Sep 17, 2016
2016 Mindfulness Retreat for People of Color
Dear Friends,
We are happy to continue sharing the Dharma talks from The Path of
True Love: Healing Ourselves, our recent mindfulness retreat for
People of Color.
Today, Rev. angel Kyodo williams offers a presentation and reading
based on the newly published book, Radical Dharma. In this
sharing, Rev. angel invites us into a long overdue conversation
about race alongside love and liberation. As part of this
conversation, Rev. angel speaks about the social construct of
whiteness, while calling us back into our humanity and to be in
touch with the "thing underneath the thing."
A few excerpts:
"...we have the greatest potential to actually pull it up at its
roots. Interestingly enough, we have that opportunity through
this gift of the Dharma that actually invites us to be able to look
with clear seeing eyes at things that are not real...that are
figments of our imagination and figments of other people's
imaginations...Race is a grand social figment."
"As Dharma teachers, the way we survived the aggression and
violence of a white dominant form of Dharma that was coming to
us---is that we got underneath the thing. We got to the thing
underneath the thing. We had to get down to who we really were. And
simultaneously appreciate our teachers, our lineages, the texts as
they were given but also have a fundamental trust in who we were in
our basic humanity."
"What does Dharma become when it's expressed through the experience
of someone who lives in a Black body."
--Rev. angel Kyodo williams
Let us now stop, listen deeply and contemplate these teachings and
sharings to cultivate our individual and collective liberation and
great aspiration to strengthen the Beloved Community.
To stay connected with Rev. angel, visit
http://angelkyodowilliams.com.