The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning.  We explored perspective taking as a way of practicing radical compassion.  Our intention was to truly be present with a marginalized person, a person subject to stereotyping. Imagining the rich complexity of their lives helps to connect with the wholeness of their lives and our shared humanity.

We practiced mindfulness and explored Anu Gupta’s perspective taking practice.   We thought of a marginalized person subject to stereo-typing.  We imagined their life’s journey from the time of their birth, through their life’s transitional moments, to the dreams and aspirations they held for themselves. Our intention was to appreciate the wholeness of their humanity.

We drew inspiration from writer Richard Powers, author of many books including the Pulitzer prize winning book, The Overstory.  In his magical interview with Sam Fragoso on the Talk Easy program, Richard shared some of his ideas about the qualities we cultivate when reading a novel: stillness, focus, concentration, presence, empathy and compassion.  Reading is an exercise of imagination.  We are alone and also inside an unknown person’s life as we follow their story.  This is also what we bring to the practice of perspective taking, when we imagine the life story of another.

Guided Reflection

This week we’ll explore perspective taking as a way of practicing radical compassion. We’ll give ourselves permission to imagine what it may be like to be in the shoes of another person. Empathy and imagination allow actors to embody the life of another in ways that move our hears and open our minds. We engage imagination and empathy when we read a book. Author Richard Powers talked about this in a magical interview he gave about reading and writing: .

The wonderful thing about books is that they’re slow and they’re silent and they are exercises in concentration. You are both with other people, the people inside the story and vicariously living these lives that are nothing like your own. You are in a strange, intense one to one communion with someone you don’t know . . . You are also . . . alone with the pages. . . . [T]he book can [train] you in this odd sense of stillness [and] attentiveness, of privacy [and] communion. . . . [L]earning how to read can teach each of us to cultivate those abilities that allow us to be present to the world outside us. We learn in books how to read another person. We also learn . . . the qualities we need to be a good reader. Stillness, focus, concentration and presence are the qualities that we, as a species, are going to have to learn if we want to return to planet Earth and stick around.

We have to slow down for the magical experience of reading. We have to slow down to truly imagine the life of another. Cultivating empathy for another is also an “odd sense of stillness [and] attentiveness, of privacy [and] communion.” In our exploration today we’ll imagine how another person would see and feel given the causes and conditions of their lives. Anu Gupta describes perspective taking as

. . . a radical permission that we give ourselves to imagine, to be creative, it is not how things are, or how they should be or how we are told to see things. But it is what our imagination can hold as possibilities . . . . to see one another as full, whole beings – particularly those who are marginalized in our society. [We can] imagine possibilities for the fullness of their humanity.

Let’s begin our exploration of perspective taking. Adjust your posture as you need to be comfortable. Your eyes can be open or closed. If open, let your eyes rest at a stationary point in front of you. Take a few deep, slow breaths as you cross the threshold into mindfulness. Let all parts of you be welcome. The parts of you that have been conditioned by love and by fear, by sorrow and by joy. The parts of you that think fast with emotion and intuition. The parts of you that think slow with reason and logic. Your past and your future, parts of you that are creative and compassionate as well as some parts of you that are in need of healing and love. They are all welcome here.

Relax whatever you can. As you notice tension let the breath bathe that area. As you notice something unpleasant, see if you can breathe with your experience. In the passing of time you might experience the body sighing. Relax. Release. Savor letting go.

As you’re ready, bring to mind someone you know who comes from a stereotyped group in our culture. No need to struggle finding someone. Notice the person who surfaces in your awareness. As you visualize this person imagine this person is smiling at you and you are smiling back at them. Let your eyes move over their face, their eyes and their smile. You might not know this person. You may be uncertain about the life they’ve lived. You don’t have to know for this imagining. Give yourself permission to creatively imagine who they are and the life they may have lived. As you look into their eyes, imagine this person being born. Imagine them as a baby. You might sense their innocence, their need for loving arms. . .

Imagine this person as a toddler, crawling on the ground, trying to stand and falling. Exploring the world with all their developing senses, their toddler energy.. . . And then years later going to school for the very first time. They are separating from their parent or caregiver. They may be seeking familiar kind faces in their new environment. What is it like for them to find themselves in this new place with new people? . . . Imagine them growing older learning to read and write. Letters may have come easily or with more difficulty. . . . Imagine this person discovering their sport. Perhaps at school or around the neighborhood. There may be joyful exuberance or stressful competitiveness . . . They may take up a musical instrument or a paint brush as a teenager. Imagine their experience of creativity . . . . Imagine this person making new friends going through middle school, then high school. Where did they find their friends? What did they do together? . . . Eventually this person gets their first job. Their first pay check. What was it spent on? . . . Imagine this person falling love once, twice and again. What might this person’s dreams or aspirations be? Did they want a family, a particular vocation? . . . Visualize this person right here and now having lived the life you’ve imagined. They are smiling at you. You smile back at them. You might feel appreciation for their life. The life of a whole, complex, content and yearning, hurting and healing, loving and fearing human being.

You might feel appreciation for your own complexity. With each experiment in imagining we may come a little closer to accepting the multiplicity that lies at the heart of being human. We can build relationships across difference. We can imagine a community where everyone belongs just for who they are. All are welcome in beloved community.