“While your ego may think it can fathom the experience of others based on perceptions of similarities and differences, you will never truly comprehend the gravity of someone’s living testimony by virtue of comparison. You will only know the direct visceral nature of each moment by the space you allow for others to be heard and received. While it can be quite subtle to distinguish between listening to your understanding of another person’s journey and allowing them to relive harrowing moments in your presence, patience is often the key.
“As the next attribute in the space-holding process, patience is the time you spend showing genuine interest toward another person’s reality. The more you believe you wholeheartedly understand the complexities of people existing outside yourself, the more you may slide into impatience when they share more or go on longer than your ego can handle. Equally so, the more aware you are that you can’t truly comprehend someone’s firsthand account without walking lifetimes in their shoes, the more you can learn from all they are meant to share.
“Through the attribute of patience, you’ll understand why other people see you differently than you may view yourself. While you have had many years to know your unique qualities, for another, you may exist solely as a symbol of the suffering they have endured. Patience also helps you give others the space to be exactly where they are in their journey, since so many people are far too steeped in the intensity of their own pain to know how you would prefer them to see or treat you. With patience as your guide, the more honest you are about how little people have in common with each other, the more likely you will be to learn from the subjectivity of someone’s sharing and even create space for them to learn from you.
“While the old spiritual paradigm equates oneness with sameness, it creates a tendency in which you are likely to be completely open only around those of like mind and similar nuances of experience. In the new spiritual paradigm, oneness is not about looking, talking, or acting like any other person. It’s a direct view into the infinite tapestry of diversity, where beings emanating from one eternal source experience the endless ways spirit expresses itself through the uniqueness of all.”
