Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
~
Wumen Huikai
#ThisMoment #OpenHeart #NoEscape #AllGift
artwork
no thread untouched…
Watching a spider at workI vow with all beings
to cherish the web of the universe:
touch one point and everything moves.
~Robert Aiken Roshi
#Interconnection #EverythingMatters #NoThreadUntouched
searching for what is here…
not knowing…
Even though we’re making our way through an enormous mystery, we often think we do a pretty good job of trying to explain just how things are—until we actually experience the thing we’re trying to explain. Then we realize our words and ideas are like trying to grab a single drop of rain in a thunderstorm.
~
Ed Brickell
#BeginnersMind #contemplation #words #ideas #mystery #NotKnowing #JMWart
shine your light…
If we keep our own light selfishly hidden, it will only provide a limited amount of illumination. But when we share our light with others, we do not diminish our own light. Rather, we increase the amount of light available to all.~Master Sheng-Yen
#light #shine #generosity #practice #compassion #kindness #bodhicitta #bodhisattva #meditation #JMWart
we practice for times like these…
This is what we’ve been practicing for: the situations where the practice doesn’t come easily. When the winds of change reach hurricane force, our inner refuge of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment is the only thing that will keep us from getting blown away.
~
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
#practice #meditation #change #refuge #mindfulness #concentration #discernment #grounded #steady #presence #JMWart
9/11 15 years later…
15 years ago the soul of this country received a shocking wound. the sky faded dark under ash, confusion and fear. the rug pulled out from under us. and in such a horrific moment we rose. the best of people rose to the surface wading through tears and differences.
it was a shift and an opportunity to stay with the rawness, the tenderness we felt, the feelings that inspired and motivated a sense of connection and community.
but we have forgotten, as we often do, save for special anniversaries set aside to remember. each of those, a chance to start fresh yet again…only to forget again.
“never forget, never again” is fine and well, but let’s really mean it and make it so through our own hearts, words and actions. that’s where the work is that needs to be done, that’s where the real change will begin.
there seems to be more fear and anxiety today and it is stoked by those who would seek gain from this suffering. this has only led to further division.
as we have seen, just naming it or calling it untruth and getting into a battle of words simply leads to more suffering and seems to evoke little or no change.
it is time for a shift. we, each of us, needs to answer the call to heal. using our words, our actions, our very lives to bring benefit to a world thirsty for an end to such suffering. we need to be healers, to be bodhisattvas, shining a light on the alternatives to fear and anxiety, to anger and hate, to division, cynicism, conspiracy and demagoguery, aggression and violence.
this is a journey of heart and mind, so these are what we need to work with.
let’s get to work.
~j
09.11.16
#Sept11th #September11th #15thAnniversary #shift #healers #bodhisattvas #community #sangha #interdependence #light #life #MedicineBuddha #meditation #JMWart
all that stillness can hold…
Being fully in the stillness was not about self-isolation or self-help but about standing in radical relationship with all that stillness holds—all the grief, all the loss, all the loneliness—and standing with it, rather than rushing to reason it away, arrest it, or lock it in a box.
~
Jasmine Syedullah
#stillness #meditation #presence #BeHereNow #TheWisdomOfNoEscape #ThisIsYourLife #RadicalRelationship
may we be free…
may all beings and all life
in every realm, in every direction
be happy, be peaceful, and at ease
may we be free from fear and anxiety
may we be free from anger
and may we be free from greed
may we be free from delusion
may we be free from attachment
and may we be free from all suffering
~j
#metta #lovingkindness #meditation #mantra #interdependence #sangha #community #bodhicitta #bodhisattva
we are one…
let us continue to use our voices, our art, our power to shine light on that which is delusion, fear, division and hate – by offering up the opposite which is truth, wisdom, awareness, inclusion, and love to the altar of life ~j
One’s sense of separation – that I’m separate from you and the rest of the world, so my well-being is separate from yours – is the fundamental delusion that needs to be overcome…
When we feel a deeper connection with other people in the world, then naturally there’s going to be compassion and concern and wanting to live in a different kind of way. When this happens, the meaning of my life changes. Instead of thinking “What’s in this for me?” we find ourselves asking “What can I do to make this situation better for everyone?”
~
Sam Mowe
#interdependence #sangha #community #WeAreOne #One #empathy #compassion #truth #wisdom #life #meditation #enso #JMWart
The Metta Garden 