Racism & Violence

When we have to ignore or suppress the feelings of anger and pain in our lives, this becomes the breeding ground for racism and hatred towards other people.

Violence and racism are the answer of a mind that is overwhelmed by life. Hatred and anger build up an imagined world that does not exist in reality. It only exists because we "think it up".

Casting out or rejecting the original anger or pain is the force that darkens our world – the very thing that gives racist thought patterns their breeding ground. Acting out these thought patterns is a never-ending spiral of violence against ourselves or others.

Breaking this cycle, or bringing peace into it, only happens through self-inquiry.

Clearly perceiving and feeling that racism and anger are in everyone, that each of us is both the perpetrator and the innocent victim, that there is no separation between the world and myself – this creates a space for healing.

In this perception of oneness, feeling the pain and the anger can dissolve the "root of racism". In this liberation, the intelligence of life appears, along with the strength to face the dullness and ignorance of the mind.

This act of love for life is an awakening to what we truly are. We are not only all connected – we are ONE. This lived awakening is the beginning of the end of racism and violence in the world.

It is often so easy to recognize the racist or the violence in the other. But true freedom only appears when we begin to look at ourselves, at how violence and racism build up in our own world of thoughts. This understanding creates the compassion and the space of the heart for radical change.

Now is the time to stop looking away, and instead to go to the root of the feeling of separation and of racism. Every single one of us matters and can make such a difference.

Love,
Pratibha & Kareem