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  

waves on the Ocean…

  

just waves on the Ocean…
When anger arises, or sorrow or love or joy, it is just anger angering, sorrow sorrowing, love loving, joy joying. Different feelings arise and pass, each simply expressing its own nature. The problem arises when we identify with these feelings, or thoughts, or sensations as being self or as belonging to ‘me’: I’m angry, I’m sad.

~ Joseph Goldstein
“Nothing that comes and goes is you..“I am angry, sad, afraid.” Who knows this? You are the knowing, not the condition that is known.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
#emotions #anger #sadness #joy #YouAreNotYourEmotions #YouARE #YouAreTheOneWhoKnows #nonattachment #JustBe #ComingAndGoing #WavesOnTheOcean  #RideTheWave #float #YouAreTheOcean #EverythingChanges #impermanence #zen #TheMettaGarden #JMWart

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 

this exquisite passing life…

  

this exquisite passing life.  bows of gratitude…

“It is the radical transience of the world that makes it both tragic and beautiful, like the cherry blossom in Japanese aesthetics. The tragedy is that nothing actually exists; it is all passing away the instant it forms. The beauty is that we have the means to be aware of this, a moment to know the profound poignancy of this tiny corner of reality.”

~ Andrew Olendzki

just this! just This!

  

just this! just This!~j
Don’t prolong the past,

Don’t invite the future,

Don’t alter your innate wakefulness,

Don’t fear appearances.

Apart from that,

there is not a damn thing!

~ Dzogchen Master Patrul Rinpoche

(1808-1887)
#tibetan #buddhism #BuddhistQuotes #JustThis #zen #enso #EnsoArt #JMWart

together we wake up…

  

Somewhere this very moment, 

babies are born, fathers are dying, mothers are grieving. 

Yet, pervading all is a 

groundless awareness, 

delicate and strong at the same time. Everything becomes we, 

a beating heart with a 

transparent, radiant smile. 

And we are awake

 ~Judith Simmer-Brown

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

be still…

  

just as a lake when stilled reflects the luminous moon, so do we when stilled reflect the vast, luminous nature of being.~j

#CalmAbiding #stillness #silence #NotReactionInsteadThoughtfulAction #zen #mindfulness #meditation