buddha

Bodhi Day – Wake Up! Touch the earth…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

yesterday (Dec 8th) was Bodhi Day, the day Mahayana Buddhists commemorate the enlightenment of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, 2600 years ago.
as the story goes, the Buddha was moved by the suffering he saw in life and felt upon seeing sickness, aging, and death. disenchanted with the excess from which he came, and the practice of extreme asceticism which he practiced for a time, he set out to meet life face to face as it is. practicing the middle way of neither aversion or grasping, he sat until he woke up. in waking up he became the Buddha, which simply means awakened or awakened one. meeting life with an open heart, with clarity and balance, he found freedom from suffering.
my favorite part of the story is when Buddha is tested by the demon Mara who eventually challenges Siddhartha’s ability and right to enlightenment as a mere human. the story goes – after not succumbing to Mara’s temptations, Mara challenged Siddhartha, “What right have you to be enlightened? Who will speak for you, who will bear witness for you?” sitting beneath the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha reached out his right hand and touched the earth, and the earth itself shook saying, “I bear you witness!”
this wasn’t just for the historical Buddha – it is for all buddhas, for you, for me. we too can wake up, we too have within us the ability to be with life as it is, to live open-hearted with clarity and balance, to be free and at peace.
may it be so.~j


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unfold…

~ jaysen ~ 1 Comment

“I want to unfold. I don’t want to stay folded anywhere. Because where I am folded, there, I am a lie.”

~

Rainer Maria Rilke

this quote very well may sum up enlightenment or waking up, for me – to live authentically, to be in authentic relationship with the arising and passing life around us, to not fold up or close up in fear or anger, but to remain open – both heart and mind – courageously loving all that is suffering.

~j

#life #enlightenment #WakeUp #samsara #suffering #OpenHeart #courage #StayOpen #authenticity #LoveWins #PlantingSeeds #TheLongArc #practice #meditation #zen #buddhsim #Buddha #JMWart

Bodhi Day – wake up…

~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

Over 2500 years ago, deeply moved by the suffering he saw in life (sickness, aging, and death), disenchanted with the excess from which he came, and the practice of extreme ascetism, the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) set out to meet life face to face, as it is. He sat until he woke up. And in waking up he became the Buddha, which means awakened or awakened one. Seeing the middle way – not running away from or grasping at life, rather meeting life with an open heart – he found freedom from suffering.

Today, December 8th, we Buddhists commemorate the Buddha’s awakening under the Bodhi Tree, as Bodhi Day. A day to remember the event, but to also be reminded that we too can wake up, we too have within us the ability to be with life as it is, to be free and at peace.

This morning I practiced, I sat and meditated, and then painted this “wake up” enso to honor not just this one man who decided to sit beneath a tree and meet life authentically with an open heart, but to honor all who sit, all who practice, all who meet this passing life with all of its beauty and heartbreak with an open heart.

May we all wake up to the preciousness of this life, may empathy and compassion be born from our open hearts, to light the world with our love.

~j

12.08.17

cannot stop the Spring…

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You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming.
~ Pablo Neruda

friends ~
love is the spring.  your open heart and your love, have the power to awaken this world.  so, center yourself in openness and love no matter the outside forces, moving forward with empathy and compassion, working to lessen the suffering in the world.
~j

the true enemy…

~ jaysen ~ 2 Comments

The other person is not our enemy.
Our enemies are misunderstanding,
discrimination, violence, hatred,
and anger.
~
Thich Nhat Hanh

I love this teaching.  It is deceptively challenging.  On the face of it, most would probably agree (though some may not).  However, when put into practice, I think most of us will find we fall short of honoring these wise words.

In a time such as now, when so much feels at stake and emotions are heightened (and for good reason), the easier path is to assign blame to one person or a group of people and go in for the kill.  It is easier to have a face to direct our anger, our grief, our confusion.  It even feels good!  However good this feels in the short term, and however much it may motivate and seem to contribute to a resolution, in the long run it remains a delusion and contributes to cyclical suffering, fueling the very enemies we are working to defeat.

We will only be successful in our struggle, in this movement, when our motivation to act is fueled by a fierce compassion, born of a love that seeks the end of suffering for all beings, even those who act in harmful ways and contribute to the suffering we are fighting to liberate from.

This is the challenge of our time.  In an era where we seek targets to blame and scapegoats for our suffering, can we with fierce compassion, work for the very solid cause of defeating fascism, defeating racism, defeating homophobia and transphobia, defeating policies that dismiss the poor, the sick, the elderly?  Can we do this without demonizing individuals, even as we tirelessly work for their removal from positions of power, and work against the harmful policies and suffering their ideology causes?  Buddhism and other contemplative practices say we can.  And in fact, when we do we are honoring our true nature and not adding to the suffering.  When we act out of fierce compassion, born from love, we upend the true enemies we seek to defeat: confusion, discrimination, violence, hatred, and anger.  And in doing so, we are planting seeds toward the long arc, contributing to the end of suffering for all people.  Then we are acting as bodhisattvas in this world.  And this world, especially now, needs as many bodhisattvas as it can get.

We begin with our own hearts.

~j
05.19.17

hold to the center…

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A monk asked Xinghua Cunjiang, “What should one do when things come from every direction?”

The master said, “Hold to the center.”
The monk bowed.

The master then said, ” Yesterday, as I was on my way to a dinner in the village, I was caught in a sudden storm with heavy rain and violent wind, so I headed for an old shrine and found shelter.”

~ Entangling Vines: A Classic Collection of Zen Koans,
trans. Thomas Yuho Kirchner

I read the above story in the latest edition of Tricycle Buddhist Review, from an essay written by Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi.  I was moved by this story and inspired to create the artwork above.

Where do you find your center?  What anchors you as the waves crash around and against you?  Where do you find your ease and calm as turbulent winds swirl around knocking you off balance?  How do you keep awareness focused, when distractions vie for your attention?

For me it is my meditation practice, it is nature, it is the tenderness of an open heart, it is love.   It is staying with all that is and bearing witness, anchored in my breath and them from a place of compassion, moving into some sort of action that feels beneficial, that hopefully serves love and light.

I suppose everyone’s center may be different.  It seems increasingly important to know what it is.  There seem to be some who are intent on knocking us off balance repeatedly, wearing us out.  But what they have forgotten, or may not be aware of, is that there is a place for each of us where we can find our balance, our focus, and a calm resolve to stick with it for the long arc.

~j
05.11.17

the world is burning…

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no doubt humankind has contributed to climate change. to deny this is to deny the very nature of life, of existence, which is to say that all things are interconnected and interdependent.  another way to say this is that our actions affect our environment and our environment in turn affects us.  this is the law of karma, of cause and effect.  the seeds we plant, will grow.

but nevertheless, if a house is burning, we don’t stand around arguing that neither we nor anyone we know has started the fire as the house burns around us. it would be insanity to do so. instead, we get to work on putting the fire out.
the world is burning.

can we break our addiction to consumption?
can we find the lasting joy and peace in contentment?
can we reconnect with a sense of reverence for all life including the planet herself?

we need to. we are being called to.

will we answer?

~j
04.29.17

bearing witness for the Earth…

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On the morning of the Buddha’s enlightenment it is said that the great tempter and deceiver Mara after many failed attempts to deceive and distract the Buddha, asked the Buddha, “What gives you the right to be enlightened?  Who are you to awaken?  Who bears witness to this?”  Silently, calmly the Buddha took his right hand and touched the Earth and in that moment the Earth shook, bearing witness to the Buddha’s enlightenment.  With this, Mara disappeared.

And so it is with every step we take, our feet touching the ground, that the Earth also bears witness to our right to be here and to awaken.

It is now our turn to bear witness for the Earth in her time of need.  The Earth has given us life and sustains us.  In fact, science has shown us that we have the Earth’s elements within us.  Without these elements, without the delicate balance that is our Earth, life as we know it would not be – we would not be.  The only appropriate response for such gratuitous love, is gratitude, a gratitude that manifests in reciprocal love.

Our relationship to the Earth, is just that, a relationship.  How do we show our love?  How do we show our gratitude?  How do we pass this relationship on to our children and grandchildren?

Let us take some time today to touch the Earth.  Feel the dirt between our fingers, feel the ground beneath our feet as we step.  Are our steps, steps of love?  Let us step out into nature and listen, look.  Allowing in all the life that is sustained by the Earth, allowing it into our hearts, blessing it and sending it back out with love.  Let us make new choices that bear witness to our love for the Earth and all of life.

~j
04.22.17
Earth Day

 

you are already enough, just sit…

~ jaysen ~ 1 Comment

“The essence of Buddhist practice is not so much an effort at changing your thoughts or your behavior so that you can become a better person, but in realizing that no matter what you might think about the circumstances that define your life, you’re already good, whole, and complete. It’s about recognizing the inherent potential of your mind. 
In other words, Buddhism is not so much concerned with getting well as with recognizing that you are, right here, right now, as whole, as good, as essentially well as you could ever hope to be.”
~

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche