Let’s reduce the toxin we’re swimming in. 

Ginny Whitelaw reflects on Black History Month and how we’ve regressed with respect to racism, having toxic effects on our resonance as a society and as individuals – February 2020

Let’s reduce the toxin we’re swimming in.

Feeling into this 2nd month of a roller coaster year, it’s a month we celebrate in the United States as Black History Month. This year’s theme focuses on voting rights and countering the pernicious means for voter suppression that have spread from state legislatures to social media, from overtly racist policies to psychologically subtle manipulation from bots. A recent Pew study found 65% of people say it’s more common for people to express racists views since Trump became President. In that time, there’s been a corresponding surge in hate crimes. Of the 4000 hate crimes reported in 2017, 49% of them were against black people, who represent only 13% of the population. It wasn’t that long ago that the Black vote was suppressed through the threat of Klan violence. In the past few years, rather than moving further from that time, we’ve fallen back toward it. We’ve seriously regressed. 

This regression affects all of us. If you think of karma as the continuous chain reactions of cause and effect that run through all things, traditional Buddhism speaks of two kinds of karma: individual and collective. Individual karma is your particular chain of cause and effect that runs through your genetic history, your nature, nurture and life experience: your differentiated self. Collective karma speaks to the societal and cultural fields you’re a part of, from what it means to play on a sports team, to be in the ruling class or an underclass, or to be white, black, brown, yellow or in between.  

From a resonance point of view, a view that has stirred deeply in me this past year, our differentiated self resonates with – i.e., vibrates with and is stirred to action by – specific stimulus in specific ways that are true to us. We look at our checking account and worry about money, we see a spider and want to step on it, or we see ice cream and want to eat it. Or maybe not. Maybe we look at our checking account and are stirred to generosity, we see a spider and want know what type, or we see ice cream and recoil because it makes our lactose-intolerant body sick. Each of us is unique.

But the societal and cultural fields we live in are shared. And those are the very fields that condition so much of the energy we resonate with. It’s like we’re all in a big body of water making waves together, each of us reacting to the waves everyone else is making, and proactively making waves of our own. When the society regresses toward a less developed state – more fear, racism, and me-first selfishness – it’s like a toxin poured into the water that numbs our joints and makes us all less able to make our best waves. And when a society widens the gap between a ruling class and an underclass, as we’ve been doing in America for several decades, it consigns more people to swim in poison. 

I celebrate Black History Month with boundless admiration for those who have transformed toxic environments into magnificent achievements and everyday acts of resilience. And, together with everyone at IZL, we commit to advancing our society, cleaning up these toxic waters through the wisdom of leaders who viscerally experience the other in themselves, and lead for the good of the whole. 

Perhaps you’ve already had a chance to take the FEBI. But you probably know others who would also benefit from knowing how to better work with their energy. Share this link  to the mini FEBI and get them started in bringing their best energy into the world. If you want to dive deeper into working with FEBI, here’s how: 

Whitelaw Roshi’s book, Resonate, comes out July 30. Get updates and early access here. Catch her interview with Joel Monk of Coaches Rising below.