light.

why not?

it’s always here.

always available.

~j

#light #life #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #photography

it is incredible and inspiring how far things have come. when i was in high school there was not a single LGBTQ+ person out of the closet. we had no gay-straight alliances in school and no positive images in media.

i felt alone, save for the feeling that two of my drama classmates just might be going through the same thing. it wasn’t until college that i connected with a group of friends and the space to allow, to expose my authenticity.

things are quite different now, things are better, a lot better for many of us….but not all. it’s important to realize there are still people who don’t recognize our humanity, our right to exist and love.

and there are many, so many, too many young LGBTQ+ persons who live in an environment of fear, or within a home without love, who worship within a claustrophobic religion, or find they are in a workplace that is hostile. they feel alone and unsafe.

to these persons in our community, young and aged, i say:

Oh Nobly Born,

You who shine light in a myriad of colors,

You who are an expression of beauty,

a manifestation of life,

You who are buddhanature,

awakened and luminous,

You who are teaching the world:

to love better,

to open their hearts,

to see clearly the beauty in diversity,

You are not alone.

You are among the finest.

You are a thread in a lineage of ancestors,

who came before,

and created this space for you

to be loved.

You are loved.

~j

#PrideMonth2021 #PrideMonth #Pride #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ+ #PrideBuddha #Buddha #OpenHeart #EngagedBuddhism #poetry #art #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

although summer is fast approaching, i’ve titled this piece Spring Enso 2021. i’m sharing it today, June 1st, on my two year anniversary of taking Refuge Vows and receiving my Dharma name, Jinpa Lhaga (Tibetan for Generosity Divine Joy).

taking Refuge Vows in Buddhism is in many ways just the beginning, the start of a path and journey, a vow to take responsibility for and engage in one’s life. this reminds me of Spring, full of life, freshness, newness, and possibility, and of planting new seeds for more Springs to come.

always filled with gratitude for my Preceptor of my Refuge Vows, Susan Piver. a truly beneficial teacher to so many. she teaches with lived wisdom, warmth, and an open heart.

i am immensely grateful for this path and practice. may i be of benefit to others.

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

~j

#RefugeVows #Buddhism #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #enso #spring #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

today is Memorial Day in the USA. for my fellow citizens and readers:

take time today, beyond the BBQs and gathering, to remember those who have sacrificed their lives in service. some joined with purpose and others forced through draft. all valuable, all precious, all sacrificed.

having BBQs is not bad, having social media posts is good, but let’s pressure our leaders to do the hard work of making such sacrifice less needed. we will likely always need those who are willing to sacrifice and we owe them our deep gratitude.

defending lives and freedom is necessary and can be motivated by a fierce compassion to end harm, but admittedly not all wars and conflict are this. we must ask ourselves why we are sending those willing to sacrifice into battle and are we truly honoring their willingness to sacrifice and serve.

we can best honor such sacrifice and the lives of those who serve by ending unnecessary war and conflict and making war and conflict overall less necessary.

~j

#MemorialDay2021 #MemorialDay #service #sacrifice #war #conflict

love.

our path and practice.

~j

#love #path #practice #OpenHeart #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #photography #BWphotography

we underestimate the power available to us. our use of energy, our words, our actions, our choices can bring much benefit or harm.

there’s a lot to say about love and a myriad of definitions. our view of love can be often quite superficial and narrow. love is far more spacious and expansive than i believe we often realize.

love is a long game, it is a marathon. love can be our compass and guide. love reflects our interdependence and is embodied with our compassion.

may we embody love, may we abide in love, may we let go into the flow of love.

~j

#love #interdependence #compassion #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga

today is Vesak, a Buddhist holiday commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and death of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. today, i decided to do some art to celebrate.

happy Vesak to all who observe!

may all beings be safe, healthy, happy and at ease! 🙏🏻

~j

#Vesak #BuddhaDay #SiddharthaGautama #Buddha #Buddhism #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

this old place.

i wonder

how many times

now?

i’ve lost count.

perhaps i’ll revisit

again.

~j

#path #practice #samsara #EngagedBuddhism #TibetanPrayerFlags #JinpaLhaga #poetry #JMWart #photography

Unity is not something we are called to create; it’s something we are called to recognize.

~ William Sloan Coffin

when we stub our toe, do our hands immediately without even thinking, move to bring comfort to that toe? or do they chop it off? our body acts as one body, one interdependent system. a unity.

when we live under an illusion of separateness, we are not aligned with reality and we reinforce that separateness through our words and actions. we act out of fear, greed, aggression, we marginalize, dehumanize and oppress the “other”, building walls and going on the attack.

this thinking and behavior becomes habit and patterns. the cycle feeds into itself and we have difficulty seeing clearly or breaking away. this illusion of separateness is our underlying neurosis.

so much harm and suffering comes from this illusion of separateness. when we get a glimpse of the basis of reality – that we are not separate beings, that we are interdependent with all life – we call that, waking up.

we recognize life as interdependent co-arising of phenomena. nothing exists alone. existence itself is unity. this is good news! we don’t have to manufacture what is already manifest. we just have to recognize it. we just have to wake up.

~j

#unity #interdependence #life #meditation #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #Zen #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

If you haven’t wept deeply, you haven’t begun to meditate.

~Ajahn Chah

it is okay to feel. we are feeling, empathetic beings. when we open our hearts to receive the world & this life, emotions arise.

our neurosis comes from identifying w/ our emotions. “i am angry” “i am happy” “i am sad”, pushing away or denying emotions we don’t like & grasping at ones we do. this can create much suffering for ourselves & others.

BUT we are not our emotions. we are something that feels emotions & can observe emotions. like a vast blue sky which sometimes has white fluffy clouds & other times dark stormy clouds, all which pass. sometimes the sky is quite clear & bright! regardless, the sky is the sky no matter the clouds.

in meditation practice, we are encountering ourselves & our life w/ authenticity as it is in the moment, anchored by our sitting & our breath, we can watch emotions arise, allow the feeling, & allow them to pass. we don’t deny or push away, we don’t criticize & we don’t judge.

it is okay to feel. we can even label the feeling w/ tenderness & kindness, “ah, yes, it is you sadness, it is you anger, it is you bliss.” & then return our attention to what is our life at this moment – our sitting & our breathing.

there seem to be two myths around feeling emotions & recognizing emotions. one is that it is somehow weak to do so, but nothing could be further from the truth. feeling & recognizing emotions is authentic & quite brave. being in touch w/ emotions connects us to others who are also experiencing emotions in this life.

the second myth is that we are our emotions, but we are not our emotions (which change often due to outside circumstances). believing so, closes us off from the freshness & newness of life & creates a false identity of who we are, a role we begin to believe we need to play.

but we don’t have to fall for either myth. we can learn to be w/ our lives in a present & authentic way, while also aware of all that arises & falls away around us & within us, including the emotions we feel. meditation practice can help us learn this.

~j

#WorldMeditationDay #meditation #path #practice #OpenHeart #EngagedBuddhism #emotions #JMWart #JinpaLhaga #art