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Rose Apple House NOLA, 1123 Philip Street, New Orleans, LA (2026)

11/25/2025

Suffering is not a solitary journey—each moment carries the breath of so many other living being who know pain and are in pain just like me.

When I am overwhelmed (quite often), I try to remember to pause and touch the truth of shared sorrow, never forgetting that my heart beats with countless others.

Breathing in, I embrace both my own suffering and the suffering of the world. Breathing out, I offer boundless compassion—allowing kindness & understanding to expand beyond my broken heart, like a mighty river nourishing every being in need.
May our practice grow deep roots of empathy and flow as a boundless source of ease for all.

11/21/2025

A bodhisattva and those that step into the bodhisattva stream see the real suffering of the world and say, “Yeah… I’m not bouncing out of the cycle of birth and death. I’m staying. I’m helping until all sentient beings are free from suffering.”
The classic vows boil down to four moves:
1. Serve all beings. Even the messy ones. Even the ones who trigger you. Because we’re all spiraling through the same samsara nonsense.
2. Release all habits that keep you small. Craving, fear, ego loops, generational karma… We let it all go so we can show up for all beings without any burdens.
3. Walk the Dharma path fully. Not performatively. Not aesthetically. Actually practice and live the teachings — breath by breath, on the cushion and while in the world.
4. Stay open to wisdom in every moment. Wisdom isn’t a vibe — it’s the genuine clarity that manifests when you quit running away from this moment.

It’s choosing to show up with your heart un-armored, again and again accepting the world as it is…

May I meet every being with presence.
May I walk into the suffering of this world without shutting down.
May I drop every old pattern that blocks my heart.
May wisdom rise in me like morning light.
And may my life be of use in the awakening of all sentient beings.—
even when it’s messy, even when I am burnt out, even when it hurts, even when I fall.
For the total benefit of all beings,
I begin again. Then, begin again again.

11/15/2025

Burnout is what happens when the mind has been in “survival mode” for too long and the heart finally says, “I can’t carry this pace anymore.”

From a Buddhist view, burnout is a signal, not a flaw.
A call back to presence.
A reminder that even bodhisattvas need rest.

When the flame goes out, it’s not the end.
It’s the chance to begin again—
with less forcing,
less striving,
less pretending,
and way more truth.

Burnout teaches:
• The body keeps the score.
• The breath is the doorway back.
• Compassion is medicine.
• Joy doesn’t respond to pressure—it manifests in spaciousness.

When we meet our own suffering with compassion, the whole system shifts.
The nervous system softens.
The breath steadies.
The mind unclenches.
The heart begins to open again.

This is why metta practices works.
It rewires us toward safety, connection, and calm.
It literally trains the brain to stop bracing and start trusting again.

Breathing in, I see my exhaustion.
Breathing out, I offer myself compassion.

May I be patient with this process.
May I return to myself slowly.
May I know peace is always available, it manifests when I stop pushing.

The quiet, the stillness, the peace, the boundless love and compassion, the open sky, this is who we are, no one can take it from us. We just forget that it is always with us.

awake

11/15/2025

Burnout isn’t any sort of personal failure.
It’s the moment the mind-body whispers: “You’ve been carrying more than any one person was ever meant to hold.”

From a Buddhist lens, burnout shows up when:

• We forget our interbeing and try to do everything alone.
• We override our limits, clinging to productivity like it’s identity.
• We resist reality, pushing past what is because we’re attached to what “should be.”
• We stop watering our own seeds—joy, rest, compassion, spaciousness.
• We hustle through suffering instead of meeting it, gently, with breath.

Burnout is definitely not weakness.
It’s the Dharma tapping your shoulder saying:

Pause. Let go. Return to the present.
Come back to the body.
Come back to the breath.
Come back to yourself.

In Buddhism, healing begins the moment we stop fighting our experience.

The moment we say:
“Now it is like this.”

And then we soften.
We breathe.
We offer metta to ourselves who are exhausted from trying in impossible circumstances to be invincible or just trying to survive a natural disaster.

May I find ease.
May I be restored.
May I remember I am not alone.
May I walk the path gently, one breath at a time.

Burnout can be a gateway back home.

11/14/2025

BURN OUT is real. And it hits different when you’re the one who usually holds everyone else up.

These self-metta practices are for the ones who are tired in their bones…
the ones whose joy feels “offline”…
the ones who keep going even when the inner light flickers.

Read them slowly.
Let them land where they need to.

Breathing in, I touch the suffering.
Breathing out, I send compassion.

May I find ease.
May I find rest.

May joy return in its own rhythm, in its own time.

May I be held.
May I heal.
May I know peace.

May I be free from fear.
May I be free from despair.
May I trust the healing unfolding inside me.

May the seeds of joy within me
be watered gently.

Burnout isn’t failure.
It’s the body saying, “Yo… pause. Reset. Come home.”

And here’s the wild part: science actually backs this up.
Metta practice boosts vagal tone (that’s your nervous system’s chill mode), reduces stress hormones, improves emotional regulation, increases resilience, and shifts your brain toward connection instead of overwhelm.
Basically: compassion literally rewires you toward healing.

This is how we come home.

11/04/2025

From the Lotus Pond to the Pleiades

When we look to the stars, we’re really gazing inward.
The same light that travels across constellations hums in our breath,
in the pulse of every pond ripple and every thought of love.

May wisdom move freely between worlds—
ancient, unseen, and within.

10/30/2025

When we rest in true stillness, the whole cosmos feels it. We are the cosmos.
Our calm becomes a powerful tuning fork for every living being.
Every tree, every star, every unseen traveler between worlds —
each hums a little softer, a little kinder, .. we are powerful beings. Each thought has power that we cannot even imagine.

Return to stillness, bring harmony to the entire cosmos. There is nothing to fear. Invite yourself into the stillness and rest in your power.

Sit. Breathe.
Let your stillness lift the vibration of all sentient life.
Let the universe hum with love.

10/21/2025

This Metta offering is for the space between worlds — the quiet places where fear can arise without courage & understanding, and limitless loving kindness has the power to even bridge galaxies.

In our stillness along with a beginner’s mind, we extend the hand of curiosity rather than the shield of fear.

When we meet the any unknown with compassion, we dissolve the illusion of separation.

Thầy reminds us that understanding is the other name for love; when we understand, we no longer fear.

May this practice remind us that no being—on this planet or beyond—ever stands alone in the vastness of the cosmos.

Every breath is a message of peace & contentment sent across the stars.

10/20/2025

This Metta practice is for all beings—seen and unseen, near and far, known and unknown. Compassion cannot be confined to one planet or species; our Bodhicitta is limitless & boundless. As Thầy teaches, when we breathe with awareness, we touch the entire cosmos. Every mindful breath is a transmission of love that reaches beyond the stars. Through imagination—a sacred gift of human consciousness—we can envision the whole universe living in harmony with the truth of eternal love. Love is not only an emotion; it is the movement, the chi that fuels all life. There is no other way.

May we continue to cultivate this love until every being, across every galaxy, feels at home in their breath.
May all life forms know safety.
May all life forms know real happiness.
And may we all wake up from the delusion of a separate self.

We are all life - continuing and becoming.

🙏🪷🛸

10/15/2025

When we sleep, everything softens.
The boundaries that keep us apart dissolve.
We remember what we truly are—
breath, light, stillness, and dream.

Buddhanature dreaming itself.

Every night, the world reunites in silence.
Every morning, we begin again.

10/12/2025

Prayer for Whatever Comes

If it is better for me to be ill,
give me the energy to be ill.
If it is better for me to recover,
give me the energy to recover.
If it is better for me to die,
give me the energy to die.

It asks not for outcomes,
but for presence —
for energy equal to each moment as it is.

In a world obsessed with fixing,
this is radical surrender.
Not giving up, but giving in —
to the current of life that knows more than we do.

We can stop asking life to be different,
we can find the strength to meet it as it is.
That is the true medicine.

10/04/2025

Did you know this beautiful flower becomes the ruby-red tea we call hibiscus (or Jamaica, sorrel, roselle)?

Thich Nhat Hanh taught us drinking tea is a meditation: holding the cup, breathing, and being fully present with the warmth, fragrance, and taste. Each sip is a chance to return home to ourselves and touch peace in the present moment.

Steeped for centuries across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, hibiscus tea is more than a drink — it’s nature’s medicine for our heart and spirit.

Wonderful Benefits:
• Lowers blood pressure & supports circulation
• Rich in Vitamin C & antioxidants
• Cooling, calming, anti-inflammatory
• Supports digestion & gentle detox

To sip hibiscus tea is to taste balance: fiery in color, cooling in nature. A reminder that harmony & balance are always available within us.

May every cup of tea cool your heart, steady your breath, and return you to most importantly - presence.

Rose Apple House NOLA

11/25/2025

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11/04/2025

10/30/2025

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