Grounded, But With Heart Open

As a professor of religious studies, I had several options about how I would present the religious diversity of our world. I could take the stance that I was raised in, which stated that only my religion held the truth and people of other religions needed to change. If I took this approach, I would teach the fundamentals of other religions, but then proceed to demonstrate where other religions have missed the truth that my religion has found. This is the “my way or the highway”—the exclusive approach.

A second option, the opposite of the first one, would have me presenting all religions as equally valid. I have heard this described as the “there are many paths up the mountain, but all lead to the same summit” approach. If the first approach holds that one religion has an exclusive claim to the truth, this second approach is open to all of them, with no religion being superior.

In the end, based as much on personal experiences with people of other religions as on readings, I gravitated toward a third approach. In this approach, we start with a general observation, that most religious people in the world are spiritually monogamous. What I mean is that most religious people are devoted to a single tradition, either one they were born into or one that changed their lives at a certain point. Religion provides the grounding, but not all religious people are grounded in the same soil.

This third approach might seem the same as the first exclusive approach, but there is a significant difference. Instead of insisting that only one faith tradition is valid and all others are in error, this approach allows a person grounded in one religion to be open to the wisdom of other religions. Christians can find wisdom in Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, etc. without losing their identity as Christians. The same would be true of Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and others.

Let me offer an example from my own experience. I was moved emotionally and spiritually when I first encountered the Buddhist concept of a Bodhisattva. Imagine a door leading from a room of ignorance and confusion into a room of enlightenment, compassion, and truth. What would a compassionate person do? We might think that people capable of becoming enlightened would hasten to walk through that door as soon as they could.

A Bodhisattva, however, is the rare person who pauses in the doorway, on the verge of entering the blissful state. Instead of entering, however, a Bodhisattva looks back and sees all the people who are nowhere near the door. The Bodhisattva forgoes her or his own enlightenment to help others draw closer to the door. He or she waits—for the sake of others.

As I wrote above, this image moved me emotionally and spirituality when I first encountered it, and it still does. I recognize that the wisdom of the Bodhisattva adds to my understanding of compassion, with compassion being what all followers of Christ are called to live out.

Does appreciating the example of a Bodhisattva make me hybrid Christian-Buddhist? No, the example of the Bodhisattva instead makes me grateful and, I hope, a more compassionate Christian.