Taking a walk

I saw

a wildflower.

Not knowing its name

I saw

its beauty only.

~

Ok-Koo Kang Grosjean

🌼

in a relative way, labels have a function and can be useful. we use them to communicate and to understand a particular aspect or aspects of something or someone, but labels are limiting and not representative of the entirety of something or someone, which is to say – the absolute truth, which is far more spacious and expansive than mere words or concepts can hold. the absolute can’t be held (so let go!). 

when we view something or someone, we can also drop the labels, the story, and just experience them.

this can be a practice. dropping our labels and instead, just experiencing something or someone as they are, without thinking, investigating, analyzing, critiquing, judging, and simply allow space for the object or being to speak to us, to reveal themselves to us, to be truly seen by us. 

this is a practice in generosity, allowing space. 

this is a way of loving, of embodying love.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

#DropTheStory #DropTheLabels #listening #seeing #presence #flower #beauty #life #path #practice #awareness #relative #absolute #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art

everything changes. 

life is movement. 

what once seems cold and dead, we find, is simply life preparing to awaken. 

may we move with life, with love as our practice.

happy Spring Equinox dear friends!!

~j

#SpringEquinox #FirstDayOfSpring #Spring #life #Tao #EngagedBuddhist #path #practice #JinpaLhaga

yes, meditation practice can bring benefits such as reduced stress, reduced tension and blood pressure, improved focus, improved memory and sleep. these are great! but ultimately, this practice is a practice of love. a practice of loving this life. we are here in this life and to be with it, in each moment, offering our attention to it, offering our open heart to it, in all of its ways with all we are experiencing, is not just a brave way to be or a gracious way to be, it is a loving way to be. 

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

i’m guiding mindfulness awareness and loving kindness meditations today, Sunday, at 10am PT. if you’d like to join me for free or by donation ($10 suggested) click link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#love #life #path #practice #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #meditation #meditationclass #meditationteacher #JinpaLhaga

we are here. now. just this moment, these feelings, these thoughts, this health, these relationships, this state of world. where else can we go? where else can we practice our love, our compassion, our patience, our tenderness, our curiosity, our bravery? where else can spaciousness and awareness arise? where else can life be? 

the past is a ghost, the future is a dream. the present is life. if we want to live, we engage our lives here, where we are, in this moment, with how we feel, what we are thinking, who we are with, and on and on. this is the practice, returning to this moment, offering our attention to it, offering our open heart to it, offering our life to it.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

want to practice together? join me for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays this weekend at 10am PT. free or by donation. $10 suggested. 

link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#life #practice #path #training #HereAndNow #ThisMoment #JustThis #meditation #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #OpenHeart #EngagedBuddhist #Zen #enso #art #JinpaLhaga #JMWart

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 🍀

long before practicing Buddhism and meditation, i had been drawn to Ireland, Scotland, and just about anything Celtic. i have two Celtic tattoos – a Celtic dove of peace and a Celtic Trinity knot with an interwoven circle. something about the connection and closeness to nature and our relationship to it and all things attracted me and felt familiar…perhaps an early inkling and awareness of our interdependence, which i now contemplate often in my Buddhist practice.

grateful for such universal teachings and wisdom carried from across diverse cultures around the world through generations.

in the spirit of interconnectedness and relationship, an offering of a familiar Irish blessing for you:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face.

May the rains fall softly upon your fields…

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

PS – today my Patreon contributors received a high quality digital print of this image for free. become a contributor today for as little as $3/month to receive rewards and bonus perks like digital prints of my photography and artwork. link: http://www.patreon.com/jaysenwaller

#StPatricksDay☘️ #TrinityKnot #clover #Celtic #interdependence #interconnection #BWphotography #photography #JMWart #JinpaLhaga

it is the work of a lifetime (… or perhaps life times) to engage the difficulties and challenges of life in an equanimous way, that is to say, with a sense of balance, steadiness, and calm. we spend much of our time avoiding the fires in life, and if we find ourselves in them, we burn right with them.

but we have the capacity to step into the fire and not be burned or spread the flames. we have the capacity to relate to our world in a different way. it is possible, with practice and work, to engage this world with a sense of equanimity. not indifference or an action, but care and action that is rooted in balance, steadiness, resilience, clarity and calm. not being pulled into extreme emotions and reactivity, but moving from a place of sanity and open-heartedness, choosing how to act beneficially, transformatively, and with healing.

this is the bodhisattva path. the work and practice begins within ourselves and our own hearts and minds. how we relate to the world has an influence on others. this is the practice of meditation.

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

join me this weekend for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays at 10am PT. free or by donation. $10 suggested. link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

#bodhisattva #path #practice #vow #meditation #mindfulness #awareness #equanimity #balance #steadiness #clarity #resilience #calm #lovingkindness #OpenHeart #JinpaLhaga

when we practice gentleness with ourselves, when we practice pausing, noticing our thinking habits, and opening our hearts, we are engaging in a revolutionary act. 

this is a way of relating to ourselves more compassionately, which helps us to relate to others more compassionately. engaging ourselves, others, and this world in a compassionate way is revolutionary. we are no longer satisfied with our regular patterns of distraction and discord, of relating to the world by sticking our head in the sand, or through self-preservation, which is to say through greed and aggression.

we can practice relating to ourselves and the world in this way and this is what the world needs while facing the insanity, harm, and destruction we are seeing – people who are engaging the world in a sane, compassionate way.

join me this coming weekend for Self-Care Saturdays & Sundays at 10am PT, to practice some breathing, mindfulness awareness, and lovingkindness meditation. free or by donation. $10 suggested. link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

#revolution #revolutionary #breathe #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #metta #path #practice #meditation #OpenHeart #MeditationTeacher #EngagedBuddhist #JinpaLhaga

to my LGBTQ+ family –

please hear me – we are sacred incarnation, love embodied, luminous as the vast blue sky and the stars that shine at night. shine we will, even as some in power work to pull the shade of night over our existence. we will say “gay”, we will fully embody our queerness in all of its beautiful diversity. to do so honors life, honors love.

our existence is teaching the world to love past its comfort, ignorance, fear. it’s not an easy burden to bear, opening hearts, but we are on the side of love and light. live your life with the fullness you deserve, as we do the work of calling out and dismantling the harm intended for and enacted against us.

to my non-LGBTQ+ friends and family – 

answer the call of love and be an ally, not a contributor to harm. honor your embodiment of life and love, by honoring the same in others. do not grieve your own soul by supporting harmful and destructive laws/policies or the public officials who write and enact them. this is the moment to live love with action. rise to this occasion. contribute to healing rather than harm. open and listen to your heart. allow prejudices and indoctrination to fall away with grace and dignity.

over 30 states are currently pushing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. these actions will directly impact the lives of gay and trans people. most prominent in the news is Florida with its “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and Texas with its anti-trans executive orders. 

according to the Trevor Project, 40% of LGBTQ+ youth have contemplated suicide. i was one of them. even though i have a loving immediate family, i was living in secret, shame, and self-hate. this is what i thought i deserved, because this is what society was saying i deserved, even if only doing so passively. this is the harm of such prejudice towards LGBTQ+. there are real consequences, there is real suffering.

progress hard won, is now threatened. love continues the work.

live in love.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏻

#LGBTQIA #queer #gay #LGBTQIArights #GayRights #TransRights #love #diversity #beauty #OpenHeart #path #practice #EngagedBuddhist #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #art #Buddha #pride

the practice of befriending this world, of relating to others and to this world in a tender, open-hearted way, must include ourselves. we begin where we are in this moment.

we practice openness, by being open. we practice patience, by being patient. we practice tenderness, by being tender, we practice peace, by being peace. we practice love, by being love. our practice is embodiment.

for meditators, we prioritize this by having a consistent practice of sitting meditation – even 10 or 20 minutes. whatever the case may be, we set aside a bit of time to just sit, to just breathe, and allow spaciousness to arise without our usual grasping or pushing away, without our usual patterns of reaction, or storytelling. it is a practice we can return to over and over.

when we practice this way, we are practicing not just meditation, but how to live in this world in a beneficial way, how to live as sane, open-hearted human beings moment by moment.

join me this weekend for Self-Care Saturday or Sunday at 10am PT.  sessions are free or by pay-what-you-can donation. $10 suggested. link: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller 🧘🏼‍♂️

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

if you’d like to or are able to support my teaching offerings, you can do so by one time donation via PayPal or Venmo, or through regular giving on Patreon. all generosity is greatly appreciated.  links: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller ✨

#practice #path #meditation #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #OpenHeart #JinpaLhaga

join me this weekend for some breath practices, mindfulness awareness, and lovingkindness meditation 🧘🏼‍♂️

Saturday and/or Sunday at 10am PT 💫

sessions are free or pay-what-you-can donation. $10 suggested ✨

links: https://linktr.ee/jaysenwaller 👍🏻

~j

⭕️❤️🙏🏻

#JustBreathe #JustSit #SelfCare #meditation #mindfulness #awareness #lovingkindness #metta #JinpaLhaga #JMWart