo, NY.  so much to mourn, to grieve, to be angry about. these same demons of racism, terrorism via mass shootings, rearing their ugly heads once again.  can we see clearly the destruction caused by their hate, the hate caused by their anger, the anger caused by their fear, the fear caused by their delusion?

it would be easy to despair, wouldn’t it ? but we must not. there’s too much at stake. i believe there is more love, openness, tenderness, kindness, light, and sanity in this world than not, but it means little if we aren’t willing to engage and act on it, if we’re not willing to do the work needed, if we’re not willing to face  the harm with honesty and with our eyes open to it. 

we can’t transform or heal what we won’t acknowledge. we have a White Supremacist problem in this country. we have a gun violence problem in this country. unattended, they will be our end. are we willing, do we have the courage, the fierce love to change this? 

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#MassShootings #terrorism #racism #GunViolence #EndRacism #EndGunViolence #EndViolence #transform #heal #engage #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga

this Charles Darwin quote is quite Taoist and Buddhist. 

in a reality that is foundationally one of constant change and movement, which is what life is, the capacity to let go, to adapt, to be flexible, provides the opportunity to be free and happy. 

it is our resistance to change that causes us so much suffering, our seeming inability at times to loosen our grip, to release our grasp. 

we simply can’t hold onto change. just as we can’t hold onto life, we can only experience it and choose to flow with it. this can be very challenging and scary. we have patterns of thought that are built on survival and seeking a sense of security. surely though, it has been our ability to adapt as a species, that has brought us to where we are today. with all the challenges that face us now, are we willing to release our grasp and adapt further? the future of our planet will depend on it. but so does every other aspect of life, including our relationships with others and our relationship with ourselves.

with meditation practice, we engage this by starting with ourselves, just right where we are in this moment. sitting, breathing. just being aware of our sitting and breathing, we see constant movement and change. the breath comes in – this is life. the breath goes out – this is death. then life again and so on. we notice sensations and feelings arise and fall away. constant change and movement – even in stillness. this is life. so, we practice just being with this life, paying attention to it, but also not holding on tightly, and not pushing away. this provides an opportunity for spaciousness to arise and from that spaciousness, we can choose how we want to live and what choices we want to make. 

this flexibility, when embraced and practiced, can be our strength, our super power.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

if you’d like to practice meditation with me, please join me for Self-Care Saturdays at 10am for a 1 hr group session. no previous experience necessary. sessions are free or by donation. $10 suggested. 
link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#change #flexibility #strength #superpower #adapt #flow #life #path #practice #meditation #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

“We can get greater energy out of love and joy than out of hatred. Hatred is so off balance. You blow your adrenals in one minute, then you’re shaky and weak. But if you’re joyful, you’ll get an endless source of energy.” 

~ Robert Thurman

may we find a way, a path, a practice that moves us in concert with love and joy. this love and joy, are not just life-giving, they are life. we should incorporate practices that attend to this, where we soak in nature. maybe a hike, maybe a morning coffee or evening tea sitting outside. just there listening. feeling, breathing. this too is meditation, this is presence.

from such a place, feeling connected with life, feeling the joy of being alive in this moment, opening our hearts and letting our love rise from the depths of our true nature, flowing out to a world in need, we can be energized to do good and beneficial work. healing work.

this is the antidote to our time, where fear drives a compulsion to close up hearts, to tighten, to manipulate, to control, to abuse, to marginalize and target with aggression and violence. they hate and push others to hate. hate is insatiable and devours, destroys all. it is the opposite of love; it is the opposite of life.

we can choose a different path and we can allow life itself to support us.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#love #life #compassion #healing #OpenHeart #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #MedicineBuddha #TibetanPrayerFlags #RobertThurmanQuote #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #photography

📷: Tibetan Medicine Buddha Prayer Flags hanging in my residence.💙
“Tayata Om Bekandze Bekandze Maha Bekandze Radza Samudgate Soha”

we have within our hearts

the capacity to

hold all of this

the tears, the laughter

the noise, the silence

the stillness, the loss

the love

we also have the wisdom to

let it all go…

and here we are on this journey together

learning to

dance between the two

this life!

this life!

~ j

still learning that i’m not so good at dancing 😂

may we all find our rhythm and balance to dance between holding with love and letting go with love in this life. 

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#learning #growth #balance #hold #LetGo #love #journey #path #practice

we sit, with awareness of our body, grounded and upright with dignity. our attention on our breath, allowing thoughts, sensations, feelings to arise and fall away. we come back, we begin again, without judgement or criticism. we come back, we begin again, with gentleness, with tenderness, with open hearts.

how we sit on our cushion, is also how we can live in the world – with awareness, with attention, with open hearts, and steady minds.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

Self-Care Saturday, tomorrow, at 10am PT. link:

https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

No session on Sunday 5/8 due to Mother’s Day. ✨

#mindfulness #awareness #attention #OpenHeart #gentleness #BeginAgain #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #JackKornfieldQuote

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose…Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

~ Yoda

this is as good a Buddhist Dharma teaching as any. in Buddhism the cycle of suffering begins with ignorance, or also understood as delusion (or confusion), our false idea of being an independent existence, on our own, rather than interdependent and part of all life, existence (the Force). this feeling of separation, of disconnection, leads to an underlying anxiety and fear. we feel moved to grasp, to cling (also called greed) not only to our own existence which we are afraid to lose, but to anything that supports that or gives us a sense of security. and anything that seems to even subtly threaten that, we push away, sometimes even violently. this is aversion, or aggression (also called anger). this leads to suffering, not only for us but for those around us, and for the world. so a Buddhist way of saying this may be: ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to grasping and aggression, and these lead to suffering.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#StarWarsDay #MayThe4thBeWithYou #StarWars #Jedi #TheForce #Yoda #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

#photography #bwphotography