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so strikingly similar to the bodhisattva vow and path in Buddhism.

may this be our path and practice, for the sake of ourselves and all others who are suffering. may our lives be a benefit to all.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#StFrancisPrayer #InstrumentsOfPeace #SaintFrancisOfAssisi #BodhisattvaVow #bodhisattvas #peace #love #OpenHeart #healing #path #practice #JinpaLhaga

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this moment in time is so fraught with reactive energy, with anger. emotions are high, and for a good reason, because there is much suffering. but in the heat of it all, there is a blindness to empathy for one another.

i’ve seen people be attacked from all sides just expressing empathy for the suffering. for expressing their love and empathy for their Jewish friends, for expressing their opposition to anti-Semitism and horror of the attacks on Oct. 7th. for expressing their empathy and deep concern for Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, especially the children and families in Gaza dying by the thousands, and their opposition to Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiments. some have expressed that they’ve felt frozen, because they are afraid of saying the wrong thing in the face of so much suffering. i know i have felt that way at times as well. threading an impossible needle of empathy and love.

i think this quote embodies some beneficial advice at this time. advise that i am attempting to use to guide my words and actions. 

may we move in the direction of love, of empathy and compassion towards all who are suffering without discrimination or favor, leaving no one out. 

as astonishing as it may be, such a position will be unfavorable to some. we can’t please everyone. however, our loyalty, our vow, our practice is to embody love and healing in this world for all who need it. so walk, speak, offer your hands, your art, your heart and mind in service to the transformative power of love.

beyond the duality and delusion is oneness. we are interdependent. we are family. we are in this together. 

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#love #OpenHeart #bodhisattvas #empathy #compassion #path #practice #Israel #Gaza #war #JinpaLhaga #JohnPatrickShanleyQuotes

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we would benefit from more deep looking and less bypassing and dissonance. 

there is a desperate need for compassion at this moment, born from empathy. 

and where empathy is not readily available, usually due to our own bias, blindness or lack of imagination, we should seek to have understanding. we can do this by bearing witness, deeply paying attention, through mindful looking and mindful listening while maintaining an open heart.

maybe then we can see through the delusions that continue to cause and perpetuate harm, the delusion that we are somehow separate, rather than of one family, of one life.

this is a clarifying moment.

we are in this together. 

we must be, for future generations. 

we must be, for the children. 

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#compassion #empathy #understanding #BearingWitness #DeepLooking #listening #OpenHeart #Israel #Palestine #Gaza #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #ThichNhatHanhQuotes

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All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. 

~ St. Francis of Assisi

in the face of so much mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical suffering, may we be embodiments of love and wisdom, lighting the path toward ending suffering, not adding to it.

may hearts open, may wisdom arise.

~j
⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#darkness #light #candle #suffering #love #wisdom #OpenHeart #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art #SaintFrancisOfAssisi #StFrancis #SaintFrancisQuotes

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ultimately no matter what anyone else does around us or even to us, our words and actions are our responsibility. 

whether we invoke or add to the darkness, or illuminate the world around us with our love, is our choice.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#choices #light #shadow #love #OpenHeart #wisdom #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #MayaAngelouQuotes

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we must be mindful

treading carefully

in this moment

to not easily dismiss

the injury, the grief,

the generational trauma

of others.

lest we alienate the suffering

with our lack of empathy

and heart.

we must be mindful

treading carefully

in this moment

when our sight is set

on a “justice”

that blinds us to empathy

that we don’t get lost

within

the landscape of vengeance.

its

mountains of righteousness

its

valleys of fear

its

waves of anger.

in the death of the innocent

we lose our cause

we lose ourselves

we lose

what it means to be

human (humane)

becoming the very monster

we hate and seek to slay

planting new seeds of death

and suffering

for generations to come.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#terrorism #hurt #harm #grief #suffering #war #hate #violence #vengeance #trauma 

#empathy #love #PlantingSeeds #OpenHeart #future #justice #peace #life #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

*RUNE KEY

Berkano – Birth/Growth

Raidho – Journey/Evolution

Wunjo – Joy/Comfort

Gebo – Gifts/Sacrifice

Sowilo – Sun/Realization

“So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.”
~ Pema Chödrön.

🕊️♥️🙏🏼

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Happy Halloween (and Samhain for those who observe it) to you, my friends!!

🎃👻🧛🏻‍♂️🕷️🐺🧙🏻‍♀️🕸️

may we learn to shine our light in even the darkest of times! 🕯️

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#Halloween #Samhain #Dark #Light #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #RamDassQuotes

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no one is forcing us to sit and breathe with our pain, to alchemize it within our heart, our body of love,  transforming it into precious life, instead of transmitting it to others as harm and death.

what a miracle this heart and body are, born of Love’s lingering stardust. bright, burning, luminous.

the dark is just forgotten light. 

may we remember who we are, that we are of each other, for each other, embodiments of the vast oneness, from beginning-less time. embodiments of Love.

what is vengeance, but a prison of forgotten love and light? 

be free.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#love #light #OpenHeart #alchemy #interdependence #OneLove #JinpaLhaga #SanayaRomanQuotes

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i am grieving, this night as the ones before

the lives so viciously ended on October the 7th.

the mothers, the fathers, the daughters and sons, babies. babies.

the sisters, the brothers, grandparents, and friends. gone. gone.

i am grieving the trauma. rivers and oceans of tears and blood.

i am grieving the taken, stolen and held hostage.

their families waiting. waiting.

i am grieving the fear this has awakened in so many. 

the fear in my friends’ eyes.

i am grieving the loss of soul that can so callously commit such horror 

and destruction.

i am grieving anti-Semitism and its rise. 

i am grieving the loss of conscience that aligns with terror.

i am grieving the loss of awareness drowning in a sea of confusion and conflation.

i am grieving the innocent caught in the fiery fury of revenge.

the mothers, the fathers, the daughters and sons, babies. babies.

the sisters, the brothers, grandparents, and friends. gone. gone.

cut off. no water, no food, no fuel, no communication out or in.

i am grieving loyalty to governments instead of principle.

what about the injured in hospitals 

desperate to hold onto this one precious life?

where do parents run to protect their children? 

i am grieving the trauma. mountains and valleys of rubble and blood.

i am grieving justice lost in pursuit of vengeance.

how many thousands must perish?

i need a number,

so my heart can prepare to hold them all.

i am grieving the descent into blindness that no longer

sees all lives as sacred. falling. falling.

where are the hostages? will they survive this?

will they find freedom through rubble and smoke?

the name of God is the sound of the breath – YHWH.

“just breathe” i tell myself.

the name passes over my lips. 

every breath a prayer.

Jew, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Agnostic and so many others, all one breath. 

Israeli, Palestinian, all one breath.

when we breathe our first, when we breathe our last,

and all the in-betweens, honored with love not blood.

we have failed.

can we finally shed the stench and stain of it all,

the decaying ways of violence and death?

i am grieving. 

will you grieve with me?

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#Israel #Palestine #suffering #grief #JinpaLhaga #JMWart