do no harm.

this phrase can sum up the first of Five Precepts in Buddhism that lay Buddhists follow. though, the precept consists of a prohibition on killing, it is often generally interpreted as a prohibition on harming.
most of us aren’t running around killing others. most of us understand the harm that causes, but if we allow our awareness to open, we may see that there are many types of death, and this precept invites us to investigate the more subtle ways we harm and destroy with our thoughts, words, actions, with our consumption, our indifference, our non-caring.

the Precepts aren’t commandments in our traditional understanding of that word. they are more like guidelines for living a life that is beneficial and non-harming. Buddhism is concerned with recognition of suffering and then acting in ways to reduce or end suffering. the Five Precepts beginning with the First Precept, are basically saying, “Don’t do this and you’ll reduce suffering.”

this view of non-harming includes all life – including ourselves. we can look into our lives and ask ourselves if we are acting in ways that bring harm to ourselves or others, how can we change this to bring benefit?

i see the Precepts as an invitation to practice having an open heart and embodying love for myself and for others. and the key word is practice. we aren’t looking for perfection – to be perfect or without fault, or being right or wrong, we are looking to reduce our participation in harm and suffering, we are looking to engage our loving, empathetic hearts, to live with compassion in this world.
~j

*if you like this art, you can have it as a variety of prints and products found at JMWart, my online Redbubble store. you can visit directly at JMWart.redbubble.com or via my website (link in bio) 👍🏻🙏🏻

#FirstPrecept #FivePrecepts #DoNotKill #DoNotHarm #nonharming #OpenHeart #empathy #compassion #lovingkindness #love #Buddhism #path #practice #Zen #calligraphy #art #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

i’m also not confident that we in the richest industrialized countries are willing to sacrifice in the way needed to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change we have ahead of us, much less avoid the most disastrous effects.

the alarms have been sounding for decades to avoid this & we’ve pressed on w/ insatiable consumption at the cost of life on this planet, including human life in the poorest countries. the harm of a materialistic colonial mindset has come to bear. we are now in an existential crisis. the food chain is already disrupted & extreme weather events have become more regular. it seems to me that the general public (at least in the richest countries) don’t have a grasp at just how bad things will likely get, even w/in the next decade or two.

this will eventually affect everyone, eventually not even wealth will protect against this, but no doubt the poorest countries, the nonindustrialized countries who have not contributed to this crisis, will feel it the worst. even the poor & marginalized w/in the rich industrialized nations will feel it worse. how tragically unfair. this should grieve us.
we will need to learn how to live w/in this time, how to sacrifice comfort & live w/ being uncomfortable. we won’t have a choice. this will be hardest for the richest, the most privileged. to learn to let go.

we haven’t valued, respected or listened to the wisdom traditions of Indigenous communities who have for numerous generations lived in harmony w/ nature.we haven’t loved other life more than our individual comfort & pleasure. there’s a cost for that.

perhaps now though, the direness of this moment will wake us up to love. if we can open our hearts to this moment, allow our natural empathy to arise, perhaps compassion will be our compass & we will do what is needed. if we choose to do this, i still have hope. life is resilient.
~j

Posted @withregram • @bbcnews Former US President Barack Obama has told the COP26 climate conference: “We are nowhere near where we need to be.”

(📷 Reuters)
#BarackObama #COP26BBC #BBCNews
#COP26 #climatechange #climatecrisis #life #interdependence #OpenHeart #empathy #compassion #path #practice #JinpaLhaga

it is so deeply concerning to see so many, including first responders, refuse to vaccinate and then also refuse to test regularly. i don’t understand this resistance to everything approach.

perhaps it is nefarious, perhaps cynical political gamesmanship, perhaps people who have lived in an alternate timeline, now living in this one. whatever the case. in this timeline, in this reality, vaccine mandates are nothing new. 

as we’ve been reminded, George Washington mandated the smallpox vaccine during the Revolutionary War. he wrote to John Hancock issuing the mandate in February of 1777: “Finding the smallpox to be spreading much and fearing that no precaution can prevent it from running through the whole of our army, I have determined that troops shall be inoculated…This expedient may be attended with some inconveniences and some disadvantages, but yet I trust in its consequences will have the most happy effects. Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the army in the natural way and rage with its virulence we should have more to dread from it than from the sword of the enemy.”

in regards to schools, in 1922 the Supreme Court upheld laws requiring vaccination for entry into public schools. and although we are seeing attacks on iconic children’s tv figures for promoting vaccination, this too is nothing new. Big Bird being attacked? well what took so long, Big Bird has been promoting vaccination for decades and he’s not the only one (see pictures attached along with some other childhood heroes promoting vaccinations decades ago.)

so don’t hate. vaccinate – if you are eligible and able…or agree to regular testing. it isn’t a personal attack on individual rights to end a pandemic that has taken nearly 800,000 lives just in our country alone, and 5 million lives worldwide.

~j

#vaccines #immunization #pandemic #COVID19 #community #empathy

so that’s how it’s done – i knew it!
😂👽🛸💫🙏🏻

*if you like this art, you can have it as a variety of prints or on various products found at JMWart, my online Redbubble store. you can visit directly at JMWart.redbubble.com or via my website (link in bio) 👍🏻🙏🏻

#CropCircles #aliens #alien #ufo #art

#illustration #cartoon #JMWart

sharing some more of my candlelight art for Diwali 🕯
may light overcome darkness and knowledge overcome ignorance💫
~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

*if you like this art, you can have it as a variety of prints or on various products found at JMWart, my online Redbubble store. you can visit directly at JMWart.redbubble.com or via my website (link in bio) 👍🏻🙏🏻

#Diwali #light #knowledge #love #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

happy Diwali to my friends who observe!
may light overcome darkness and knowledge overcome ignorance. 🕯

~j⭕️❤️🙏🏻

*if you like this art, you can have it as a variety of prints or on various products found at JMWart, my online Redbubble store. you can visit directly at JMWart.redbubble.com or via my website (www.jaysenwaller.com) 👍🏻🙏🏻

#Diwali #light #knowledge #love #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art #calligraphy

love is our most powerful force within this time. transformative for our own heart and outward into the world.it inspires, motivates, connects, heals, strengthens, and sustains.~j

excerpt from the Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha’s Words on Loving-Kindness

(translated from the Pali by The Amaravati Sangha)

“Wishing: In gladness and in safety,

May all beings be at ease.

Whatever living beings there may be;

Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,

The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,

The seen and the unseen,

Those living near and far away,

Those born and to-be-born —

May all beings be at ease!

 

Let none deceive another,

Or despise any being in any state.

Let none through anger or ill-will

Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life

Her child, her only child,

So with a boundless heart

Should one cherish all living beings;

Radiating kindness over the entire world:

Spreading upwards to the skies,

And downwards to the depths;

Outwards and unbounded,

Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down

Free from drowsiness,

One should sustain this recollection.”

*if you like this art, you can have it as a variety of prints or on various products found at JMWart, my online Redbubble store. you can visit directly at JMWart.redbubble.com or via my website (www.jaysenwaller.com)

#MettaSutta #Metta #Maitri #Lovingkindness #OpenHeart #Buddhism #Zen #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art #calligraphy

👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻🌍🙏🏻

Posted @withregram • @bbcnews Sir David Attenborough told world leaders at the COP26 climate conference that the future of young people should provide impetus to “turn tragedy into triumph” on climate change.

The naturalist said: “In my lifetime I’ve witnessed a terrible decline. In yours you could – and should – see a wonderful recovery.”

The burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities jeopardises “everything we have achieved in the last 10,000 years,” he said. “We are already in trouble, the stability we all depend on is breaking.”

“This story is one of inequality as well as instability. Those who’ve done the least to cause this problem are being the hardest hit.”

Click the link in our bio for the latest news from the conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

#DavidAttenborough #COP26BBC #BBCNews

“Nature speaks to us.”

indeed it does. and we all should be listening to our Indigenous family who have been listening for generations upon generations. the wisdom traditions of connection to earth and life are vital if we seek to transform our current crisis situation with climate change.
🌍❤️🙏🏻

#climatechange

Posted @withregram • @washingtonpost At just 34 years old, Dana Tizya-Tramm has risen not only through elected ranks, but from the depths of addiction and trauma to become the youngest leader in the First Nation’s history.

And he’s used that mandate to aggressively combat what he says is among the most pressing threats to his people: climate change.

The shifting Arctic is squeezing the Vuntut Gwitchin on multiple fronts. Tizya-Tramm says less predictable caribou migration patterns have meant some villages can go years without a successful hunt, and the spawn of certain salmon species has dropped so low that fishing has been severely restricted in recent years.

“Nature speaks to us,” he said. “Just not in English.” With Tizya-Tramm at the helm, the community is listening. In 2019, the Vuntut Gwitchin became among the first Indigenous peoples in Canada to declare a climate emergency — a move that catapulted them into the international limelight.

That same year they set a target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and as they strive toward the goal, the First Nation has been working to build among the largest solar farms in the Arctic.

Read more by tapping the link in Washington Post IG bio.

today is All Souls’ Day, a day in which all those who have past are remembered.

strictly speaking it is a day of remembrance within the Catholic and some other Christian traditions for the faithful who have departed.
however, the spirit of this day and the benefit of honoring those who have past, who have transitioned, who are beyond this particular time and place, is one that can be practiced by any of us and can help us to still feel connected to our ancestors and loved ones.

in that spirit, i thought i’d share this quote from the BARDO THODOL: Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State by Padmasambhāva, also commonly known as the Tibetan Book of The Dead. i recently came upon this quote from the text and found it really beautiful. so much so, i’ve begun to regularly incorporate it into my practice for those i remember and who have past. the words are a reminder for those who have past to remember and also for those who remain to share in thought and prayer for those who have past. in both cases, the practice is done to help guide oneself or another person who has past through their transition beyond.

of course, Christian and Buddhist traditions are quite distinct and have their own cosmology, etc. but nearly all my teen through adult life, i’ve seen undercurrents, streams of thought, belief, and reflection that provide some common threads in various spiritual traditions. i think these commonalities speak to our shared humanity, our shared story and also speak to a greater truth that no one tradition holds on its own. as is often said in the Zen tradition, they are all fingers pointing to the moon, not the moon itself. so we point, all of us in our various ways, reflecting the light of the moon, the light within our own hearts, where that primordial and absolute love resides.

may all be well, may all be free and at ease.
~j

#AllSoulsDay #Catholic #Christian #BardoThodol #Tibetan #Buddhism #life #death #path #practice #offering #prayer #OpenHeart #Beyond #JinpaLhaga