When progressing toward further Illumination one of the more difficult stumbling blocks can be the way we perceive others through our particular paradigm. Because each individual possesses a very distinct view based on cumulative experiences, the way they interact with others is always predicated upon their personal biases. This makes it easy to dislike someone because of differing traits that can trigger irritation, frustration, or impatience. Whether they talk too much or too little, or too much about themselves; whether they have a low capacity for reason, the way they look, the way they eat, how the dress, the words they say, their personal politics, etc., all of these elements provide feedback that will elicit a response from your personal bias center.
SoulKind are aware that personal biases and preferences can lead to the creation of healthy tribes of likeminded members, but alternately it constructs walls around you and can invite distaste for other Souls who’ve committed no trespass. This is because our humans are naturally inclined to be partial. Yet, as a representative of Illumination in this world, there is no room for biases that damage others or stimulate contention. Instead of being quick to dislike the means by which others traverse their world or communicate, this is where you can understand and develop a neutral perspective.
A neutral perspective removes the prejudices you’ve accumulated regarding tolerances for others. It expands your levels of patience, helping you see that it is only personal bias that is irritating you or provoking your impatience. Other people are not you and you shouldn’t expect them to be. They process differently, have their own prejudices, and their likes and dislikes aren’t the same. They have their own way of living based upon untold variables leading up to where they are now. It’s what makes them unique and often what provides them the little happinesses (sic) they appreciate throughout their day. Because of these differences, they might not do things they way you do them, respond to the world in a similar manner, or go about things as efficiently. Yet, as long as they aren’t committing unjust acts, it’s what makes them unique. To want to change that or contend with it based upon your inability to appreciate them is misguided at best and at worst an egregious error.
If you can view people from a neutral perspective when it matters during standard daily routines, you’ll find your prejudices are softened, your patience is extended, and your love of humanity is spread more uniformly throughout your sphere of influence. Your neutral view will push aside the biases that provoke irritation for those that are doing nothing more than being themselves. When you look at it this way it can better give you an understanding of what it means to love others.
Here are some steps you can take to set aside personal biases throughout your day:
1. Recognize when you are in a situation where someone is provoking irritation innocently.
2. Evaluate yourself immediately and ask if they are doing anything other than being themselves.
3. Realize they are not committing any injustice, that you are the problem, and that you are being handicapped by your own personal prejudices.
4. See outside the act that is provoking you and search for qualities you like about this person, infusing a positive observation that supplants the prior focus.
5. Go out of your way to display even greater kindness, patience, and grace than you naturally would; fill the space of your irritation with more Illuminated actions
Committing to a neutral perspective is beneficial in every area of life: From family, to work, to social interactions throughout your day. When you commit to what you’re learning as SoulKind, you will transcend head knowledge and the transference of words. You will inhabit the truth, being an expression of wisdom in motion, in form, in function. That is where the true power of a SoulJourner lies; not just in the expression of truth, but in the embodiment of it.
A neutral perspective inspires many enriching results:
• Allows you to become more lenient toward other innocent Souls
• Inspires you to inhabit a greater understanding of grace
• It augments your love of humanity
• It furthers your ability to display wisdom in action instead of just word and thought
• Opens you up to greater forms of Illumination prior unseen without its incorporation
• Contributes to a more peaceful environment of acceptance and community
• Helps you see the beauty in people you would have prior disregarded
Once steps are taken to reduce daily prejudices by altering the way you interact with others, you can invite a neutral perspective into your life. It may take discipline for some at first, but removing old prejudices and seeing people from a more Illuminated angle will finally show you something you may have never thought to believe prior:
It wasn’t other people that needed to change…It was you.
