Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out

Now, with gratitude, allow the image of the person to fade away, but maintain the essence of loving presence, that powerful quality of kindness and care.

Even with our best efforts, it can be messy. Primarily, we want to keep our fingers on the pulse of good intention, do our best, and never give up on the human spirit. Talking about what disturbs you is not a practice of perfection but a practice of humility that keeps us learning about what it means to be human. This practice is not meant to be li

We should speak the truth respectfully, in ways that lead to connection and wise action.

Offering Kindness to a Challenging Person Once you feel full or feel a sense of calm and stability from offering metta to yourself, you may want to offer metta to a challenging person. Bring to mind someone with whom you experience tension, difficulties, or dissatisfaction—perhaps a racial conflict toward an individual or leader. The challenging pe

supports quiet warmth and relaxation that extends to suffuse the entire body and beyond. It beautifies what is experienced, and it influences how we relate to what happens next.

A white dharma sister shared an eye-opening story of being at a political rally for Palestinian women in Northern California. She asked a Palestinian woman, “What can I do?” To which the Palestinian woman responded, “We like it when people smile at us.”

How do these generational traumas, and so many like them, impact the racial narrative we live in today? Might they have something to do with how we have become either desensitized or overly sensitive to racial harm? How might it help us understand the criminalization and mass incarceration of dark bodies in the United States and Australia?

Reflect for a moment: Is there someone in your bloodline whose relationship to race affected your life? Perhaps a keeper of the family history? Or someone who hated another race without apology? Or maybe there was a racial secret that was kept that everyone knew about but couldn’t talk about. Maybe someone in your life left a mark on your heart and

can result through the practice of mindfulness meditation: regulating the body, attuning to others, balancing emotions, being flexible in our responses, soothing fear, creating empathy, cultivating more understanding, gaining awareness of our morals, and achieving heightened intuition.