Many Paths to the Mountaintop

Introduction

A very common saying among spiritual people is that there are many paths to the mountaintop. This means that all spiritual paths have the same goal of connecting to the Ultimate Reality, whether that reality is described by the words God, the Tao, Buddha Mind, Allah, the Universal Oneness, etc. The different paths use different words to describe their religion and the higher power, but the commonalities are much more important than their superficial differences.

An important part of this idea is that everyone has her own path, and she should choose the right one for her. She can tell her path because it will feel right in her heart. Another implication of this idea is that comparing paths or criticizing them is inappropriate because different paths are right for different people, and there is no universal standard to compare them to.

The idea that all paths lead to the mountaintop originally seemed obvious to me, but after decades of research and of living a spiritual life, it it no longer seems true.

The assumption of only one mountain

The first problem is that not all the paths seem to be going up the same mountain. They sometimes seem not to be even remotely similar mountains. For example, let’s look at two spiritual paths, both which say the goal is for the individual to stop thinking of herself as a separate being and realize that she is one with ultimate reality. On one hand, we have traditional Buddhism as portrayed by the Buddhist scriptures. The scriptures advocate quite extreme asceticism (disciplining of the body and its desires). They that say people who want enlightenment should not play games or watch waterfalls because sense pleasures are the realm of the devil (Mara). On the other hand, there are the advocates of New Thought such as Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch, Rhonda Byrne, and Wayne Dyer. These people agree with the Buddhists that the goal is to realize our deep connection with the Oneness, but they emphasize getting all your desires satisfied. They say that if you want abundance and visualize it correctly, you can have anything you want without limitations. God does not want anything from you except to give you thing, and She is patiently waiting for you to make your demands on Her.

These are not random examples, the early Buddhists are representatives of asceticism, which so many spiritual traditions advocate: early Christians, Taoists, Sufis, Jains, and much of yoga. New Thought is a reaction to that kind of asceticism. They both talk of getting beyond identification with the individual ego to an identification with the Oneness. Nevertheless, the Oneness is described in such different ways, and the people live such different lives in the world, that it seems unrealistic to say they are going up the same mountain.

The assumption of spirituality’s purpose

The second problem is that the phrase sets up a framework that says the only significant function of spirituality is individual spiritual advancement and nothing else matters. So, it focuses on the individual point of view of the person trying to get closer to God and neglects the social point of view where these paths differ tremendously. In contemplative mysticism, the goal is to meditate and experience oneness with the Ultimate Reality. This is the mysticism most people associate with highest states of consciousness. Active mysticism, on the other hand, is the path that says people get voices, messages, and intuitions from God telling them to do things in the world. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Joan of Arc are examples of this type of mysticism. From an individual point of view, where the touchstone is closer oneness with God, there is no criterion of comparison or contemplative mysticism is better. But from a social point of view, active mysticism is significantly better and should be lauded as the best kind of mysticism because it leads to a better society.

The equality of all spiritual paths

This leads to the third problem: this idea sets up a framework where it implicitly says that all spiritual paths are equal from an outsider’s viewpoint so it is not okay to judge them. People follow whichever path is right for them, and so who are we to judge their path? While this tolerance is laudable compared to saying there is only one true spiritual path, this tolerance also sets up a culture that does not value the use of reasoning or critical reflection on spiritual paths and their relative merits, which leads to a dumbing down of the culture. In the seventies and eighties, the most creative and intelligent people I knew would happily say they were part of the New Age movement. But in the late eighties, when Shirley MacLaine and the Harmonic Convergence became the popular face of the movement, many of these people denied being part of the movement as it had connotations of non-reflective, shallow spirituality. But if all spiritual paths lead to the mountaintop, then there is no emphasis in the culture on critical reflection and seriousness. This leads to a negative downward cycle where the best people are driven out of the movement, and it progressively becomes dominated by shallower and shallower people and ideas.

Conclusion

When I reflect on why I no longer believe many paths lead to the same mountaintop, I see myself talking to the younger version of myself who believed this idea 40 years ago. What would he think if he heard my reservations? Would he understand them, or would he continue to believe in the idea? I usually decide he would not listen to me because the idea rings so true to him. The younger me believes that if something feels deeply true and right, it must be true. Now I trust that feeling about things involving my personal spiritual path and relationships, but not on other matters where more knowledge could affect my opinion. While so many spiritual teachers say to trust feelings that ring true, I now see the other side where that feeling has often misled me because I just did not know enough things to have an intelligent, informed judgment. In fact, I now think it was the arrogance of my youth to trust this feeling in this instance. It is not polite to say it, but I also wonder if it is arrogance on other people’s parts to say all paths lead to the same mountain top, if they say it without knowing much about other religions or spiritual paths.