Notes About Respect - (4035)

Respect has to do with pride in many obvious and subtle ways.

Respect is about knowing and seeing certain lines and simply not crossing over them. 

In keeping respect there are two things: seeing the line and keeping behind the line. For there to be respect, both of these elements must be alive and active.

One may respect an elderly person. By not raising one's voice at them, by not hurrying them, by not mocking them, by being patient, by listening to them etc. etc.

One may respect a teaching or the opinions of others. By not criticising it. Just by letting it be and allowing practicing, nature and time to verify its truth or otherwise. 

We naturally respect what has value. We naturally respect elderly people because they have lived longer and because of that they are wiser, have given more, have seen more, have passed through more, have suffered more etc. It is their wisdom and experience that often wins respect and that they have contributed more to the world than we have. They have paid more taxes than we have for one. 

What makes a person to break respect is the ego of pride. It is against our own dignity to disrespect another person. To disrespect is to humiliate others in some way. To humiliate is to bring humiliation upon ourselves. 

We know the lines of respect by knowing our own dignity. Essentially by respecting common human rights or freedoms. Respecting the Law, respecting balance. When we know our dignity and look after it we will be able to see what is the way to treat another that keeps their dignity.

Respect though does not place our dignity over the dignity of another person.

We may not respect a person because they have disappointed us because they acted dishonourably but they are common human lines of respect that we because of the dignity of our essence we keep with people.

When we disrespect we are saying that we as a person with our pride are higher and above such lines. For example when I publicly humiliate a person I am believing with my pride that I am above the person's right to enjoy the event, above the person's good will to have attended the event, above the person's trust that they will feel safe in the event etc. etc.

Often pride does not respect because it does not want to see what another person has done as something superior or of value which may be superior to what we have done.

Pride does not respect the Law, that is often why we break it, because we believe in our pride to be above the law that we easily label as ‘silly’.

Then there is self-respect. Where we don't see the values of ourselves and so we don't respect much about ourselves. Egos to fulfill their desires often transact against our self-respect. Anger does it, pride does it, lust does it and greed does it, as well as gluttony etc. etc.

End (4035).