(photo by omaryousief)
“We are all one.” This is dry wisdom. It crackles and blows in the wind. It is often not moistened, seasoned or held down with compassion toward the relative experiences of those who are considered unacceptable in this world. Dry wisdom alone is not sufficient to attend to the suffering systemic dehumanization based on embodiment.
Setting aside the hashtag, black lives matter, the movement, and the leaders that evolved from it, where can we enter a space of conscious and just interrelationship with black lives matter and all lives matter?
First consider, black lives matter is all lives matter and all lives matter is black lives matter. If you understand this you know freedom. How?
If we say all lives matter that is the ultimate truth. It is simple but it is dry wisdom if we only feel, think and espouse this one truth––no black people, no white people, no whatever people, no body, or we all have skeletons and red blood. The moistness in this wisdom is to consider that all lives matter, not includes, but literally is black lives matter. Those who espouse what they think is the “higher road” in saying all lives matter might be surprised to know that they are supporting black lives matter.
If we say black lives matter that is the relative truth. Yet, it is dry wisdom if we only feel, think, and espouse this one truth–there are black people and they matter. The moistness of this wisdom is to consider that black lives matter is all lives matter and that there is support for all lives matters. The latter many black people know and have been writing about their understanding of such.
What about freedom in what matters?
The freedom is in understanding the interdependence of embodiment and the spiritual oneness of our existence. One does not exist without the other. We are not black alone–there must be white, red, brown, or whatever to perceive blackness. If we perceive no color, there still must be the existence of color to not perceive it. The point often made that “we are not our bodies” is and is not true. We are not our bodies alone and independent of one another. We cannot see a bridge between us until we see both ends. There is no bridge without two ends. There are no Buddhist teachers, because there is no Buddhism. And there are Buddhist teachers because there is Buddhism. There is no one truth without the existence of the other. If this makes any sense at all, you have a natural tendency toward resolving chaos and confusion, and experiencing a particular kind of freedom. This freedom is seeing the interrelationship of all things–not seeing sentimental love and inclusiveness–but seeing the organic ties of life that were here before our birth. And because the cataclysmic seed of life burst before our birth, we bow to the generations that have gone on and the generations behind us for guidance in this world.
Most of these words cannot be understood with the mind but must sink into an open heart, stirred by the winds and muddied with life. The compassionate approach, within and without, is to respect the oneness of both truths.
(Further reading on ultimate and relative truth: Being Upright by Reb Anderson – pages 33- 39)