By nature man is nearly alike; with practice, he gets to be wide apart.  Confucius

Archaeology suggests that one hundred thousand years ago humankind almost became extinct.  Scientists believe this bottleneck in our evolution occurred because of some catastrophic natural event such as a massive volcanic eruption.  This had the effect of rendering any diverse genetic differences among humans extinct.  In terms of the great scheme of things, one hundred thousand years is a comparatively short time, and has not provided our species sufficient time to evolve genetic diversity again.  Thus we are all the same. 

My friends KC and his wife Mary with daughter Jamie.

An ancient self-defence mechanism is to be afraid of, or reactive towards apparent difference or something that falls outside of the framework of our own perceptions.  Yet there is no such thing as fixed difference, for everything in creation exists on a continuum.  Where things exist on a continuum they are in essence,  the same - or of the same nature.    While understandable, to be afraid of difference is a primitive and unenlightened self preservation response.

Long hair, short hair – it is still hair.  Gentleness, brusqueness – it is still behaviour.  Happy or sad - reflections of the same physiological processes within the body.  Weak or strong, tall or short, 8 years old or 80 years old, fat or thin, intelligent or stupid, weird or normal, blonde or brunette, male or female, dark skinned or light skinned - are all mere reference points for the same conditions, we are still human beings.  Selfish or altruistic - perceptual differences for if we give to another, are we not being selfish in doing what we want?  Christian or Buddhist - windows of perception looking upon the same core reality.  African, Asian, European – they are still of this planet.  Human beings, ants – they are still living creatures.  A stone, a horse – they are still matter.  Everything in existence is comprised of energy.  Energy cannot be created or destroyed, merely transmuted.  Whatever something is, whatever it looks like, feels like, it is still energy.

The expression of difference is merely a way of describing something in a manner that other human beings may understand what perception it is we hold in any given moment.  Whenever we talk of differences, including the polar opposites such as black and white, we are merely expressing points on the same continuum. 

To take just one continuum, while we recognise that a person may be deemed male or female according to the nature of the sexual organs he or she possesses, we also know there are qualities of mental and emotional masculinity and feminity that exist upon a continuum and that we all lie somewhere betwixt the two extremes.  It really is too simplistic to hold the belief that there are only male and female with nothing in between.  To hold such a belief is to deny that gender exists in the emotional and spiritual plane as well as in the physical. 

As soon as we recognise that we all came from the same mother 7000 generations ago (see Eve), and accept that difference is a reflection of the same thing, or looking at the same thing from different perspectives, then differences disappear and all we are left with is a rich and wonderful diversity - facets of the same wondrous jewel of existence.

Shinsei (Roger Sheldon)