Implicit Bias: Unconscious Attitudes and Stereotypes

In this talk, the speaker, Melanie Funchess, brings up the film the Matrix. Many spiritual teachers use the Matrix as an excellent example of the situation the spiritually asleep human is in. As she says, “when you are in the Matrix, you don’t know you are in there…”

From my perspective, the social ills we are experiencing today, like racism, sexism, inequality, poverty, and ecological destruction, are symptoms of a deeper problem.

As Ms. Funchess correctly points out in the video, these biases are in all of us and require an extraordinary amount of self-awareness to spot. Understanding this is the spiritual equivalent of the alcoholic admitting that she is an alcoholic and being willing to enter recovery.

At the end of this talk, Ms. Fuhchess very rightly brings the conversation back to the spiritual dimension and unity. For me, the illusion of separation is the real source of these problems. There is no quick fix for these problems. They require personal work, and for me, that work starts with daily meditation and the examination of the mind that goes with it.

Jai Bhagwan!

-Douglas Johnson E-RYT 500, YACEP

Spring Fling - A Bhakti Yoga Retreat

March 29-31