Topics Include: 1) Sharing of a very powerful message about the experiences of one of our members who grew up as an Asian American male in America: A story of rejection, alienation and, finally, redemption as he came to accept and forgive the white society into which he was born. 2) The danger of falling into a sense of “victimhood”: the textbook definition of suffering. 3) Who is the abuser and who is the abused? The concept of Self in the Buddhist teachings. 4) Recognizing and accepting our response to bigotry as a natural karmic response to provocation of any kind and learning how to let it go. Not identifying and creating a “self” out of our reactions. 5) Secondly, have compassion for those who would oppress us and understand that we are capable of those same behaviors ourselves. 6) Examples of racism and homophobia in other cultures, not only in America. Other groups that are discriminated against and overlooked in American society. 7) The real story is about hatred and cruelty, and self and other and we ourselves could be the victim or the perpetrator. We are all the same. 8) Follow up comments: Learning about the Asian experience in America. Discrimination in India among the castes. Learning how to appreciate our common humanity and how far we are yet from it as a species.
March 27, 2021
63 min.