Diversity does not exist in this world

Participant: Could you kindly go into diversity - what is it and how can we bring more acceptance in this world.

GC: Diversity. What is it? Diversity, as a word, means to be different. In Italian, diverso implies different. Fast forward to today and the word diversity has become a very important aspect of corporate culture, and in society. And it’s not just about being different but accepting these differences. There are many efforts to change people’s mindsets to accept more diversity. At work, diversity can be the engine for a more innovative culture under the right environment. And therefore, this is seen as good for business as ideas can converge, often bringing about a uniqueness that gives organizations a potential competitive edge. The idea of diversity is really to respect and appreciate what makes people different in terms of people’s backgrounds, identification with gender, differences in age, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, and so forth. I find it a fascinating facet of the human mind that tries to respect differences because it seems changing people’s mindset to accept more diversity is taking an awful long time. Training programs that train how to uncover biases and change them through practicing some new behavior is just implanting yet another system into one’s brain - another program. Is that how you want to live? By running a program? Or do you really want to understand from the bottom of your heart how one can live in this world, freely?

Also, I’m not quite sure if we have differences in this world at all. I’d like to question if this uniqueness is really all that unique.

Participant: What do you mean? There are so many differences in this very room - look around!

GC: Are differences only what you see? Or in other words, you see a person, and they might have a different color skin from you. They might be dressed differently from you. They might be older or younger than you. They might be taller or shorter than you. Is there anything beyond that?

Participant: Yes - they come from different countries; have different upbringings; have experienced different things…

GC: Okay let’s question these, because I don’t see much difference in all of this. That is, I am from some country for example. In that country we have certain traditions and I have been practicing those traditions since childhood. The writer by the way, no longer practices those traditions - thank goodness. I’m just using examples here. Or, I have been brought-up to see the world through the eyes of a savior which is defined by some religion in some words written in a book. I have one God who is the greatest of all, or I may have many Gods - one for nature, one for luck, one for intelligence one for compassion. Or I am absolutely certain that my God is more powerful than yours and therefore, you are wrong and I am right. Of course the other person says the same thing. Or, I have grown-up in a certain society with many rules and norm that shape the way I behave. Now you might say that all these are different for each person but I am not talking about the content of each person. The content might vary a little; your traditions might not be the same as others but the fact is they are traditions. The fact is I live in a society that shapes the way I need to behave - and so do you. Whether a philosophy or religion has been embedded in me to help me understand morals is the same thing. Psychologically, you and I are basically the same!

Participant: I don’t agree with this.

GC: Of course you don’t agree. It challenges your beliefs. It challenges your very essence. But, if we could together have a dialogue in such a way where our mind that is still for a few moments - that is, it is not caught-up in itself, trying to protect itself by resisting. Instead, just look at this and see if you can see the fact that psychologically, we are built/structured in the same way and therefore, there is no diversity. If you see the fact of this, we could go into it a little more.

Participant: Okay, let me try but it is difficult.

GC: Yes, I understand it is difficult. Let’s look at what is going on in society with regards to this topic. We constantly battle with the outer world. We are always trying to change society, out there. When we need change, we battle for some policy or law to dictate that change. And, someone else is trying to do the same thing. For example, you can see what happens with same-sex marriages. Many countries don’t accept it and many do. In some countries, certain states might accept it, and others don’t. How long would it take for the whole world to accept it? You need to put in so much energy, effort - life becomes a constant battle of change on the outer. And superficially, we may respect each other out of necessity, to “get along”. Or we may need to learn how to accept and respect others out of behavior change which is an endless game. Or we could try and understand the core of why we don’t have diversity in this world at all. Do you see what I mean? Rather than going off to fix the problem, why don’t we understand why it exists, deeply?

Participant: We could just accept these differences for what they are and then work from there…

GC: Can you accept the differences? Not academically, but in actuality?

Participant: I could learn to.

GC: How - you see you will be stuck repeating some rituals, rules, awareness activities but deep inside, you haven’t changed a bit. You still attend to your beliefs. You still hold your values close. You still follow advice from some guru or philosophy. You’ve just touched the surface! You never really get to the root of it.

Participant: It’s the best I can do.

GC: Don’t you want this problem to go away? That is, don’t you feel the need for there to really be a world where we are actually free? Free from judgement; free from expectations; free from authority; free from stress. Do you see what I am saying?

Participant: Yes, but it just sounds impossible… almost.

GC: Ah!! The but word! Yes but - means no, doesn’t it? Is it impossible? I think you are looking at it with too much complexity.

Participant: No, I can’t seem to understand what exactly you are asking me to do.

GC: I’m not asking you to do a thing. You need only to question for yourself, why does all of this structure exist? Why have we humans shrunk ourselves to a tiny box and then try to look at that box from the outside when we are caught inside? Look, as long as you and I talk, if I bring-in my values, my beliefs, my opinions, my upbringing, my influences, my academic knowledge, and you do the same with all of what you have defined yourself to be, then can we ever really meet?

Participant: What do you mean, meet?

GC: Can we really listen to each other? Can we really have any relationship with each other? No, right? We might talk a little and find some commonalities through which to share a bit of dialogue together, but we don’t truly meet - we are separate!

Participant: Are you suggesting that get rid of all of my beliefs, values, knowledge? That’s crazy!

GC: You see, in this state we cannot meet! For us to truly meet, for the world to be truly ALL-ONE, unless we can see the fact of what is separating you and me at the root, we will always walk two paths that never meet. Therefore, one must be willing to die to all the structure, all the values, all the beliefs, all the traditions, etc.

Participant: I see what you are saying, but it’s difficult to do.

GC: Ah, if you see what I am saying, not academically, but as I said earlier, actually, you will not see the difficulty in this. Because it is all of these things that are separating me and you. It is all of these things that are creating the world we live in. It is all of these differences which have been the result of war, conflict, division in the world. If you have ever lost a loved one in a battlefield, you will know the tremendous pain that goes along with that and an extraordinary energy to determine why it happened - what is the structure of it all and why does it keep happening? Millions of senseless deaths in the world and we still can’t find the passion to question the very root of it all. We repeat and repeat and repeat. When one has seen the immense danger of who we think we are, the ending, or death of all of that is inevitable. But until then, workplaces will spend billions of dollars on training and strategies that only scrape the surface - leaving the next generation with the same challenges. So please do take the care to look deeply at your own conditioning - we need this more than ever to change the world we live in or we will go on destroying ourselves, never knowing the endless beauty of peace and love that we all are.

Love and light,

GC