Saying For Today: We choose to act like one and see others as one with us, for we are one.
Red Geranium
Inn Along the Way/Chapman Farm; Damariscotta, ME
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A follower complimented the Sage, saying, "I admire how you're so tolerate of everyone." "I don't tolerate them," replied the Sage. "What?" came the confused response. To which the Sage said, "I don't tolerate them, I love them."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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When in seminary, I worked as the inspector of campus buildings and grounds. One day, I walked upstairs from our office to inspect a guest room. A guest was to arrive soon. I looked at the door and, for the first time in my life, read three capital letters, side-by-side on the door and in silver metal: VIP.
I wondered what VIP meant. The whole door seemed to point to that one message, saying, "Pay attention to this!" I checked the room and went downstairs, and asked what VIP meant. Staff informed me: Very Important Person. So, in my mid-20s, I had been initiated into the illusory VIP world, to which I and those like me did not belong. We were outsiders. They, whoever they were, were insiders.
I could not make sense of this VIP, especially since the campus was a Bible-believing Christian one where, I assumed, no one would be seen as superior to - un-equal to - anyone else - certainly not, I thought, after learning all my life about the unconditional love of God and how Jesus associated with the not-VIPs. At least, that is what I had been taught in the evangelical church of my upbringing, and I had shared it as a preacher and pastor for some 10 years. Now, about 35 years later, that VIP still makes no sense to me - I hope it never does. VIP not making sense is a key to the wisdom of nondiscrimination.
I will share below that the insight of equality and acting with nondiscrimination are distinct. Spiritual practice cultivates the wisdom of equality, leading to acting with inclusion. We cannot sustain equality apart from insight into the nature of self and others as equal. This insight is not the thought of inclusion. This insight is a living, felt experience of our oneness, beyond theory to a fully embodied recognition.
As Buddhists teach, what we call the self is empty, a non-self, for there is no boundary to separate one self from another self - we are one boundless self. What I call my self is illusory, in that it is relative. It is, but it is an appearance within the one Presence. Hence, the emptiness of self refers positively to the self as boundless, as permeable and open to all other relative selves, human and otherwise.
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The early Jesus movement was a radical, counter-cultural one. Jesus sought to provide an alternative culture to the prevailing one. One of its central values was nondiscrimination, or inclusion. The concept of "Christ" became key in signifying this vision for equality.
In the Christian Scriptures, Colossians 3.11 provides a superb sample of this teaching of counter-cultural community. In such a community, equality and diversity exist in harmony, and apparent opposites are seen and treated as different but not mutually exclusive - a diversified unity.
As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised [circumcision was a Jewish rite signifying inclusion], barbarians, savages [or, Sythians], slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all (GNT).
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The word "Christ" provides a link to the Jewish heritage, while the term indicates a transcending of history, as seen in the text above. Christ is not merely in all, Christ is all. Hence, while Jesus embodied Christ, Christ is not equated only with him. If you pointed to any community member, you could say, "There is Christ," "She is Christ," "He is Christ," or "Hello, Christ." Any member of the fellowship could say, "We are Christ" There was no VIP or VIC - just one Christ diversified through the tapestry of the community!
Buddhism teaches this egalitarianism by the word "Buddha." The historical Buddha countered the caste system of his native Indian culture and the varied sects later called "Hinduism." In Buddhism, the Sangha is the community of those who follow the Dharma, or Buddhist teaching. Each is Buddha, and all is one Buddha.
In Buddhism, we receive the wisdom of the Four Immeasurable Minds (or, Hearts). Among these qualities is equanimity (Sanskrit, upeksha): equality, inclusion, nondiscrimination. "Immeasurable" implies without boundaries. As Thich Nhat Hanh observes, upeksha is an aspect of true love (The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching). Seeing and acting with upeksha is love in action. You love others by seeing them as equal with you. This seeing is loving action. The insight is the beginning of creating equality socially. We cannot rightly work for justice and inclusion, unless we are transformed to see with the wisdom of upeksha. We become the seeing we wish others to see.
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The signifiers "Christ" and "Buddha" point to a belonging within and outside the historical communities linked with Jesus of Nazareth and Gautama Buddha. I, however, was raised in a Christian tribalism wherein "Christ" was equated with "Christian." Then, the term is denuded of its expansive reference and used as a code word for exclusion, and historically in the colonization of entire populations. "Christ" becomes co-opted to a limited, bounded consciousness. Hence, rather, "Christ" indicates a freedom from Christianity, even if one is within it, and "Buddha" bespeaks a boundlessness beyond Buddhism. Contemplative Christianity sees the one Christ as much outside itself as within itself, and the same is true of Buddhism in regard to the Buddha.
A scripture from the Christian Bible shows the struggle in the early churches to embody equality - though many others witness of this same inclination to create an us-in and them-out religion - the ego seeks refuge in identifying others as outsiders. This passage addresses favoritism based on economic distinction ...
My friends, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, you must never treat people in different ways according to their outward appearance. 2Suppose a rich man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes comes to your meeting, and a poor man in ragged clothes also comes. If you show more respect to the well-dressed man and say to him, "Have this best seat here," but say to the poor man, "Stand over there, or sit here on the floor by my feet," then you are guilty of creating distinctions among yourselves and of making judgments based on evil motives.
*James 2.1-4 (GNT)
The writer continues, in James 2.8-9 (GNT) ...
You will be doing the right thing if you obey the law of the Kingdom, which is found in the scripture, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." But if you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin, and the Law condemns you as a lawbreaker.
Hence, discrimination is always based on appearance. Inequality arises from how one appears to be, not from being itself, how one looks, not who one is. How one appears includes sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity, economic status, religious affiliation, and political alliance, among an array of other appearances. Yet, we are not appearances. We are life diversifying itself. As presence, we are one; as nature, we are many. As spirit, we see through the diversity to the oneness, valuing distinction as a way the ineffable shows itself among us and as us.
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How do teachings on equality arise in diverse times and cultures? They do so, for we innately know we are one, yet, we have forgotten. We do not decide to be one. We choose to act like one and see others as one with us, for we are one. If I do not treat others as my equal, then I deny myself. In betraying another, I betray myself.
This inclusion is more than tolerance. To tolerate others is to allow for their existence and rights alongside our own. Christ does not tolerate Christ; Buddha does not tolerate Buddha. Christ loves Christ. Buddha loves Buddha. Inclusion is seeing the other as equal to and equally belonging and, therefore, acting in light of that insight. Who wants to be only tolerated?
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One spiritual practice includes the exploration of our gross and subtle prejudices. Engaging wholeheartedly in any spiritual path means we are willing to be honest about our discriminations. In such work, we are honest not merely to overcome our prejudices or feel bad about ourselves for them. Instead, the light of wisdom exposes these prejudices as without substance. We see these biases come into awareness and depart, evidencing their impermanent nature. We see the energy of awakening is present in our prejudicial thoughts and feelings. We learn to take our prejudices lightly, working with them as the play of energy. In this witnessing, loosening the identification with the biases, we can avoid acting them out in harm to others and ourselves.
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Finally, we can grow in compassion through awareness of our proneness to discrimination. Not only is prejudice substanceless, but it arises as a manifestation of the whole of humanity, past and present. Hence, we can respond with compassion to others and ourselves, including seeing how we may embody wrong views inherited from others that exclude us as not normal, right, permissible, or not belonging. In compassion, then, we can acknowledge, as Ram Dass said, that we are all walking each other home (Ram Dass, Mirabai Starr. Walking Each Other Home).
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and notation of title and place of the 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.
