CPT Asshole

Celebrate diversity and lose your soul?

I've heard the saying "We're all God's children" before, but as I struggle with my own ignorance, I am blown away by this passage from The Upanishads of Hindu Sanskrit, "In Brahman there is no diversity. He who sees diversity goes from death to death."

Another passage from The Upanishads of Hindu Sanskrit in reference to realizing Brahman, "To fail to realize him is to live in ignorance, and therefore to be subject to birth and death." Taken together, these passages tell me the ignorant see diversity, the enlightened do not.

I happen to believe that the true enemies of the human race are ignorance and stupidity, for those are the real reasons we do not see each other as one, and are the root of all problems. I'm not immune, I have much to learn. I'm still a work in progress, and suffer from ignorance and stupidity, just as every human being who ever lived. But I realize I cannot eliminate ignorance and stupidity from my life, until I admit it exists. No problem can be solved until it is realized, and exposed.

Just as some people choose to see a glass half empty, instead of half full, some people choose to see differences and diversity, instead of how much we are alike. We're all born, we all die, we all bleed, we breathe, eat, see, hear, smell, think, work, play, love, hate, cry, rejoice, that's 15 ways we're alike. I could list many more, but I doubt anyone could list 15 differences. And who would want to?

Why would anyone want to see the differences instead of the similarities? The answer to that is because it is very hard for some of us to accept that we are more like the worst of us, than we are different. I cannot blame anyone for not wanting to believe they are more like the Nazi's, more like Dahmer and Manson, than we are different? Accepting that we are all one, doesn't mean we have to like everyone else, or accept criminal behavior, and we don't.

The only real difference in the human race is the difference between male and female. Even this difference does not exist in Brahman. God sees no difference between male and female, but our tiny little brains have a hard time accepting this, even though we can accept the fact that God is able to. We shouldn't even refer to God as He, or She. Because God is not one or the other, but both, no not even both, or all, because all our words are too small to describe God.

We can, and should, celebrate our diversity, our different cultures, heritages, beliefs. But our diversity should be treated as various flavors of ice cream, and not elevated above our oneness. Remember Tommy Chong's lines in "Up in Smoke", when he saw the band's new uniforms, and thought they looked lame, like waiter's uniforms? He said they should all wear something different, but the same. Just like us.

This one is really my opinion, I could be wrong. Ahoy from the Captain.

posted by cpt asshole @ 5:04 PM