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I celebrate the boundaries in Nature, even those that exclude me from participation. I celebrate groups that define themselves in a way that I am not included and would not wish to be included - but that does not mean they are prejudicial against me, or I against them - prejudice is not a matter of boundaries, it is a matter of our heart condition.
If I cannot respect respectful boundaries that exclude me, that is my problem, my ego-problem, and I need to address that, not berate the other as being exclusive against me.
I do not have to participate in what someone does to hold him, her, them, or it in my heart in communion. Presence is inclusive in welcoming all into Itself, and we each have the potential to welcome everyone into the heart - after all, there is only one heart, one soul.
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Prejudice is grounded in an attitude that one person or race or religion or economic class or gender or sexual orientation ... is superior to another. Prejudice - pre-judging - denotes one excludes another as inferior without even trying to understand the other. This is what we could call exclusion in the negative sense. Nothing justifies excluding others based on feeling one is superior to them, such as in racism, sexism, and classism.
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Inclusion, absolutely, is a higher value than exclusion, for inclusion includes exclusion - in the One, they are one, a unity.
That the Sage shared with everyone, then, did not mean he liked everyone, wanted to be friends with everyone, or would welcome anyone to live in his community as a devotee. The metaphor of the rose has its limits. Yet, the underlying message is true - the heart is welcoming to all and is hospitable by nature, for we belong together already. Any ways in which we diversify, to be other than prejudicial, must arise from our oneness, even as One makes possible the many.
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(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2020
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