“Be a lamp, a lifeboat, a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” ~ Jalaludin Rumi
compassion
how shall we proceed?
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
with each breath i am reborn…
we often think and say that, with the New Year, we have a fresh start – a clean slate to make choices that are more beneficial to our lives and the lives of others.
but the truth is, it is even better than that!
a fresh start is available with each breath we take – every breath we take is an opportunity to begin anew. every breath is a new lease on life, a confirmation that we still have the opportunity to benefit ourselves and others as we continue this journey.
each new breath is a new opportunity to let go, to choose life, to choose love, to choose nonaggression and nonviolence, to speak words of encouragement, to bear witness to our suffering and the suffering of others, to act with compassion and kindness, to live generously and with grace, to laugh, to smile, to be brave in the middle of our sadness, to dive into this experience fully opening our hearts more and more, choosing to be healers to the suffering we see.
may 2016, and every breath you take, remind you that there is beauty and there is love – and that you are both of these things.
namaste
~j
#NewYears2016 #NYE2016 #HappyNewYear #change #transition #opportunity #life #love #compassion #kindness #generosity #courage #nonaggression #nonviolence #laugh #healing #healers #mindfulness #meditation #zen
no exclusions…
one flesh…
Brave Uncertainty…
Brave Uncertainty
“Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It’s the kind of place we usually want to avoid. . . . When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously.”
~ Pema Chödrön
fear…
fear constricts, freezes, suffocates and enslaves life. often expressing itself through aggression and violence. it alienates us, enforcing the illusion of separateness. fear runs counter to life.
but love, the very ground of our being, opens us. with practice and cultivation it strengthens us, equipping us to take further steps into vulnerability and mystery. love reminds us of our interdependence and interconnection with each other and all life. with love as our foundational practice, we embody understanding, generosity, patience, compassion and kindness. this embodiment of love and recognition of our interdependence and interconnectedness is what gives our lives gratitude and joy.
it is this life of love that can be our place of refuge in a world filled with change and dramatic events. even as the storms rage and swirl around us, we can be a still beacon of light for all who need it.
~j
#fear #aggression #violence #separateness #illusionofseparateness #life #love #interdependence #interconnectedness #practice #meditation #generosity #understanding #patience #compassion #kindness #vulnerability #openheart #gratitude #joy #JMW #TheMettaGarden
this, your very heart…
this, your very heart.
broken open, heals the world.
dam breaks, water flows.
~j
11.11.15
“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.” ~ Zelda Fitzgerald
“O, that my monk’s robe were wide enough to gather up all the suffering people in this floating world.” ~ Zen poet-monk Ryōkan
“The practice is never for ourselves alone.” ~ Joseph Goldstein
#heart #HeartBrokenOpen #healing #suffering #love #CapacityToLove #interdependence #community #sangha #practice #meditation #compassion #metta #LovingKindness #Zen #haiku #quotes #JMW #TheMettaGarden
Peace Day…
“They make a wasteland they call it peace.”~ Tacitus
do we want peace?
if yes, then we begin today in this moment with this very breath to be peace. we do this through gentleness in word and action, kindness born out of a desire to serve the common good, planting seeds of kindness and compassion now, benefiting the present moment and our present relationships, while contributing to a better tomorrow for all of life.
this doesn’t happen in the future, it happens now. we do this to honor the life we have been given, living peace now, which is the future.
~j
#PeaceDay
conscientious compassion…
#ConscientiousCompassion #compassion #empathy #justice #harmony #CompassionateAction #OffTheMatIntoTheWorld #OffTheCushionIntoTheWorld #bodhicitta #bodhisattva #service
The Metta Garden 