The Healing Practice of Cultural Humility
AS A BUDDHIST, I have vowed to put an end to suffering—not only my own, but also the suffering I cause, knowingly or unknowingly, to other beings. A profound way to do that is by developing cultural humility, a term coined by two women of color specializing in public health, Drs. Melanie Tevalon and Jann Murray. Although humility has connotations of weakness or submissiveness, the ability to listen to others—their speech, appearance, and values—as well as to our own speech, appearance, and values, requires great inner strength. Regardless of whether we are on the upside or the downside of sociopolitical power, we all participate in and uphold a socially constructed hierarchy that benefits some and marginalizes others.
