Only through realizing dharma can we be liberated from suffering

In the United States, we have a lot of work to do to communicate to our children that they are significant because of who they are and not because of where they rank in the hierarchy of things. A distorted sense of significance seeks recognition, fame and the accolades of achievement, not from the perspective of mastering a craft but for the sake of outperforming others and coming in first. Being the “most,” “biggest,” “fastest,” et cetera, is associated with being more significant. The virus of our insignificance has seduced us into dysfunction and has alienated us from ourselves. As a practitioner of dharma and a teacher of mixed African descent, however, I feel quite differently about our true identity: I believe that the liberated mind has no color at all. I believe that in our heart of hearts, we are neither black nor brown, neither yellow nor white, nor pink or any other color. In our liberated mind, we are free; we are beyond color. I am saying this because it is important for us to experience ourselves in both dimensions: the dimension of the fully integrated person who can connect completely to all colors and cultures while recognizing that none of the colors and cultures truly do us justice in our true essence (beyond color or creed), and the dimension of being simply human, as we present ourselves in our natural habitats, embodied as black, brown, or any shade at all. As spiritual beings, we must realize that we are beyond color, that at no time does the color of our skin hold any sway over us. What controls us are our wounds of insignificance. Some of these wounds have been perpetuated by centuries of slavery and colonialism; some of these wounds have been perpetuated by social incompetence, interpersonal ignorance and confusion. Whatever their origin, we must learn to identify and to honor a colorless, liberated heart and mind just as much as our fully embodied, beautiful, black, brown, and white bodies, and heal the trauma of our lack of safety and lack of significance. The promise of the dharma is universal liberation for all, regardless of origin, race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. One of the reasons dharma appeals to so many minorities is its focus on liberation from struggle, pain, and suffering. But, on the path to greater liberation, one challenging part comes in allowing yourself to release your identification with your color and race. I am not suggesting that it is not deeply important and meaningful to own our ethnic heritage or to heal all the shame and resistance to fully inhabiting ourselves. It is both critical and essential. But we also want to dismantle the oppression of being identified with our history of suffering from trauma and insignificance so we can recognize our timeless value in knowing the true identity of our colorless nature, which is eternally liberated and always magnificent. As dharma teachers, we share the message that inside each and every one us, there lies the flawless, colorless nature of awareness and liberation. If we do not share this message, we do all our brothers and sisters a disservice—repeating the injury of reducing us to the color of our skin and restricting their vision of their own liberation. When we manage to enroll someone in a vision of their own healing and liberation, it becomes more interesting to heal the present than to heal the past, and it becomes more interesting to acknowledge wholeness than to become holy. Waking up is a discovery process of who we already are, not a search for who we can become. No less is what we must accomplish if we want to heal the demons of our past with regard to race in this world. I have traveled the globe and I have seen wholeness and dignity in all corners of the world. Everywhere, you can find totality and healing, regardless of a person’s socioeconomic state or social position. We are carrying a burden of wounds that have not healed and identities that have not been allowed to re-signify themselves from a ground of colorlessness, soulfulness, and wholeness. How can we have these kinds of conversations about healing when so many people are still walking around amputated from the rest of their own humanity? How can we speak about forgiveness or complete reconciliation when the pain of our own amputation is still tormenting our minds and the wounds are still fresh? Do we even want healing? Do we even want reconciliation? Do we want to belong to each other, to our species, to this world? Or would we prefer to stay alienated and irritated enough to care that things aren’t solved, but not exasperated enough to solve them once and for all? When I embarked on the path of dharma, I thirsted for liberation, not for rehabilitation. I wanted freedom more than I wanted name and stature. And the price for that freedom was no less than everything. “Everything” meant surrendering the sense of belonging to one group of people over belonging to all humanity. I had to abandon my sense of insignificance (according to history) and accept the confidence and significance of being fully present. You cannot remain a black person and realize the meaning of dharma. You cannot remain a white person and awaken to the full potential of your true nature. You cannot elevate one gender over another and receive the most precious gift this world has to offer. You are either all in, or you remain a prisoner confined to the walls of your own making. The Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh once said in his poem “Call Me by My True Names”: I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river, and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly. I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond, and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks, and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda. 1 To evolve oneself through the practice of wisdom and compassion means to declare one’s willingness to outgrow not only the suffering in our genes but also the causes of the suffering. To become truly human thus calls for us to renounce all amputations, regardless of the underlying bias and experience that caused them. It is deep and vulnerable work and there are no shortcuts. You cannot simply wish your wounds away. An amputated heart and mind do not reconcile through further separation but through the realization of nonduality and the full reintegration of all aspects of itself. Can we be courageous enough to admit to ourselves the experience of amputation? Can we be courageous enough to admit to ourselves the existence of our wounds of insignificance and belonging? Can we be courageous enough to venture on a journey of rediscovering and redeveloping the relationship with ourselves, with humanity, and with the planet, until we experience those relationships as ones of love, respect, significance, and belonging? Can we overcome the experience of being a tourist in this life, entitled to taking whatever we want from our experience and leaving only trash behind, and instead transform into pilgrims on a sacred journey, traveling in life to reconnect with all our amputated parts until our sense of wholeness is fully restored? Can we step into all of who we are, fully embodied, and discover our colorless, liberated self-less being that is ever powerful, gentle, and unharmed as if we had arrived on the very first, timeless day? My practice and work are committed to the deep healing within myself and to the people who choose to trust me to guide them. To me, that is a great honor, because in supporting the healing of just one of us, we are learning to heal us all.