This time on The Road Home Podcast, Rhonda Magee joins Ethan for a conversation about where mindfulness and meditation practices fit into our work in the world, our society and the justice system that governs us.
Rhonda Magee is Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and is an internationally-recognized thought and practice leader on integrating Mindfulness into Higher Education, Law and Social Justice. Keep up with Rhonda online at rhondavmagee.com.
Applied Dharma
Rhonda shares her history with mindfulness and meditation practices. She shares how these practices helped her move through the world from a more grounded place of being and perspective. Ethan and Rhonda talk about the difficulties that can arise from the integration of our spiritual paths and our work in the world.
“I have just been doing that work of seeing how much I can bring of what I have been practicing, and learning in the mindfulness exploration, into my work in law.” – Rhonda Magee
The Inner Work of Racial Justice (22:30)
Ethan and Rhonda discuss Rhonda’s first book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice. They look at how racial injustice manifests in the law as it exists, the possibility for the system to correct itself, and the particular role that mindfulness and meditation play in this area of society.
“The particular teaching I have done in law has been around how the law responds to vulnerable people. We are looking at how it is that people are harmed in our society, intentionally and unintentionally, with consequences that are measurable and serious. Especially when it comes to the history of race in American law and racism and the way in which the law dealt with all that.” – Rhonda Magee
Further explore the intersection of inner work and justice with Rhonda and Sharon Salzberg on Ep. 80 of the Metta Hour Podcast.
A Remarkably Persistent Imaginary Idea (43:20)
Where do we begin to reconcile the paradox that race is both an entirely invented human construct and yet something very real at the same time? Rhonda examines the ways that mindfulness training can help us hold both of these truths at once.
“How it is that we can see that race is both real and persistent and at the same time illusory is through practice. It is seeing that form and emptiness are one thing.” – Rhonda Magee
Images via Rhonda Magee