awareness

we are one…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment


let us continue to use our voices, our art, our power to shine light on that which is delusion, fear, division and hate – by offering up the opposite which is truth, wisdom, awareness, inclusion, and love to the altar of life ~j
One’s sense of separation – that I’m separate from you and the rest of the world, so my well-being is separate from yours – is the fundamental delusion that needs to be overcome…

When we feel a deeper connection with other people in the world, then naturally there’s going to be compassion and concern and wanting to live in a different kind of way. When this happens, the meaning of my life changes. Instead of thinking “What’s in this for me?” we find ourselves asking “What can I do to make this situation better for everyone?”
~

Sam Mowe

#interdependence #sangha #community #WeAreOne #One #empathy #compassion #truth #wisdom #life #meditation #enso #JMWart

fear…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

we need to re-evaluate our relationship to fear. yes, fear can be useful. we should listen to our fear, simply to hear what it has to say, perhaps shedding some light on an area that needs our attention. but, our tendency – our pattern, seems to be one of reaction when fear arises rather than thoughtful action.below, there is a story about fear. 

~j
HOW TO DEFEAT FEAR
 Once there was a young warrior. Her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear. She didn’t want to do that. It seemed too aggressive; it was scary; it seemed unfriendly. But the teacher said she had to do it and gave instructions for the battle.

 The day arrived. The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. The young warrior roused herself and went toward fear, prostrated three times, and asked, “May I have permission to go into battle with you?”

 Fear said, “Thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission.”

 Then the young warrior said, “How can I defeat you?”

 Fear replied, “My weapons are that I talk fast, and I get very close to your face. Then you get completely unnerved, and you do whatever I say. If you don’t do what I tell you, I have no power. You can listen to me, and you can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me. But if you don’t do what I say, I have no power.”

 

In that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear.
~

Pema Chödrön
#fear #power #warrior #spiritualwarriorship #respect #wisdom #meditation #practice #mindfulness #awareness #thoughtfulaction #PemaChödrön

“Quiet friend who has come so far…”

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

  

friends ~
a new favorite poem to share. this one from Rainer Maria Rilke. please read and enjoy. short comment follows ~j
 
Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.

Let this darkness be a bell tower

and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.

Move back and forth into the change.

What is it like, such intensity of pain?

If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,

be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,

the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,

say to the silent earth: I flow.

To the rushing water, speak: I am.
Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29
by Rainer Maria Rilke

as the Buddhist scholar and environmentalist, Joanna Macy, has said about this poem – each of us can claim this. each of us was born from the web of life. take joy in this. no room for self-pity.

~j

how shall we proceed?

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

  

 

a focus on process is more important than a focus on outcome. how we do things now, creates the future.
how shall we proceed? with presence, with patience, with kindness and tenderness? with compassion and generosity, with peacefulness, nonaggression and nonviolence?
will we live with and move forward with the embodiment of all we hold as principled, ethical and moral, allowing the light of love to lead the way?
or will we live in the heat of our passion and emotion? reacting rather than acting? responding to that impulse to right the wrong or perceived wrong in this moment right away without awareness, thoughtfulness, and skill?
it’s an important question we have available to us and can ask ourselves. our answer will not only affect ourselves, those close to us, and our immediate environment, but may very well have a ripple effect influencing the entire world through generations to come.
~j

Cecil…renewed call to Wake Up

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

  

Whether Walter James Palmer, as a proud trophy hunter, thought this hunt was legal or not (though apparently he was found guilty of poaching in a previous incident) is really beside the point.
After shooting Cecil, this majestic lion, with an arrow and then allowing him to experience pain and suffering for 40 hours as his life drained out of him, he finally ended Cecil life, beheading and skinning him.
The disconnection from another life, the perceived separation, the false hierarchy and inflated ego that leads to such cruelty, lack of empathy and recognition of another’s suffering, along with the lack of awareness of the consequences and repercussions of such actions is what concerns me. 
I do not know what fate will befall Mr. Palmer. And as a practitioner and cultivator of peace I cannot encourage more harm or an increase in suffering. But, I do hope that in the wake of such tragedy, an opportunity arises for not just Walter James Palmer, but all of us, to wake up.
~j
“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” 

~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“I do not care for happiness which is sought at the price of others’ suffering.”  

~ Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha

awake in the world…

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dirty nails

awake in the world
what is this meditation?
dirt beneath these nails

~j

December 31, 2013

 

commentary:
solitary enlightenment is darkness
and being awake when others are asleep is a nightmare for the Heart of Love
meditation, contemplation, and prayer are all good
but to Love is to get one’s hands dirty
working for the benefit of all beings
off the mat and into the world, as it is said
this is the path of the Bodhisattva, this is the journey of a Warrior for Love

~j