The Universal Eye of God

Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 87

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I thought of myself as open-minded and tolerant of other religious practices and, even more so, I believed in my heart that I need not be tolerant of political/religious beliefs I felt to be evil. Then it occurred to me that I don’t need to ascribe to a religion or political belief to be tolerant of the persons professing to know something of the world by ascribing themselves to these beliefs. Still, it was a harder pill to swallow than I thought because it meant that; if I sit and listen… maybe even open their literature and read it… hear the pundits, preachers and soap box orators on TV and radio without automatically and immediately condemning who was saying it, my heart opened to them without taking on their beliefs. After all, what am I afraid of if my beliefs are so damned solid?

    In the end, I realize I know very little outside of my own experience… the rest is opinion… usually, other people’s opinion and not my experience or that of the pundit. When they talk from experience, my ears perk up. After I compare it with what I’ve experienced, another test goes something like this: Is it kind? Is it necessary? And is it true?
 
   I found that I am mistaken to see others as evil; no matter what they believe, and to do so is often a murderous attitude that can inflict unimaginable suffering and oppression no matter what my intention. Seeing our common experience, and accepting it as valid, is the path to healing. But that doesn’t mean I bend-over and bow unthinkingly to mistaken ideas. It simply means I don’t regard the human being with those beliefs as anything less than me when viewed through the eye of the Heart of Compassion.

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