“We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators. We sit in meditation so that we’ll be more awake in our lives.”
– Pema Chödrön
Passion is not the same as purpose.
Reacting is not the same as responding.
Judgment is not the same as discernment.
Being attached to outcomes is not the same as being invested in outcomes.
I suspect a lot of people doing social justice work burn out, are ineffective, and make less-than-ideal impact because they ignore or dismiss some of these basic tenets of mindfulness.
Mindfulness practice helps us be more self-aware so we can be more aware of what's going on around us so we can see things more clearly so we can make the best decisions to help advance social justice.
Mindfulness is a lifelong practice. Fighting for social justice is a lifelong commitment.
When we we are consistently mindful and constantly seeing the world through a social justice lens, we can more skillfully challenge misleading and false narratives, more easily disrupt practices and policies that cause harm, and more consistently dismantle racist systems of oppression.
But we will not get the results we want if we if let our passion get in the way of our purpose, if we are constantly in reaction mode, if we are full of judgment, and if we are attached to specific outcomes.