Compassion in Action: Mindfulness for a Just Society

crop unrecognizable multiethnic colleagues joining hands

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

Presented by Rhonda Magee, MA, JD

Tags: action, compassion, mindfulness, society

Background

“The particularities of our embodied experiences always create opportunities and moments where we can go one way or another. Helping us to bring forth the commitment, intentionality, and make the most of the opportunities presented by our lives to move in the direction of our values and of our “better angels of our nature” to try to make the world a better place in whatever ways we can.” – Rhonda Magee

What is it about contemplative practices that alleviates suffering that help us choose the “better angels of our nature”? Why is this a catalyst for a transformative kind of relationship to suffering?

A Mindful Approach to Race and Social Justice | Rhonda Magee, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Anderson Cooper
  • Engaging in contemplative practice allows for an invitation in conversations with others regarding social and collective transformation 
  • Asking: What are the ways practices support us internally in the direction of real change?
  • We live in a society that is constantly trying to train us in ways deemed to be “acceptable” 
  • Contemplative practice includes:
    • Mindfulness Based Practices
      • Practices that support us in waking up to moments of our lives
      • Practices that support us in developing a ways of being more present to what is
        • Present: sensory embeddedness of the world, in which we can notice when we’re being triggered or having emotional reactivity to what’s happening (such as experiencing socially challenging emotions such as fear, humiliation, anxiety)
  • Mindfulness practices help us to be present to what’s rising in us in a social landscape in ways that help to counteract our automatic reactions to stimuli, and inviting a pause through which we can choose more intentional ways of responding
  • Mindfulness is about a rich commitment to making the most, (as far as we know) of this one life we have (there might be others), while we’re here. Being as courageous, as intentional as possible about taking the steps we need to take for our own and others well-being in the moments of our lives.
“How does it suggest I might act in the world if I realize my life is somehow connected with yours? What I choose to do is somehow going to affect my neighbour. How my engagement with my life ultimately ripple outward from me. If one starts to really feel that, then compassion comes naturally.” – Rhonda Magee

How do we come to think of ourselves and others through the language and ideas of race?

  • Racialization: how race and racism continue to be factors in our experience today; we are socially constructing ways of thinking and being in the world
  • Each of us inherit, through cultural teachings and trainings ways of categorizing other human beings
  • In American, the concept of race has been with us for a very long time, and has been so foundational to opportunity, to be included and excluded, to have rights and not have rights, to has respect and regard or not
  • The idea of race has been elaborated and refined and so fundamental in shaping so much of the world around us
  • Part of the training about race and how it’s made real is to avoid it
    • How we have come to understand what race is, what it means, our own personal relationship with the idea of race
  • We know so much than we often name about the way in which we are engaged in the process of reading the world through the language of race
  • We must bring awareness to the different ways we are all in this business of making race and bringing awareness to the way race is
  • We must think about how we might courageously and intentionally:
    • Take actions, take stands, disrupt practices, create new policies, create new ways of being together that would make for more justice around race and racism in setting, families and broader world

The following are resources to deepen learning and ways you can take action and support:

Visit:

Commune – Social Impact Courses (Free)

14 Anti-Racism Educators & Activists To Follow And Support Online

Actions You Can Take Today To Support The Black Lives Matter Movement

Why The “Race Card” Doesn’t Exist And How To Be A Better Ally

Explore: Rhonda Magee’s Resources (below)

More from Rhonda Magee

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