The conversation pictured here happened in San Francisco this past Monday on Earth Day, between the two dynamic mindsets of Tara Brach - a clinical psychologist, author, and renowned teacher of Buddhism - and the impeccable Konda Mason - founding CEO of Impact Hub Oakland, meditation teacher at Spirit Rock, and social justice entrepreneur.
It was a pleasure for me to sit, drop in, and witness a dialogue between these two role models of mine, about how compassion and meditation can bring healing to racial divides in communities.
Meditation and Buddhist schools of thought have accompanied me on my spiritual evolution since I was 16 years old. Sitting with the breath, sending loving kindness, practicing compassion, insight meditation, body scanning with Vipassanā, the eightfold path - these are all virtues and practices that brought my soul more fully into my body and the present reality.
What does that look like, as a mindset? It looks like a mindset that has the capacity to witness, to observe, to let breathing inform the pacing of words, thoughts and actions, to exercise humility when our perspective is challenged, to exercise patience & tenderness toward our neighbors, as the collective consciousness strives toward harmony on earth - now more than ever.
It may seem like an obvious statement: compassion and meditation can bring healing to racial divides in communities. But how? What is the action step? My belief is that conversations like the ones pictured here, coming from an individual level of self-compassion and meditative centeredness, are a model for how we can accomplish true harmony. When a human soul is truly seen and heard on both sides of a conversation, it becomes clear to me what we are really fighting for - love.
Comments