Did that get your attention?
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A Chinese, Jew, Arabian, Thai, Australian, Hindu, Tibetan all go camping together. They all bring with them their religious teachings, country of origin, family upbringing, traditions, beliefs and personal value systems. Everyone wears their traditional dress and carries the books of their religious teachings… The Qur’an, The Old Testament, The New Testament,The Bhagavad Gita, The Buddhavacana and The Kangyur.
Everyone is reminded, as they sit around the campsite and introduce themselves to each other, that they all have been victims of suppression and fighting for their rights. Everyone’s ancestors had been exposed to discrimination in the past due to people thinking they were better than the other or the land they were on was thought to belong to them. Separation, hierarchy and protection between the people was a normal way of being.
There was a shared intention for everyone to put aside the challenges of the past and find the commonalities in each other’s existence.
As dinner is getting ready to be served, everyone takes their turn going through their own unique rituals of saying “grace”. Blessing the food and each other, the abundance of life and love, and being grateful for this opportunity to be together. They sit around the table sharing their prayers and blessings with everyone listening attentively and respectfully, learning and appreciating as everyone takes their turn.
Following dinner, as the sun was setting it was prayer/meditation/pooja time. There were different faiths and religions represented and everyone had a different way to pray or to meditate or to ask for thanks. Some people also took a shower, some people went for a walk, some people had extended their meditated and prayed time. And yet, everyone’s theme was the same. Praying for a peaceful life, for their children and family members to be healthy and happy and be prosperous in their lives.
As people were bringing their individual prayer/meditation sessions to a close, everyone worked side by side to help each other set up camp, pitch their tents and put their things away before they gathered as a group for the evening. The sun was continuing to set and more prayers to end the day were being said.
Everyone gathered around the campfire to share something about their tradition they thought were similar teachings for all the traditions they were surrounded by. People shared messages of loving kindness, listening to your heart, doing gods work, being at peace, extending love, discipline and practice, meditation and prayer, ritual, acknowledging the seasons, giving back to the world and many more. There was no discussion or talking about how one tradition was better than another or how god may have chosen one people over another.
That evening, there was a conversation going on where everyone was realizing how we all want the same things. Food, shelter, love and understanding. This was a time for everyone to put aside the challenges of the past and find the commonalities in each other’s existence. That all people want safety and security for our futures and how impossible that is because of the law of nature. Everyone there knew how we needed to become at peace with the unpredictability and impermanence of life to appreciate the present moment and what each other has to give.
It was clear in a short amount of time that something else was evolving out of their time together. They recognized there was suffering and pain from the past that they did not want to hold on to anymore, and to release any blame and victimization. The mistakes made from previous generations were passed down as learning opportunities that were being applied to current times to be used for good and not for separation.
There is an opportunity for all of us today to evolve love. We are getting the chance to progress. To progress past our ego and culture center into a more world consciousness by bringing all the great traditions together. Let’s take all of the best teachings from the great traditions that have been passed down to each of us and bring them together to rewrite them into a new code of morals, ethics and love.
What the heck are we waiting for?
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I am getting to personally experience the full range of culture and religion here in Asia as I have been given the opportunity to stay with kind, generous and beautiful people and their families for extended periods of time. From Hinduism and Catholicism in India and Nepal, and from Buddhism and Muslim in Thailand. I’ve also gotten to see how foreign countries and their people have affected the native cultures in the countries I am visiting.
There is another narrative at play that I wanted to bring attention to by writing this story.
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