For his newest challenge, Rivas explores the house between Black and white in a e-book known as Brown Enough. In telling the story of his racial awakening, Rivas carves out house for questions he felt have been missing from America’s race dialog. Along the best way, he touches on love, violence, spirituality, and what it means to make it nowadays.
We caught up with Rivas to speak storytelling, the hazards of productiveness, his path to meditation and Buddhism (it began with a school crush), and his imaginative and prescient for making wellness extra accessible.
How has your relationship with storytelling modified all through your life?
I worth its significance increasingly more each day. I imagine it’s extremely vital that we inform our tales. Whiteness and society is consistently making an attempt to inform us what we’re able to, what our bodies of tradition are price, and what they will accomplish. I do know the worth in storytelling. I understand how it might set individuals free.
When I as a younger child noticed John Leguizamo do a one-man present, it gave me sufficient armor and braveness to comply with my desires. I do know what occurs after we create areas of belonging and our bodies of tradition inform their tales. What that does for younger brown and black youngsters is extremely highly effective. When extra younger brown and black youngsters take up house and share their voice, the extra we get to a sustainable and balanced world.
You contact on this within the e-book, however are you able to inform me extra about why you employ the time period ‘body of culture’?
I do not suppose whiteness is making an attempt to take our shade. I believe it is our tradition. Whiteness needs to place you in a field. Like you are a Latino, however, I’m from 24 totally different nations, flavors, nationalities, and also you wish to discover one phrase for me? So I take advantage of our bodies of tradition as a result of we’re not shade, we’re tradition, and we’re a various tradition.
Can you inform me about what sort of well-being practices you grew up with after which the way you got here to yoga and meditation?
My wellness follow is completely very important to my life. I sit each day for about 40 minutes, pray, after which journal. How I received to it’s love.
This woman in school requested me if I meditated,and I had by no means meditated a day in my life. But I actually needed her to love me, so I informed her sure. I informed her twice a day, as a result of as soon as wasn’t sufficient. We began courting, and I had maintained this lie that I had a [meditation] follow. Then for my twenty first birthday, she purchased me a aircraft ticket to Derry, Massachusetts to a silent retreat. I went and it was the toughest second in my life.It modified my life. And I’ve meditated each day since then. I all the time say it is the best lie ever informed.
In your e-book, you speak about spirituality dropping its worth when it’s filtered by means of the lens of consumerism. Have you discovered methods to take part in spirituality with out getting caught up within the consumerist facet?
I believe one is recognizing that there are locations that try to promote you happiness, peace, pleasure, and even well being. These issues are inherently yours, you have already got them.
I’m not right here making an attempt to be like, you are a meditation studio, you should not exist. No, it is best to exist. Because you are placing power on the blocks, which helps the neighborhood, which helps town, which helps the nation. But I’m asking you to have a look at the values of that. If meditation is inherently free and created by our bodies of tradition, and but most of your contributors are white our bodies paying a reasonably costly worth to do one thing they will do of their home at no cost, what’s your outreach?
I acknowledge it, after which I can unplug from it. And I can understand that what I’m searching for, I would like all people to have peace. I would like all communities to have that, not simply those who can afford it.
What do you consider our tradition’s relationship to productiveness?
To me, it’s harmful, as a result of it tells you that the place you’re is just not sufficient. What does it appear to be to unplug from that? I imagine there is a very unconscious thought that our bodies of tradition suppose they should work further arduous simply to get to the beginning line. And so my invitation is there is no beginning line, there is no race. The biggest means you may take again your energy is to say, I needn’t do extra, I get to only be right here now.
What does unplugging from that system appear to be in your day-to-day life?
I believe that is why meditation is so vital. I simply sit right here for a sure period of time and breathe and smile. And that does not should be cross-legged meditation. I’m going to learn my e-book, that is all I’m going to do—that’s meditation. I’m going to show off my cellphone, that is meditation. I’m gonna discover a solution to not keep plugged in. To simply be right here to be right here in my boredom, to be right here in my need, to be right here in my questions. Anytime you’ve got the chance to do one factor and simply do it—wash the dishes, wash your fingers—is a solution to unplug from productiveness.
In your e-book, you write about creativeness and the flexibility to think about higher circumstances for your self as a privilege. What is your relationship to creativeness?
I believe it is one of the vital stunning blessings and privileges on this planet. I’m so grateful to be an artist and a storyteller. I get to think about an existence the place I do not get up and wish to take a look at my checking account, or suppose I’m not sufficient. I additionally get to think about a world the place my artwork and my breath and my actions enable a number of and tens of millions of individuals to really feel the identical means.
I get to think about artwork that truly creates therapeutic, that creates areas of belonging. Imagination is every thing that exists on this world. This phone, we’re speaking on, your recording gadget—it has all been imagined. Our ancestor’s imaginations have given us these stunning blessings. And I simply wish to honor these blessings and proceed to think about in profound methods.