What is the most difficult thing about your spiritual path?

OMG !!  I can’t agree with you more…. I am looking for a quick way to say this to people— I normally phrase it as “I believe all faiths deserve respect as we are all apart of each other.

To not respect another faith is to not respect yourself.”  //    I don’t care if you call yourself Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, a non-religious spiritualist, or even pagan you have better things to concern yourself with then insulting other faiths…  As Wayne Dyer said ” The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about”

I don’t understand how people can even call themselves spiritual or religious when they refuse to allow others the same rights they enjoy. 

                                       To live & let live. 

I’ve had my responses to a few blogs on Gaia removed because people that were busy disrespecting other faiths thought my belief in agreement didn’t bring anything to the conversation.  I have seen people say they disagree with agreement… and I just feel sad for them… as you put it

Agreed, Jeena.

“…someone who adamently disrespects and stigmatizes those who follow
another faith, philosophy or lifestyle different from their own.”

It is with regret that I say the bulk of those whom I have met of late whom fit the above description have been here on Gaia. 

It is funny…

In the ‘real’ world of economic strife, paranoia and one-up-manship, I have many friends of various creeds, ranging from Christian to Muslim to everything in between.  I log on to Gaia, the supposed ‘enlightened’ society…or at least one bent on realizing so…and what do I find?  The do’s and don’t of why I am right and you are wrong. 

I could be inclined to be disheartened by recent comments by certain users.  But I got bigger fishes to be frying. 

Thanks for this blog.

Hope you are well.

Tharlam.

2 X PS:

Night Phoenix:  Your pictures only loaded this very second.  Wonderful selection!

And Jenna, just clocked your status, about being proud of your Q&R post.  Rightly so!  You should be pleased as punch. 

wanted to add this about tolerating intolerance:

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolerance

Bernard Lewis puts it was that:

Philosopher Karl Popper’s assertion in The Open Society and Its Enemies that we are warranted in refusing to tolerate intolerance illustrates that there are limits to tolerance.In particular, should a tolerant society tolerate those that promote intolerance of others while promoting there own intolerant agenda.

intolerance?
One can not claim
to be tolerant and oppose those labeled intolerant.

______________________________________________________________________

alright – i know we should tolerate them but how?
how should we tolerate people who don’t tolerate others?
What is the limit of this tolerance?

—– >  any ideas?  How are we suppose to live and let live while they
promote live & let die? 

I have trouble at times taking it step by step…because I so want to run sometimes…do you 2?

http://hellodarling.gaia.com/blog/2009/1/nature_heals

peace

I feel that way about intolerance.

Their are limits to tolerance and I believe I just found mine.

Intolerance of other faiths is one of them. 

 

In the face of intollerance I think the best response is compassion. A teacher of mine put it like this: when we learn to write in school we are told to write in the lines. The big A looks like this and the little a looks like this and so it goes. Until we get good at it and can leave the lines behind and write any way we want. He likened rigid beliefs to not knowing you can write without the lines. “Writing in the lines is the ONLY WAY!” Would we get angry at a child for that belief? No we would understand that they are children and that is where they are at and have compassion. I guess what I am saying is for me, the best response to intollerance is tollerance! And know that it has nothing to do with me. It’s just where they are for now.

Lisa….
Bingo
Right on
You hit the nail on he head
Well said
Exactly
Go to the head of the class
Very Good
 
Now, how do I get my teeth unclenched when I do this…….
 
 

Lisa

well said - but the little kid won’t curse you out, degrade you or
make fun of your writing style.  At least none that I hope to meet. :-)
they don’t block you or delete your comments because they
don’t agree with your tolerance of others.  That would be some
mean kid…

Oh I’ve met some pretty sassy kids! :)
I just do my best not to take it personally. It has nothing to do with me. It’s just their stuff they feel the need to toss around. No need for me to catch it!
As for the “unclenching” Franklin, well, um, maybe turn the clench into a smile? (Polyanna has spoken)

When I was growing up, I lived in-between 2 homes….one was of Jehovah’s Witness and the other was Catholic, and still we found a way to enjoy each others company, by having street dance’s.
We would all come together on those really hot summer nights, when air conditioning wasn’t invented yet, and all enjoy in each others talents of music, singing and some really awesome rock and roll 45’s.  Us children would play double dutch and learn how to smoke straw strand’s, like it was a cigarette….now that was cool…kee-hee.
My best friend was a Jehovah’s Witness, named Billy.  We used to climb trees together and race each other home from school, and the first one home, would race to the bedroom to see who made it home first.  Our homes were not connected, but they were very close to each others, and it just so happened that Billy’s bedroom was right next to mine. 
Thank God, my parents were not one of these people of ‘non-acceptance’….other wise, I wouldn’t have these wonderful memories.

Very cool. My neighborhood was mostly Catholic and we were Lutheran. I remember asking them about their religion with the confession “so you go in this box and tell the guy everything you’ve done wrong? Seriously?” and the ashes on their foreheads on ash Wed. and it was all very interresting. My brother married a Jehovas Witness and my niece and nephew have been raised JW as well. It makes for interresting family discussions that’s for sure. Luckily my sis-in-law is very open and hasn’t discouraged the kids from getting to know about me and what I do. She even talks to me about it too in a non-judgey way. Mostly it’s “well, we beleive this” and on it goes. I’m glad for my parents as well. Not a judgemental bone in their bodies.

I too believe we must show tolerance to other people’s beliefs, but while not necessarily believing in them. A Course in Miracles says, “As you teach, so shall you learn.” How can we preach universal tolerance of other people’s beliefs if we don’t show universal tolerance and love ourselves. We can find out “where the other person is comming from,” accept their differences, while still being able to point towards something greater, inspiring others, and transcending our differences. To first transcend our differences, we need to include them, like the pieces of a puzzle. We can believe that they think differently, while not believing that we are different in truth. We can accept another person, while not accepting their beliefs ourselves. I believe we are all Spirit, and Spirit transcends and includes everything.

The problem with the toleration of intolerance is that intolerance spreads far more quickly than tolerance does, being a far more powerful mind infector since it appeals to the ego, the state of spiritual evolution the bulk of society is at.

I was in a bookstore today and a guy in the christian section made a loud derogatory remark about women that carried across several aisles.

His words of hate create a greater impact than the allowing him to speak such hateful words does, and his poison spreads unchecked.