Undoing Internalized Privilege

In this contemplation we send heartfelt caring and compassion to all who experience pervasive oppression in our society. We open our hearts to this suffering and feel gratitude for our vast inheritance.

Transcript

Please sit tall.

Please sit comfortably.

Taking a moment to let the shoulders come into alignment with the hips.

Lift from the crown of the head.

And then letting the ears slide back so that they are a little more in alignment with the shoulders.

It's nice to place the hands around mid-thigh level so that they support a width of the collar bones and openness of the heart of the chest.

And please welcome yourself to this space of practice and conscious evolution.

I'm so glad that you're here.

And to settle into the body,

To relax,

To open up a space where meaningful process can happen,

We'll just do some simple deep belly breathing for two to three minutes here.

So begin taking deep breaths through the nose or the mouth,

Sending them down to the lowest part of the belly beneath the navel and allowing the belly to expand like a balloon as you breathe in.

And as you breathe out,

Balloon simply deflates.

Keep breathing like this.

This is a simple and direct way to send a message to your nervous system that it's okay to let go right now.

Okay?

Each deep exhale is an invitation to the breath.

An invitation for things to soften.

The shoulders,

The face,

The eyes,

Your jaw,

Your belly,

Your seat.

Everything.

Softening.

Even the hands,

Even the pelvis,

And the legs,

And the toes.

Softening.

And then letting go of the belly breath.

Just breathing into the space of the heart for the remainder of this practice.

So pretending your nose has been placed in the center of your chest inside the body.

So that when you breathe in you fill up the space of the heart,

When you breathe out the heart dissolves.

And you can continue breathing right here as you take in and engage the contemplation that comes next.

Please begin by considering just how many variables had to come together just for you to be here in this moment,

Taking in this meditation.

The material resources of time and energy and money,

Relative health,

Relative sanity,

Relative privilege.

There needed to be an infrastructure that provided food and water for you to be here,

Have the space to take this in as well.

And if we start to expand and consider perhaps the raw materials of your home or whatever building you're in right now.

The wood,

The concrete,

The electricity,

The many,

Many workers who had to come together.

And if you consider the source of those raw materials such as wood,

Perhaps.

The rain,

The sunlight,

The soil,

The microorganisms that went into the growth of those trees.

And if we go on like this forever and find that innumerable variables had to come together just for you to have this one moment.

Lineages of Buddhism and Hinduism and Western psychology had to be present to me in order for me to have this to offer to you.

It's all here right now.

And so I invite you to step into a moment of conscious appreciation and gratitude for this vast inheritance of yours.

Contemplate the indigenous people who once dwelt on the land you presently occupy.

Do you know who they were?

If not,

It might be a good idea to look them up after this practice.

But consider that people's whole lives took place here.

Generation after generation of families lived here.

Consider how those families had to survive harsh winters or summers or both.

And had to meet with and survive great adversity of all kinds.

Consider that they grew food here.

And what pastimes they might have had.

What games their children may have played.

Acknowledge the likelihood as well that a genocide took place right here in your vicinity.

And that you and I have benefited from that.

Allow yourself to feel the remorse,

Not the guilt,

But the remorse that may naturally rise from that.

And from that place,

Can you offer gratitude?

Gratitude.

That you are able to be where you are relatively safely as an occupier of this land.

Contemplate the role slave labor has played in the building of the infrastructure that surrounds you.

The establishment of agriculture and a healthy economy,

For example.

The building of railroads and bridges that made the transport of the raw materials that built your town or your city possible.

Consider that enormous swaths of people only did this labor out of mortal fear of unspeakable punishment because they were utterly trapped.

Consider that many of them died on the job.

And that you and I benefit from that.

Allow yourself to feel the natural remorse.

That it's right to feel.

For this inheritance.

And can you let that give rise to a gratitude and an appreciation?

To offer thanks from the heart to them for their unbelievable toil.

Contemplate the labor of undocumented immigrants.

Often grossly underpaid.

If you live in the United States,

It is so likely that you have been consuming food all week that undocumented immigrants picked,

Cleaned,

Packaged and shipped.

Consider that they paid taxes that support the infrastructure and economy where you live.

This while living in fear of being deported,

Of being sent back in many cases to unlivable and life-threatening circumstances.

Consider that they have parents and children and dreams of a good life,

Just like you do.

Acknowledge the reality that many of them will be returned to circumstances that are unspeakable.

I'm asking you to be brave enough.

To let your true feelings about that arise.

And from the heart,

Can you say thank you?

Thank you for your contribution to my well-being.

Finally,

Contemplate how your family came to live where you were born.

Did your ancestors immigrate?

Were they brought to your homeland involuntarily?

What were the conditions?

What was their land of origin?

Can you consider what earlier generations of your family might have gone through living where they did at that time?

Can you find compassion for their struggle?

Can you thank them from the heart for their contribution?

Compassion.

Compassion and caring.

For all those who have contributed to your privilege.

Compassion and caring.

For all those who have not been so fortunate.

Compassion and caring.

For all those who right now,

At this moment,

Are beneath the heel of oppression in our unjust societies.

For all those who have not been so fortunate.

Seeing these things,

Acknowledging these things,

Feeling these things.

How will you go out and live today?

How will you acknowledge your human and other than human relations?

How will you honor and take accountability for your ancestry?

And what kind of ancestor do you want to be?

To the beings of the future.

It feels right to allow a half smile to spread across the face.

To elicit some serotonin from the brain.

Because to take in all of this and to not go forth,

Living joyfully in gratitude,

Appreciation and compassion.

With the fire in our bellies to work for justice.

This must be our answer.

Thank you.

Reviews

Eye opening and heart opening. Thank you for the perspective.

Very helpful contemplation thank you Ralph!

Woah 😳 this is a must listen! Instilled humility, non duality, and a desire to socially evolve further and be at peace with my freakish minimalist ways in my community of excess

Thanks for finding words for what I feel but haven’t been able to articulate