welcome…

  

Zen student: “When times of great difficulty visit us, how should we greet them?” 
Zen teacher: “Welcome.”
#zen #tao #open #InTheFlow #JustGoWithIt #AlwaysLearning #welcome #wisdom

with each breath i am reborn…

  

we often think and say that, with the New Year, we have a fresh start – a clean slate to make choices that are more beneficial to our lives and the lives of others.
but the truth is, it is even better than that!

a fresh start is available with each breath we take – every breath we take is an opportunity to begin anew. every breath is a new lease on life, a confirmation that we still have the opportunity to benefit ourselves and others as we continue this journey.
each new breath is a new opportunity to let go, to choose life, to choose love, to choose nonaggression and nonviolence, to speak words of encouragement, to bear witness to our suffering and the suffering of others, to act with compassion and kindness, to live generously and with grace, to laugh, to smile, to be brave in the middle of our sadness, to dive into this experience fully opening our hearts more and more, choosing to be healers to the suffering we see.
may 2016, and every breath you take, remind you that there is beauty and there is love – and that you are both of these things.
namaste

~j
#NewYears2016 #NYE2016 #HappyNewYear #change #transition #opportunity #life #love #compassion #kindness #generosity #courage #nonaggression #nonviolence #laugh #healing #healers #mindfulness #meditation #zen  

my work is loving the world…

  

i am here to love (JMW 2014)
 
My work is loving the world.Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird

   equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me

    keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be

    astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here, 
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

    and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

    that we live forever.
~ Mary Oliver
#love #OurPurpose #WorkToDo #gratitude #awe #BeginnersMind #MaryOliver

patterns…

  

“patterns”JMW 2015

ink & acrylic on paper

w/ digital editing and filters
“They make a wasteland they call it peace.”

~ Tacitus
#war #violence #aggression #patterns #HistoryRepeats #LearnFromThePast #peace #art #JMWart #JMW #patterns #TheMettaGarden 

paix…

  

“…to be brave enough to not use aggression, to not succumb to fear, and not be anxious…I choose not to add to fear and aggression at this time…”
~ Pema Chodron (paraphrased from a retreat)
#peace #paix #Paris #France #PrayersForFrance #PrayersForParis #PrayersForPeace

waves on the Ocean…

  

just waves on the Ocean…
When anger arises, or sorrow or love or joy, it is just anger angering, sorrow sorrowing, love loving, joy joying. Different feelings arise and pass, each simply expressing its own nature. The problem arises when we identify with these feelings, or thoughts, or sensations as being self or as belonging to ‘me’: I’m angry, I’m sad.

~ Joseph Goldstein
“Nothing that comes and goes is you..“I am angry, sad, afraid.” Who knows this? You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
#emotions #anger #sadness #joy #YouAreNotYourEmotions #YouARE #YouAreTheOneWhoKnows #nonattachment #JustBe #ComingAndGoing #WavesOnTheOcean  #RideTheWave #float #YouAreTheOcean #EverythingChanges #impermanence #zen #TheMettaGarden #JMWart

just love…

  

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“If you love, you will find so many occasions to be loving. If you are afraid, you will find so many occasions to be afraid.” ~ Osho
#Love #Fear #KnowLoveNoFear #LoveIsTheAnswer #perspective #wisdom #TheMettaGarden #JMWart #JMW

just this! just This!

  

just this! just This!~j
Don’t prolong the past,

Don’t invite the future,

Don’t alter your innate wakefulness,

Don’t fear appearances.

Apart from that,

there is not a damn thing!

~ Dzogchen Master Patrul Rinpoche

(1808-1887)
#tibetan #buddhism #BuddhistQuotes #JustThis #zen #enso #EnsoArt #JMWart

together we wake up…

  

Somewhere this very moment, 

babies are born, fathers are dying, mothers are grieving. 

Yet, pervading all is a 

groundless awareness, 

delicate and strong at the same time. Everything becomes we, 

a beating heart with a 

transparent, radiant smile. 

And we are awake

 ~Judith Simmer-Brown