Eliyahu McLean: Encountering the Other

I think if somebody is deeply grounded and rooted in their own story, in their own spiritual practice, in their own culture, then they have nothing to fear of by encountering the other. And it is actually through the encounter with the other, by engaging deeply in study with the other, and prayer with the other, and learning about the tradition of the other, that actually, I then get to see a mirror, as if I'm looking in a mirror back into my own tradition. I then look back into my own roots and my own backgrounds with a new set of eyes, through the eyes of the other that I have just encountered. I find, in my experience, I become more deeply connected with the uniqueness of who I am or the tradition that I follow or the spritual path that I'm on when I encounter the other.