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

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

Peace Day…

  

 

“They make a wasteland they call it peace.”~ Tacitus
do we want peace? 

if yes, then we begin today in this moment with this very breath to be peace. we do this through gentleness in word and action, kindness born out of a desire to serve the common good, planting seeds of kindness and compassion now, benefiting the present moment and our present relationships, while contributing to a better tomorrow for all of life.

this doesn’t happen in the future, it happens now. we do this to honor the life we have been given, living peace now, which is the future. 

~j
#PeaceDay

karma…

  

we rarely if ever can escape the consequences of our actions…how else can we learn? be open to learning, open to growing, open to change. accept with gratitude the opportunity to make new choices that are beneficial for you and all life. that opportunity, just like your life, is a gift. ~j “smile, breathe, and go slowly…” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
#karma #consequences #choices #change #grace #opportunity #learning #growth #life #wisdom #gratitude