As a white cisgender man in America, I have been the beneficiary of the dynamic that is once again front and center because George Floyd was murdered by the police while handcuffed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His death is not an isolated incident. Even in the most progressive enclaves of society, racism exists because it is systemic.

Real change is needed.

** 

The anguish I feel over George Floyd’s death is but a drop in an ocean of anguish, pain, and suffering Black people have experienced at the hands, words, culture, and thoughts of White people for hundreds of years.

George’s death has opened within me, an awareness I would love to claim was there prior, but in truth, it is deeper and wider than ever before.

Yesterday morning I was reading an article written about the impact of systemic racism on Black consciousness (here) in the United States.

To truly sit and be present with the awareness that followed, and whatever my imagination can conjure up of the Black experience, has set free within me all moorings which previously anchored my sense of knowing or understanding racism in the United States. I can’t begin to fully comprehend much less understand.

But I know real change is needed.

**

I am committed to transmuting the racism within me.

I am committed to staying present.

I am committed to real change.

**

I saw Rabbi Michael Lerner talk in Fort Collins some years ago. He was speaking about the resolution of the conflict in the Middle East between Jews and Palestinians. His primary theme was that talking would not resolve the conflict, as each side had (from its perspective) a compelling reason to not trust, hate, attack, etc. the other. I heard him talking about how experience was the only way forward.

When he said this, my hands and feet started to buzz. From my perspective, he was talking about the end of separation on an experiential level. I had first-hand experience of this, having supported and witnessed groups in piercing separation in silence. God doing through me whatever God does through me.

I wanted to connect with him following the talk but didn’t have the opportunity. As he was talking, I had a vision of sitting with large groups of people in center of the conflict he was referencing, sinking into resonance as a group. I could see the artifacts of separation melting away. Where once there was only pain and suffering, now only love.

From my perspective, the place where we encounter and experience God directly is where real change begins.

**

I woke up yesterday with this Bible passage in my awareness:

Mathew 25:40 (NRSV) 

“. . . Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

To my way of reading this, Jesus isn’t referring to himself as other than, he is referring to us as one. And it’s not about Jesus. It’s about all of us as One. Whomever you might think of as less than is ‘the least of these.’

As One, whatsoever we do to anyone, we do to ourselves. The hatred we feel towards the person who looks or believes something different, is literally hatred we are feeling towards ourselves. Caught in separation, we think it’s about them. In wholeness, there is no other.

I don’t mean that your personality and your individuated expression no longer exists, I mean you don’t just recognize that you are one aspect of the whole, you have that experience. The same as the hand and the foot are two aspects of one body.

**

If everyone in our society came together for a singular experience of the Divine inside the body all at one time, even then, the individual experiences would all be different. We all have different central nervous systems, different backgrounds, perspectives, and beliefs.

Yet in this experience is a profound truth. God, by whatever name, is in each of us equally. Fully integrated and expressed. An intimate relationship opening within, which eventually, naturally expresses in our interactions with everything and everyOne. 

**

A foundational shift in consciousness—just within you—isn’t easy. I’m confident you know this deeply. Perhaps you’ve spent the last number of years or decades trying to make such a transformation.

But we know this kind of change isn’t just possible, we know it actually happens all the time. With regularity, we have evidence of this. Some of the people who go through this transformation become well-known. We read about their experiences or hear them talk about their shift in consciousness. We think they’re special.

But they are not special, or we are all special, for this shift is available to us all.

** 

There are many perspectives on how to initiate real change. Sustaining political or social changes tend to require certain ingredients. Violent or peaceful protests have been one essential ingredient. 

I pray the real change that we are going through right now can take place without any further violence.

I pray racism may now be transmuted so that in its place is only love.

I have witnessed over and over again, the profound power of Divine Presence as a transmuting agent when an individual or group allows themselves to feel and express their pain, anguish, and grief fully while at the same time experiencing the embodied Divine.

The raw materials of our individual and collective separate selves are now laid bare, with the wounds and traumas of racism exposed to be felt. Long buried, suppressed, and denied in the United States, they have been brought up to the surface through a process of revising social norms so radical, bigotry has become something to be proud of and express freely in polite society. 

We can no longer ignore this.

**

May we all take full advantage of this opportunity to participate in the alchemy this polarity is making possible.

May our focus begin within, as we transmute those aspects which have remained in separation.

May our inner work naturally flow as a river to the sea of our collective experience; that the glory of all aspects of God’s expression be experienced as one being of love.

May we heal the individual and collective origin, the wounds and traumas, as well as the experiences and expressions of racism.

May we all remember and experience ourselves as undistorted expressions and extensions of the Divine.

And may we treat everything and everyone with whom we share the breath of the planet with, as essential and beloved aspects of one Divine body. 

**

Please join me in about 30-minutes for this week’s community circle, Q&A, and transmission. We will be sitting in resonance, exploring divine alchemy, doing the inner work that is front and center to be done. 

It’s free. It’s on YouTube. Live at 5p Eastern on June 3, 2020 (watch the replay here as well if you missed it live). This is the link: https://youtu.be/x7XF51lXGTM

Together, may we dismantle and transmute the racism deep within while opening to a more complete experience of unconditional Divine love. 

That’s all for this week … From My Heart.

In the Power of Divine Presence and Love, 

Ken

PS – Here are some additional resources to support you in your spiritual work this week:

As referenced above, I’ll be streaming a free live community circle, Q&A and transmission on YouTube at 5p Eastern (US) today (Wednesday the 3rd of June 2020) – here’s the link again: https://youtu.be/x7XF51lXGTM

If you’re not already, I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel (it’s free) by clicking this link.

The Resonance Community offers an extensive library of past session (each include a teaching, transmission, and Q&A) along with a once a month live session. Annual founding memberships available for $80/year or $10/month: https://kenwstone.com/resonance/community/

The Deep Dive Virtual Workshop Series offers a video-based library of past workshops, along with a new live workshop every other week on Thursdays at Noon Eastern. Join an extraordinary group of people from around the world for Deep Dive VI tomorrow (June 4, 2020). Monthly membership is $97/month: https://kenwstone.com/deep-dive/