Tara Brach

And then he went on to say, well, do I think all our vexing and controversial dilemmas would disappear if we embrace these two notions?

And then he paused and said, yeah, I do.

I do.

So it's not so easy to remember that there's basic goodness because there's such strong conditioning in us to fixate on the flaws, on feeling separate.

One of my inspirations on the panel, tell you one more story here.

This is John Lewis, a lifelong civil rights leader and congressman.

And here's what inspired me.

He was sharing a story about, I think it's 1961, being in a bus station, Rock Hill, South Carolina.

And he and a colleague were beating with baseball bats by a group of white men.

And they didn't fight or press charges.

They just treated their wounds and continued their work.

So five decades later,

One of those attackers, his name was Elwin Wilson, walked into Lewis's Capitol Hill office with his son.

He said, I'm one of the men who beat you, and I want to atone.

Will you forgive me?

So Lewis is telling the story.

He says, I forgave him.

We embraced he, his son, and I. We wept.

We talked.

But after he finishes telling the story, he says this kind of quietly, almost to himself.