And now remain faith, hope, and love ... the greatest of these is love.
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He enjoyed sharing what he believed with anyone who would listen. The Sage said, "Friend, you're not prepared to share your beliefs until you're equally prepared not to share them."
Beliefism-emotional attachment to beliefs - what one thinks to be true; equating beliefs with truth; treating religious ideas as an end.
Literalism-misidentification of what is connotative as denotative; treating the sign, or signifier, as the signified; assinging absolute meaning to relative ideas. I.e. biblical literalism.
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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A man moved into the house next to me. He was religious; I was, too, but progressive, unlike him. Shortly, he urged me to share with him my spiritual beliefs. I refused. I advised we pray together. We did.
Later, his behaviors and words confirmed the choice not to share my beliefs. For example, among his biblical-literalist views was that man - meaning "male" - is superior to women, and women are the main problem in the world.
This man believed literally - based on a passage from Genesis in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures on the creation, an account mythic-symbolic, connotative - that God made the first woman - Eve (lit. life) - from Adam's (lit. humankind, humanity, human species) rib. Men are in God's image but not women, said the neighbor.
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Some thoughts on the above...
1) It is not discriminatory or unkind to refuse to share your views and practices with someone not prepared to receive them. In fact, to do so might harm the other. Such sharing can be an act of your egoic need to be heard, not the need of the other.
2) Literalists can be toxic to you - I know, I lived closely among biblical literalists much of my life and served many as pastor and professor over decades. While I could accept the literalist and respect her or his right to believe as they did, the respect was never, not once, reciprocated. I was highly esteemed as a pastoral leader... until - the big until - the other discovered I did not hold to his or her beliefs.
3) What Spirit has shown you is to be treated like a precious treasure, with reverence, not like a big wad of chewed bubble gum thrown against a wall indiscriminately. Respect for your spiritual beliefs begins with you, not someone else.
4) When you feel the desire to share what you believe, practice pausing and asking, "Why am I wanting to do this?" If it is just because you want to, learn to remain quiet.
5) The strategic move was to invite the neighbor to meet with me on a more important meeting ground: prayer. Prayer - by which I include meditation - is a space we can meet without discussing beliefs - ideas, thoughts, theology, ideology. Beliefs do not provide a safe meeting place for most people. That you pray or meditate with someone is more important, usually, than sharing beliefs, no matter how esteemed spiritual you think your ideas are.
6) Love does not have a belief system; love has no creed or confession of faith. Love has no religion or spiritual path. When in love with Love, beliefs recede into the background. Oneness is not in the head; it is in and arises from the heart.
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Christian Scripture says, "By love serve one another," not, "By agreeing on what you think serve one another." Jesus speaks, "Love your neighbor as yourself," not, "Love others by trying to convince them what you think is right, what they think is wrong." Spiritual paths place love and non-harming central to their way of life.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
