“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.”

~ Howard Zinn

hope is a practice. hope is seeing with clarity, with an open heart, and a steady mind, and putting these into practice.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

if interested, join me for some mindfulness awareness and lovingkindness meditation this Saturday at 10am pst. session is free or by donation. $10 suggested. 

link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#hope #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #meditation #compassion #courage #kindness #path #practice #SelfCare #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

i know this image has already been posted so many times today, but i’ve been looking at it all night, sitting in awe. a renewed feeling of what i have often felt when looking up at a clear night sky – a combination of the smallness of my life and this moment, yet the vastness of the entire thing, and immense gratitude to be a part of it. stardust looking onto stardust.

this galaxy cluster is SMACS 0723. NASA states on their website, “This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground…The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.”

i wonder what cluster SMACS 0723 looks like now.galaxy clusters can contain 100s to 1000s of galaxies in them. our own Milky Way galaxy has at least 100 billion stars in it (some say possibly up to 400 billion). on average each star has at least one planet orbiting it. some estimate there to be 100 to 200 billion planets or more in our Milky Way galaxy.

there’s no place for hubris in such vastness. no place for pride or ego. no place for trying to control and oppress. no place for taking away rights. no place for war and conquering. awe and gratitude are the only appropriate response, and love. those can be our offerings to each other and to the universe.

looking forward to the release of more photos today (7/12) from the James Webb Telescope.

~j

💫♥️🙏🏻

#JamesWebbTelesope #NASA #space #life #universe #GalaxyClusters #SMACS0723 #JinpaLhaga

information via nasa.gov

📸 Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

one choice at a time. may they all be from love. may they all bring love into being through our words, through our actions.

~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#bellhooksquotes

Posted @withregram • @theinterdependenceproject “Love is an action, never simply a feeling.” – bell hooks⁠
⁠

#love #compassion #metta #mindfulness #breakopenyourheart

being fully human is experiencing all of our emotions. let’s practice allowing space for this, allowing space to express, allowing space to be fully human. that’s what love does. allows space to be.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#emotions #BeingHuman #allow #spaciousness #love #OpenHeart #nonjudgment #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #MrRogersQuotes #FredRogersQuotes

just a quick reminder that if we put forth the effort, we can be miserable no matter where we are. 😂

however, the opposite can also be true! 👍🏻

as my friend, Marty Martin, always says – “Choose joy!” 😁

choosing joy doesn’t mean we won’t have challenging, crummy things happen to us, or that we won’t have difficult times in life. choosing joy, is choosing our perspective, our lens through which we view life. there’s no dark cloud over our lives, there’s no bad luck. there are life events, there are challenges and difficulties – all of which are opportunities to learn, to grow, to practice our love, our compassion, our kindness, our patience, our healing. life is always moving and changing so there is opportunity for newness, for freshness – after winter, spring. 🌻

we get to experience this precious life – that’s something to be joyful about.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#ChooseJoy #joy #perspective #life #love #flow #impermanence #potential #opportunity #path #practice #OpenHeart #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga

how else to tend to a world in need? how else to bring healing? 

openness in heart with a beginner’s mind, is a practice aligning ourselves with life. such openness allows space for clarity and compassion to arise, to see the need, to tend to the need.

the opposite, is death. to be closed, constricted, hardened. this closing, this hardening, this narrowing brings harm and destruction. we are seeing a lot of this right now, in the fear, in the anger, in the violence we are seeing.

stay open, be curious and willing to learn, to grow, to be alive. center in and move from love, rather than fear.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#life #love #OpenHeart #BeginnersMind #path #practice #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #EngagedBuddhism #ThichNhatHanh #ThichNhatHanhQuotes #JinpaLhaga

the journey of a lifetime (…or lifetimes?😉)

and well worth it, befriending ourselves, coming back to the breath, this body, this heart, this mind. invest in yourself, you too deserve your compassion, your kindness, your love. 

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

although it is our own journey to take, we can share in that journey together. if interested, join me for some mindfulness awareness and lovingkindness meditation this Saturday at 10am pst. session is free or by donation. $10 suggested. 

link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #meditation #path #practice #SelfCare #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

happy 87th birthday to His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama! 💫

bows of gratitude for his continued presence and his persistent message of compassion as the vehicle for resolving the world’s problems. may he live in good health for many years to come, continuing to be a light of compassion and peace.

~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏻

from His Holiness:

“Every day, think as you wake up, ‘Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
~
HH The 14th Dalai Lama

📸: Ruven Afanador for TIME

#TheDalaiLama #HHDalaiLama #hhdalailamabirthday #compassion #peace #Bodhisattva #Buddhism #Tibetan #TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #LoveWins #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga

i, too, am fascinated by space and space travel. i love looking up at the stars into this vast mystery we are a part of. 

however, why do we have to go to Mars to have a common goal, to bring us together, when there is so much need here on Earth? if we can’t come together to end the slaughter of children at a schools, or churchgoers, or parade attendees, then we are just distracting ourselves. if we love weapons of war more than life, then we’ll just keep killing each other on Mars as well.

let’s not be distracted.

we have the awesome ingenuity and passion to travel into outer space. let’s also make traveling to the inner space of the heart and mind, just as important.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#Mars #space #SpaceTravel #journey #OpenHeart #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga

i’ve avoided posting today for #July4th , because i feel there’s quite a bit to be discouraged about and mourn, frankly. more on all of those issues and their recent developments in upcoming posts.

for now, today, i’ve mostly had #JaylandWalker on my mind and the #MassShooting in #HighlandPark. where i don’t have words, Bernice King puts it into words quite perfectly.

this is the #StateOfTheUnion and it isn’t good. we have our work cut out for us. if we really want to celebrate #IndependenceDay and #democracy, THEN GET #ENGAGED AND #VOTE.

wishing peace for all departed and their families, and healing for all wounded. 

holding all of this sh*t with love. may flowers one day bloom! 

and may #OpenHearts and #sanity prevail.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻