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“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart.” ~ Dorothy Day

daily, i see otherwise kind, generous people aligning themselves, justifying, supporting, even celebrating the targeting & oppression of others to the point of immense harm & cruelty. how does the heart get to such a place? each of us has the potential to embody darkness, fear, cruelty & a hardening of the heart. but each of us, also has the ability to tap into the underlying love from which we come & can draw immense strength, clarity, & warmth to benefit this world. not loving our neighbor is not an option. we must love each other without category or exception, to survive. Jesus knew this, Buddha knew this, & many others. it’s on us to begin with our own heart, to do the work, honor our innermost being, & knowingly-intentionally embody the love we are & the world needs.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#love #revolution #DorothyDay #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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a note from December 2016, just over a month from the election of Trump to his first term. words i wrote to gird myself for what i knew would be ahead & hopefully inspire others to know their light & the power of shining that light in the face of such darkness.

words, that remain relevant perhaps even more than then, & that i offer again nearly 10 years later.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#light #power #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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Love is not passive. Love does not cooperate with inhumanity. Love is an active force for peace, justice, and righteousness.

–

Bernice King

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#love #power #BerniceKing #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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this is a dangerous moment.
may awareness, clarity, wisdom, & courage arise. may love have the final word.
~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏼

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“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly…Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK Jr. was a prophet in the truest sense – one who sees clearly, who knows the heart of love, & has the courage to speak truth to power. it cost him his life, as it has for other prophets throughout history. part of the truth of seeing clearly & knowing love is to see & know that we are interdependent w/ each other & all life. Buddhism teaches this w/ sharp clarity. MLK Jr. understood this. the truth of interdependence is a threat to those who misunderstand & abuse power, because it undermines such ideology. if we understand & know our interdependence then how can we marginalize or oppress, or embrace the cruelty, brutalization, & destruction of others we are currently seeing? if we are seeing our situation clearly, our interdependence, & we know love fully, then we can’t, & likewise we are compelled by love to speak up & take action to end such harm & suffering.

~j

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#MLKday #MLKJr #interdependence #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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needed reminder.

where we exclude people, no matter the reason, is where we deny God, deny life, deny love.

this is where our work is. the work of continually opening our hearts & expanding our capacity to love & see fully & clearly.

~j

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#love #OpenHeart #inclusive #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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strong back, open heart

when we take our seat

or rise in action,

may we do so with

the full force of love.

path & practice for a suffering world in need, embodying the bodhisattva path of loving our neighbor without exception or exclusion. 

this is the way.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#LoveThyNeighbor #bodhisattvas #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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if the intention of those who wield their power in oppressive & cruel ways, is to overwhelm us, then it can be a form of resistance to simply tend to what is in front of us with open hearts, wisdom, courage, & fierce compassion. each word we speak, each action we take that calls out harm & tends to the suffering we see in front of us, has a ripple effect. with each word of love, with each action imbued with love, we are planting seeds.

~j

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#DoGood #GoodTrouble #PlantingSeeds #PeacePilgrim #JinpaLhaga

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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.

 ~ 

The Buddha 

in The Dhammapada

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#Buddha #Dhammapada #empathy #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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the cruelty, the shocking aggression & violence, it’s not a mistake. it’s on purpose with the hope to numb us or throw us into deep despair as they continue to escalate with no respect for the law, for the constitution, or for human life.

but no matter how dark the night is that they bring forth, the sun is always shining. they can’t stop the sun from shining, & i see it shining everyday in the hearts of every courageous person who bears witness with their eyes & their camera phones, documenting the inhumanity of this moment, using their voices and bodies to call to the conscience of those lost in their aggression & cult-like loyalty to come back to their humanity.

those using oppressive power will try to make it as dark as possible, my friends, but each of us has the choice to keep our light shining, to recognize the sun in our heart shining in each of us, for each other, & for this world.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#sun #light #shine #JinpaLhaga #JMWart