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Common Spirit Common Ground: A loving comparison of world religions

by J. Michael Strange

208 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0573; ISBN 1-55369-760-X; US$20.50, C$23.00, EUR17.00, £12.00

World peace depends on mutual tolerance and understanding - which requires both knowledge and an open heart. This book celebrates the diverse and unique perspectives of spirituality, as expressed by the major religions of diverse cultures throughout the world.

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About the book      About the author      Table of Contents and Sample excerpts      Catalogue info

About the Book This book celebrates the diverse and unique perspectives of spirituality, as expressed by the world*s major religions. At the same time, it explores the similarities between the major religions with respect to the transcendental experience itself. There are many paths that lead up to the mountain, and from its summit one can appreciate them all. Whatever your current spiritual practice may be, the intention of this book is to help you deepen it. It was written to support mutual respect and tolerance between different cultures and their spiritual ideologies. We can even find ways to appreciate one another. For those of us who follow the spiritual journey, there is more that unites us than separates us. And the diversity between us can open us to new inspiration and to closer union with Spirit, as we listen to one another with an open heart.

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About the Author Michael Strange is a scientist and a spiritual seeker. He conducts series study classes in comparative world religions, as well as appearing as guest speaker to spiritual groups. Reared in the Christian tradition, he began Eastern meditation practices and philosophical study as a young adult in the mid-1970's. He has devoted his life to the study and practice of spiritual traditions, looking for commonalities that unite the peoples of the earth simultaneously celebrating the unique expressions of various cultures. He has endeavored to apply spiritual principles to daily living - in business, in personal relationships, as well as in spiritual community. The goal of his practice is to incorporate spiritual awareness into every moment of experience. According to the saints and sages of all the religions, this is exactly how to live the kind of life where one may realize his/her potential. The whole world is a treasure house of spiritual tradition. Let us value all denominations for their unique contributions. To request a speaking engagement, a series class, book-signing or other appearance, or just to read more, click here to visit the author's web site, COMMON SPIRIT COMMON GROUND Click here to contact the author, MICHAEL STRANGE

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Table of Contents and Sample Excerpts

Chapter 1

Many Colors
One Light

Each of us is a beacon of spiritual light. As beacons, we shine the light of our awareness - our attention, our thought - into the unknown night. A beacon does not know the consequences of its function, or the purpose of its creator. And like a beacon, we simply express our unique light, moment by moment - with glimpses of lights passing in the night.

Our Source of light is deep inside us, so deep that the conscious mind cannot fathom it, yet there is a natural yearning to understand and to appreciate the Light with which we are one. We call the Light variously: Christ Consciousness, Buddha Nature, Atman - Chinese Taoism calls it te, the Tao in individual form - and there have been uncounted other names.

The Light is a metaphor for some deeper quality of being within ourselves, which we sense is present - at times more vividly than at others. We refer to this quality generally as a spiritual experience and attempt to label it with these and other names. Within each of us is a deeper spiritual quality - our true nature, to which we all are in the process of awakening - each of us at his or her own pace and from his or her unique perspective.

Somehow, we also sense that the Light, or spiritual quality, in me is not different from the Light in you - although we may look different externally and although we may describe the experience in different ways. The lighting in a room may be described by saying either the light is on or that the l ights are on. Both are correct statements but different with respect to whether the emphasis is on the collective light or on its individual transmitter units. Continuity is in the light, and not in the transitory bulb. We try to describe the spiritual experience in words, and we seek to approach it through ritual, meditation, or prayer. It is simultaneously beyond our intellectual reach and yet intimately closer than our present breath.

There is a distinction in modern parlance between "religion" and "spirituality. " Many deeply spiritual people cringe at being called a "religious" person. Spirituality may refer to one's personal and individual experience with the Light, Infinity, or one's deeper nature. Religion refers to a structured system of discipline or practice followed by a particular group that is intended to help one develop his or her own individual spiritual experience.

Each of us is a unique expression of the Light, like the colors of stained glass - a beautiful mosaic in its diversity. Religion is one way that we reach toward the Light, seek to understand the Light, and seek to serve the Light. Our religions are as beautiful in their diversity as the light shining through different colors of stained glass.

What if all religions teach the Truth?
What if the differences that we think we see are really just due to our own limited understanding of both the religion and its inspirational source? It is easy to identify the differences between religious ideologies and doctrines, to say that mine is right and yours is wrong. But what are the common threads? What is the deeper, ultimate Truth - a Truth so big that it contains and transcends all the seeming contradictions and paradoxes within each religion and between the various religions?

Religious literature uses paradox - seemingly contradictory language. Paradox is a tool used to stimulate direct perception of what is beyond the finite world of phenomena. Using finite terminology to describe Infinity is inherently problematic. There is no box large enough to contain it, and the human intellect is like a box, limited in dimension by its own concepts.

The spiritual effect of blending paradox, of finding union in opposites, expands our linear thinking. By blending two seemingly different perspectives, a greater concept of the Whole emerges. But we cannot do it from a position of judging one better than another. A stick always has two ends; otherwise, it would not be a stick. When we judge, we are stuck somewhere on the stick. The practice of blending paradox allows us to step back and view the stick as a whole. Truth is beyond the world of phenomena, and yet we try to use finite concepts to describe what is Infinite. This is why religions seem to contradict each other.

The word "religion" comes from the Latin religare, which means "to tie together. "So religion is an attempt to tie together the spiritual experience of the society in which it has formed, to connect the dots. This is a linear process of the intellect, trying to define Infinity, a concept beyond phenomenon, transcending any and all definitions. Human thinking is linear, and that is our restriction. But we can expand the limits of our linear thinking, as we open the heart to transcendent illumination. This is how awareness of the true self is revealed, through expanded consciousness.

The concept of Infinity can be approached with mathematics, although it is beyond our ability to count numbers. So to experience Infinity, we must transcend finite mathematics, as well as linear thinking. Appreciating a flower or a mother's smile is not a linear-thinking experience, yet the experience is profound in its simplicity. Once we ascribe words to the experience, we have diminished or limited it. Yet for all their limitations, words are the primary way that we think and communicate.

Continuing the analogy of mathematics, we learned in grade school how to add fractions of different values. A fraction is a part of a whole, the denominator being a concept of what that "whole "is. Likewise, our religions have ideologies, each with a somewhat different concept of what the Whole is. In math, we expand the denominator - like making 1/3 = 4/12 and 1/6 = 2/12. By expanding our concept of the whole, we have not changed the value of either fraction, yet we have brought them into compatible proximity.

If we can apply this principle to math, why not apply it to our fractioned world? Why should it matter how we call the Ultimate Truth of Being - God, Allah, Great Spirit, the Tao, Brahman, Emptiness, and a host of other finite names - when the deeper spiritual experience of the Whole is the same? There are not different kinds of Infinity, just Infinity itself, but you can have two fractions trying to approach Infinity from different directions. People may take different paths to the mountain top, but from its peak the view is identical for everyone.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, affirms the commonality of the world's various religions:

All of the different religious communities accept that there is another force beyond the reach of our ordinary senses. When we pray together, I feel something, I do not know what the exact word is - whether you would call it blessings, or grace - but in any case there is a certain feeling that we can experience. If we utilize it properly, that feeling is very helpful for inner strength. For a real sense of brotherhood and sisterhood that feeling - that atmosphere and experience is very useful and helpful...

Together with material development, we need spiritual development so that inner peace and social harmony can be experienced. Without inner peace, without inner calm, it is difficult to have lasting peace....

No religion basically believes that material progress alone is sufficient for humankind. All religions believe in forces beyond material progress. All agree that it is very important and worthwhile to make strong effort to serve human society.

Dalai Lama, XIV, Kindness, Clarity, and Insight

Religions agree that the outer materialistic world is not the complete reality (and that there is nothing permanent about it), yet materialism is a starting point because we are in the habit of relying on physical senses, with only occasional deference to things like "hunches "or intuition. We can only accept the facet of spiritual Truth that we are ready to accept at a given time, and we are each at different stages with different experiences and frames of reference - with no one person's perspective better than any other with respect to the big picture. Yet in Spirit there is only wholeness, unity of all possible fractions. "He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5: 45) According to Chinese Taoism, the Tao, the universal energy field that binds all existence into one great Whole, seeks out the low places like water. In Western terms, Spirit is everywhere at all times through the path of least resistance.

There is a story of three blind men who were led to an elephant and asked to describe the animal. The blind man who touched the trunk said it was a great serpent. The one who touched the side said it was a great leathery wall. The one who touched its foot said it was like the column of a building. Each perceived a different aspect of the elephant, yet to a sighted person their perception was limited. Similarly the Totality of Infinity is beyond our limited human perception, although the practice of spiritual questioning expands our consciousness to accept more good. Spiritual Truth is revealed in many seemingly different ways. It is only as clear as the receiver's own intuition, and its interpretation is subject to the receiver's biases and points of reference.

It would be impossible to cover all the individual interpretations within each religion. One could spend a lifetime immersed in one particular religious system and still not learn all its facets. This book is a brief overview of the major religions. An attempt has been made to cover the most general of precepts; however, individual variations of belief will occur within each religion. The spiritual journey involves a lifetime (or perhaps many lifetimes) of study.

What's It all about?
Religions may be characterized by the following three main questions:

1. What is the Ultimate Reality? Is there a God (or gods)? Is God(s) the ultimate reality? Is nature divine, or a manifestation of the divine? Who or what is running the show?
2. Who am I? What is the self? Am I a natural being, or am I "in " nature but not "of "nature? What is my relationship to the divine? Am I just a bag of water and chemicals, or is there something more to me? Does some part of me survive death? Is there an afterlife? Do I come back (reincarnate)? Is there a heaven and hell?
3. What is the best way to live? What is the way to happiness? Why is there suffering in the world? How do I avoid suffering, or how do I transcend it? What is my duty to others who suffer?

This book does not attempt to answer these questions. Instead, it is an exploration of these issues as perceived by different cultures of the world. The ultimate Truth cannot be reached with words or with intellectual activity because it is something beyond finite words. It is Infinity.

Ways to Classify Religions: What Is the Ultimate Reality?
One way to classify religion is its stance on whether the Ultimate Reality is in some way conscious as a Whole. Is there a universal All-That-Is, and if so what is Its nature? The suffix -theism comes from the Greek word, Theos, meaning god. A-theos, or atheism, implies no god. The opposite of religion is not atheism. Not all religions include a concept of a god. Even coming to the conclusion of atheism means that one has engaged in this questioning process. Atheism is a valid religious position - in this respect. Religion's opposite, if there is any, would be apathy or materialistic distractions.

Within the context of theism, the definition of the word "god" is a matter of perspective and belief. Do you think of God as an entity, separate from creation? Or do you, as in Hinduism, think of God as the infinite primordial Being-ness that is the source and continuity of every being? Is God the summation of all of nature and its energy pattern? Can everything in the universe be considered parts of one great organism, as Taoism suggests, which some of us call God?

The concept of God can imply personhood, an entity mirroring a human psychological structure, or it may not. Human beings have difficulty perceiving even each other clearly, because of individual biases and mis-perceptions. The "personality" of God is perceived differently by individual cultures and religious structures because of normal human bias. However, logic suggests that an Ultimate Being, that spans and transcends all limits of space and time, is not likely to be confined by any particular form, human or otherwise.

In the mainstream Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, there is the common belief in one God (monotheism), and it is believed that this one God is the Ultimate Reality. Nature is believed to be a creation of God, finite and owing its existence to God. Hinduism refers to numerous gods (divine enlightened beings, idealized aspects)yet also teaches that the Ultimate Reality is beyond person-hood, a primordial non-beingness from which all form emerges and to which all form dissolves. New Age Christianity and other mystic monotheistic groups have combined these two points of view and considers the concept of God as infinite intelligence, as one spiritual essence, with which each person has a personal relationship - consciously or not.

The concept of God need not be anthropomorphic (i.e., in human shape or form) in order to be monotheistic. The Jewish God is not painted or sculpted in a visible form - humans are made in God's image, but God is beyond human form. In Islam, any depiction of God in the form of art is considered idolatrous. In defining monotheism, it does not matter how one imagines God to "look "or "be; "instead, what matters is whether or not one prays as though there is some Universal Listener.

Another type of -theism is pantheism, from the root of pan -which means "everything. "Pantheism is the belief that all existence is divine, individually and collectively. Nature itself is divine. Examples of pantheism include Chinese Taoism and Native American spirituality. The term pan en theism, or emanationism, agrees that Nature is divine but also states that Nature does not tell the entire story. In the context of emanationism, specifically the Hindu perspective, Nature is considered the totality of particular things, but there also exists a primordial Source out of which Nature emerges.

Religions may also be classified with respect to naturalism versus humanism. On this continuum, the more naturalistic religions see humanity within the context of nature, humans seeking harmony with Nature. Obviously the pantheistic religions take this position. The more humanistic religions emphasize man's uniqueness from the rest of nature - for example, Confucianism and (to a certain extent)the western monotheistic religions.

Within the context of each religion, the scriptures and oral traditions may be interpreted with respect to fundamentalism or mysticism. The fundamentalist interpretation seeks a literal meaning - it says what it says, and that's all there is to it. The mystic seeks a metaphoric interpretation - what it says points or refers to a deep spiritual experience that is larger than literal words can convey. In the mystic, the line of distinction between the various doctrine, is inconsequential, because the focus is on the transcendental mystery beyond the individual doctrines. For the mystic, the purpose of ritual is to ignite the spiritual experience represented by its symbols. Without this deeper spiritual association within consciousness, the symbols are meaningless and the rituals empty.

What is real?
From the pragmatic, literal perspective, there are definite lines drawn as to what is real and what is not real, imaginary. Many people consider real to mean tangible - only what can be directly seen or touched. The next level of "real "might be that which is verified by authoritative witnesses. Yet concepts like freedom or beauty cannot be perceived directly. Are they real or not?

How many times have you awakened from a dream and had to remind yourself "it was just a dream, "yet it had moved you profoundly? Does a thought have reality? You certainly cannot have a thought and then say that the thought did not happen. There must be a certain reality to it, even if the specifics have not tangibly manifested in our world.

The discovery of quantum physics (energies of the atom) revolutionized the Newtonian physics model which described gross matter in motion, such as an apple falling or billiard ball dynamics. Quantum physics has proven that matter is actually composed of mostly empty space, containing dimensionless packets of energy called quantum units. These quantum units comprise the electrons, protons, neutrons and other atomic structures. What is perceived as a solid table is in reality the summation of a person's reading this energy pattern of mostly empty space. Science has proven that physical reality is not as it seems to be.

In God's eyes nothing is large or small. Were it not for His perfect nicety in constructing the tiny atom, could the skies wear the proud structures of Vega Arcturus? Distinctions of "important "and "unimportant "are surely unknown to the Lord, lest, for want of a pin, the cosmos collapse!

Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi

Instead of putting so much effort into separating the "real "from the imagined, we can accept all of it as part of our experience. I do not believe anyone would have picked up this book, and certainly not have read this far into the book, if there had not been some degree of acceptance of a spiritual reality, the source and energy behind what we perceive in the real, or tangible, world.

The finite world, and human linear thinking patterns, can seem very reassuring and more predictable than the subconscious experience, which we can neither predict nor control. However, religions teach that any sense of stability of the finite material world is an illusion. Although the subconscious and the transcendental spiritual consciousness may seem unpredictable from our finite intellectual perspective, religions teach that true stability is in Spirit.

The human experience must include both tangible conscious thought and also the unpredictable and sometimes chaotic imagination. Without the subconscious experience, we would be no more than robots or computers. Without the conscious intellect, we would be no different than the other animals. So to answer the question (what is real?), quantum physics, religious traditions, and the science of psychology all seem to agree that reality depends entirely upon the perspective of the observer.

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Catalogue Information

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