Reconciling Racism with the Vedic World View

The underlying premise of the Vedic world view, one which I espouse whole-heartedly, is that we are all one thing, which is pure consciousness. Love. We are all unique, individual expressions of the same ONE thing, just like my pinky looks different and has a different function from my ear, but they are absolutely both a part of me.

My struggle with this world view is that this oneness is not the day-to-day experience of everyone in the world. A lot of people have it really, really bad in this world, to a point where they can’t even conceive of ‘it’s all one thing’. In other words, I can afford to have this world view because I’m white, educated, and was raised in a healthy, well-to-do family. Yes, I’ve worked hard, but I’ve also been given unfathomable opportunities- large ones, and daily micro-opportunities- just by virtue of being born into this body.  

I had this same struggle as I was preparing for my Vedic meditation teacher training. I’d think of my 19 year old patient who died of leukemia during my first year of residency- the absolute nicest, most innocent girl- and I thought, this world view is crap. In the context of racism, it’s like when white people say ‘I don’t see race’. That’s not something people of color in this country can afford to say, because they know different. It’s not fair.  

How do we make it all fit in? We have to take a step back.  In the Vedic world view, the world is always moving towards progressive change. It’s always evolving. There’s no other direction but towards greater and expanded consciousness. And this current lifetime is just one of a multitude of lifetimes. We accumulate karma as we live in the world and make mistakes, and we’ve got to learn our lessons- we have to pay that debt back somehow. But it doesn’t all happen now-neither the accrual of karma, nor the payoff. We don’t get to (or need to) learn all of the lessons we need to know in one lifetime. So we come back. We choose this life, this body, these circumstances, in order to learn the lessons that our soul, or the souls of those around us, need to learn. And then we forget that it was a choice, and we live our lives to the best of our ability.

And, importantly, it’s no one’s fault that they are in the life circumstance that they are in. No one deserves to be discriminated against, or pulled over senselessly and violently by police just for existing. No one deserves to live in a society where every institution is designed to keep them down, to keep someone in power that doesn’t look like them. The same way no one deserves their privilege or their power. It doesn’t make them any better or worse than anyone else, it’s just the body they were born into, that their soul chose, in order to learn lessons that needed to be learned.

So as we pull back towards this bigger picture, we can see that this is just one of many lives. We aren’t this one body, or this one existence. Add to that a bigger perspective in terms of size: we are tiny beings made of carbon that are on this tiny blue and green ball that is spinning in a universe that is enormous beyond any capacity to understand in our tiny human brains. None of it is that big of a deal (which, again, is easy for me to say. I’m privileged).

Throughout human history there has been persecution. The holocaust, the crusades, the Salem witch hunts, genocide, slavery, racism. There’s too much of it to name. Human suffering is a given. There are always destructive forces in the world, but the good news is that they are right alongside creative forces. In the path of destruction comes increased growth and expanded consciousness. This isn’t the end for any of us. It gets better every time we come back. (And, being privileged is not more evolved than not being privileged).

If reincarnation isn’t your jam, that’s ok! We can explore further with just 1 lifetime:

So how does meditation help? And, more importantly, what are the dangers of being ‘spiritual’ in a world that is filled with so much senseless suffering and atrocities?

Meditation expands our consciousness. As a meditator (I’m speaking from my own tradition, because it’s what I know, although there are many other consciousness-expanding practices out there), you’ll have less fear-based stress, less of a sense of ‘other’, because you actually experience pure consciousness in your meditative state, this ‘one thing’ that I’ve been talking about. You’ll have more compassion and an ability to see others’ perspectives. And you’ll see that truth is different based on your level of consciousness. And while it’s not your job to police other people’s levels of consciousness or where they are on their journeys, it is absolutely your job to grab onto that expanding consciousness that you get with Conscious Health Meditation and milk everything you can from it.

If you learn to meditate, don’t be a self-important meditator. Don’t isolate yourself from ‘non-spiritual’ people or sit in judgment of them. Meditating, on its own, can do a LOT for your consciousness, but it’s not enough. In a vacuum, it’s just a fraction of what it has the potential to be. Your ‘more’- what you do above and beyond just sitting effortlessly for 20 minutes twice a day and accessing pure consciousness- that’s your story. What do you feel called to do, and how can you contribute to making the world a better place? We don’t all have to be full-on Activists, but we can be activists in our own lives, in our own way. We do so by fulfilling our dharma- our life’s path- each moment of each day. If you live your dharma, you are part of the flow of evolution and expanding consciousness.

Notice your biases. Notice your fears. Notice your knee-jerk reactions to things and people that are different from you. Speak up when someone says or does something that you know to be wrong. If your religion or world view teaches you that you are inherently better than another group of people, just by virtue of being part of it, take note and challenge it. Challenge what you think is ‘truth’ at every possible moment. Notice your defensiveness, and remember that it’s ok to be uncomfortable! Don’t run from that, run towards it. Your discomfort is a sign that you’ve got something to learn, and evolution is about to occur. The more you notice and recognize the implicit racism in our society, the more of a chance you have to use your privilege for good, to make change. 

We’re all here to learn a lesson. But not everyone is given all of the same tools and opportunities. If you’ve chosen a body that enjoys privilege in this lifetime, it is absolutely your responsibility to remember that privilege does not make you better or superior than anyone else. In addition, you absolutely have the responsibility to learn as much as you can about yourself and the world around you so that you can use that privilege to raise consciousness- your own and that of the collective.
 

If you’d like to learn more about anti-racism, please join me in my Conscious Anti-Racism Facebook Group.

Note: I’m a privileged white woman doing my best to learn about my role in systemic racism and to make change and educate others. I am not perfect, I am a work in progress, and I don’t have all the answers. If I have written anything offensive in this blog post, and if you feel comfortable commenting, I’d love to hear from you. You may also reach out to me directly at jill@jillwener.com.