Teach me what I cannot learn alone

By Ji Hyang Padma

Teach me what I cannot learn alone.
Let us share what we know, and what
we cannot fathom. Speak to me of
mysteries, and let us never lie
to one another.
May our fierce and tender longing
fuel the fire in our souls. When we
stand side by side, let us dare to focus
our desire on the truth. May we be
reminders, each for the other,
that the path of transformation passes
through the flames
To take one step is courageous;
to stay on the path day after day,
choosing the unknown, and facing
yet another fear, that is nothing
short of grace.
A senior student once told me that we begin practice for the Buddha (the beauty of enlightenment- nature) or Dharma (truth) but what we get (and need) is Sangha. Sangha-- that community of other human beings who, as Pema Chodron puts it, are "committed to taking off their armor". Opening to the boundless heart of being cannot be done alone. That brings me to the next point-- practicing in our situation.
The situation: At this time, the social compact that unites our communities is fraying due to pervasive patterns of domination and oppression expressed through racism and multiple forms of "othering", including structural violence exacerbated by the Covid crisis. The murder of George Floyd is not an isolated incident: it took place even as we were investigating the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery (his only crime, #joggingwhileblack) and the death of Breonna Taylor, a paramedic killed in her own home. For five years, I have been teaching a class at Omega Institute, Crossing the Color Line, which has served to create dialogue among white people and people of color, helping to bridge those gaps in understanding. I collected many, many articles and videos for that class to illustrate the difference between the experience of white Americans and the experiences of people of color. Articles on the police being called on black people going into an Airbnb, black people napping in a dormitory. black people waiting for someone at Starbucks, black people babysitting, black people entering their own apartment building. Finally, there just got to be too many. Far too many for me to compile, and absolutely far too many for this to go on unchecked.
We need to shift our social system so that it is socially sustainable, and it is an accurate reflection of the promises of human rights secured in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Founders of this country did something spiritually significant, when they wrote that each person had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that all men are created equal. At the same time, they didn't keep those promises. They owned slaves. And it didn't stop there-- as we see when we face history. While some aspects of the full history have not been widely taught (out of our need to protect a kind of idealized view of our ancestral past), people of color have not had the luxury of pretending that that history does not exist. We are still suffering from that legacy now. That is, to say, there is multi-generational karma. The people who are protesting now, are holding America to its promise, to create a true democracy. This is the same point Thoreau wrote about in the classic Civil Disobedience, the sacred journey that Gandhi and Martin Luther King took, to bring about liberation. It is a shared journey, because none of us are free until all of us are free. That is, we say, Indra's net.
So, what are we doing right now? How can we help... There is a need for our sangha to have some conversations among us. We are grateful that our sangha is diverse, because it means we can learn from each other right now. On an individual level, this helps our spiritual practice so that we move from the illusion of our separation to the truth of our connection. The way through, though, requires hearing each other's stories, particularly the stories of people of color. As we enter into these conversations, one key obstacle that does come up for white people is a discomfort with the emotions that arise: blame, potential embarrassment, a feeling of "being an outsider". It's true, we might make a mistake, even with the best intention-- because, as my colleague Gina Harris reminds us, "we don't know what we don't know". At that time, we can apologize, make amends, and continue forward. People of color often have that experience of unjustified blame and marginalization within this society that is structurally racist. When we, as white people, are not resilient enough to process our discomfort, the term for this is fragility-- and it shuts down the process of meaningful dialogue. When we are able to be with feelings of discomfort, de-center our own experience, learn and stay connected, we can be good allies, and work effectively against injustice. As we do so, this is our awakening Buddha- nature, expressing itself as Dharma, truth, through our clear relationship with each other and this world.
There is much more I would like to say, and we will address this on Friday night. The teaching prompt for Friday is from Buddhist teacher bell hooks:
A fundamental shift in consciousness is the only way to transform a culture of domination and oppression to one of love. Contemplation is the key to this shift. There is no change without contemplation. The image of Buddha under the Bodhi Tree illustrates this-- here is an action taking place that may not appear to be meaningful action. Yet it transforms. --bell hooks