We join today to repair the racial karma of this nation, because our destinies and freedoms are intertwined. And though the mountain of suffering is high, and the tears of pain fill the deepest oceans, our path compels us to rise up like a lotus flower above muddy waters. The notion of repair has to do with acknowledgment. You can’t become free if we do not acknowledge who we are in all of our hurt, in all of our imperfections, in all of our fractures. True repair goes beyond legislation. Trauma is in all of us, in our psyches and our bones, some of it inherited and some of it our own. It is less about atoning for sin, and more about trying to take some responsibility based on awakening to the fact that we are multiple, we are interconnected, we are interlinked, and our destinies are very much intertwined, because that is how karma works.
Duncan Ryuken Williams
a Soto Zen Buddhist priest
The words, “repairing our racial karma” are like a soothing rain to a parched heart. Duncan Williams made these comments at a ceremony at a Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles that was vandalized with hate. More than 350 temples from across the nation participated virtually in a national healing ceremony in the midst of the violence against Asians and the trauma it has caused so many. We so quickly forget that we are all brothers and sisters who need to find our common spirit and common destiny. Regardless of race, gender identity, religion, or political party, we are all inhabiting this rock which we must steward together. We waste so much time, energy, resources when we turn on each other. Each of us has trauma, pain and suffering. None of it is greater or more important than another’s. Repair your own trauma by understanding someone else’s. Read this beautiful article. Share your thoughts and your love. And help repair our racial karma! |
No lotus can survive in clear clean water.
No Mud. No Lotus
Thich Nhat Hanh