I was particularly moved by the portraits of the Freedom Riders. In spring of 1961, men, women, blacks and whites came together in Jackson, Mississippi to challenge segregation laws. Over 300 were arrested and their mug shot, name and personal information was recorded. 

A few years ago, photographer Eric Etheridge's passion took him to research this time in history. He found hundreds of mug shots of these Freedom Riders. He proceeded to meet with about a hundred of them, interviewed them and took their picture. The exhibit shows the Freedom Riders in the present, as well as their mug shot, which was taken 50 years ago. 

Looking at these pictures was a spiritual experience in itself. There they are, the Freedom Riders in the present,  with their mug shot beside them. They are the same person, so they look exactly alike. And yet it's 50 years later so they are so different. But a quality in their eyes remains the same... 

I was reminded of something that Tantric scholar Douglas Brook says which is really one of the most beautiful distillations of Tantric non-dual philosophy: "I am not like you. I am like you. I am nothing but you." This is a three-part method to understanding why everything seems initially so different and yet is in fact all made up of the same energy.

So for instance, when you look at a picture of yourself when you were 3 years old you think to yourself: "I am not like this child anymore." But then, as you look at the picture more carefully, you can see the similarities and then you say, "I am like this child." And lastly you realize that there is something in that child, an essence which will never change, and then you realize: "I am nothing but this child."

This is a powerful technique to use with people who challenge us as our tendency is to create separation from that which threatens us or unsettles us. It is also a wonderful method to find oneness with everyone, while still honoring differences.

So, there I was looking at a hundred or so pictures of these men and women, standing next to their mug shots. And I found myself whispering to them: "You are not like your old portrait. You are like your old portrait. You are nothing but that young person in the portrait."

Furthermore, the more pictures I saw, I started to notice that all the mug shots had a shared look. Their mug shots looked like each other because they all shared the same intention. They were all fighting for the same cause. Their faces belied a calm strength, dignity, freedom. They looked like deities, like martyrs, like heroes. And yet I also saw who they were as individuals: women, men, Jewish, African American, young, really young (one was 13!), fat, thin, bearded, gorgeous...

Oh, I wanted to be them. 

I think most of us do, yearning for a cause big enough which will take us out of our veil of separateness and make us join in as one.

As I left the museum I felt sad, since I sometimes wish I was part of a cause, of a movement. Something that will make me forget my fear and join into the brave current. 

As I got into my car by myself, carrying all these men and women in my heart, I thought that I was not like them. 

But then I remembered that I was like them. 

And I drove off knowing that ultimately I was nothing but them...