Hope is manifest through the work of people who refuse to stop loving.

I know things feel ominous and heavy at the moment, and for good reason. I feel it to. Our eyes and ears are not deceiving is. The gut check is real.

What is also true is that I refuse to stop loving. I refuse to not be a vehicle, a manifestation, an embodiment of love.

Those in power can do a lot, but they have no power over our love and our ability to love. That is our birthright and as long as we are breathing, as long as our hearts remain open, we can put our love into action and benefit this world with our love.

And we should be crystal clear. Love is not concerned with being “nice” or keeping the status quo. Love goes to where there is suffering. Love in action, in opposition to cruelty, harm, and injustice is manifest as fierce compassion.

May we embrace or ability to manifest our love as fierce compassion on behalf of all beings and life itself.

~j

#VOTE

#GetOutTheVote

#Resist

#SitDownRiseUp

#FierceCompassion

#EngagedBuddhism

#JinpaLhaga

the equinox is a time of equal light and equal dark.

and here we are on the precipice of significant change.

may this time of lessening daylight, inspire reflection and action.

may it inspire our inner light to shine brighter, with focus, with precision, as we embody love.

~j

#AutumnalEquinox

#autumn #Fall

#MyFavoriteSeason

#OuterDarknessInnerLight

#Shine

#EngagedBuddhism

#JinpaLhaga

#JMWart

#enso

#VOTE

lost in the bloodshed
we keep fighting to find peace
when peace is the way

~j

#InternationalDayOfPeace
#PeaceIsTheWay
#peace
#EndViolence
#TheLongArc
#PlantingSeeds
#EngagedBuddhism
#haiku
#JinpaLhaga
#JMWart

With so much change and the ground falling away beneath our feet, darkness and the possibility of destruction loom large.
BUT so does the potential for waking up, for coming out of this liminal moment more aware, more engaged, more open, more compassionate.
We may feel overwhelmed, but we can also get to work.
Hope is manifest through the work of people who refuse to stop loving.

~j

#VOTE

#RBG

#SitDownRiseUp

#EngagedBuddhism

#JinpaLhaga

we are here in this time, together.

we have a responsibility to each other and all of life around us.

what do we do?

we remind the world that she is loved.

how do we do this?

we embody love through our words and actions (compassion) where we are at.

if not now, when?

if not here, where?

if not us, who?

~j

#VOTE

#SitDownRiseUp

#JewishWisdom

#EngagedBuddhism

#JinpaLhaga

Bows of gratitude for the heroic bodhisattva, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for fighting for justice and us for so long. It was never her burden to bear to save us from what we are going through or what may be ahead. However, her bravery and bold spirit of resilience can serve as an inspiration and motivation for us to engage fully with what is happening, and put our own brave and bold spirit of resilience into action.

may she rest in power, may she rest in peace 🙏🏻

~j

#RIPRBG #RBG #RBGenso #resilience #bravery #bodhisattva #SitDownRiseUp #VOTE #EngagedBuddhism #zen #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

this old thing.

Resilience,

is its name.

we are stronger

than

we know.

~j

#HaveHeart #love #resilience #SitDownRiseUp #EngagedBuddhism #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

rather than merely some romantic expression or light sentiment, love is a prime agent of transformation and change. love is both the fuel and the vehicle (we call compassion). this love is found in our hearts. our work, is to keep our hearts open through all the experiences in this life, so that love can be free and flow. this is work. hard work. brave work. dirt beneath the nails kind of work and we begin with ourselves.

I read once that transformation comes from either great suffering or great love. the world has enough pain and loss, and our minds in relationship to these create enough suffering, so we don’t need to contribute to suffering. our role is to contribute to love and life being loved. our work is keeping our hearts open and helping others to do the same.

genuine transformation and lasting change happens at the heart level. our hearts, our family’s hearts, our community’s hearts, our nation’s hearts, our world’s hearts.

not everyone is ready or willing to do the work on themselves, so pain continues, suffering continues. that’s ok. we who are ready and willing, do the work. the work is never really done, but we continue because the work is worthy in and of itself. by its very nature, the work of love is worthy.

an additional point: we don’t wait for everyone’s hearts to change so harm ends. while we do the work of keeping our hearts open, of embodying love, to allow love to flow, to benefit others and bring about genuine transformation and change, we can still put pressure on elected officials to enact policies that benefit and do not harm, we can still advocate through nongovernmental organizations to bring about benefit and ending harm. those actions are also actions of love, and voting can also be an act of love.

let’s do the work. the world needs it, life depends on it.

~j

#VOTE #SpeakOut #SitDownRiseUp #EngagedBuddhism #bodhisattvas #love #JinpaLhaga

for me the foundation of Buddhist wisdom is an awareness of our interdependence. we do not exist in a vacuum, as an independent “self.” we exist, because other life exists. without the elements, without the sun, the rain, minerals, our parents, those who support us in a myriad of ways (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually), we would not be here in this form as this “me” or have this life as we have it now. waking up to this can give rise to great humility and gratitude. and in waking up to this, we can see the value in all life around us, treating all life with reverence – because we are that life and that life is us, there is no separation.

is this so different from Jesus’ words in Mark, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”?

the inequity and injustice we see, the individual and structural racism we see, the lack of empathy we see, the rhetoric of aggression we see, the incitement of violence we see are all evidence of our failure in recognizing our interdependence and loving our neighbor as ourself.

live with reverence for yourself and others.

…and #VOTE.

~j

#interdependence #LoveYourNeighborAsYourself #SitDownRiseUp #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #YogiTea

apocalyptic

darkened orange skies rain ash

over grieved nation

~j

#FireEnso

may all be safe, may all be well 🙏🏻

#VOTE

#SitDownRiseUp

#wildfires

#EngagedBuddhism

#zen #enso #haiku

#JinpaLhaga #JMWart