Mindfulness of Dignity

Developer and founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Jon Kabat-Zinn has often guided us to bring a dignified posture to meditation. But why does he say this? The understanding I have of the word dignity is the inherent value of all living beings. When I think of it in this way, bringing dignity into the context of my practice reminds me of the heartfulness of this work.

Dignity seems even more fundamental than respect to me, which people will often say needs to be earned. This is because dignity honors the miracle and the mystery of life. It’s awe inspiring to imagine all the intersecting causes and conditions, known and unknown, that have emerged, are emerging, and will continue to emerge to create the untold variations of living beings that no longer exist, exist today, and do not yet exist. To be here in the universe feels both mysterious and miraculous – truly something special.

I must admit the way some people act sometimes (including myself), it can be very hard to think of them as having dignity. It helps me to remember that facing the challenges of being alive is universally hard and courageous work, though much harder for some than for others. It’s also honest work – the drive to survive is innate. Because its built in, its understandable that living beings might do all kinds of desperate things to survive. Things that, statistically speaking, shift the odds in survival’s favor tend to be experienced as pleasant. These things feel rewarding and we pursue them. The opposite is also true – things that might threaten survival feel unpleasant and we avoid them.

Some beings are more beholden to this drive system than others for any number of reasons. Some of us can learn to override it to some extent. We might choose to do this when it makes sense to delay  gratification or endure some discomfort in order to avoid longer term harm or benefit the greater good. Or we might simply wish to pause to wonder, reflect, or appreciate something that doesn’t necessarily serve survival at all. Contemplative practices can help some of us have more choicefulness and less reactivity. If we stumble upon this awareness, survival becomes a noble task – maybe especially when we do so in ways that acknowledge our interconnection with compassion, curiosity, gratitude, and generosity.

Treating ourselves and other beings with dignity has been described as an ethical practice and a matter of social justice. Expounded upon by many of the world’s philosophers and theologians, enshrined in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations, it’s an important consideration in medicine, law, and government policy making. Instinctively, many of us know it to be inviolable – even for those from whom we feel very distant. We know that good outcomes are unlikely to follow from humiliating, degrading, or treating others as objects solely for our personal use, which are dignity’s opposites. Fortunately, we don’t have to choose between dignity and safety – we can honor both at the same time, fiercely and resolutely.

Honoring the dignity of all beings means seeing life as a miracle and a mystery, our fates bound together within the common web of existence, each having inherent value beyond what you can do for me and mine. Yet it can be difficult for people to agree upon what constitutes dignified treatment. There can be competing needs as, on some level, we are all food for the universe. Choosing dignity sometimes requires stepping out of reactivity to the drive system. So, it doesn’t always feel good in the short term and it can require great humility and selflessness.

I recently met a courageous person named Katrina Browne. Twenty five years ago, she learned from her grandmother that her ancestors were in the slave trade. As she investigated further, she discovered, to her horror, that her family was the largest slave trading family in the US, trafficking over 10,000 human beings. Instead of hiding in humiliation or reacting defensively, she and other members of her family created a documentary called Traces of the Trade in hopes that it may help the nation heal some of the wounds of this devastating history. It helped advance dialogue and initiate action around reparations, reconciliation, and how this work is currently conducted. Her subsequent Sacred Ground program has reached over 20,000 people, providing a transformative experience for many and taking important steps toward restoring some of the deep violations of human dignity her ancestors and many others perpetrated.

Today there is a small but very vocal group of people reacting defensively to this history. They are fighting hard to suppress the teaching of it in schools because they find it humiliating and a threat to the dignity of their children and their country. Yet Katrina Browne’s legacy shows us that facing difficult truths with compassion and humility can lead to powerful outcomes. She has demonstrated that truth and dignity can co-exist, even when the truth is hard to bear – that in fact, it may be impossible to fully inhabit one without the other.

I invite you to reflect on what dignity means to you. Do you bring a sense of dignity to your mindfulness practice? How do you honor the dignity of other living beings?