What do contemplative practices have to do with learning history?
According to the scholar Elise Young, “history has always been learned through the dualistic view of winner/loser, victor/victims, etc.” Learning history this way “close the heart” and reinforce patterns of separation and fears of the mind. What we are seeking to do with this pilgrimage is different. We believe in a contemplative approach to learning history that awaken the heart and the body. This approach is believed to be to beginning of unblocking vicious patterns of dualistic thinking that create division, separation and suffering. This approach is medicine.
The pilgrimage we are about to undertake is itself, a meditation of history. Meditation means to look deeply at the nature of reality. This is a challenge for looking at something so monumental as the war in Vietnam. It is an event inescapable of politic, meaning it can be used to glorify certain narratives and suppressed other’s, highlight parts of the truth and not the whole, to amplify the humanity of some by denying other’s. With so many contradicting narratives, stories, truths, forgotten or suppressed memories, and emotions associated with the war, how can we know what is the truth, what is real, what to believe in?
First and foremost, contemplative practices allows us to cultivate stillness and spaciousness within ourselves. In doing so, we are able to hold the multiple truths of history, and the multitudes of our ancestors with equanimity and kindness. Contemplative practices help us to quiet the mind and open up our hearts and bodies to experiencing history at a visceral level, to step into the heart of history, into the hearts and minds of historical actors who despite their political standings, are human beings with longings and fears just like us. Conjuring up personal and collective histories coloured with trauma, pain and sorrow is emotionally challenging. Yet, a contemplative foundation will allow us to simply be with, and not deny all that will arise within ourselves, because “to deny what it takes to go through this process is to deny our humanity.” On the most basic level, meditation allows pilgrims a chance and space to simply be with the spirit behind the sites, stories, people and let whatever need to arise from within, arise.
Throughout the 10 days, we will employ contemplative practices to help pilgrims deepen self-awareness, gain tools for self-care and be grounded in their deeper values. Some contemplative practices we will draw on to help us connect with ourselves are sitting and walking meditation, tonglen, death meditation, loving-kindness meditation, touching the earth, journaling, poetry, and singing meditation. In addition, we will be employing team-building activities to foster a safe space and help pilgrims to connect deeply to one another. Lastly, we believe that ceremonies and rituals are contemplative ways in which we can be in touch with the invisible forces behind history. They help us to connect to spirit, to our ancestors and feel the collide of “disparate worlds of past, present and future.” Thus, across the sites we’ll be going to, we will collectively perform ceremonies and rituals to commemorate, remember, mourn for and simply be with our ancestors.