Day 1

The idea for these offerings came from my reading of Light on Yoga, by B.K.S. Iyengar. The part that resonated most was this quote from Yehudi Menuhin's Foreword: "What is the alternative [to the practice of Yoga]? The tragic spectacle of people working out their own imbalance and frustration on others."

I am coming to understand that racism is like this: some people working out their imbalance, their insecurity, their fear and frustration, on others. It compels me to consider that perhaps the work that is deeply lacking from the movement is interior work. That white folks can donate all the money they have, share all the resources they acquire, cognitively engage with all the books that are prescribed; but unless there is an interior shift – awareness of what is happening internally and why it is happening and where it came from in the first place – nothing will change. And Black folks will keep dying.

A Practice for Today:

Write a narrative about your “work” around race. 

If you feel like you are just getting started when it comes to “the work,” write about your understanding of race in the world around you. How do you think it impacts you? Or doesn’t? What has deterred you from engaging? What has compelled you to start now?

If this work feels familiar to you, write about what that looks like. The external work – the donations you’ve made, arguments you’ve entered into, lectures you’ve attended. What compelled you to do those things? And then consider your interior work. When it comes to considering race, have you made space to sit with yourself, with curiosity about your experience, your ideas, your insecurities? If not, why not? If so, what has that experience offered?