Ending Racism

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good morning

today i wanted to bring up a topic of great moment and also of the moment which is ending racism
racism will end and so it's just a matter of how we can hasten the day
and what from our practice what we can bring from my practice to that effort
and of course i'm hoping not to torture the people of color in the rome with my words i actually don't want to torture anybody
and especially don't want to exasperate the people of color in the room

so a few years ago a couple of years ago some time i don't remember exactly when there was this thing that went around to various song is it might have been on facebook i've been a lion's roar i can't really remember but it went
out to what we call the convert tsongas ah so we may have had asian teachers but we converted to buddhism as yeah yeah you know adult or youth and
in particular the message was to the white people in the convert tsongas
just because often those tsongas don't reflect
same diversity of their neighborhood through their environments their towns their cities etc so
you know we really don't wanna be
replicating disturbing conceptions that are actually what we came here to liberate ourselves from
i'm and the tone of this to me as i remember it i remember the tone was sort of like come on white people we need to up our game here
and
so there were some of us in the sanga we were sort of like cornering each other and thanks shouldn't we do that we wanna do that we should do that that's let's do that you know and it took a while
oh and i just want to say that this is a real thing of like bringing self and others across right because if i as a white person raised my consciousness about this issue
i'm fried again from these
lawd and toxic ideas and also i'm making space for people of color in that in freeing myself and making space and free helping free others
so so i'm just saying it's very congruent with our practice to be looking at this issue so we were muttering to each other for several months and finally we and then allen brothers curriculum so this so the ideas there's this white awake correct
calum
and it's a six part thing and
so a group of us for the identified each other and we started to do this we worked our way through this curriculum
and the idea was that we would sort of pilot it because we didn't feel
like we knew enough to sort of offer it and that we could lead we could lead such a process you know so we thought well we'll go through this process and will learn about it and then we'll offer it to the sanga and i know there are many many many other people in the saga who would be interested in such a thing
and so actually if you i'm just putting a public service announcement here if you are interested in pursuing mat in the future
judy fleischmann and peter overton sort of convened where they were sort of the touch point for our group and they are willing to take your names and keep in touch with you
so
the way i feel about my own white privilege
sold my soul for me and gave me the money
you know what i mean it like you i'm going to take your soul you don't need it and here's five thousand dollars and i'm like eight what
or are you know i'm like that jack benny joke your money or your life well i'm thinking i'm thinking
or maybe i'm even like no don't do that give me my soul back but i'm still up spending the five thousand dollars i keep spending the five thousand and orange i can't figure out how to stop spending it
and
you know i think that i would if i was faced with that choice now just called you know i would make i think there's at least a better than fifty fifty chance i would make the right choice with everything i know now you know about my soul and about privilege and access to resources and everything but you
no that's not how it works right they get you when you're a kid you know
i because i raised two kids i had the opportunity to observe you know a whole cohort a couple of cohorts of children and what i observe and you can tell me if you agree or disagree children are little bundles of desire right
intense passionate raw desire unmediated by the frontal cortex
and i can imagine you know i don't know if it's not exactly put this maybe this directly and words but in the fable that i'm making up a little sociological fable for you this morning
you know if you if i was told if we were told you get more because your the boy you get more because you're the oldest you get me more because your skin is paler you know my think most of us are like whatever just give me the candy right we don't care about the reason we're focused on the candy
he
and maybe maybe there's a few people who get into the reason like all arm the boy oh i'm the oldest boy oh i'm pale skin on the pink skin i'm the white skin person and make a little citation for themselves out of it but i really think most of us are not thinking that way we're just thinking whatever
we're just gimme the candy
and then may be
it's it's actually kind of hard to teach sharing two children you know to teach the value of sharing and in also like you've got a ball and a ball is a really cool thing mine my ball but then if you actually want to play
you have to let go of the ball and let the other kid have it for a minute and then they have to let go to right it's hard to learn it's really it's hard to learn
and you know then i think there's also a small percentage of
kids or children or adults who instinctively from the beginning make a different choice you know make make the other choice
i try to i call to mind a couple stories
to encourage myself
there's the story of the little girl who's best friend had cancer and she shaved her head because her best friend lost her hair and
you know it was not a sacrifice it was a very joyous if you i think i saw them on the today show or something like i saw them somewhere it was a very joyous thing
and i also think of the the story and the special olympics you know when the when one kid fell near the beginning i think and another one of the kids so they're in a race a running race and when kid falls down
and another the another one of the kids here are some crying and goes back and goes and gets them you know helps them up and then they run over together and again very joyous choice not fixed for them but for all of us

it's it's that time
what matters you know what matters the connection is what matters
not winning not
being the pretty girl yourself from worrying by your own hair you know
it's about what matters
right
i'm
so i was thinking if racism is something people of color have to deal with every day than i want it to be something that i have to deal with everyday

i don't i can't i'm not saying that my little fable about children really explains the entire kind of
really astounding theft and toxic history and
pony science and funny religion that came into that has come into play and continues to come into play in in you know white supremacy and racism
i don't i i don't have any explanation but that's the one that i have felt my way into understanding for myself for now and i'm happy to hear other people when you feel your way into
so then the question is what can our practice bring to the table here
so always we start with mindfulness and in this case also starting with mindfulness
we always try to think how can we bring our practice and or everyday life right this is how this is one way this is how you do it mindfulness when you are out and about and year identifying people and different skin colors right
watching what your mind does watching the thoughts that come up based on identifying the different skin colors or the non thoughts
that's a non thoughts
i was i listened to this thing on the radio
this really is everywhere i have to say i don't know whether it's because i decided to my talk on this but it's like it's everywhere and i listened to this thing on the radio and it was saying that like
white people tend to think about their beliefs like i believe all people are created equal that's important that's an important belief and i believe that
and we are somewhat careful we try to learn how to be careful with our words
and those were important and according to this people on the radio people of color are also very tuned into body language
which as a white person i tend to be somewhat unconscious of
for example one of our members here what told me that you know it like after this lecture we're gonna go out and to the tea table and a half tea together and she mentioned how one time at least one time you know as she was approaching the tea table you know someone grabbed their purse and held it close to them
that's an example of being very unconscious with your body language
so if it's a wonderful thing just for your our own selves to not be so unconscious to bring awareness and mindfulness to our bodies and especially in this regard
good for me good for others

so i mean it is it's we can't we can't make it safe for people of color unless everybody is doing it right where it's a permeable membrane here so it's gonna take real investigation
real study real thoughtfulness real mindfulness
history the current situation
diving in really diving in
and we're lucky we're so lucky right now because there's all this stuff right there's all these people's voices are finally coming to the surface there's a big unfurling of voices so you can do the novels you can do the history books you can do current events you can do
outcasts you can do youtube videos there's just so much
and so to really
take this moment in i'll take this moment
and i think that
we really need to bypass guilt and shame in this regard and
i think more accurately guilt and shame are kind of a bypass in some way
i think that so when i found myself not be bypassed by guilt and shame and just settle into information reading these various books and it's hard there's some of my hard to read the history is kinda hard to take least for me i notice
if i bypassed the guilt and shame
i feel really really sad that's the main feeling
really really sad sad about what's been lost all the harm all the pain or the suffering and the wrongdoing of perpetrators and how that's gonna roll back to them with suffering and
you know i feel angry and i feel hopeless sort of like angry hopeless angry we hope but in between the middle sadness real sadness

i meant to when i'm proud of the mindfulness i meant for us all to take a moment of mindfulness so let's do that now before i go on and thrown a lot at you
let's just feel how we're feeling right now
turned out for not

when we do mindfulness it can be your body and breath
the for anchor
and then feelings
and then our ideas and thoughts and
memories fantasies

another great practice particularly for those of in the privilege because those of us in the privileged position is sympathetic joy
hum
i think that part of the
i'm thinking of a kind of like infection the infection in my mind
of racism is to sort of feel like that's the norm and that
the center stage is the white person and then they supporting players cnl for something like that
so now we're in a time when there's more center stage of different kinds of people different looks different colors and so some people might feel a clutch their i don't know i was raised personally i was lucky enough to be raised to fight racism so i've always
i felt a lot of sympathetic joy you know down through the different eras
but i understand how someone might not and then and that's the time to practice sympathetic joy which is a wonderful practice under any circumstances
it's what we do if we feel that little clutch of envy or jealousy not to deny not to deny you know start with how you're feeling
but then if you connect if you can connect with the other person
then there's that joy
bumbling up
and ah
a thrill it can
can be an energy source and i'm at a place to
return to
another practice if we really want up blow our minds
you know that tibetans have this practice of imagining that with reincarnation all down through history everybody's been your mother
and they mean it in the good tech the good sense
you know everybody has nurtured you are been the person you feel most connected to
and so we can do that we can imagine that we've all been every color of person at some point in history
we've all been
the settler we've been the indigenous person who was tapped their land stolen we've been this enslaved person we've been the enslaver we've been the forced labor we've been the enforcer
and so when we i didn't we don't have to identify
so strictly you know like
actually when you think of as buddhists as buddhist we can feel a lot of kinship with indigenous wisdom whether indigenous african or indigenous american
as buddhists i can feel
a sense of my ancestors you know i went to this the panel that was like the indigenous grandmothers
and one of them was saying that her grandmother
hum her practice that she received from her grandmother's was generosity
humility and present mindedness
i mean some familiar had can't get much better than that right
and so i can identify the reason we identify with the settlers more than the indigenous people is because of the five thousand dollars right i'm kidding that i have that five thousand dollars that links me
otherwise i would pick the present mindedness over the five thousand every time

i'm so i'm winding down here a bit
one of the things we read in this in our group on one of the pieces of curriculum was this article that was in the atlantic monthly monthly by tanahashi coats and it's called it was called the case for reparations and i recommended one of the best thing
i'm so sorry
out
i recommend it as one of the really best things we read of many good things and so it's along it's a very long well researched anna has a lot of history and everything in it and so but at the end he comes to this paragraph where he says and
so we must imagine a new country
what is needed is an airing of family secrets a settling with old ghosts what is needed is a healing of the american psyche and the banishment of white guilt a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal a revolution of the american consciousness and a reconciling of ourself
image as the great democratize or with the facts of our history
when i read that for some reason what i thought of instantly was her bodhisattva ceremony that we just did
and i was thinking is there a way to do some kind of to do a ritual could there be a ritual that would address this issue in some way and in my mind in a ritual can get underneath things and
go to a deeper place so i know in the anyone support of my pals in this group i worked on this on a on a revised version of the bodhisattva ceremony with some very specific language about racism and
and looking at the precepts specific ways precepts have been broken and such and we actually tried it out a few days ago and that gonna make some changes and
i think most of you know i'm gonna be going to touch the horror for three months pretty soon so
some time when i get back we'll we'll we'll offer this to people who are interested and a try it out and continue to can you to continue to explore the ways we can have a spiritual
deep spiritual revolution
as part of this project
ah my wanted to a close so what we ended up using
the ceremony i've found it kind of heavy it was it sits intense to hear about these things that have happened
and so i we ended up using as the as the what we call the echo where the dedication of merit this thing that alan found in in a shanty deva who was an indian monk he wrote this thing called the guy guide to the bodyshop as way of life
anyway i'm gonna read it to kind of sort of a vision for
the future maybe
may all beings everywhere plagued by sufferings of body and mind obtain an ocean of happiness and joy through the merit of the ceremony they know living creature suffer commit evil for ever fall ill they know one be afraid or belittled with a mind way
down by depression may the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds made those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repos may the naked find clothing the hungry find food may the thirsty find water and delicious drinks
may the poor find wealth those week with sorrow find joy in the forlorn find hope constant happiness and prosperity
neither the frightened ceased to be afraid and those bound be freed may the peril powerless find power and may all people think of benefiting each other
shall we have such discussion
karen

well i could
i could do i can give you one

since the beginning beginning killing and many forms of violence have been used to enact racism including attacks on indigenous people enslaved africans other groups of color and we decided after the tests that we're going to list more lynchings prison prison killings police killings
so it's kind of a call and response so that's the common than the responses we vow to protect lives prevent and protest all forms of killing and violence and work to make amends for what has been lost
pakistan
yes for jim

yeah so i mean i'm i'm making something different mean i'm not making something less personal more like how could we how could we on how could we own what's happened that we didn't do you know how can we make it bigger instead of it being personal i mean i think those people are now
dad they can't do anything about this so were the only people who can do something
mary

yeah yeah so
there was never so there was as readings and they're in it went over kind of like your personal experience and then historie institutional racism and what we can what can be done what we can do now for what is being done what you are doing
and then so we did the reading and then there was some die ads
the meeting would often start with after we sort of convene we'd have diane's with particular prompts and then we tried different things we tried there was queen just discussion open discussion or council which is a more controlled kind of discussion
i think that were other people in the group can say where we i don't i didn't love all the reading some of the some of it was so good and some of it was just to me cannot light to light you know and
i think that you know there's this woman rhonda mcgee and us if she has a thing called color in sight she has like really a mindfulness practices
directed about this that are more specific i think we could maybe make some of those in so we're kind of like wondering what to keep and what to replace with other things that we might think are more effective you know it was it it's so six meetings i mean it can be a you know and it was
chester chester
just the beginning alan

he meant to say that thank you

russell

one thing that that somebody said in one of those readings that idea has been a touchstone for me is like no one's ever done this before i mean people have been fighting racism since the beginning and they've had in different areas have been different approaches and there's a lot of inspiration coming from the past but at this
same time we were going to make mistakes were gonna blow it and maybe this talk you know maybe a blue with the stock or maybe it'll be food for information you know
so we just have to kind of go forward with our sincerity and our best
effort and are
sympathetic joy john
when the challenges that white people sharing
rod is our unconsciousness
for example
that sensation his wife average costs and god
this of time with of suggest
the together alone and embarrass herself fantasy before me
completely reinforce even
that said
a vacation go some place like
yeah you've got five thousand dollars so you can afford it
peter and duty

i'm sue was before you and then to high school

right

right after
judy

present
the joy
anxiety
how i perceived myself and how each of us
herself so you know when i hear this word people of color for mean what comes out visit
jewish since identify such and hear someone speaking with me so to speak as as a group of jews are like this and we should listen to choose and he that route week and i think
one of the things that i mean
we're and i'm still exploring
a
to be willing to say that looking around the
wrong
and there's no way to pay this is the box and that the same time for swimming season construct
so i was talking
well fine
amen
and i'm one of the things in life
symmetry it's time to go down to
plantation
other sites
a certain aspects of refuge and so that were really kind of with me when i the word roots roots because it also encompasses our relationship
our
impact on
well the trees and the smoke is choking and had a be that is neat and the we saw i feel like on this phrase that i think
got time
before the to get any conversation
i like the notion
this path is one
so an issue

yeah how much time do we have carry oh hi andrea
a black one

time the time that
a lifestyle
are they now
nothing
i'll offer
how have
attention
and also around
if some places
a
on
it's a good question
it's on my mind a lot
ah so that's one way it's different
i think i'm more
i'm more aware that
i mean these are these are weird ideas just like other weird ideas that i practice with that come more personally from my childhood and so
it's very moment to moment somehow
and i don't know how you know i mean i i have
people of color that i love and
i hope that this
well make me it easier to deal with i don't know and
so i don't know that's a really good question i'm to think about that thank you
so i another yeah
well
in

room
right basic religion
know
three
really
anyway
it would be a time
signal
listed for him

time
years ago when funding goal
have you
what's it like it

know the one

raleigh
the can

with him
thank you
hmm
i feel like i was too i was instructed to make sure i didn't go over and i haven't seen anything from you as it because
okay okay i'm gary than denise
right

each of those things
i've just been aware of
russia
so strong
hmm hmm so i'm with
right
there are no phone
the profit everything
dr just turn the lights
option

it's just started
the strongest compassionate
i mean what you're bringing up his self and other right i mean whatever under any circumstances the suffering is there when we're stuck in self and other same and were confused about same and different were stuck himself another
so
yeah looking at that
i'm too nice
now

mother

all die
a
mother's side
russia and he was also streamed down her
welcome to me and my sisters and my father said
to kill
all of think
that that
get to get about that is
you can something
them out
a loved ones
hi
every day
i was just
scottish guy
he had prepared
can we like to lose have done
and you
you know i
anyway and then you lasted
why change and jacqui and
those same and i'm also last february
trump's your congress of milk street fighter coffee muslim
oh
some way and i held the a finger
percent
and
out and actually
that he like a difference
that's what i've always been charged
go
true
often
but i started options and is feeling
and making this
how
think otherwise
the same thing
thanks
damn
constant fighting during the issue
the wall
the concept is our him
the having of finance
and that he has
and perception
i think can switch of train to hundred were trying to decide the someone is somewhat
whether it's a man
style one class or
and the mean is such an opportunity
mississauga
have you seen
our practice to interaction
we think someone is too
we're here at the same
what i can buy with them at five that when we speak the week
the only all
isn't there might be so
white people who together in discuss
so
okay and five
i like the idea
when we're talking
right on around here either
make em
raleigh
the
in the course of the work any spelling or grammar isn't something you can lock in half himself
i think as individuals we all did here the cell phone i can call anything i mean i've talked about some of mine here this morning
him
i think a lot of it is about the we that the pronouns i mean like you hear yourself saying
they and we thus the native americans are they in the settlers are we and then he realized will wait i'm on my connected to either of those why isn't that way and it's tsunami it's it's complicated so i think that we all had moments of yeah tim was in the group maybe he wants to say something
ever

that can hold over

the
gary
is work

what

hmm i think we're done i'm happy to talk to people more outside