Loving Kindness Meditation for Victims of Racism & Violence

A 22 minute loving kindness meditation and talk for the victims of racism and violence. This was recorded after the incidents in Charlottesville, Virginia. Susan's talk runs until 5:53 and the meditation portion starts at 5:54 if you would like to forward to that section. The meditation ends with silence, Susan taking a bow, and then standing up from her chair.

Transcript

Hi,

Susan.

Thank you for joining me for this meditation,

This loving kindness meditation for victims of racism and violence.

It has been an extraordinarily difficult and painful day.

There has been so much rage and sorrow and confusion and deep,

Deep,

Deep longing to help.

In addition to these incredibly difficult,

Painful feelings,

Almost impossible to digest,

Along with it all is an incredibly potent longing to live in peace.

There's also a,

I don't know what the right word is even,

A rageful wish to stand between perpetrators of violence and their victims,

To protect others,

To protect people of color,

To protect women,

To protect anyone who has been threatened with and or experienced the hatred of others.

So that's what this meditation is about.

We're here right now because we feel so much anger,

So much fear,

So much hopelessness,

Sorrow,

Shame,

You know,

Speaking as a white person.

And in addition to all these very uncomfortable,

Painful,

Warranted feelings,

There is a strange kind of love that accompanies it all.

If we didn't long to live in peace and love,

If we didn't feel so much about the events of the last few days,

The events of hatred and racism and violence and tragedy,

If we didn't feel,

We feel that so strongly because we have such a deep longing to love.

And in order to counter what we are faced with right now,

Racism and hatred and so on,

This may sound like some Buddhist bullshit,

But it isn't.

We have to learn to work with this,

With this rage,

With this hopelessness,

With this shame,

Which this,

With this longing to live in peace.

Otherwise we will become guilty of exactly what we hate in other people because we will add to the kitty of hate.

I know that sounds really silly.

We will add to the storehouse of hate.

So we can't do that.

Now there are other options besides lying down and watching TV and thinking,

Oh,

Someone else will figure it out.

It seems like for many of us,

We think I either have to get in there and fight to the death at,

Which we do by the way,

By saying hateful things,

By expressing how horrible I feel,

By shaming and terrifying and putting down the people who have caused these terrible situations,

Who deserve it by the way.

But if we go into a battle armed with the same weapons that our enemy is armed with,

We will both be dead.

We have to shift the dialogue to a different plane.

Anything we do to add to the hatred increases what we hate.

That is a painful,

Painful truth,

But there is no incidence in the history of humanity.

I'm making some very unilateral giant statements here.

There is no incidence in the history of humanity of peace being created through war,

Maybe temporarily,

But we're looking for a lasting peace.

And to achieve it,

We have to be very brave and we have to work with this incredibly painful rage,

Not so that we can go back to our comfortable lives and watch Real Housewives of New York City,

Although I will tell you some days that's all I feel like I can do,

But so that we can enter clear-eyed into the battle perhaps of our lifetime for the soul of our country.

So the practice of loving-kindness meditation is the practice of meeting this incredible weight,

Not excluding anything,

Not excluding hatred,

Not excluding rage,

Not excluding shame or disappointment or sorrow or frustration,

Not excluding any of that,

But working with it to transform it.

So this practice of loving-kindness or the practice of wakeful presence is one piece of a bridge between what we feel now,

The rage and frustration and difficulty and so on to the clear-eyed,

Brave,

Uncompromising effort to fight racism and hatred.

This practice is a bridge between stupid hate and smart rage.

So enough said about that.

Let's do it.

You can do the practice of loving-kindness in a general way.

You can do it for people that are suffering from what you suffer with.

But this practice is going to be particularly meant for victims of racism and hatred because we all want to do something.

And this is actually something.

It doesn't take the place of calling our politicians and impeaching our stupid president,

But it is something nonetheless that you can do to contribute to what you actually want to accomplish.

So let's begin.

Begin please by sitting in a relaxed way.

And what that means is not sitting in a way where you feel great.

It means relaxing with what you feel.

Maybe you're scared,

Maybe you're angry,

Maybe you're all of the above.

That's cool.

We can sit together in those feelings because we have to contact them in order to do this practice and in order to be of benefit altogether.

So think of yourself.

Start this practice by thinking of yourself and how enraged,

Upset,

Sorrowful you are right now.

Maybe you are a victim of racism or violence or misogyny.

Maybe you have experienced all these things yourself.

Maybe you have witnessed others experiencing these things.

But we want to start with that personal wish to never have this happen to anyone ever again,

Including ourselves.

So we want to start by wishing ourselves well in the following way.

And I'm going to offer you four phrases that you send to yourself.

And if some of these words don't sound right,

Change them to words that feel better to you.

But here's the first one.

Think of yourself and how much you want to help and how deeply you hold the conviction that what is happening in this country in the last 24 hours especially is W wrong,

Completely wrong.

Me,

Susan,

You,

Amy,

Tashi,

Lisa,

Alexandra,

Carla,

Carmen,

Barbara,

Debbie,

All of your names that I see,

Jim Tolstrup,

I'm so happy you're here.

May I,

May Lee,

May Jim,

May Susan,

May Deborah,

May I be safe.

Send this wish to yourself.

May I be safe.

May I be protected by others.

Wish this for yourself.

May I be protected by others.

I don't have to do it myself.

May I feel at home in my country.

May I live in peace.

I,

Jill,

Julie,

Ellen,

Udo,

Kat,

Lisa,

May I live in peace.

Wish this for yourself.

And I'll bring to mind someone you love who has been a victim of racism and or violence.

It could be someone you know personally,

Someone that you know as a public figure,

Someone who you respect,

Like,

Love,

That has had to contend with this incredible outpouring of stupidity and hate and wish for people you love who are victims of racism and violence.

May you be safe.

May you be protected by others.

May others come to your aid.

Do not have to do this alone.

May you be protected by others.

May you feel at home in your country.

May there be no question that you belong here.

May you feel at home and embraced in your country.

May you live in peace.

May you be surrounded only by peace.

Now let this loved one or loved ones go and bring to mind a stranger,

Someone you don't know,

You don't have feelings about positive or negative,

But you can kind of picture or imagine stranger or strangers who have is or have been victims of racism and violence.

And for this person that you don't know or these people that you don't know who have been and will be victimized by racism and violence,

You can still send them every bit of good wishes from your heart by wishing for the strangers who are victims of racism and violence.

May you be safe.

May you be protected by others at every turn.

May you be protected by others.

May you feel at home in your country.

This is your country.

May you feel at home here.

May you live in peace.

All the people I don't know are victims of racism and violence.

I long for this for you.

May you live in peace.

Now we get to the hard part.

Let these strangers go or stranger and bring to mind the face or identity of a person or people that you hate,

That you would call your enemy or enemies.

You don't have to like them.

You don't have to change your mind about what you think about them at all.

Got a lot of noises outside right now.

I beg your pardon.

So bringing to mind a person or people who you don't like or hate.

I'm not afraid to use that word.

Who are also victims of racism and violence,

Even if it's only in their own mind.

To my enemies,

May you be safe.

Really feel what that feels like because this is important.

Not may you win,

But may you be safe.

Then you wouldn't be so nutty,

So stupid.

May you be protected by others.

Not done violence to so that you will then not do more violence to others.

May you be protected.

May you feel at home in your country,

Not to the exclusion of others,

But with everyone else.

May you feel at home,

Deeply at home in your country.

Nothing to fight for because you're home.

May you feel at home.

May you live in peace,

May you be surrounded by peace.

And therefore have no need to make war.

May you live in peace.

Finally let's bring it all together.

You,

The people you love,

The people you don't know,

And the people you despise.

Past,

Present,

Future.

All beings,

Human,

Animal,

Seen,

Unseen,

Insect,

Fish,

Everybody.

May all sentient beings be safe,

Without exception.

May all beings be protected by the other all beings.

May all beings be protected by others.

May we protect each other.

May all beings feel at home in their country,

Without exception.

May all beings feel at home.

May all beings live in peace.

All.

Let's end our loving kindness meditation together by just sitting together for a few moments,

Keep track of the time,

In silence and solidarity with victims of racism and violence,

Which may include us.

Let's just sit together in solidarity and breathe.

Feel yourself breathing.

Know that we breathe together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I feel my heart connected to yours.

I hope you feel a similar connection.

And if you would like to leave an aspiration,

To arouse an aspiration,

Put it in comments here.

Sounds so silly.

Put your aspiration in Facebook.

Nonetheless,

Please,

To close,

If you would like,

State your aspiration,

Share it with others and accept a bow from me,

Please.

Reviews

Hey thank you so much for this, i moved somewhere new and I’m really struggeling with the casual racism of the where I live. This kept me going today. My hope is that I can be the change i see.

May all beings be safe. May all beings live in peace and harmony. 🌸🌺

Sadly this is as relevant today as it was 3 years ago. I cried through the whole meditation. Thank you for providing a space to allow for the release of the heartache through love.

Thank you, this was the only meditation I could find regarding violence and racism. I feel like I really needed this right now especially after the recent murders of innocent Black folks, especially George Floyd. We need more of this!

Much needed after school shooting in broward. There is a rally for fun safety at the broward county federal building downtown 2/17/18 @ 1pm.

Would you please rerecord this? It's so important and maybe just the metta with a brief introduction?

Love her! I wish she was my friend

Thank you for this! It was timely and needed. I included the victims of the attacks today in Spain. Peace.

Thank you for this. Sitting with our painful and angry emotions is difficult enough but then taking that fear and anger and transforming them into love, hope and peaceful action...now that's REALLY hard yet righteous and very powerful. Speak your truth but don't meet hate with hate. Meet it with love, truth, compassion...like Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Don't become poisoned by hate. Protect each other by standing up for each other with your words, votes, money and time. Be a compassionate warrior for peace. Namaste.

So powerful. Namaste.?

Thank you for this meditation.
Here in Germany, we have to put up with far right marches. And they take place regularly. Thankfully, there always are more people on the other side.
I want to believe that love, respect & accepance of all beings, regardless of race, gender or background, is possible.
May God Bless all of us.

May everyone feel at home in their own country!

I valued your introduction and raw, candid honesty as much as the meditation itself. Thank you. 💖

As a black woman, I was moved by this - even to tears for a moment. I think it's very important for everyone to evaluate their feelings, actions, and role of responsibility in our present climate (and that goes for how one has contributed to it as much as how one can help fix it). I applaud you for creating this meditation and not avoiding the very specific, heavy events happening right now. Namaste 🙏

This was really impactful for me this morning. Impassioned, timely and cathartic.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. My rage was partly due to my feelings of helplessness. Your teaching has helped me believe I/we can do something. Love will win.

I deeply appreciate the intent of this meditation and discussion.
As a woman of African descent who was born, raised and lived most her life in the Southeast of the U.S. living with overt racism has been norm we adapted to deal with. The scars left become painful reminders passed from generation to generation. And living in relative peace with people who seem oblivious or content with the persistent evidence of the racist elephant in the room is a daily challenge that is almost impossible to process.
This meditation was emotionally challenging but restorative.
Thank you.

May all beings awaken and know that we are all one. Namaste

I will create safety wherever I can.