With what God agrees

When traveling, Gulliver's representative goes through a constant process of amazement and learning.
Because in almost every new place the locals have found ways to exist in a different way than elsewhere.
The language is different.
The religion.
The customs.
The dress code.
The culture.
The cooking.
Traveling and visiting new people is like landing on a new planet.

To truly enjoy this, one must be able to practice Krishnamurti's technique of "choiceless awareness".
The traveller may learn about a certain surprising and different custom when new people are met.
This then can be absorbed without the traveller being judgmental.
Without condemning the custom or rejecting it.

These days we are all in the footsteps of Gulliver.
Because we don't need to go somewhere anymore to learn about different ways of living.
Television brings it right into our living room.
The hiking shoes can stay in the closet because we have a sofa and a TV with National Geographic and Discovery channels.

One way to effectively practice "choiceless awareness" when learning about a different way to live life is to always keep in mind that in spite of cultural, social and religious differences, some very fundamental things we deeply share.
Things that are the same no matter how different another person elsewhere lives.

One of those things is that any other person elsewhere in the world has also a father and a mother.
There is nobody on this planet who does not have parents.
Every one of us has once been carried in the womb of a woman.

These days, on our planet, an escalation is taking place between religions.
Islam in many places has supporters who would like to see society ruled based on interpretations they make of the Koran.
These persons are very strong believers in what they are convinced of.
So strong that they are prepared to enforce their convictions on others.
This is obviously the opposite of "choiceless awareness".
It is an awareness with a tunnel vision: they see only one truth.

The awareness of a fundamentalist Muslim is within the framework of the Koran only.
Everything is seen through that tunnel.
When this approach to life is imposed on others without respect for different convictions, an unacceptable situation is created.
The principle of "choiceless awareness" cannot be exercised anymore because the personal freedom of others is entered and is tried to be forcibly altered.

Once we have a world where "choiceless awareness" is being corrupted, violence starts.
Imposing results in resistance.
And if the imposing comes with violence, the resistance will not be peaceful.

People have to learn to respect the others and accept them with the values they have.
They have to learn not to impose doctrines.
To allow fellow human beings their personal freedom.

And with this God agrees.





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