Being Within Our Own Space

Written by Mathew Naismith

I think this is important to bring forth, it’s important not to judge another religions, other spiritual practices and concepts and any other ideology as being unworthy especially in relation to our own, who are we to truly judge such things?

Each person has their own path and their own space even though we are on the same journey, what seems to be causing conflicts is other people judging other ideologies as being inferior to their own. This at times can induce us to become extremist within our own ideology; this can in turn induce us to force our own ideologies (space) onto others especially when we see our own ideological concepts as being the be and end all, the absolute truth and most worthy above all else. Doesn’t this these days sound familiar??

Is the problem within the ideological concepts themselves or is it within the people expressing such ideological concepts?

We often judge that other ideological concepts are this that and the other making the people of such concepts unworthy in same way in our eyes, however, can an ideological concept exist without such people following such concepts?  These concepts need people to create them and then follow them before they become influential to us; it’s the people who are the concepts not the concepts who are the people!! Yes, these ideological concepts and doctrines influence us because we allow such concepts to do so; the emphasis is on us not the ideological concepts and doctrines.

How many Muslims are not extremists within their ideological concepts?  Just because a few Muslim extremists are trying to force their own ideological principles (space) onto others, does this mean Islamic ideological concepts are extreme or does this infer that certain groups of people are of extremism within these principles?   

An extremist will read into an ideology what they want it to read, not what is actually written. They will also extract certain concepts out of such ideologies and discard or disregard the rest; this of course changes the true meaning of such ideologies.  

Take an Islamic, Christian or Buddhist ideology, what are these ideologies if we only use and utilise certain concepts out of them without taking in the whole ideology? An extreme action for it is extreme to only use and abide by certain concepts within an ideology while discarding the rest of the concepts within an ideology. 

New age spirituality is different, it doesn’t seem to have a fixated set of ideologies to follow, people who are of this new age spiritualty have their own ideologies they personally follow as they have their own space.  We all have our own space to begin with because we all have a different path of life to follow, this can at times incorporate following fixated ideologies, does this make these fixated ideologies, such as religious ideologies, any less worthy than following our own personal ideologies?  It shouldn’t.

When you look at this, you can see that new age spirituality has taken various concepts from other ideologies to produce their own personal ideology, is this also of extremism?   If we are using the concepts out of other ideologies and discarding the rest, are we being extreme within this action?

It’s an extreme action to take certain concepts out of cetin ideologies but it’s not of extremism, the reason for this is we are not trying, or shouldn’t be trying, to force our own space onto others, yes they give other people the idea of their own concepts but in most these people don’t force their own concepts (space) onto others.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all ideologies worked like this, keep within your own space without infringing on other people space unless these people are accepting of such ideologies. Personally I love being influenced by other people’s space (ideologies), not just because they make me more personally aware but more collectively aware as well.   

What goes against making me more aware is extremism; anyone with a fixated ideology only wants you to be aware of their ideology while discarding all the rest, how aware will this then make us?  We would once again be living in ignorance instead of awareness and we know how destructive ignorance can be. 

I haven’t exactly become attached to my own space but I do have a close bond with it, it is who I am which to me is important to me to be aware of, I am my path. People of extremisms are also of their path for they chose to be influenced by fixated ideologies, they also chose to influence other people’s paths, this is their path, is it truly any less worthy than my own?  All we need to do is stick to our own path and have our own space as much as possible and try not to judge other people’s path too unworthy in the meantime. 

Become your space…….