FROM TOLERANCE TO ONENESS – “Finally, we begin to see that all people, including ourselves, are to some extent emotionally ill as well as frequent-
ly wrong, and then we approach true tolerance and see what real love for our fellows actually means.” (12 & 12, p. 92)
“I’ll tell you what I did need to learn was tolerance, and I think I’ve been actually given a daily opportunity to practice that, and it’s … it’s … and I know that that sounds almost like a backhanded slap, and it is in a way because I haven’t been successful at it every day.”
– Mel Gibson (1956 – ) Australian Actor/Director
Charlie Chaplin (The Great Dictator) on Love & Tolerance (3:52)
Attracting Love Guided Meditation LP (10:03)
By the grace of your “daily reprieve”, how has tolerance helped strengthen your sense of love and serenity?
Reason and Passion XV
by Kahlil Gibran
And the priestess spoke again and said: “Speak to us of Reason and Passion.”
And he answered saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord. And the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows – then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.
”
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, – then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.
”
And since you are a breath In God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.
To quote my favourite movie,
“So, OK, like right now, for example, the Haitians need to come to America. But some people are all, “What about the strain on our resources?
But it’s like when I had this garden party for my father’s birthday, right? I said RSVP because it was a sit-down dinner. But people came that, like, did not RSVP. So I was, like, totally buggin’. I had to haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, squish in extra place settings. But, by the end of the day it was, like, the more the merrier.
And so, if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians.
And in conclusion, may I please remind you that it does not say “RSVP” on the Statue of Liberty.
Thank you very much”
-Cher Horowitz
(Clueless)
I have been so loved recently in different ways. It’s my half birthday and I feel the love. Focusing on positive energy every day.
I’m not sure if I have been in the space to allow love and/or tolerance in lately. Sometimes one is too tolerant, and that can be just as detrimental as not being tolerant at all……..
One thing I do is look for the peculiar and rather charming mannerisms each of us have. I take delight in those aspects of a person which helps to make those things I find abrasive less significant and sometimes the flip side of the same coin.
Tolerance is a funny thing. Kind of like crosstalk. You cannot tell someone they’re crosstalking unless you crosstalk…I spend a lot of time being tolerant of others and do not see that they are struggling to be tolerant of me. We are each so different and each so the same. When I can find my center, my core, my connection to my Higher Power – I find there is no need for tolerance. For me, unconditional love needs no tolerance. And I need to be tolerant of myself and others until I get there.