Trillium Teachers Respond to Racism
Special Edition, June 2020, Issue 32
We, the teachers of Trillium Awakening, are grieving for George Floyd and countless others who have suffered discrimination, abuse, violence, and untimely death stemming from systemic racism in America. We stand in solidarity with the Black community, feel the pain of those who are suffering, and support all efforts to raise awareness around racism and put an end to it in our society. We are committed to listening deeply and exploring carefully how we can contribute to meaningful change in ourselves and our community.
Kirstin Eventyr, Trillium Awakening Teacher    








Poem

It enters me like lightning
Sharp 
Illuminating
Electrifying
Its branching path
embedded in my nervous system.
It could be you.
It could be you, my Beloved,
Arms behind your back
Head to the ground
Knee to your neck,
Calling out “Mama.”
It enters me like lightning
The horror.
No one moves.
No one sees your last breath.
No one sees you.
It enters me like lightning,
There is only revolution from here.
That and going to the highest place
Arms wide
Welcoming the strike.
How does anything change but to 
Be willing to be struck
Right in the place where your Love
Is most tender, most fierce.
Let it enter you.
Let it shock you out of denial
This is you and me Beloved
Nothing left out.
Interview on Awakened Activism 

Margit Bantowsky interviews Dr. Leticia Nieto, a Trillium practitioner and psychology professor at St Martin’s University, and Trillium Awakening interning teacher Kirstin Eventyr, M.A., about what awakened activism means to them. 

Awakened activism is a natural outcome of maturation and involves a deepening and widening beyond self and group identifications into something broader. It goes hand in hand with coming to know the self as much larger than a single identity, and acting accordingly.
~~ Dr Leticia Nieto , author of Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment: A Developmental Strategy to Include Everyone.


Awakened activism is an aspect of Being that recognizes itself as one and the same with all of Creation, and, as a result, caring very deeply for all of it––and simultaneously being able to deeply trust what is unfolding, to trust What Is .
~~ Kirstin Eventyr
White Woman Witnessing
Subhaga Crystal Bacon, Trillium Awakening Teacher

It’s been a deep journey of grief for me since George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minneapolis on May 25. You might wonder why this is newsworthy, the feelings of a white woman of late life, product of privilege, in the face of global unrest about the systemic anti-Black culture of the U.S. The answer is that everyone’s grief, introspection, and witnessing are important to bring change.

George Floyd’s death by choking when he was pinned by Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, kneeling on his neck, and the video of his cries, “I can’t breathe” were painfully reminiscent of the choking death of Eric Garner in New York in 2014. Watching the video in horror, there was an almost unbearable sense of déjà vu, a deep body memory of watching that earlier video, six years ago, and the incomprehension that it was happening, had happened again. Read more
Racism is Alive in Me
Margit Bantowsky, Trillium Awakening Teacher

As we say in Trillium Awakening: the good news is that perfection is not required in order to have a spiritual awakening. And, we are quick to add: the bad news is that perfection is not bestowed upon spiritual awakening!

This is a humbling fact, to say the least. It means that after realizing our transcendent unity with all of life, we still have a lot of shadow work to do. We still need to integrate the wounds and conditioning that are hiding in our unconscious, curled into our cells and bones, and manipulating our imagination. [See my recent blog post and video,  Hidden Agendas,  on how to work with this.]

Our shadow includes deep cultural influences containing beliefs and experiences that color our perception and limit our expression. What is not permitted or socially acceptable becomes taboo and goes underground. Racism, especially in liberal circles, has become taboo.
Send comments or suggestions for future issues to: 

Editor-in-Chief: Fax Gilbert
Assistant Editor: Sharon Gilbert
Graphic Design: Subhaga Crystal Bacon
Copy Editor: Deborah Boyar
Trillium Awakening Teachers Circle www.trilliumawakening.org