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an open heart is a grateful heart.

this is both descriptive and prescriptive. 

a characteristic of open heart is that it is naturally quite free and grateful. 

however, sometimes due to life experiences and situations, we may not feel all that open and free, we may not feel very grateful at all. we suffer.

an antidote to this suffering can be to practice opening our heart by practicing being grateful.

gratitude may or may not be something we automatically feel – and that’s okay! (spoiler alert, i’ve been struggling with it today for various reasons) BUT it is something we can practice.

gratitude is a practice.

grateful for all of you and wishes for a beautiful day!

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#Gratitude #OpenHeart #GratefulHeart #Path #Practice #EngagedBuddhist #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #Zen #Enso #Calligraphy #BuddhistArt #ZenArt #DigitalArt #art

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such an insightful lyric.

it feels particularly applicable to this time with the cacophony of lies, hateful rhetoric, aggression and violent acts, all toxically elevated on social media. like a hungry ghost, unable to be satiated.

amid such noise how can we hear light’s call?

we can return to our practice. we can allow for stopping. we can allow for dropping the story and simply return to this present moment, return to our breath, the sensation of it, the ebb and flow of it within the body. we quiet down as we slow down and breathe. 

in such space it is much easier to be aware of all the life and light around us, which is always speaking. 

~j

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#Darkness #Light #Life #OpenHeart #SteadyMind #path #practice #meditation #contemplation #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #IndigoGirlsQuotes

for all

 the talk of love and its power, it may very well be this vulnerable, raw, warmth in the heart, subtle, intimate and connective, that we call tenderness, that changes the world. person to person. conversation by conversation. one interaction at a time.

what is more powerful than that?

may it be so.

~j

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#tenderness #warmth #authenticity #rawness #warmth #OpenHeart #love #intimacy #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #OlgaTokarczukQuotes

holding the victims and their families/friends of the Club Q shooting in my heart and practice with love.

to my LGBTQIA family – with gratitude for you, remember we are luminous expressions of life and love just as any other person is. we will continue to live and love, shining our light, teaching and expanding the capacity of the world to love.

to our allies – with gratitude for you, we need your solidarity, your voice, your love.

to others – i urge you to reject those who embrace bigoted, divisive, aggressive rhetoric targeting the queer community, expecially our trans brothers and sisters, whether in your church, your political party, or community. we are your neighbor.

a reminder – we do not have to fully understand another person’s lived experience in order to practice empathy, kindness, and compassion. embody love. rise above ignorance, fear and hate.

~j

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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#ClubQShooting #EndHate #EndBigotry #EndGunViolence #EndViolence #LGBTQIA #Queer #OpenHeart #Life #Love #Empathy #Kindness #Compassion #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #PrideBuddha #PrideArt #LGBTQIAart #QueerArt #BuddhistArt #art #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

love isn’t some timid, saccharine thing. it’s the force of life itself. to be light, to be healing, to be generosity, to be nonaggression, to be kindness and compassion, is to be love and do the work of love in this life.

~j
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#OpenHeart #love #life #bodhisattvas #path #practice

Posted @withrepost • @berniceaking

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life events, situations, relationships can feel pretty heavy – sometimes overwhelming heavy. 

our mind can get stuck in the heaviness so much so that we forget the lightness available in life – the music, the laughter, the fun. all of it is happening, waiting for us to become aware.

we are all dealing with stuff collectively and likely individually as well. we can make it a practice to allow some time for lightness, for dance, for music, for laugher and joy. 

it’s all here.

~j

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*quote is a lyric from the song “Begin” by the exquisite Ben Lee on his album, “Awake Is The New Sleep”.

#bliss #joy #dance #laughter #music #life #love #awareness #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #BenLeeQuotes

“Putting down all barriers, let your mind be full of love. Let it pervade all the quarters of the world so that the whole wide world, above, below, and around, is pervaded with love. Let it be sublime and beyond measure so that it abounds everywhere.”
~ Dīgha Nikāya

may it be so.
everywhere.
~j
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#Love #DighaNikaya #NoBarriers #OpenHeart #BeyondMeasure #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art #calligraphy #BuddhistArt #ContemplativeArt

we have the capacity, ability, and choice to not add to the harm we see in the world. 

we have the capacity, ability, and choice to be a light, a force for good, and benefit for the world.

may hearts open, may sanity arise.

~j

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#OpenHeart #AForceForGood #BeALight #DoGood #BeKind #BeLove #sanity #Bodhisattvas #service #vow #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #GeorgeEliotQuotes

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we have more power than we realize, immense power, to make our own choices. 

we can make a vow, even just to ourselves, to choose to be love in each moment to our best ability. this is compassion. to meet life’s moments, to meet others with an open heart, with kindness, tenderness, and wisdom.

and when we fall short, we can meet ourselves with that same love, that same kindness and tenderness, and we can simply begin again. we can choose again. each moment is new, each moment an opportunity to begin again, to be love once again.

~j

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#compassion #OpenHeart #love #kindness #tenderness #power #BeginAgain #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #LamaZopaRinpocheQuotes

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there are some in our politics who would proclaim Jesus out of one side of their mouth and curse social justice causes and whole groups of marginalized people out of the other – the very work Jesus did, the very people he loved and served!

Love works to bring healing, to bring equity, to bring justice for all – including and most necessarily for those who are marginalized and harmed, the outcast, the shunned, those experiencing inequity and injustice within our structures and systems.

who fits these descriptions today?

who is our neighbor we are called to love?

that is where our work is, that is where Love calls us to go and to be of benefit.

~j

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#SocialJustice #love #compassion #inclusion #OpenHeart #path #practice #EngagedBuddhist #JinpaLhaga #BerniceKingQuotes