As a yogini, it is through contemplation, practice, and self-expression that my heart-mind opens beyond yesterday's limitations. This is my activism.
1. I must commit to staying awake. No matter how painful it is to acknowledge my ignorance and racial prejudices, how horrid it is to see racism play out in my community, and how devastating it is to witness the count of murdered black lives rise - I must not look away. This reality must become an integrated part of my being - one that does not ebb and flow with the cycles of crisis, but one that infiltrates my consciousness until it informs ALL of my actions in body, speech and mind.
2. I must commit to expanding my awareness. Through education and listening to black voices, I must better understand the history of slavery and racism and seek to know the experience of what it is like to confront daily micro and macro aggressions while walking through our world as a black person.
3. I must commit to uncomfortable conversations - both in calling out racism and owning my own - even when it gets messy, even when language fails to show my good intentions, and especially when I'm failing to prop up a self-image that I like.
4. I must drop my defenses and yield to feedback that addresses any blind spots of racism that persist beyond my capacity.
5. I must find my unique contribution to uplift black lives as part of my larger commitment to benefit ALL beings.
May each of you on the path find your authentic activism, as our most honest contribution is our greatest one.