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it doesn’t have to be this way.

it is important to remember this.

it can be easy to get stuck, stuck in a certain view, stuck in the idea that it has always been this way, so nothing can change. or stuck in the overwhelming sense of it all, that it is too big to do anything about.

but neither of these are really true. so, it is important to not surrender to cynicism or despair.

all things are subject to conditions and change. when we change our view, we can change conditions, and then real practical and beneficial change can take place for ourselves and for the world.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#WakeUp #impermanence #life #love #NewChoices #ChoosePeace #ChooseLove #hope #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art 

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how am i going to practice love today? how am i going to live this life today? what is my offering to the world today? who am i including? who have i left out? can i begin to include them today?

before we get up, get going, and get distracted, we can begin each day asking these questions.

this can be our practice.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#life #love #offering #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart 

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Full moon of great loving-kindness, the light of your wisdom brings peace to living beings, illuminating all without exception.

~ Gandavyuha Sutra

without exception. 

what are we doing in this world, with our words, our actions, our lives, to align with such a moon, to embody lovingkindness and light for all without exception? 

or are we contributing to the clouds that obscure such love and light? 

love and light for all. 

without exception.

#ceasefirenow

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#lovingkindness #wisdom #peace #illumination #OpenHeart #path #practice #GandavyuhaSutra #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #moon #art

🕯️ 

remembering those who didn’t come home from the battlefield, those and their families who have sacrificed so much.

may we value the lives of our women and men in service, in such a way, that war and conflict are the very last course we take, that we find peaceful ways to peace. 

“Peace is every step.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” ~ Joseph Campbell

#MemorialDay2024

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it is deeply important that we stay on course and keep to the path, seeing grasping and aggression, the underlying delusion, and the fear that feeds them for what they are. they make victims of everyone. of course most obviously, those we see being targeted and harmed, but ultimately the perpetrators of harm as well. because of interdependence, no one is left untouched. this is where violence and war seem to go so wrong. people become the targets, rather than the underlying causes and conditions, the ideology, the beliefs, the brokenness that fuels them. so nothing is healed or transformed. systems and structures of inequality, marginalization, oppression, and harm remain in place and grievance, violence, and destruction just begin a new cycle of pain and suffering.

it is we who have the power and choice to stop this. we have the responsibility. the buck stops here.

may hearts open, may wisdom arise.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#TheThreePoisons #RootCauses #suffering #war #interdependence #healing #transformation #OpenHeart #path #practice #ThichNhatHanh #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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“We’ve entered this new era, and we have to be planning for healing just as carefully as others are planning for destruction.”

~ Omid Safi

looking for and to the healers. those who embrace love in its fullness, its wholeness, its totality, who see the folly in rhetoric and actions led by separateness, fear, and aggression, who see in the light of awareness of our interdependence that there is just one flesh wounded. looking to and allowing for the healer within myself to arise and meet this moment.

may this be our practice and path. may hearts open and may wisdom guide us.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#healers #love #wisdom #MedicineBuddha #OpenHeart #path #practice #OmidSafiQuote #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

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“Awakening isn’t snobbish about where and when it reveals itself, so we probably shouldn’t be, either.”

~ Joan Sutherland

no one has a lock on this great mystery. and if they say they do, they are likely still swimming in the sea of delusion.  but it seems to me that those who are aware of our interdependence and who choose to dive into the mystery, seek wisdom and keep their hearts open, engaging this sacred life with empathy and tenderness, choosing to meet circumstances and people with warmth, kindness and compassion, are closer to the truth than any of us who choose greed and aggression, who attempt to solve problems with violence, choosing violence even as such actions cause incredible harm and destruction, solving nothing.

may hearts open, may wisdom arise, and may awakening spring forth!

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#awakening #OpenHearts #love #compassion #nonaggression #nonviolence #wisdom #bodhisattvas #Nagarjuna #JoanSutherland #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

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“If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

taking nothing for granted. seeing the sacred in all things.

recently i listened to cosmologist Brian Cox speak about our universe. the piece of universe we can see, that we are aware of, has something like 2 trillion galaxies of what may be an infinite universe. and within each of these galaxies, averaging same in size as our Milky Way (some bigger, some smaller), about 400 billion stars. perhaps having their own solar system of planets. 

too vast to comprehend. however, we can still know this universe by opening to and knowing even the smallest expression of life. and instead of feeling seemingly insignificant within such vastness, everything and everyone comes to life with importance. we are here.

this can be our practice. 

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#nature #snail #RolyPolyBug #life #universe #sacred #OpenHeart #presence #interdependence #path #practice #RainerMariaRilke #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #BWphotography #photography 

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Enlightenment will be ours when we are able to care for others as much as we now care for ourselves.

~

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche 

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#look #listen #care #empathy #kindness #compassion #OpenHeart #bodhisattvas #path #practice #interdependence #DilgoKhyentseRinpocheQuotes #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #calligraphy

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The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. 

What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature, and its power is never diminished.

~ 

Deng Ming-Dao

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#nonaggression #nonviolence #TruePower #TrueInfluence #moon #nature #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art #Taoism #DengMingDaoQuote