Healthcare is a moral issue. Healthcare is not a privilege or entitlement. Healthcare is not an opportunity for wealth for some at the cost of human life for others.
other writing
rethinking violence…
Sitting with this quote, recently: “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent” (by Isaac Asimov) and I thought, “Should we expand our definition of violence?”
I think we often view violence through a rather restrictive lens of war and aggressive, physical assault. However, is it truly too far a reach to suggest that words or actions that cause harm, injury, or death are also a form of violence?
Isn’t it violent to legislate healthcare out of the reach of the elderly, the poor, the ill?
Isn’t it violent to deprive food from children and the elderly, by cutting the programs on which they depend?
Isn’t it violent to marginalize an “other” (fill in the blank) virtually placing a target stirring fear and hate?
The poor, the elderly, the ill, the undocumented, the marginalized (including Muslims and LGBTQ) are easy targets for leadership that is incompetent.
We harm or we benefit.
So, what do we do?
We bear witness. We speak up. We speak truth to power. We stand and we walk in solidarity with those who suffer, the marginalized and oppressed.
But perhaps, even more importantly…
We begin with ourselves, and our own hearts and minds. Am I willing to work for resolutions in my own life that best benefit the big picture, the long arc? Am I willing to call upon my most creative and innovation potential to benefit all those around me and not just myself? Am I willing to serve? Am I willing to be vulnerable? Am I willing to understand and embrace empathy? Am I willing to love?
~j
03.22.17
after winter, spring…
long distance #resisting…
empathy, our greatest weapon…
What we are seeing is a grasping, blinding, lust for power and wealth, rather than a love for life.
We see it in how it affects human life, and all life really, including the life of this planet.
We are out of balance.
I think if we each take a step back, a step out of our identifications, a step away from our screens, and just sit for a moment. Just sit and breathe. Just sit as a simple human being with all that makes us so – one quality stands out, our capacity to have empathy.
That’s what is presently lacking: empathy. Without it, we lose our humanity. And I do believe we are dancing dangerously on the brink, led by a pied piper or team of pied pipers, toward increased suffering and loss. It is already happening.
There is a wonderful Rumi quote, “Sit, be still, and listen, because you’re drunk and we’re at the edge of the roof.” The drink of those currently in power is narcissism paired with a world view that in its exclusion of the “other” denies a basic universal truth, we are not separate.
A world view that says we are somehow separate from everyone else is a lie. Plain and simple. What is being fed to us is a lie. It goes against nature, life, and the better part of our humanity. It puts profit over the health and lives of others. It excludes and fears anything it deems different. It proposes a false security through walls, aggressive laws and violence.
Put yourself or a family member in the place of the person who suffers health issues while on a fixed or limited income. Put yourself or someone you love in the place of the undocumented person now being separated from their children or spouse, having to leave the home they’ve known for decades. Put yourself or a friend in the place of a person who is seen as evil based on their religion, because fanatics have committed atrocities under its name. Put yourself in the place of someone who is seen as an abomination, because of who they love, yet they continue to love. Put yourself in the place of someone who lost their job, who feels like they are drowning in life and unable to provide for their family.
This is called empathy. And it is our greatest weapon against the tyranny of authoritarianism. Empathy aligns us with each other, it aligns us with life. Empathy opens our heart and draws out our other great weapon – compassion. Compassion is a boundless and fierce power.
This current trial is beyond political or religious affiliation. It is a human challenge, calling all of us to respond together as one family, one community to defeat the lie of separateness, to pull the walls of this harmful ideology down.
~j
03.12.17
we got this…
Kuan Yin, also known by the names Guan Yin or Kannon is the feminine personification of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion who hears and answers the cries of the world.
inspired by a well known statue, in this image she sits calm and steady, ready to unleash her fierce compassion. she’s saying, “I got this.”
may we all be so inspired on this International Women’s Day and everyday to join in fierce compassion, stating with steady resolve, “We got this.”
~j
03.08.17
#InternationalWomensDay #internationalwomensday2017 #MeditateAndResist #resist #FierceCompassion #TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #LoveWins #Bodhisattva #Avalokitesvara #KuanYin #compassion #Buddhism #JMWart
stay with it…
our tendency, our pattern is to avoid our heartbreak, our fear, our discomfort at all costs.
a relationship ends, a job is lost, a loved one becomes ill, the world is spinning out of control and we react. sometimes we grasp at the next person or possible relationship, at every little thing that promises good health. sometimes we attack aggressively to protect ourselves. and sometimes we avoid at all costs, “ignorance is bliss.”
these ways of reacting to what makes us feel uncomfortable in life – grasping, aggression, ignorance (also sometimes called greed, hatred, and delusion) are what we call in Buddhism, the Three Poisons. they perpetuate suffering – the very thing we are desperately trying to avoid in our patterns of reactions. the antidote to these poisons is a broken heart, an open heart. and the only way to give our hearts a shot at being open and opening wider – building its capacity to be with life – is to allow our hearts to break.
ugh, right? who wants to do that? not most of us, which is why we can look around and see ourselves and other hurt people jumping from one relationship to another, see ourselves and other hurt people trying a new fad diet or health claim one after another, see ourselves and other hurt people aggressively attacking “friends” on social media who have opposing views, or even simply wanting social media to return to cat memes and name games, because it has gotten too “political.”
but the truth is, our discomfort will not go away with the next person in our bed, or the loss of a certain number of pounds, or getting that last word in, or turning off the tv/computer and pretending the world isn’t burning. none of these will make a difference if we can’t sit still and allow our discomfort to break open our heart, to open it, to teach us. a broken heart, an open heart allows our love to be free.
Pema Chödrön wrote a book titled, “The Wisdom of No Escape.” I love this little phrase. it is counter intuitive to our habitual pattern of running away, running through, and going to war with ourselves and others.
can we see that we need not go to war? that we are inherently strong enough, courageous enough to not only be with our pain, but to allow our love to heal it?
we must learn to sit with ourselves and our discomfort, gently and compassionately allowing our hearts to break open and our love to flow, if we want to be free. this is our life calling us to awaken.
stay with it…
~j
03.05.17
renunciation, for benefit…
after nearly 12 years of being vegetarian, this year for Lent, moved and inspired by my Buddhist practice and a desire to lessen aggression and increase compassion within myself I am giving up dairy to lean more into being vegan.
renunciation is a sacrifice, but it can be a sacrifice for benefit – for oneself and for those around us, even extending from our own little microcosm out into the macrocosm of life including animals.
All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death. All love life.
See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?
He who seeks happiness
by hurting those who seek happiness
will never find happiness.
~ from the Dhammapada (translated by Thomas Byrom)
Those who wish
to protect themselves and others
swiftly should practice the great secret:
exchanging oneself for others.
~ Shantideva
Every living thing,
without exception,
is a song
written in the heart
of the Beloved.
~j
do what you can, where you are…
this quote from The Quran, now in the spotlight due to the Oscar win for the Netflix documentary The White Helmets, is profound.
none of us can save all of humanity, but a life at a time can be saved. a good deed, act of compassion and kindness, can have a deep and resonating beneficial effect beyond what we can see or know.
do what you can, where you are.
The White Helmets dive into the very real danger of war ravaged Syria, rescuing Syrians from the relentless bombardment of bombs and weapons. 154 White Helmets have been killed saving lives.
may their work be blessed and may their mission be supported by all of us.
~j
your light gives life, just shine…
We cannot force awakening in others.
We can only practice to awaken ourselves and in our practice make ourselves available to benefit others though the benefits of our practice.
In this way, we are planting seeds of loving kindness, compassion, open heartedness, and wisdom. Then when the right conditions arise, these seeds are nourished and grow manifesting awakening in others as well.
Just shine your light. And your light, like the sun, will give life.
Wishing everyone all that is beneficial and all that brings happiness on this Tibetan New Year, Losar.
Tashi Delek!
~j
02.27.17
The Metta Garden 