Preface

OR THOSE ON A SPIRITUAL PATHWAY

editors BenjaminShield and Richard Carlson have harnessed a magni-ﬁcent variety of opinion by some of the world’s best-known teachers. Although the authors come from adiversity of backgrounds, they had much in common when responding to questions about their relationships with God and with life.For some people the word “God” is a limiting term,and for others it is a nonissue word. I was as moved by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s remarks, who did not use the word “God” in his writing, as I was by others whodid write about God. The simplicity of His Holiness’sremarks about the applications of kindness, compassion,and tolerance in our lives, the harmony between ourhearts and our minds, and the importance of our spiri-tual sustenance are concepts that go directly to the coreof our souls. What a wonderful blessing for the worldthat he was chosen to receive the Nobel Peace Prizefor 1989.I had the good fortune to spend time with His Holi-ness during the ﬁlming of a special television program

on our project “Children as Teachers of Peace.” Here wasa human being who lived the principles he so eloquently taught. He demonstrated to everyone an experience of unconditional love, inner peace, joyfulness, kindness,compassion, tolerance, and the Oneness of the Universe. Wedon’thavetobelieveinGodorusetheword“God”to experience Oneness. The moment our ego and intel-lectcomeintoplayweattempttocategorizeandputwordsaround our concepts about God, a feeling of separationfrom one another often takes place. Yet, the beauty of thiscollectionofspiritualwisdombysomeoftoday’soutstand-ing leadersshowshow each, in an individualandheartfelt way, uses different words and different metaphors towarda common goal: to bring us together as a human family,celebrating our Oneness and not our separateness.It is our thoughts, actions, and how we live and expe-rience our lives that is important, not the words we use. When we believe that the essence of our being is love, that our true identity is a spiritual one, it becomes easier tounderstand that all our relationships offer us opportuni-ties to experience that light of love in one another and toknow that what we see is but a reﬂection of ourselves. Ourexperiences with that which Created us, which many people call “God,” therefore becomes manifested by ourrelationships. Although I am now comfortable using the word“God” with myself, I frankly am not totally at ease using it with others. People’s perceptions of what that wordmeans have differed so much, causing not only separa-tion, but also many wars. When we give our total love to

Preface

xii