good description by RuPaul 

👍🏻💛🙏🏻

if you want to try out some meditation, join me for Self-Care Saturdays at 10am PST this weekend. free or by donation, $10 suggested. ✨

link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#meditation #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #RuPaulQuotes

the tendency is to close up, to shut down, to become hardened and firm, or to run away and stick our head in the sand.

but who benefits when we avoid the pain and the suffering we see? 

if we want to better this world, we need more people willing to be IN this world as aware, attentive, open, tender and caring people. people willing to be engaged, willing to speak up, and willing to take action from a place of fierce compassion.

to do this, we can practice in this way, we can approach life in the way this quote prescribes: we can first acknowledge, then allow space to feel, and the allow what we feel to soften us. 

being soft, means being in touch with our open, tender heart. it means being in a place of love. there is no better place, no greater power to act from. and act we must, because love doesn’t sit out. 

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#harm #suffering #awareness #attention #OpenHeart #love #compassion #EngagedBuddhism #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #GilFronsdalQuotes

hypocritical? 

yes.

also:

immoral, unethical, perverse, and certainly not “pro-life”.

our empathy, our compassion, our kindness are just further wounding and harm without action, without engagement.

thoughts and prayers are but mere shadows of love lost to us if we aren’t ready to acknowledge the problem and do the work needed to lessen and end such harm.

may hearts open.

may sanity prevail.

may we embrace love.

may we let go of our addiction to guns, to violence, and aggression both in speech and action.

what will it take???

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#GunViolence #aggression #insanity #GunReform #OpenHeart #nonviolence #nonaggression #EngagedBuddhsim #JinpaLhaga #MiroslavVolfQuotes

a really beneficial story and wise advice from Sharon Salzberg below.

this is one i’m still learning. remembering that we must include ourselves in our compassion as well as others. that compassion includes the whole situation and sometimes includes healthy boundaries. most situations aren’t perhaps as big or vital as the one referred to in the Dalai Lama story below. in any case though, healthy boundaries can be challenging for many of us and some situations make it even more challenging. my current circumstances make it near impossible, but setting healthy boundaries – even small ones – can be a beneficial practice and can be an act of compassion for oneself and also for others. when we don’t, it can lead to frustration, stress, anger, and even resentment, all of which add to suffering for ourselves and others. 

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#compassion #boundaries #selfcare #health #lovingkindness #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #SharonSalzberg #DalaiLama

Posted @withregram • @sharonsalzberg Compassion needn’t be divorced from insight and intelligence. For example, it doesn’t always mean reconciliation. We can remain apart from someone while still having compassion for them. I can remember when a longtime student of the Dalai Lama asked him, great vessel of love and compassion that he is, if she should go see her mentally ill mother, who had been a danger to her physical well-being in the past and who was now asking to see her. “You should offer your mother a tremendous amount of lovingkindness,” advised the Dalai Lama, “from a distance. It’s not safe to go see her.”

[Image Description: Photo of graffiti hearts with white box superimposed with text reading, “Compassion needn’t be divorced from insight and intelligence.”]

a practice.

we should allow for balance. not just for our own well-being, but also for the well-being of others.

it is helpful to take a wider view. to recall that even at night the sun is still shining, that the impermanence of life means there is opportunity for conditions to change resulting in better outcomes. that if we look closely, we will see love making its way through hearts in this world – the open ones, humble in spirit. if we look closely, we will see that even the slightest crack can let light in.

life is movement, even though all may feel stuck. nature shows how life flows. we are part of nature, so we should get out into it and be reminded of who we are. 

we honor life and each other by bearing witness. so yes, we must bear witness to the harm, to all that pulls on the shroud of darkness to cover this world, while working for destruction. but we must also bear witness to all that is gentle and kind, warm and luminous, to all that embodies love and inspires compassion.

it is important recognize love, to name it, to give it voice. it is important to do so.

we can make this a practice. we can simply sit and recall that which is good and beneficial in our lives, as part of our meditation, or by saying them out loud, or journaling them into recognition. 

there is goodness. there is kindness. there is beauty. there is love.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#BearWitness #goodness #kindness #beauty #love #WideView #luminous #beneficial #practice #path #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

“Some seeds will come to fruition quickly, some slowly, but our work is simply to plant the seeds.” ~ Sharon Salzberg

even as some are bent on destruction, from our own open hearts, we can plant seeds of empathy, understanding, warmth, kindness, tenderness, compassion, and healing. 

even in darkness, seeds of love grow of their own light.

~j

⭕️♥️🌱🙏🏻

#PlantingSeeds #OpenHeart #love #light #empathy #kindness #compassion #path #practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #SharonSalzbergQuotes

it is a common misconception that kindness is the same as niceness. nope. being nice and polite simply to be nice and polite, to not stir the pot, can continue the status quo – even if that status quo is harmful. 

kindness, however, is an extension of love. kindness is focused and concerned about the well-being of ourselves and others. kindness is focused and concerned about ending harm.

so if we want to be a people of kindness, interdependent as we are, we have a responsibility to each other, an obligation to call out hate, to call out harm, to call out destruction every single time we see it. to do so is an act of kindness, an act of love.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻 

#kindness #love #OpenHeart #interdependence #RightSpeech #RightAction #EngagedBuddhism #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #EthanNichternQuotes

and not just the mind. fear, hatred, and suspicion also close up our heart.

there are antidotes to these poisons. awareness transforms ignorance and delusion, which pulls the rug out under fear. with fear removed, we also become free of suspicion. when we practice meditation we allow space for awareness to arise. when we practice lovingkindness, we are opening our heart and allowing for empathy and our natural capacity to love to arise. empathy and love put into action, is compassion. in such space, with awareness and open-heartedness, there is no room for hate.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

if you’d like to practice meditation with me, i offer Self-Care Saturdays at 10am PST, where we practice mindfulness awareness and lovingkindness meditation. the sessions are free or by donation. $10 suggested. link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#fear #hatred #suspicion #awareness #lovingkindness #meditation #OpenHeart #empathy #compassion #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #DalaiLamaQuotes

there is a well known Zen metaphor regarding teachings, doctrines, traditions that I will paraphrase, that says such things are “fingers pointing to the moon, they are not the moon.”

this quote from John Shelby Spong, is similar. there’s some humility here and awe. we can be curious and look for answers, engage the Great Mystery with an openness that isn’t bound by an absolutism (which has more to do with our own ego) that can devolve into a hubris that inspires war, oppression, and harm. such absolutism is more about fear and finding answers that give us comfort or a sense of security – even a false sense of security. it is also boring. with all the answers, there’s nothing left for life to teach us. life is always teaching, there’s always more to wake up to.

our path doesn’t have to be a specifically religious or spiritual one either. an approach that is open, curious, and filled with awe, is also a path of reverence, and allows life to teach us. this is the most important aspect – to not be closed off, to not feel we have arrived at all the answers, and have solved the entire mystery, even if we have had realizations, aha moments, and feel we have encountered the Divine or the truth. we can hold such moments and experiences with gratitude, even being devout in our practices and path, but we hold it all with an open hand, ready to receive, to learn, to grow, and evolve. even while having our own path or practice tradition, or none at all, we can be open to the wisdom and insight held in other paths and practices. this is the way life is. when we look at nature, we see such beautiful diversity, nuance, and interdependence. every part has its place that benefits the whole – an orchestra with varying instruments that together make beautiful music.

~j

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#religion #spirituality #traditions #path #practice #BeginnersMind #mystery #openness #FingersPointingToTheMoon #wisdom #insight #JinpaLhaga #JohnShelbySpongQuotes #BishopSpongQuotes

anger and courage, speak to action and engagement. 

engagement is what gives me hope. people who are engaged, willing to see the harm, willing to empathize, willing to be moved through their anger into fierce compassion and courage, into actions to end harm through focused, persistent – relentless, nonviolent action.

when there is injustice, harm, and destruction, anger arises. however, love doesn’t stay in anger.  love’s anger moves into fierce compassion, which births courageous action to bring benefit, healing, transformation. 

i believe love will have its day and way, as long as their are people willing to answer its call and be vehicles for the movement of love. may we be such people.

such movement, such people, give me hope. 

love gives me hope.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#love #anger #courage #hope #EngagedBuddhism #path #practice #JinpaLhaga #AugustineOfHippoQuotes