Discrimination

[Steppingfeet]

How do you guys deal with thoughts and feelings, if you have any, which are discriminatory towards various groups and people?  I, for example, have noticed that I entertain and often have thoughts, feelings and beliefs which are racist, sexist etc.  I do feel a great deal of shame and guilt for having these thoughts but I am actively trying to change them and move into a more harmonious state of being.  Does anyone have any recommendations and suggestions as to how to best go about doing this?  Perhaps some personal experiences and things you learned from such matters?  

An inner mode of contemplation I've been working with lately to open the heart and practice unconditional love is this:

I attempt to see the individual - whether I know them or not, whether I have a critical opinion of them or not, but especially if I have a critical opinion - from the standpoint of the Creator.

I try to see with the eyes of the Creator, as it were. I hold my attention on this point and imagine the total, unqualified, unconditional, unblinking love that the Creator feels for each of its manifestations, no matter how terribly distorted those manifestations may be. This love is so total that without it, the manifestation, or the mind/body/spirit complex, literally could not exist. Everything in creation, or the illusion, owes its existence to the love of the infinite creator, even those who have consciously dedicated themselves to denying the universal nature of this love.

Naturally, seeing from the eyes of the Creator is an exercise in the abstract, but it helps to cultivate the all-important awareness of unity, love, and light. As I focus on this and feel it opening my heart in a state of trust and communion, I use this as the reference point, north star, or yardstick.

In other words, this unconditional love is the measure of all things, and it brings into relief the distorted contours of the personality shell.

With that state of awareness as the reference point, I notice how I get in the way of that love. The Creator loves totally and unconditionally, yet I say "no" to love in different respects. I place conditions upon love. Why?

Who am I to deny the love that is already present for all things? Who am I to restrict that love? Who am I to get in the way of that love and put limits upon it?

What am I doing by "getting in the way of" love? I am creating blockage. I am blocking the Creator's love that belongs to ALL things in the moment.

So this contemplation helps me to locate my personal blockages, those little distortions of belief that have expectation of return, or place conditions upon the moment, or in some way resist the moment, refusing to see that, no matter the outer/apparent distortion, all unfolds in perfection, all is loved totally.

It is a work in progress.

I do feel a great deal of shame and guilt for having these thoughts but I am actively trying to change them and move into a more harmonious state of being.  Does anyone have any recommendations and suggestions as to how to best go about doing this?

The contemplative exercise I described above applies not only to that which you see or perceive outside of yourself, but most fundamentally to the experience of your own self. Imagine how total is the Creator's love for you right now, as you are, your blockages and distortions included.

The negative discrimination you feel that makes you uncomfortable, that, too, exists only because of love. It is a distortion of love. As such this blocked energy may find its true and higher expression by contact with love.

I find though that the mind, left to its own devices, will seek distraction and comfort. All spiritual practices and disciplines are like any practice and discipline: they require focus, perseverance, and frequency. The more you practice, the more you clear your energy, the more transparent the illusion of you becomes, the more purely you reflect the original thought. This is an area where I measure myself lacking, as my focus each day is upon a million things other than the central work.

But it's also helpful to remember that spiritual discipline requires patience, gentleness, and the light heart.