Racism and Enlightenment

Those of us working on extricating ourselves from the clutches of victim beliefs find it difficult sometimes to stop thinking and acting as victims. We are acutely aware of the power words have on us, particularly words that we have been taught are demeaning to us. We are always vigilant, poised to strike, whenever someone hurls a racial epithet at us. In these type of situations, it's difficult for us to discipline ourselves to act from an enlightened position.

Sometimes the choices we make, in response to the external challenges to our wannabe enlightened awareness, are there to remind us of the work we have to do. And while it is our intentions to refrain from responding to words challenging our resolve to remain on the path to enlightenment, we're frequently unable to because we're too angry or too victimized by our cultural experiences and beliefs.

Nevertheless, it's the bases of our beliefs that's guiding our intentions. We intend to become empowered, but we fall short of our goal each time we return to our victim beliefs. At the root cause of our intentions and desires are the victim beliefs we have nurtured in our lives. They remain in our lives to remind us of our powerlessness, and they're there to assist us with evaluating our own level of enlightened awareness.

Most of us believe racism is a terrible belief. In many instances we are afraid to even discuss it for fear of someone labeling us racists or whining victims. And because of our unwillingness to investigate racism and its origins in our beliefs system, we remain steadfast in our willingness to cling to our victim beliefs. We do so while  publicly proclaiming ourselves as advocates for spiritual enlightenment.

Similarly, when racism enters onto our paths, it's there for us to grow or remain as victims. Racism, like so many other words we have created to devalue ourselves and others in the world, gets its power from those who believe in it. The mere existence of racism in our lives means we have accepted a world that defines people by skin color, class, and status.

For us to go beyond the limitations of racism, we must first redefine our beliefs. This requires a new, re-birthing process to cleanse our minds of the beliefs we are using to function in this world. The re-birthing must occur within our minds. We must kill the victim so the new enlightened person can be born. To kill means to remove, to cleanse the cancerous beliefs causing us to devalue ourselves. This is the process used to create all change.

Many of us find it refreshing to confront our fears. We welcome the opportunity to discuss racism as long as it's on our own terms. In other words, we want to discuss racism but continue to perceive it within a right or wrong framework. We don't want the outcome of the discussion to affect our developed beliefs about it. In the main, we want to have our beliefs about racism validated by the discussion. None of us want to accept or believe we're expressing racist actions.

Meanwhile, the greatest challenge to us is not by having or not having the discussion on racism, but our unwillingness to overcome victim beliefs and seek enlightenment. Moreover, the challenges of remaining peaceful, while living in the midst of racial turmoil, are ones that test our resolve to remain committed to our enlightenment goals.