Here's a previously published article.
By Scott Shaw
Every now
and then I will receive an email or a letter from someone who has read one of
my books and they tell me I am completely wrong and I don’t understand
spirituality at all. These messages always make me smile a little bit because
if the person who was contacting me truly understood anything about
spirituality, mysticism, or enlightenment they would know that there's not
only one path. They would see that each person’s path to spirituality and
personal enlightenment is unique onto themselves. It's like my teacher Swami Satchidananda
used to say, “Truth is one, paths are many.”
People love
to associate themselves with one religion or one teacher. From this, they are
allowed to exist in an environment where there is only one message being propagated.
For them, there is only one truth. ...The
truth that is being spelled out in whatever religious text or by whatever teacher they
follow. For them, right is right and
everybody else, who follows a different path, is wrong.
How many
wars, throughout history, have been fought over people who hold one religious
ideal over another?
With the
answer to that question as a basis, we should all understand that your way
might not be my way, just as my way might not be your way. You may think I am wrong, but that does not
make me wrong or you right.
Do you see
the common factor here? One person thinking and believing one way.
This goes
for me too. I believe, “To each their own. Find your own enlightenment and life
fulfillment your own way.” That’s just me. But also, I don’t go around telling
people they are wrong. I let them live and find out their own truth in their
own time.
Ultimately,
we each believe what we believe. Some of us base our beliefs on what we were
told. Others of us base on beliefs on what we have experienced. In either case,
it is our understandings and our beliefs that make us who we are.
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