Zen trainer Jules Shuzen Harris teaches us a three-step observe to attach with and serve those that are struggling. Illustrations by Carole Hénaff.
In instances of doubt, disbelief, and insecurity, the observe of bearing witness may be an necessary side of our consciousness and presence.
Bearing witness may be outlined as acknowledging that one thing exists or is true. From a Buddhist perspective, and particularly the Zen Peacemakers Order, to bear witness is to embrace each the enjoyment and the struggling we encounter. Somewhat than merely observing the scenario, we grow to be the scenario. We grow to be intimate with no matter it’s—starvation, poverty, discrimination, illness, or loss of life.
Bearing witness invokes a way of interconnectedness, a direct realization of the wholeness of life.
After we analyze and decide a scenario, we usually come to it with all of our concepts and routine beliefs. We’re solely in a position to see it by means of the lens of our conditioned pondering. However after we shift to the observe of bearing witness, we droop our analytical pondering and transfer to a spot of open consciousness. This enables the witnessing presence to grow to be one with no matter scenario we encounter.
To bear witness, we have to put aside the deal with our personal reactions and enter a spot of stillness and receptivity. Bearing witness on the earth, we’re cultivating the identical floor of open coronary heart and thoughts that we observe in our meditation.
This brings us to the query, “What’s the good thing about bearing witness observe?”
Psychologically, it permits us to attach with a spot of actual empathy. It additionally offers a sort of catharsis, a launch from our emotional reactions of pity, disgrace, or concern.
Spiritually, bearing witness invokes a way of interconnectedness, of oneness, a direct realization of the wholeness of life.
Politically and socially, it permits us to see clearly all the net of causes and situations that create struggling, and to take efficient motion to enhance individuals’s lives.
Here’s a three-step observe of bearing witness that you are able to do:
1. Determine Who Wants You
First, establish an individual or a bunch who’s disenfranchised or who’s struggling. Their scenario may be one thing acquainted to us, related to one thing we ourselves have skilled, or it may very well be one thing completely unfamiliar to us, bringing a brand new edge to our consciousness and understanding.
2. Be There and Be Empty
Second, spend significant time with them. It is a time to let go of what we got here with, and be taught and pay attention. You would possibly do a avenue retreat with the homeless. You would possibly volunteer at a drug rehab clinic, take part in jail outreach work, or present help to sufferers and/or households in a hospice heart. You possibly can participate within the voluntary providers supplied to veterans by the VA program.
Central to this step is coming from a spot of vacancy, approaching it with willingness to grow to be actually intimate with one other’s expertise. Bearing witness requires a sort of psychological and bodily give up to the scenario to permit it to completely enter into your consciousness.
3. Serve the State of affairs
After a while, ask your self, “How can I most acknowledge individuals’s plight?” If they’re hungry, do I serve them a meal or do I provide you with a method of serving to them to feed and shelter themselves? I might say sure, it is best to do each. To bear witness is to embrace and acknowledge the entire scenario. On a private stage, you feed them. On a systemic stage, you have interaction the system.
If there was ever a time after we wanted to bear witness, it’s now.
There are a lot of ways in which witnessing can grow to be an lively expression of our consciousness and our empathy. Proper the place we dwell, the town council, the mayor’s workplace, governors, or legislative meeting may be introduced into this recognition of what’s calling out for consideration. On the federal stage, your congressional consultant or federal businesses may be held accountable to their obligations. Our private witness contains supporting organizations which can be pushing for laws and insurance policies that handle human struggling and that promote peace and justice.
In a cultural anthropology class I took years in the past, I discovered in regards to the notion of cultural upkeep, which describes how a tradition, as a system, defends itself even when it means disguising the reality or absorbing what that tradition perceives as threats. Bearing witness is a radical act—it’s a method of shining a lightweight on the reality and standing steadfastly in that gentle.
The observe of bearing witness isn’t simple, but when there was ever a time after we wanted to bear witness, it’s now. Gone are the times when it was sufficient to march within the streets to result in social change. Every of us is named upon to maneuver past our personal mounted views and open our eyes to penetrate to the true actuality of the world as it’s.