Letters From the Heart

Excerpted from Spirituality & Health magazine, Spring 2001.

What's the difference between spirituality and religion? Do I have to belong to a religion to have a spiritual life? How do I choose a teacher, a path, a discipline?

On tour for her recent book, "The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure," Elizabeth Lesser faced these questions as she traveled across the country: "These are the big questions of the hour," she says. "And it seemed to me that Huston Smith would make an ideal partner for further explorations. We began discussing them over lunch when he was teaching at Omega Institute. I followed up with a letter, and he graciously replied. Several letters later, I realized that we had built up a correspondence worth sharing."

From religion scholar Huston Smith:

Dear Elizabeth,
Religions are time-tested traditions filled with proven pointers on how to proceed through life. Of course you must cultivate self-responsibility within any tradition, but I certainly do not advocate throwing out whole traditions in order to create entirely new ones. That seems like a tremendous waste of some of humanity's most glorious creations. Religions are not all-good, nor are they all-bad. Rama Krishna compared religion to a cow. "A cow kicks," he said. "But it also gives milk."

The problem with cafeteria-style spirituality is that Saint Ego is often the one making the choices at the salad bar. What tastes good is not always the same as what you need, and an undeveloped ego can make unwise choices. I believe that it is most helpful for people to choose one main meal, to commit and focus on that tradition, and then to add to it if the need arises. I am a firm believer in vitamin supplements. Christianity is my main meal to which I have added several supplements over the years.

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