WHY DO I RESPECT ALL PEOPLE?
(IT'S ABOUT THE BASICS OF A FUNCTIONING HUMAN BEING)
In process, but the basic idea is clear...
Although we often attribute blame, wrong, stupidity, etc., to other people, there is no legitimate basis for doing that - it's all based on a cultural (very human) myth and set of beliefs.
Of course, if we look at life through the perspective of the lower, primitive brain and don't refine our perspective, we will not be able to overcome his dysfunctional viewpoint about human beings.
Basically, there is a reality that all people can benefit from.
But we can only reach that reality from knowing other realities. You cannot significiantly progress if you try to operate from irreality, even though fantasy can be nice at times - but it is vital that we know the difference between fantasy (and other things we make up) and what is reality. Read What Is Reality? Know What It Is Or Suffer From Irreality!
Fundamentally, we live in a physical universe based on physical principles and mechanics. This means, except in fantasyland, that we are strictly physical beings operating in a physical way, with no mystical beings occupying us or the universe. (Of course, the saving grace from this seemingly heartless conclusion is that we are incredible beings who can create meaning and significance that is of huge value to our experience of life.) (Read The Believing Brain, re: what we make up and then believe is true.)
As such, being mechanical creatures, we can only know what we have learned, which is also limited to what we have been exposed to. We cannot know more than we know. (Duh!) But we often criticize others for not knowing more, for not being as smart or helpful or whatever as they "should" be. ("Should" exists in unrealistic expectations, all part of fantasyland.)
We also cannot do better than we know how to do. If someone says of a person "that person knows better" about some behavior that is "not good", there is an "untruth" in that statement. If the person doesn't do better it is a sure sign that they don't know one or a few things that would be necessary to be able to be successful at whatever it is We all "know better" than to eat too much and get fat and unhealthy - yet we don't do it. Therefore, we don't know the behavioral tricks to make it work and/or we don't really know the consequences in a meaningful (beyond intellectual) manner.
Reread that logic and reread the other pieces about that, until you "know enough" to totally stop your behaviors that don't work in reality and your judgments about other people not knowing better (or being evil or being "lazy" or ...). If you are blaming them, evilizing them, diminishing them, you are engaged in having the same lack of knowledge (and dysfunctional behavior as a result of it) that you are complaining about in others.
"THE PATH" IN LIFE
Respecting another human being for their path and for being human does not necessarily lead to anything that violates reality. I can respect a human being as being a human being, but I can note that they are untrustworthy, stupidly harming, or not capable of doing a critical function (i.e. has not yet learned it, though virtually all human beings are capable of learning the basics and going all the way up to full functionality).
Most human beings have not have reached the highly functional living part of the progressive path... There is no fault in that. Just an opportunity to intervene with a new force (new knowledge) that hopefully will change their paths.
I respect ALL human beings. (And that will tick some people off, for that includes those who have done much wrong, based on what they knew or didn't know at the time. Just because a person knows how to persuade or how to be powerful or any area of high knowledge DOES NOT mean that they know other areas - a powerful person who is unknowing, for instance, can do much harm.)
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When I took Maria Nemeth's class related to energy and energy leaks, she referred to something like respecting everyone, for some people have to fight more dragons and have a greater battle. At the time, I though "that really sucks" and "that's not a great consolation". But I can now see how it applies to respecting other people for only being able to know what they can know and only being able to do what they truly know how to do - and, in the same reality, they must cope with whatever they've created and what has actually come into their life not by invitation - some of which are realities we would not like to experience.
They are all human beings, trying as hard as they know how to create more happiness for themselves and/or to relieve unhappiness. They are not at fault for not knowing how to do that, as that is an external factor, but they all are trying for the same thing.
And I respect every human being for trying their best to do that. I appreciate their humanness and that, mechanically, we must each go through trying to achieve the same objective. Of course, that is called "survival" in evolution - and that is what we are seeking in some form. Though what we are seeking is not necessarily about surviving death experiences, it is about gaining that which has us live at a higher level of survival. Perhaps this can be illuminated a bit by reading The Story Of Our Happy And Our Unhappy Chemicals - A Tale Of The Mechanisms For Survival.
While the following citation covers more things than respect of others, this piece from Maria Nemeth is a great illuminator, in my opinion. Although it uses coaching as the background for it, it is applicable to all of life and all occupations. Clarity, Focus, Ease, And Grace. Her DVD, The Energy Of Money, appears to be about money only, but it is far broader, with money simply being something that embodies, in a sense, energy.
On her site, you can also download, for free, her document The Life's Intentions Inventory, to help you get clearer about them and the ranking of the importance to you.
