Below, looking through the lens of exploring the present use of the term anti-racist, is an interpretation of a passage by Thich Nhat Hanh in his book
No Mud, No Lotus
from the reading on “Why the Buddha Kept Meditating” -page 59
“We can condition our bodies and minds to happiness with the five practices of letting go, inviting positive seeds, mindfulness, concentration, and insight.”
The following interpretation is solely HinjNoiz.
Letting go
> Letting go of prejudice is easy if indeed prejudice is something to let go of. There is a strong bent to protect one’s prejudice. And how do we let go of unseen prejudices? A very difficult phenomenon.
Perhaps to practice with a mind ready to notice the unseen.
> The common view is that we all want to let go of our fears. But fears are a great motivator, energizer, and vindicator. If fears are even seen as a problem at all.
Maybe the place to start is to name them. Difficult to let go of what you cannot name. Also difficult to defend a fear that has just been named. Try it.
Inviting positive seeds
The parable/ metaphor of planting seeds is a powerful one. The follow-up gets taken for granted— got to keep watering, pay attention to the weather, do it every day, sometimes even with your best effort the plant dies, sometimes what comes up is different than you thought— Farmers don’t plant and then go relax and congratulate themselves, there is a season to the project, a harvesting, taking to market, there are great risks— molds and fungi, droughts, cold spells, international price wars—
they don’t get all excited about “planting seeds”— farmers do it every season.
That said, yes, inviting positive seeds is probably a good metaphor! Teachers use it all the time with students, who respond— “Not the positive seeds talk again! Stop! I get it!”
mindfulness
Everyone knows what mindfulness is— paying attention to what you’re saying and doing. Wash the dishes to wash the dishes— blah, blah, blah. We all know the drill.
But what about forgetting to be mindful?
AA meeting story: A guy goes to a meeting, reads about the 12 steps. The next day he goes on a bender. The day after that he goes back to the AA meeting, reads about the 12 steps, and decides to get sober. The day after that he gets thirsty and goes on a bender. This goes on for a good month. Finally, at the same meeting he has gone to every other day, he stands up and says “I tried this 12 step program but it doesn’t seem to work very well.” After the meeting, a friend comes up to the man and says “Do you know the expression One Day At A Time?” The man says “Sure.” And the friend replies, “In a row, buddy, in a row!”
Being anti-racism is practicing anti-racism all the time, without needing thanks or appreciation for it. It’s not some special activity to stop or start at will depending on who’s talking.
concentration
“Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” A parent/teacher axiom.
Anti-racist living is no different. Eat a good breakfast, get some exercise, be ready to start the day, pay attention to the topic of conversation. It can be inviting to project scenarios, multi-task, imagine better worlds, read every journal and book, watch every news show, twitter, facebook, email… You know what I’m talking about.
Whiteness is greedy with things to do and lazy with inattention. A blatant, perverse, and hateful curiosity.
To adequately concentrate requires hard choices. And a simple, courteous demeanor.
insight
Insight steadies. Operating from the point of view of insight things appear in their fullest sense. Insight calms. It doesn’t happen enough of the time either which is why insight isn’t a one-time experience. Insight is something to be experienced every single day. Then it’s not so a big deal. It’s a way tending action to emotional steadiness. To live anti-racist is to be patient when patience is challenged, to look deeply into events and experiences, to meditate on situations and to explode into activity out of a place of insight.
Anti-racist living is still a big question as to how it is all going to come out. From a picture of Emmett Till’s open casket in 1955 to the death video of George Floyd yesterday one can be forgiven for not understanding why it’s taken white people so long to wake up. Those who stand by to a mean-spirited indifference built on greed, fear, and prejudice is why.
With that first cup of coffee racism is reduced from a scourge of humanity to a problem to be solved. We can do this! Perhaps letting go, planting seeds, mindfulness, concentration, and insight can help. Just don’t for one second think they are the answer. Let that go.
HinjNoiz 