it has a name, and that name is assault…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

Let us be clear about this. 
The uproar and controversy is not about Donald Trump using the word “pussy” and then simply needing to apologize for that. 
If this is not clear, I have an exercise that I would like you to try to assist in illuminating the real issue:
Picture a female person in your life. It could be your mom, an aunt, your daughter, your niece, a cousin, or a friend. The key is to start with someone that you care about, someone whose well-being is something that you care about. Now picture that person, this female relative or friend, standing in front of you. Now picture a man whom you may or may not know walking up, kissing her without her permission, and then taking his hand and putting it on her genitals. She has not asked for this, she has not given permission.
This is what Donald Trump says he can, and does do, because he is a star.
This is called assault. period.
Unless this is something that you want done to your daughter, your niece, or any other relative, or friend whom you care about, unless this is something you want done to any other female human being that someone else cares about, then I would think you would want to stand up against this type of behavior and language, with a raised voice and firm resolution, from the deepest place within your heart and bones.
~j

10.08.16

not knowing…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


Even though we’re making our way through an enormous mystery, we often think we do a pretty good job of trying to explain just how things are—until we actually experience the thing we’re trying to explain. Then we realize our words and ideas are like trying to grab a single drop of rain in a thunderstorm.
~

Ed Brickell
#BeginnersMind #contemplation #words #ideas #mystery #NotKnowing #JMWart

shine your light…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


If we keep our own light selfishly hidden, it will only provide a limited amount of illumination. But when we share our light with others, we do not diminish our own light. Rather, we increase the amount of light available to all.~Master Sheng-Yen

#light #shine #generosity #practice #compassion #kindness #bodhicitta #bodhisattva #meditation #JMWart

we practice for times like these…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


This is what we’ve been practicing for: the situations where the practice doesn’t come easily. When the winds of change reach hurricane force, our inner refuge of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment is the only thing that will keep us from getting blown away. 
~

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

#practice #meditation #change #refuge #mindfulness #concentration #discernment #grounded #steady #presence #JMWart

the next step…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


my reading preparation…”Start Here Now: An Open-Hearted Guide to the Path and Practice of Meditation” by Susan Piver

“Turning the Mind Into an Ally” by Sakyong Mipham

“Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, & Wisdom” by Rick Hanson, PH.D. with Richard Mendius, MD
…after 8 years of a personal meditation practice and seeing the benefit, in two weeks I begin a nine week course through The Open Heart Project in Shamatha (Sanskrit for “peacefully abiding”) meditation to both strengthen and grow my own practice and to become a certified meditation instructor. grateful for this opportunity and next step on the journey.
~j

09.13.16
#Shamatha #meditation #practice #Shambhala #Buddhism #TheOpenHeartProject #gratitude

9/11 15 years later…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


15 years ago the soul of this country received a shocking wound. the sky faded dark under ash, confusion and fear. the rug pulled out from under us. and in such a horrific moment we rose. the best of people rose to the surface wading through tears and differences.
it was a shift and an opportunity to stay with the rawness, the tenderness we felt, the feelings that inspired and motivated a sense of connection and community.
but we have forgotten, as we often do, save for special anniversaries set aside to remember. each of those, a chance to start fresh yet again…only to forget again.
“never forget, never again” is fine and well, but let’s really mean it and make it so through our own hearts, words and actions. that’s where the work is that needs to be done, that’s where the real change will begin.
there seems to be more fear and anxiety today and it is stoked by those who would seek gain from this suffering. this has only led to further division.

as we have seen, just naming it or calling it untruth and getting into a battle of words simply leads to more suffering and seems to evoke little or no change. 
it is time for a shift. we, each of us, needs to answer the call to heal. using our words, our actions, our very lives to bring benefit to a world thirsty for an end to such suffering. we need to be healers, to be bodhisattvas, shining a light on the alternatives to fear and anxiety, to anger and hate, to division, cynicism, conspiracy and demagoguery, aggression and violence.
this is a journey of heart and mind, so these are what we need to work with.
let’s get to work.
~j

09.11.16

  

#Sept11th #September11th #15thAnniversary #shift #healers #bodhisattvas #community #sangha #interdependence #light #life #MedicineBuddha #meditation #JMWart

breathe deep and exhale…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


life has room for all of it. the beautiful and the messy. 
and your heart? 

your heart has the capacity to hold it all. 
and your mind?

your mind has the wisdom to let it all go.
breathe deep and exhale 🙏🏻
#ThisIsIt #NoNeedForPerfection #heart #mind #wisdom #life #LetGo #flow

all that stillness can hold…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


Being fully in the stillness was not about self-isolation or self-help but about standing in radical relationship with all that stillness holds—all the grief, all the loss, all the loneliness—and standing with it, rather than rushing to reason it away, arrest it, or lock it in a box.
~

Jasmine Syedullah

#stillness #meditation #presence #BeHereNow #TheWisdomOfNoEscape #ThisIsYourLife #RadicalRelationship