i’ve been a mess over the murder of Elijah McClain.

i haven’t had the words to post about it, honestly. i don’t know if Elijah was on the spectrum or not. though i suspect he was, i haven’t seen it confirmed. i have nephews who are Black and on the spectrum. who very well, one day, could be out and about waving their arms stemming or scripting and someone could report them for acting strange as the shop owner did. Are they going to be left alone, or given assistance, or killed by police for not reading social cues or not responding in a normative way??? Elijah did nothing wrong. This is so cruel what happened to him. He was walking home from purchasing an iced tea. He was dancing around waving his arms. He was wearing an open face ski mask because he was anemic. He was close to home. Why couldn’t the police have just walked/escorted him home?

Elijah played violin for shelter animals, he was loved by everyone for his kind and gentle spirit, he only weighed 140 lbs and he was anemic – what threat was he posing? Police once again assumed the worst, didn’t listen the the pleas for help and inability to breathe, ignored the vomiting.

I encourage you to read up on this, but also to look at these photos of this gentle soul who was killed and read his final words before his life was taken.

#ElijahMcClain

#JusticeForElijahMcClain

#BlackLivesMatter

we have this life, this moment to embody love.

there’s no guarantee of another.

how will we use it? how will we offer it?

compassion is how we embody love.

compassion is our embodied love in action.

even if no one else answers the call, we have a responsibility to this life – which is to say our life, others’ lives, and all life – to be embodied love, which we do through our compassion which is our love in action, in service to end the harm and suffering we see.

~j

#compassion

#SitDownRiseUp

#EngagedBuddhism

seeds buried in deep

life stirs beneath this winter

love calls us to rise

~j

#rise #life #love #TheLongArc #PlantingSeeds #EngagedBuddhism #Zen #haiku #enso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

just a reminder as we see examples of those in authority and seats of power choosing aggression and violence as their way…

especially when said power and authority is abused and used to further oppress the already marginalized, rebuff inalienable rights, and maintain the status quo.

~j

#Vote

#SitDownRiseUp

#EngagedBuddhism

we go to where there is suffering, this is the practice.

we go to where the suffering is in our own hearts and minds, and go out into the world to where there is suffering. this is the practice.

we sit with our suffering, to bear witness to our suffering, to know our suffering, to attend to our suffering, to allow our suffering to heal. this is the practice.

we go into the world to where there is suffering to bear witness to the suffering, to attend to the suffering, to change the conditions that have led to the suffering, so that there can be healing. this is the practice.

we must recognize the truth that we are interdependent and interconnected, one body of Life. it is our responsibility to attend to, to help, to love and heal the part of the body that is being harmed and is suffering. it can be uncomfortable, it can be challenging, but it is the work of Love.

this is why we say #BlackLivesMatter.

this is why we say #NoJusticeNoPeace.

this is why we say #SitDownRiseUp.

this is why we call it #EngagedBuddhism for Buddhists. ~j

we think we like kindness and want kindness, but for many of us if we take an honest look, we will see that what we really want is “niceness.”

niceness floats on the surface hoping for a smooth ride, but kindness goes deep below.

niceness protects the status quo, kindness upends it, breaks it up.

kindness sees the harm and wants to end it, especially necessary when it sees the harm coming from positions of authority and power.

kindness goes deep to the heart of the reality that is happening to find the cruelty and end it, to find the suffering and heal it.

kindness is justice.

kindness is liberation.

kindness is love in action.

~j

#BlackLivesMatter #NoJusticeNoPeace

#kindness #love #healing #PlantingSeeds #TheLongArc #EngagedBuddhism

we are seeing power without love in the forms of aggression, brutality, and a devaluing of life from the highest authorities.

BUT we are also seeing the power of love in service to others, in the form of communities rising up together to say –

Enough.

Black lives matter.

No justice, no peace.

love when matched with power in service to others, can be very powerful, can sustain, and can make deep and vast change.

we can do this.

~j

#blacklivesmatter

#nojusticenopeace

#community

#love

#power

#BlackLivesMatter

it shouldn’t have to be said,

but it NEEDS to be said over and over again to our families, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, our local, state, and federal representation through voice, action, activism, art – small and large.

in Buddhism it is stated that we are interdependent, and Dr. King stated the same thing.

what does this mean? it means i cannot exist without you and all that is around us. everything is a co-arising of Life. this also means that there is no true justice or true peace unless there is justice and peace for every single life. we are not truly free if another life is oppressed. how can we be? we can act like it all we want, but it isn’t true freedom, it isn’t true peace. it also means that there is no end to collective suffering as long as there is still individual suffering.

this is a truth we have to embody down to our every cell, if we want this world to change and all life to be valued as the sacred embodiment of love that it is.

the time is now.

~j

#interdependence #rise #life #suffering #EngagedBuddhism #Zen #Enso #BlackLivesMatterEnso #JMWart #JinpaLhaga