Spiritual Life Coaching: Healing Intolerance

Intolerance, racism, homophobia, and bigotry are extreme forms of disrespect for another human being. The shadow will judge another human being based on race, creed, culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, and status. In so doing, it desensitizes and diminishes a human being into an inanimate object. The shadow does this in order to cloak the heart into the false perception that the person with whom it's stereotyping is somehow less than a human being. This is the shadow's best trick when it comes to protecting itself against the unconditional love of the heart.

The shadow simply cannot allow the heart to see the authenticity of others and so the ego forms conclusions based on whatever it gleans from appearances alone. In this sense, it scans the data, analyzes it, and then interprets the information based only on what it sees and hears on the surface. An example of this was a story in 2010 about a USDA official, Shirley Sherrod, whose comments were intentionally distorted in a video posted by the conservative journalist, Andrew Breitbart. As a result, Sherrod, an African-American, was immediately fired for being a racist and then when the media took a closer look at her record they found precisely the opposite. It turned out that her entire life has been dedicated to civil rights and that she had a very long history of one humanitarian act after another. This is a perfect example of the shadow's hypocrisy that goes hand in hand with its rush to judgment.

The egoic-minded individual will typically not delve beneath the surface of things. Remember Narcissus? The very embodiment of the ego gleans just enough from surfaces alone to reinforce its own emotion-based opinion. It's main purpose is to stir up conflict, opposition, and drama. The ego is simply not interested in the truth of the matter because that truth may neutralize the drama it seeks. When drama dissolves, the ego dissolves, because there is no more energy for it to feed on. Judgment is the way the ego compensates for what it feels it lacks on an unconscious (shadow) level.

Another example of intolerance can be observed in the continuous conflict over the construction of an Islamic mosque near Ground Zero. The debate has been extremely polarized and exemplifies the intolerance that runs rampant in the U.S. toward the Muslim community. The ego always fears what it doesn't understand, and most Christian Americans do not understand Islam. All they know is that it was Muslims who hijacked the planes on 9/11, and that's pretty much where their knowledge of Islam ends.

Interestingly, the New York Times had a front page headline reporting the construction of the mosque in December, 2009, that met with no resistance. It wasn't until May, 2010, when it was made an issue by the Republican party that many of its members such as Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and others began using it as a political weapon against the Democratic Party.

On September 8, 2010, the leader of the Islamic community center, Imam Feisal Abdual Rauf was interviewed on CNN's Soledad Obrien on Larry King Live. He had this to say: "The radicals actually feed off each other and in some kind of existential way, need each other, and the more that the radicals are able to control the discourse on one side, it strengthens the radicals on others side and vice versa." I couldn't describe the energy of the pain-body any more accurately. What the Imam is talking about here is emotional body energy and how it plays itself out. This "feeding frenzy" that he mentions is the fear-based reaction that is occurring right now in America from the extreme right. And indeed they do "need each other" because to provide fuel for the pain-body to sustain itself, an "enemy" is always required.

Because the moderates on all sides are more reasonable, rational, and generally more conscious than the radicals, the duty to rise above the lunatic fringe falls on the moderates on all sides. Practicing diplomacy, non-resistance, non-reaction, and non-violence is the only way to defuse the pain-body bomb that is extremist terrorism.

The sad irony about the Ground Zero mosque controversy is that Imam Rauf is a member of the Sufi branch of the Muslim faith. The Sufism interpretation of Islam is extremely liberal compared to the jihadists and conservative Muslims. It is a pluralistic incarnation of Islam, accessible to the learned and the ignorant, the faithful and non-believers, and is a progressive version of Islam that allows much more freedom to women. Because the protestors have failed to educate themselves about this, their anger is being dangerously misdirected. It is clear to me that we should be encouraging Imam Rauf and his Sufi followers instead of alienating them. This is the higher way to address terrorism. Enough troops and innocent civilians have been slaughtered. The time has come for higher solutions.

Personal Life Coach, Jason Lincoln Jeffers is the founder of The Art of Transformation, a company devoted to teaching Spiritual Enlightenment to the masses. His Personal Life Coaching practice uniquely synthesizes spiritual wisdom with self transcendence, holistic wellness coaching, life path astro-analysis, pain-body counseling, heart-based manifestation, and relationship coaching. Spiritual Life Coaching: Healing Intolerance