A Different Kind of Mountain Climbing

After a hiatus from reading, this week I turned back to the book that I left off with - the Bhagavad Gita, a classic Hindi text. As I returned to the Gita, I also pulled out my deck of Taoist reflection cards that offer lines of philosophy to meditate upon. Ironically enough, the teachings in the chapter of the Gita corresponded to the card I had drawn from my Taoist deck.

While I am definitely new to studying Hinduism, what I've noticed over the years of reading spiritual texts from Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism and from talking to Muslim friends is that everyone seems to have a shared objective. They may call their god or gods by different names and have their own distinct set of rules to follow, but it seems like all of the major religions seem to be pointing toward the same ultimate goal: inner peace and harmony.

Though you may think that the focus on guilt or sin that some religions carry doesn't lead to this ultimate goal, I would argue that those negative features are just tiny aspects that have been over focused on by leaders to manipulate the masses. If you get down to the core of the teachings from the founders of these religions, then you can see that they truly all are about finding peace - within yourself, within the world.

So the analogy that I like to use is one of a mountain which everyone wants to summit. There are many trails to choose from to reach the top, each with their own perks and drawbacks. You may choose your route because it is said to have the best views or have the fewest challenges or be the one that people who you trust have recommended or followed. The most devoted and eager may scale the face to reach the peak; others may take a clearly marked and maintained route to the top; another may meander, cutting from trail to trail, finding distractions along the way and doubling back before nearing summit. Those details don't matter. It's all about the journey and what you discover on the way to that peak. And as you draw nearer and nearer to the top, the experiences that you've gathered along the way will help reinforce that you are approaching that true, deep bliss of spiritual enlightenment, or oneness with the creator.