One of the fascinating things about life in this world is the fact that every person has a different slant on the truth, a unique window through to Ultimate Reality.

One of the fascinating things about life in this world is the fact that every person has a different slant on the truth, a unique window through to Ultimate Reality. This variety is not meant to lead to an anything-goes relativism, or to a naive pop religion that believes "everyone is really saying the same thing." Rather, such a plethora of views is meant to challenge us to sift through each view - including our own - in order to find the best aspects, while setting the not-so-helpful aspects on the shelf. When I hear Jesus talk about "separating the wheat from the chaff," I don't think of some spiritual views as being wheat, while others are only chaff. The exception would be those views in which the destructive or hurtful elements predominate. I don't think any honest spiritual seeker would consider those kinds of views to be truly "spiritual." In any case, every truly spiritual view is composed of both elements: the helpful and the not-so-helpful; the true and the not-so-true. Our task as spiritual seekers, I believe, is to liberate the helpful from the not-so-helpful within each view, and then to work creatively to fit the best of each into a grand puzzle that contains an endless multitude of different puzzle pieces. Obviously, each of us will do this sifting in a slightly different way, and each puzzle will therefore contain its own unique perspective. But when we compare the various grand puzzles with one another, we will begin to see common patterns of agreement running through each. Indeed, this task will take all of eternity to complete. What an adventure!

Photo: Skyline Arch with storm clouds behind; Arches National Park, UT; April 20, 2013