I don’t think it ever occurred to my parents what impact these experiences would have on me or my brothers.  I visited countries and witnessed cultures where the Christian faith is anything but the primary religious tradition.  For instance, I met scores of people who were devoted practitioners of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.  While most of their spiritual practices were foreign to me, even weird at times, the one question that haunted me on many occasions was this:  If my religion is right—Christianity—and their religion is false or, at best, incomplete or misguided—which is precisely what most Christians still believe today—why has it taken them thousands of years to discover their error?  Furthermore, if their religious practices were not rewarding them with a life-changing experience of the Divine, why would they keep doing them for centuries?  Are they just slow to learn?  What’s the problem here?

So, I made it my practice, not only to know the efficacy of my own faith tradition, but to study and know what other religions teach, too.

Here are a couple of conclusions to which I’ve come.  There has only ever been one spiritual truth.  It is known, experienced, and expressed in multiple languages and through a variety of cultures and traditions.

The other is this:  There is far more that all religions share in common than there has ever been that distinguishes or separates them.  The future of humanity is at stake and the Dalai lama is so correct in saying, “Until there is peace among the religions, there will be no peace in the world.”  We are at a crucial time in human history.  Many thinkers and visionaries do not believe humanity will survive if the religions of this world do not share together their similar commitments and work together to bring harmony between people and nations.

What many Christians do not realize is that the world views much of their message as a conflagration of contradiction.  For example, Christians say the gospel they preach is powerful enough to change the world. Yet, in recent years, there’s been an enormous interest among Christians in what they call the Rapture or Return of Jesus Christ.  Many of them are even praying for it.  One of the most popular and money-making fictional series in the history of Christian publishing has been the “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.  Their entire storyline is based on this hugely complex system of the Rapture—of how the world will come to an end.  What many Christians seem to have forgotten is the one caveat Jesus gave as to when he would NOT return—that’s when everyone was expecting it. Jesus said that his return would be as a thief in the night, when everyone was least expecting it.  Since the majority of Christians are looking for his imminent return, they would do well to recognize they’re just as likely responsible for his delay.

Of course, I say all of this with tongue-in-cheek.  I no longer subscribe to any of these apocalyptic views of the culmination of human history.  Had God wanted us to understand how the world would end, he’d have sobered up Saint John long enough to write something a little more intelligible than the Revelation he gave us.  What Jesus did give us, around which there is no confusion, is the clear admonition, “Take no thought of tomorrow.”  Words do not get much clearer than this. Yet, most Christians seem interested in talking more about tomorrow than in how they’re living today.

One day, the rabbi took Jacob aside and said, “Jacob, why do you suppose Christians make it a habit to tap the side of the saltshaker while Jews always tap the bottom?”

Certain the rabbi was going to join him in ridicule of Christians, Jacob was more than ready to play along. “No, Rabbi, I do not know. Why do Jews tap the bottom of the saltshaker while Christians tap the side?”

“To get the salt out!” answered the rabbi.

There are many ways to tap the shaker, but the purpose is the same—to dispense salt.

Ask the followers of almost any religion what is the purpose of their religion and they will say the purpose is to guide them to know God. They may use different words or ideas to say this, but it is essentially the same purpose. Even in religions like Buddhism, where there is no belief in a Higher Power per se, they still speak sometimes of the “Universal Mind.” What is that, if it is not the same Reality toward which the words and names that others use point, too?

Similarly, a spiritual seeker in Christianity is really no different than a spiritual seeker in Islam, Taoism, or Hinduism. All want to know God, the higher self, or to reach what Hindus call Samadhi, which is “bliss consciousness,” what Christians may call, “salvation,” or “God-realization.” In other words, everyone wants to be complete, to be happy, and to alleviate human suffering, which The Buddha showed us is mostly self-induced anyway. In other words, we all seek the same thing. We just know it in different ways, based on our cultural, social, ethnic, and religious conditioning.  Since everyone is seeking God-consciousness, sometimes confused with “happiness,” then you can understand that every religion has evolved to help facilitate this purpose.

Yet, throughout the history of humanity, religion has been the prime cause of most human division and human and planetary destruction. If this is not mad, what is it?  Throughout the history of my own tradition, for example, Christianity has been either a Divine blessing or a demonic curse. Embarrassing to admit, it has been the latter far too often. If the human species is going to survive, it is imperative we make room on this little planet for everyone—that we have respect for all religions, as well as those who choose to have no religion.

Even as I say all of this, however, I realize, until a person wakes up, this will likely be more than they can accept. Until they experience a shift in consciousness, making it possible for them to see everyone and everything through lenses clear of conditioned thinking, then they will resist virtually everything I written so far. This is true whether they be a Christian, Muslim, or atheist.

If I have learned anything over the years, it is that every religion, in its own unique way, has something important to teach us about Ultimate Reality, or what I like to call the sacred art of knowing God. Even those who profess no religion at all may be able to teach the rest of us something about this Universal Intelligence, Consciousness, Being Itself or, as I am accustomed to saying, God.

I love the story I read of a Frenchman who approached the Dalai Lama after he had given a lecture in a city in France.  He said, “Your Holiness, I loved your words and I’ve decided I want to convert to Buddhism.”

In great wisdom, however, the Dalai Lama answered, “Why Buddhism?  Why would you wish to convert to this religious tradition?  You are in France.  In France, you have Christianity.  There’s nothing wrong with Christianity!”[1]

There isn’t, is there?  No more so than there’s anything wrong with the myriad of other paths one might follow toward the evolution of Divine consciousness.  It’s time humanity stops the insanity of thinking “We’re right, you’re wrong!” “We’re in, you’re out!” “We’re the chosen ones, you’re not!”

Just as is everyone,

You were born to walk with God;

So, why would you walk alone?