It is diversity that makes us rich, being at the core of nature and life on Earth. Who doesn’t enjoy the wonders and uniqueness of the animal, plant, and rock kingdoms on our planet with millions of different colors, shapes, sounds, smells, and personalities. Their precious hearts encountering our curiosity, as we allow them to be different from us. But within our human species, we have so much trouble accepting that which we do not understand – our uniqueness and differences. We have lost the ability to be curious and say, “who are you”, instead leading with our assumptions and prejudice. There are currently over seven thousand different languages spoken among our human family, with more than five thousand unique ethnic groups and cultures. The climate, landscape, and natural resources of our planet have shaped the people living in each location over millions of years. The richness of our diversity is the very nature of our species, and always has been.
We have astrologically just entered the Age of Aquarius, an age of the balance of opposites and ‘unity within diversity’ that will last approximately two thousand years. The exiting Piscean age had brought us the patriarchal rule, exclusivity, selfishness, deception, and exploitation in the name of power. The current turmoil in the world is largely an indicator of this change, and the resistance of the old ways of thinking to be transformed with the flow of the times. This concerns us all, as we were all deeply affected by the projections and indoctrination by the generations before us, who, in part, taught us to be in survival mode and keep our minds closed. Most of humanity has become so self-absorbed, ranging from constant approval seeking to the megalomania and narcissism spectrum, that we cannot see the “other”. We literally exist within our own bubble, not even aware of the world around us.
Young children are our best teachers in that they are able to live from the heart with authenticity, spontaneity, and freedom, curious about everything around them. They are unable to judge, so they just experience. In essence, on our awakening journey we are returning to who we were before we were tainted and brainwashed by every institution that tried to mold us according to their standards. We are un-learning an incredible loyalty to dualism – black and white, north and south, rich and poor, good and bad, inferior and superior, us and them – and beyond the extremes, finding a middle ground, a balance, that must by nature include both ends of the spectrum.
We are learning to let our empathy teach us to place ourselves, even as a brief glimpse, in the shoes of another, to the point that we can see their humanity, their troubles, and our commonality. Breaking down thousands of years of walls that kept us from each other because we were from opposite sides of the tracks, because our skin was one pigment lighter or darker than the other, our material riches or lack thereof made us part of a certain class, our gender was perceived as inferior or superior, and so on. And the arrogance to think, even for one second, that for whatever made-up reason, we are better or lower than another… The right to another’s existence, or their place within some imagined hierarchy of creation was never given to us to decide. This is playing God in a very twisted way.
Our Spirit or Higher Self, for all of us, is of the Divine. And our journey on this planet is largely determined by what we contracted for before being born. We all came here briefly to experience in form on this planet what we could not in the etheric realms. Some of the souls who don’t seem very evolved, judging by their earthly behavior, are from advanced otherworldly civilizations or the angelic realms, and carry a great amount of light. They contracted to fulfill a certain role that may not agree with what we deem “good”. Yet, they may be living their lives according to their soul contracts, and are doing exactly what they came here to do. Our personal measure of right and wrong may not be exactly Universal law. And while we would all like to live a comfortable life that is perfectly uninterrupted by antagonism, we contracted for our experiences, often, so we could evolve and grow beyond experiences that we have repeated over many lifetimes.
As we cannot possibly see the whole picture, especially when it comes to another person or another culture, it is appropriate for us to become the observer and allow others to live their journey. They have been given free will, just as we have – the Divine sovereignty to choose for themselves. We must learn to soften our hearts and still our minds, allowing what is to be. This is respect. We honestly and truly don’t know, and this we must accept. We can then be present with all that is, coming from an open state in which we change our perspective with new information. As long as we stay in a wounded mindset, we will be caught in the perceptual system of duality, judging what we do not understand, and even be afraid of it. If we really are all the fruits of the proverbial apple tree, then the concept of “stranger” has no meaning. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have healthy boundaries in place and let people earn our trust. But respect should not have to be earned. Every sentient being is deserving of our utmost respect.
With awareness, we can change these old patterns, and learn to become the observer. This allows us to hold our opinions loosely, and incorporate new observations and experiences. It allows us to spiritually grow beyond the thought system of duality where one is always the winner and another has to be the loser. And we can embrace another’s different viewpoints, color, race, gender, or orientation as part of their experience and not make everything in Gods creation about us. This is truly finding our place in the Universe without having to change and control all that we come in contact with, just because we feel a bit uncertain about ourselves.
Neha