Dr. Larry Ward Answers 3 Questions:
- Tips for how to resource oneself when you're BIPOC and exhausted?
- Tips for how to be patient with white people when your BIPOC?
- How to reconcile compassion for both victims and perpetrators of hateful violence?

Clouds In Water Minnesota October 2020

Q + A (BIPOC focused) with Larry Ward from a talk at Clouds in Water Zen Center, 10.25.20

A dharma talk for the new year by Dr. Larry Ward followed by a guided meditation by Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward and Larry on New Year's Eve , 12/31/2020

New Year's Eve Dharma Talk and Meditation with Peggy and Larry

The wheel of America’s racial karma rolls on with the thunder of denial and the awakening of truth and clarity.

Some (especially white) people, in light of what occurred at the capitol, are waking up to a new level of awareness of the existence of white supremacy as an institutionalized reality. Waking up from a legacy of 400 years of denial.

For brown and black and indigenous people, these recent events highlight the pain of our exhaustion. They remind us how long we have been praying and struggling for respect, human dignity and equity in this society while others remain in denial.

A lot is happening. A lot is always happening. The pandemic continues to rage. Sanctioned violence ensues. We have the opportunity to see with cold clarity, and to decide how to respond with love, fearlessness, resilience and majesty. 

This is a talk and guided practice by Larry Ward given to a BIPOC centered audience on 1/15/21.

Be beautiful, be majestic.

We love you.

-The Lotus Institute Team

Larry’s Response to Insurrection at the Capitol and Guided Practice

Somebody Stole My Face by Dr. Larry Ward, © 2021 All Rights Reserved

I tell you, somebody stole my face.
I can't seem to stop this river of tears. 
Black face on the ground, black face in the cages. 
I tell you, somebody stole my face. 
 
When I found it, it was dark like the night in it’s elegant beauty. 
When I found it, it was in a dreadful theater called the White Man's Burden. 
When I found it, it was already condemned to live in a basket of lies. 
 
But when I found my hidden face, the window of eternity swung open.   
I tell you, somebody stole my face, my precious face. 
I hold it in my hands catching tears of sorrow and joy. 
I hold it with the kind hands of my ancestors.
I hold it turning into many faces,
appearing across time and space. 
I hold it dancing with the cosmos itself. 
 
I tell you, somebody stole my face. 
But I have a secret for you, my friend. 
Somebody stole your face, too. 
I know you've been searching for it. 
 
Find your face. 
Find the ground of no coming and no going. 
Embrace yourself. 
Love yourself. 
Lift yourself up so you can lift all the rest of us to higher ground. 
 And remember, 
when you touch your face, 
George Floyd can no longer have that joy.

Poems

Somebody Stole My Face

Buddhist practice(s) for change makers on the journey of individual and collective healing, transformation and liberation.

The Lotus Institute

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