“The actions, thoughts, and words of each of us are important. All of us together are making the world. So we have to ask ourselves: “How am I living? What kind of actions am I taking? Am I a force for good in the world or am I just another person doing nothing to help and therefore making things worse?”

~ Norman Fischer

we are interdependent with other people, this world, and all life.

it is through our words, our actions, our voices, our hands, that healing, generosity, equality, justice, beauty, kindness, compassion, and love manifest.

we have a responsibility to speak up, to rise up and end the harm we see, to be a force for healing and hope in this storm of suffering.

~j

#SitDownRiseUp #BeTheGood #EmbodyLove #FierceCompassion #Bodhisattvas #EngagedBuddhsim #Zen #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

“Hate leaves ugly scars, love leaves beautiful ones.”

~ Mignon McLaughlin

none of us exit this journey unscathed.

let’s leave with beautiful scars.

let’s leave having loved.

~j

🌍❤️🙏🏻

#life #love #wounds #OpenHeart #EngagedBuddhism #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

just keep loving.

just keep loving right on through people’s fear, anger and hate.

put that love into action with compassion – fierce compassion when needed – to end the harm and suffering you see.

and at the end of the day, rest in the love you made and the love that has made and remade you.

~j

#love #practice #life #PlantingSeeds #TheLongArc #EngagedBuddhsim

impermanence.

we ignore it, we run from it.

what about becoming friends with it?

a fleeting moment is all the more sacred, all the more pressing to embody words and actions that bring benefit.

impermanence is opportunity to see directly, clearly and to love fully.

~j

#impermanence #life #Zen #EngagedBuddhism #practice #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

seeds planted

rooted in earth

bathing in light

opening

opening

opening

we grow

~j

#growth #life #interdependence #PlantingSeeds #allowance #process #practice #transformation #EngagedBuddhist #Zen #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

“One day we will realize that big hearts will brings us more peace than big weapons.”

~Anthony Douglas Williams

This week marks the 75th Anniversary of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima (Aug. 6th) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9th).

I’m not posting photos of victims, because of how graphic they are, but I strongly encourage you to view them for the impression they will make upon your heart. We need to bear witness, to remember the horrific nature of nuclear bombs, and the devastation of nuclear warfare.

All weapons that destroy life are heinous, but weapons of such mass destruction and desolation are particularly grotesque.

May we awaken from such cruelty, harm, and suffering, vowing to never use them again.

~j

#Hiroshima #Nagasaki #NoNukes #WakeUp #BearWitness #StayOpen #TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #JMWart #JinpaLhag

there is so much suffering.

may we be instruments of healing to a world in need.

each of us can examine how we speak, how we act, the energy we put out into the world.

we seldom fully see the full ripple effect of our words and actions.

are we adding love or harm?

how are we using our short time here in this life?

it all ends far too soon.

~j

#ThisLife #PlantingSeeds #RightSpeech #RightAction #kindness #practice #EngagedBuddhism #MedicineBuddha #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

One zen student said, “My teacher is the best. He can go days without eating.”

The second said, “My teacher has so much self-control, he can go days without sleep.”

The third said, “My teacher is so wise that he eats when he’s hungry and sleeps when he’s tired.”

also, drink the tea, when drinking tea. drink your tea!

~j

#JustThis!

#Zen #Buddhism

#BeWithYourLife

#DrinkYourTea!

#JMWart #JinpaLhaga

we can do this.

we have all who have gone before us, with us, in us. their wisdom, their legacy.

we are made of the dust from ancient stars.

we’ve got this.

-breathe.

-keep your heart open.

-listen to and embody love.

-speak and act from compassion, fierce compassion when needed.

-remember our interdependence, there is no “other.”

-love overcomes fear

-indifference is death

~j

#TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #OpenHeart #SitDownRiseUp #bodhisattvas #EngagedBuddhsim

#JackKornfield #JinpaLhaga

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil.”

~

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

indeed.

may we be forces of love, light, and a fierce compassion to bring an end to the aggression, the harm and the suffering we are bearing witness to.

~j

#TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #BearWitness #SitDownRiseUp #love #light #FierceCompassion #bodhisattvas #EngagedBuddhism #LOTR #Gandalf #wisdom #JMWart #JinpaLhaga