Namaste - the Essential Common Language

     The ideals of our wisdom traditions arose from who we fundamentally are and hope to become as human beings. These ideals are allocentric, ecocentric, transcending individual egos. They constitute our only common human bond. Even atheists are beginning to recognize the central importance of embodying the ideals of our wisdom traditions: Sam Harris. "Waking Up. A Guide to Spirituality without Religion." Simon & Schuster, 2014.
     Human beings also share a fully functional reptilian brain stem, which is limited to egocentric, tribal, adversarial reactivity. Operating at this primitive level of consciousness, people commonly hijack wisdom traditions to serve their agenda of domination, plunder & butchery. 
     Indeed, only a small percentage of people are knowledgeable & deeply committed to embody the full depth of any wisdom tradition, even the one with which they identify. Without this deep understanding, mindless, heartless, needless suffering continues.
     But gently nurturing the deepest, common ideals of wisdom traditions should (theoretically) be safe, practical and beneficial - our global society desperately needs wisdom - see: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2015/01/620-what-is-wisdom.html
     Approaching people with the attitude of Namaste – the core perfect consciousness {Buddhanature, the Holy Spirit, the divine within, etc} within me, recognizes the core perfect consciousness within you - should be universally helpful. This approach is the complete opposite of prejudice - of “me” vs “the other”. 
     If I can embody Namaste to the best of my abilities, everything should change. I’ve seen this happen repeatedly with heavily-defended people who were expecting to be treated badly. After 5–10minutes of being treated well, they became strikingly relaxed, open and friendly. Not everyone will quickly exhibit an obvious positive response. But embodying Namaste is, I believe, our natural state, while being adversarial or even defended / guarded / amored is a temporary problem to be resolved.
     Namaste is an attitude, level of consciousness, way of being, and as such, is communicated non-verbally. Most people understand, at a deep level, the embodiment of kindness, empathy, & respect. Even if Namaste were abhorrent to someone on an intellectual level (for whatever reason), I strongly suspect it is welcomed by all as a sincere, non-verbal, embodied approach. Namaste embodies the ideals of ALL our wisdom traditions. It is our essential common language, who we actually are.

ju_ju   www.dpreview.com