View discussions about race as an opportunity to know your mind better, similar to meditation practice, to avoid blindly acting out habit patterns and conditioning.
Utilize your mindfulness and meditation practice to awaken to racial injustice, leveraging these skills to gain clearer, deeper insight into previously unrecognized issues.
Shift your focus to prioritizing continuous learning and growth rather than striving to always be correct in interactions and understanding.
Engage in the inquiry of how all humans belong to each other, understanding that both silence and engagement contribute to the state of the world.
As a meditation practitioner, be interested in how internal and external experiences collide, learning through interactions how greed, hatred, and delusion manifest in your life.
Cultivate ethical conduct in daily life and learn to watch your mind during all activities, as these intentional actions are crucial for personal and collective awakening.
For ambitious pursuits, deeply inquire into your core motivations—whether it’s to help others or for ego gratification—to guide your actions more skillfully.
Employ your mindfulness practice to be radically honest and sincere about your motivations, acknowledging when they are not purely altruistic, because knowing how things truly are is valuable.
Address perfectionism and forceful striving by embracing surrender and curiosity, shifting focus from constantly trying to be better to a mindset of continuous learning.
When your mind defaults to intellectualizing, acknowledge this tendency and then actively use your body to access a deeper, more sophisticated understanding beyond mere intellectual answers.
When intellectual questions arise, maintain connection with your body’s sensations and track any unpleasant feelings with curiosity to effectively interrupt the pattern of intellectualizing.
Immediately observe defensiveness or any strong emotion by noticing its physical sensations in your body, which allows you to become mindful and not be ruled by it.
When defensiveness arises, engage in subtle physical movements like walking, breathing, or shifting your posture to help the energy move and transform, preventing impulsive reactions.
Rather than attempting to eliminate patterns like defensiveness, observe them as they arise and respond skillfully with love for yourself and others, recognizing their impersonal nature.
Anticipate feelings of shame and guilt when addressing racial issues, then learn to work with them skillfully to avoid being paralyzed and to maintain engagement.
Practice connecting with the body to feel emotions such as shame and guilt, trusting their impermanence and allowing them to move through you to prevent getting stuck.
Bypass the unhelpful cul-de-sac of white guilt by observing inner biases with dispassion, which prevents paralysis and allows for constructive action.
Consciously identify and become aware of how the invisible tenets of whiteness, such as individualism, objectivity, and disconnection, influence your actions and perceptions.
Consult online resources listing aspects of white supremacy culture and consistently keep them in mind to recognize their influence on your thoughts and feelings.
Actively learn about the historical foundations of the country, including slave labor and stolen land, to comprehend the structural forces and perpetuated values.
Cultivate the ability to perceive both individual suffering and the broader collective context, understanding their inherent interconnectedness.
Challenge the limits of your sense of belonging by asking if it extends to all human beings, and actively question why silence is acceptable regarding cultural and systemic atrocities.
Cultivate a deep understanding of mutual belonging to enable willingness to say hard things, ask hard questions, and make mistakes, fostering reciprocal challenge, learning, and growth.
When listening to people of color, actively observe your mind’s defensive reactions and questions without acting on them, sometimes following their lead to practice ‘power with’ rather than ‘power over’.
Adopt a sophisticated approach by listening to and sometimes following the lead of people of color, while also doing your own internal work to develop contributions and take responsibility for resolving racial injustice.
Permit intellectual questions to arise without immediately seeking answers, instead prioritizing deep, non-hostile listening in the moment.
Cultivate sophistication in difficult conversations by consistently practicing breath awareness and tracking felt sensations in the body, preparing you to engage more skillfully.
Continuously hold the question ‘What are you doing to fix this problem?’ as an active inquiry in your mind to sustain engagement and motivation.
Regularly ask yourself and other white people ‘What are you doing right now?’ to maintain an active and ongoing inquiry into anti-racism work.
Elevate anti-racism work to the same level of daily importance and commitment as fundamental self-care activities like eating and brushing your teeth.
Engage in anti-racism work through varied actions like mindfulness practice, advocacy, reading, and consuming alternative news, continually asking ‘What is this moment calling for?’ to guide your next step.
Make a conscious commitment to remain engaged in conversations about race, both in private discussions and public forums like podcasts, as a continuous effort.
Create a long-term, systematic plan to consistently engage with and address issues of race, ensuring efforts are intentional rather than haphazard.
Place external reminders, such as post-it notes, to counteract the buffering effect of white privilege and keep the importance of anti-racism work present and personal.
Consciously use your body to remain present and engaged with discomfort, confusion, and ‘heat’ during anti-racism work, accepting that this will be an ongoing part of the process.
Commit to embracing and becoming accustomed to discomfort, anticipating a future where being white will be less comfortable as various racial justice movements gain prominence.
Actively ask and reflect on how white supremacy culture has personally harmed you, using this inquiry to penetrate the buffer of privilege and foster deeper understanding.
Consider how white supremacy has led to a disconnection from your own heart and capacity to care, and how it contributes to difficulties and mistrust in authentic relationships with people of color.
Actively seek and cultivate authentic relationships with people of color where power dynamics are balanced, focusing on caring, loving, befriending, and joining in activities.
When face-to-face opportunities are scarce, utilize technology platforms like Zoom, Instagram, or reading materials to engage with and listen to people of color.
Actively find ways to engage, learn, and listen to social and oppressive forces, as true awakening requires moving beyond a personal bubble.
Fully integrate all aspects of the Buddhist path, including mind training, the teachings (Dharma), and the community (Sangha), for comprehensive awakening.
Understand that your mindfulness practice will naturally extend beyond personal experience, influencing your social world as mindful awareness grows in strength.
Make a conscious effort to be skillful and abide in goodness during conversations, as this engagement and contribution create a sense of belonging and positive impact.
Recognize the power of karma by consciously planting intentional seeds of skillful actions and intentions, which will support ongoing positive efforts.
Pay attention to your instinct to control situations, especially when plans are disrupted, as this reveals a manifestation of clinging to power.
Become aware of your desire to be right in conversations and the impulse to dismiss differing opinions, as these are manifestations of clinging to power.
Reframe perfectionism as a collective ‘force of nature’ rather than an individual problem, allowing for a broader, less personal approach to its observation and understanding.
Become aware of your tendency to intellectualize and seek academic validation when encountering challenging concepts, understanding it as a common head-based reaction.
Access the free guided meditations on the 10% Happier app to help engage with issues relating to race, as they are designed for this purpose.
Instead of submerging or swatting away horrifying thoughts about race, drag them out of the subconscious and take a hard look at them to know your mind better.
Engage in the work of examining racial biases with mindfulness and friendliness, understanding that guilt and shame are self-centered cul-de-sacs that hinder progress.
Begin meditation for personal reasons like reducing suffering, but allow your motivation to deepen over time to include playing a more positive role in the world.
If you react defensively, later reflect on the conversation to notice where you got caught, allowing the experience to pass and apologizing if necessary, a practice known as ‘post-mindfulness’.
Before engaging in tasks, acknowledge that there will be a mix of wisdom and delusion, and consciously surrender to the role of a continuous learner in the moment.