The Room That Heard Without Listening
On 11 September 1893, Swami Vivekananda stood before the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago and opened with seven words: "Sisters and brothers of America." The hall erupted. Two minutes of applause for a greeting. What followed, the actual argument, received polite appreciation and was then, for the most part, filed away. He spoke for perhaps twelve minutes that first day. He said that he was proud to belong to a religion that had taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. The audience heard "tolerance" and felt praised. They missed that he was drawing a distinction, and that the distinction was the point.
