Years ago, I mentioned my thoughts on the need to leave your spiritual traditions for a new path. While not every one needs to follow this Abrahamic precedence, but some do. Some of us never completely leave, and just add a few things from other traditions. Still others leave, but spend their time wandering from path to path, never getting very deep into anything for any length of time.

Anyway, I ran into this quote by James Shaheen, editor for Tricycle, in the Fall 2003 issue:

Doesn’t it make sense for one to venture outside one’s own tradition if meaning is to be found there? Perhaps the question is moot, since so many Westerners cherry-pick their way through traditions anyway. And, as a Therevadan monk commented to me not long ago, “Rumi is everybody’s favorite Buddhist poet nowadays.”

While I love that line, I have heard those sentiments before. I’ve cynically commented that if a tradition has a lot to loose, they’ll argue for continuance, but if they have something to gain, they’ll entice people to leave to join them.

Of course the truth is somewhere in-between. It always is.

But what about this cherry-picking? Is this helpful? I think that “tools” like meditation may be globally applicable and should be shared. Meditative variations are found in many traditions. But I know a person who believes in both Heaven and reincarnation. Isn’t that somewhat contradictory? Sure, you certainly see the concept of karma in many of the teachings of Jesus. But why bother with lots of faith-merging?

I’m not into “dogma” or the need to believe certain things in order to follow a path. I personally don’t think that Heaven or reincarnation are very useful. But many teachings are overarching and go beyond any particular tradition. I think that every Christian could read the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness without any conflict of faith.

I know, I still haven’t answer my question of whether cherry-picking is useful… But it has been for me. I still find the Tao Te Ching to be immensely inspiring as well as the poetry of Zen monks. But as I said the other day, even if you are in a single tradition or school of thought, the house is still yours and ultimately will be different than anyone else. Shoulder what fits your back.

I do agree with James Shaheen in that I haven’t met many people who can actually learn enough about any one tradition to have the ability to qualify the pieces (Yes, Huston Smith is an exception for he actually can do this sort of cherry-picking).

Eat what agrees with you, but doing that newage thing of pilfering the spoons of another tradition without actually sampling the food, may not give you much nourishment.