She muses

We have practiced directing loving thoughts to people we don’t like. Remember the quote from Martin Luther King…

“Agape is understand, creative, redemptive goodwill toward all men…When you rise to love men on this level, you love all men not because you like them, not because you their ways appeal to you…This is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Love your enemies.’ And I’m happy he didn’t say, ‘Like your enemies,’ because there are some people that I find it pretty difficult to like. Liking is an affectionate emotion, and I can’t like anybody who would bomb my home. I can’t like anyone who would exploit me. I can’t like anybody who would trample over me with injustices… But love is greater than liking. Love is understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill toward all men… I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate myself.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

People don’t sit around and choose to become racist. We are all, to a large degree, products of our upbringing and environment.

All people suffer from racism–oppressed and oppressors:

“As oppressors dehumanize others and violate their rights, they themselves also become dehumanized.”
Paulo Freire

As we discovered in the Power of Love, when we close our hearts we also suffer the cost. A story told by Bill Clinton about Nelson Mandela:

“Many years later, I had a chance to ask him. I said, ‘Come on, you were a great man, you invited your jailers to your inauguration, you put your pressures on the government. But tell me the truth. Weren’t you really angry all over again?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I was angry. And I was a little afraid. After all I’ve not been free in so long. But,’ he said, ‘when I felt that
anger well up inside of me I realized that if I hated them after I got outside that gate then they would still have me.

And he smiled and said, ‘I wanted to be free so I let it go.’”

So let us do a meditation of sending loving thoughts to those we normally don’t like. In this case, choose a person or type of person who for you represents an example or the face of racism.

Part I
Bring your attention to the area in and around your heart– your heart center.
Feel the breath coming into your heart.
Now as you exhale, make the sound “Ah” with each exhale.
(It’s fine for this to be a whisper if you’re in a public place.)
But feel the sound of “Ah” vibrating and resonating in your heart center.
And continue…
Now begin drawing in a light of golden hue in with your breath.
Each time as you inhale, experience golden light coming in with the breath…
And feeling it come all the way into your heart center.
And continue…

Now, see once again, the face of the person who, for you, in this life has been a great teacher of the heart…
Someone who has truly loved you.
Someone from whom you have been able to receive love.
And now direct your own feelings of lovingkindness towards this person:
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

and repeat 2 more times:
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

Now, direct these loving thoughts to yourself.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May my heart be filled with love.

Reflecting on any ways you may have been you have been impacted by racism.
Any ways in which you carry the legacy of racism
Whether as a person of color, or white person.
Whether you were cast by society in the role of victim or person of privilege.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May my heart be filled with love.

And repeat:
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May my heart be filled with love.

And now see the face of someone or a group of people you don’t like.
A person or group of people you perceive as racist.
A person or people who to you represent the face of racism.
Imagine they are sitting right in front of you.

Observe what happens in your heart.
Notice any tendency to contract, or protect the heart.

And breathe into your heart.
It is said that there are only two states of being:
We are either in a state of love–of connection.
Or we are in a state of fear, of contraction and disconnection.

Does your heart contract when you think about this person?
What do you fear?
You are in no danger.
Here, in this moment, everything is O.K.

Breathe into your heart…
Possibly they have acted in ways that are unconscious or unskillful.
Maybe extremely so.
Perhaps they have hurt you, or people you care about.

Yet they are a human being.
They are, like you, someone who has hopes and dreams.
Someone who, like you, has people they love and want to keep safe and be happy.
Someone who, like all people, has experienced loss and pain and their share of suffering.
Someone who, like all of us, is a product of their environment and conditioning.

Can you be present with this person?
Can you stay open in your heart?
Can you dislike their behavior…
Yet stay connected to love?

When our heart closes to another human being,
We suffer.

Breathe into your heart…

Can you be strong in your love?
Are you willing to be vulnerable?
To stay soft in your belly?
To stay open in your heart?
To be a warrior of love?

Breathe into your heart…

And direct the prayer of lovingkindness to this woman or man:
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

Be aware of any resistance…
And feel the cost to yourself of this contraction, this fear, this holding…
And once again:
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

Breathe into your heart…
And once again:
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

Now releasing the image of this person…
And breathe into your heart.

practice variation for today
Continue on with the practice of the last 2 days:
Part 1
If I were to engage every opportunity that I encounter to advance the cause
of racial healing and racial justice, what would I do?

but now add a new Part II
Part II
In each of the opportunities you encounter to potentially advance the cause
of racial healing and justice:
* connect to your heart
* ask yourself, “What would it mean to be a warrior of love?”

“While the legal, material, and even superficial requirements to eradicate racism are well known, its psychological and more deeply spiritual requirements have been persistently neglected-namely, the oneness of the human family. It is this principle of oneness that needs to be the driving force behind the struggle of uniting the races.”
Sara Harrington

“But, on the other hand, I get bored with racism too and recognize that there are still many things to be said about a Black person and a White person loving each other in a racist society.”
Audre Lorde

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass and Akaya Winwood.