Acceptance and Love Beyond Borders

Hey everyone,

My name is Tannaz Hosseinpour and welcome to this week’s episode of minutes on growth. Last time, we spoke about karma, and how we always reap what we sow, whether it's intentionally or subconsciously. This week I want to discuss acceptance and love beyond borders. I just got back from a short trip to New Delhi India, where I visited mosques, Hindu temples, and Sikh temples all in one day. As I gazed into the eyes of the devotees, I sensed a feeling of appreciation and acceptance from them for my love and respect for their religion.

As a religion major, I have always been an advocate of accepting and experiencing all religions and beliefs, because I believe that the core of them all is the same; pure love. I also believe that my religion or place of birth does not define me. As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin quotes, We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. This body of mine and all of its labels are not real – what lies behind it is.

Knowing this, I always make a conscious decision to be inclusive as possible and to love without any borders; to educate myself and celebrate special moments such as Christmas, Easter, Hanukah, Eid & others. I also tend to avoid any nationalistic tendencies because I strongly associate myself as a citizen of the globe. These choices whether conscious or instilled by my parents have allowed me to build stronger and deeper relationships with people from all around the world because ultimately everyone wants to feel accepted and respected.

Experiencing this, I’ve been advocating the demise of labels for the past few years because once you label someone as something, you have immediately created an imaginary wall between you both because now you’re no longer the same … but I recently came to the conclusion that people associate labels with a sense of identity and that not everyone is willing to let that go. This month of December, as we celebrated the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, Hannukah, and prepared for Christmas, I noticed that there’s another way to achieve the goal of complete acceptance, and that’s a shift of perspective from association to Love.

The notion that you connect with the other person based on what is in their heart and not on anything else. You may not get them to rid themselves of their labels, but you can shift your focus to the melody of their soul. Because let’s be frank – We all at some point in our lives may have judged people based on where they’re from or their religion, and these judgments have impacted our relationships with them. Based on cultural stereotypes, we look down upon certain people or put others on a pedestal. But you’re a good person not because of your religious views, but because of your pure thoughts and actions. You’re a competent person not because of the passport you hold, but because of your capabilities. Don’t forget, that in order for me to feel superior, someone else has to feel inferior. In order for my beliefs to be the right one, someone else’s has to be wrong.

Or even worse, we tend to only care about events and causes that directly impact us. But what we fail to realize is that we are all interconnected. These labels are all man-made. Geographical boundaries have changed over the years. Look at a map from a century ago and compare to the present one. A country’s boundaries have been set by human beings- they’re not set in stone and they’re definitely not strong enough to create a separation.

Let’s not give in to politicians who want us to be divided so they can sell weapons or create wars. Let us unite. Let us build friendships that transcend these man-made concepts. Let us stand up, raise awareness and help causes that don’t directly affect us. Because once you do, you realize how interwoven the world is. Let us experience all that life has to offer us through the eyes of love for all ethnicity and religions. Let us not limit ourselves. let us love, respect, and take care of all the pure and kind souls out there. The world is a much more beautiful place when you rid yourselves of these man-made cultural stereotypes and break all these imaginary walls.

Click here to listen to Episode 9 of the Minutes on Growth Podcast

Thank you for listening, speak to you soon.

Love & Light, Tannaz Hosseinpour