As an exemplar, we might notice words of Supreme Love from Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life.
May I be the doctor and the medicine
And may I be the nurse
For all sick beings in the world
Until everyone is healed.
May a rain of food and drink descend
To clear away the pain of thirst and hunger
And during the aeon of famine
May I myself change into food and drink.
May I become an inexhaustible treasure
For those who are poor and destitute;
May I turn into all things they could need
And may these be placed close beside them.
In this light John Cobb's cautious question to Christians years ago haunts today, "Should we continue to make the kinds of traditional statements that single out Christianity as the only tradition that we can affirm?" The cautious question can be met with a courageous, No!
It is as worthy in principle to aspire to affirm all traditions as to affirm in fact one, or none, if for different reasons. Cobb was right to say that the various paths (world religious traditions) do not lead to the same mountaintop. But then no two individuals see the very same thing when they look from a given mountaintop!
So what? In today�s troubled world do we not need one another and the several points of view more than ever? Faithism demands that we believe and worship alike. But loving alike is surely the higher calling. The realization of Supreme Love seems the very contemplative act to which faithful people in all traditions aspire.
It is helpful to remember, before we take on the mantel of a faith tradition, we are all human. Attending to other traditions like an explorer�not inquisitor�can enhance both vision and vitality of our own faith. At once we are left open to the vision and vitality of other points of view without claiming the superiority of one over the rest.
So to be humane in a world of human beings, we must finally see our faiths as complementary, not superior, to other faiths. Spiritual terrorism is not a humane option, nor is faith requiring an object of belief, the only option. Atheism may well be as humane as the most sophisticated theism.
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