reverence…

  

as I grow in this practice, I’m beginning to become aware that “reverence” begins even at the cellular level and is born out of gratitude.
am I grateful for the cells in my body? that I may see? that I may walk and write? that I may eat and digest? that I may think and speak?
in my gratitude, do I honor these cells? do I smile to them, breathing in and out, as Thich Nhat Hanh says? do I watch what I feed them, including the thoughts and emotions I cling to? 
do I see them as the life that they are and honor that life within them? a life they are living, making it so that I may live?
this passing body is more them, than it is “me.” have we thought about that?
and we can ask ourselves, how am I honoring this gift? how am I embodying this gratitude I feel swelling in my chest? how am I living with reverence in the short time I am here? and how can I extend this to others in this delicate, beautiful, passing life?
~j

11.16.15
#reverence #life #gratitude #practice #peace #ThichNhatHanh #meditation #mindfulness #TheMettaGarden #JMW

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

this, your very heart…

  
this, your very heart.

broken open, heals the world.

dam breaks, water flows.

~j

11.11.15
“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.” ~ Zelda Fitzgerald
“O, that my monk’s robe were wide enough to gather up all the suffering people in this floating world.” ~ Zen poet-monk Ryōkan
“The practice is never for ourselves alone.” ~ Joseph Goldstein
#heart #HeartBrokenOpen #healing #suffering #love #CapacityToLove #interdependence #community #sangha #practice #meditation #compassion #metta #LovingKindness #Zen #haiku #quotes #JMW #TheMettaGarden 

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

Lighten the load…

  

Lighten the load…
it is good and beneficial to let go, to release the past with any resentments or uncomfortable memories. it is good to be free.
but I’m beginning to understand that there is a freedom even beyond the good memories as well. this is where life is most vibrant and full, I’m beginning to think, in the places where we are completely open and untethered.
what is there to hold on to?
~j

Relinquishing is the ground for practicing ‘beginner’s mind.’ It helps us see things anew, as they really are; to be willing to listen to the thoughts and ideas of others with an open mind. So the relinquishing of thoughts and ideas about which we have been adamant can give us a sense of freedom, joy, and spaciousness. 

~ Allan Lokos
#LetGo #release #freedom #BeginnersMind #OpenHeart #OpenMind #spaciousness #LightenTheLoad #NoBaggage

this exquisite passing life…

  

this exquisite passing life.  bows of gratitude…

“It is the radical transience of the world that makes it both tragic and beautiful, like the cherry blossom in Japanese aesthetics. The tragedy is that nothing actually exists; it is all passing away the instant it forms. The beauty is that we have the means to be aware of this, a moment to know the profound poignancy of this tiny corner of reality.”

~ Andrew Olendzki

Dia de los Muertos

  
Dia de los Muertos
a day to reflect on those who have passed, but haven’t left us. a lifting of the veil revealing that we are all One, interconnected through space and time, life and death, in this always moving ground of Being. through memory and ritual, offering prayers of honor, respect and gratitude.
the theme of death is an integral part of Buddhist practice, not as some morbid practice – but practice for what is inevitable and a sacred part of life. something we so desperately try to avoid in our culture, namely – sickness, aging, and dying – change.
practicing “death” is practicing “life.” each out breath is a death and each in breath is life reborn. an opportunity to be grateful for, an opportunity to continue this adventure of learning to love better and open our hearts.
perhaps this is what our loved ones, who have passed, are trying to tell us.
~j
“In trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. It’s easy to forget that life and death are part of the natural scheme of things, intrinsic to our lives in an eternally shifting universe.”

~ Ronna Kobatznick
#DiaDeLosMuertos

#life #death #practice #love #meditation #buddhism #interdependence #change #family #relationships #ghosts