Father John Martin

Father John Martin, the spiritual director of Shantivanam compares the different religions around the world to hikers that climb up different sides of a mountain, unaware that there are other religions climbing as well. I think this is symbolic for many different reasons. In today’s society people don’t really judge people because of their religious standing so in a way they are unaware of what the other religions might be doing at a particular time. So in other words the religions didn’t know that they were all climbing the mountain because people don’t take time to worry about other religions. For my entire life I was raised Catholic and didn’t know nearly anything about other religions until now. I learned that each religion has it own holidays, beliefs, traditions, rituals, and more. Hinduism believes in Brahman, moksha, samsara, yoga and more, which other climbers of the mountain don’t know. While Buddhism, has Zen stories and Tendai along with personal fulfillment (tanha). The four noble truths are important to this religion whereas it’s unknown to other religions. Judaism has its own teaching and rituals that would be pointless to other religions. For example the 613 laws they are supposed to follow or reading from the Torah. Catholicism believes faithfully in the bible and follows the ten commandants on a daily basis. With all this being said it makes all the religions blind to the other religions in the world. To put in Father Martins words, when climbing up the mountain they can’t see the religions because they are too involved in their own. I am a guilty of this myself. I knew there were other religions in the world but I was so consumed in my own religion that I never took the time to sit back and look at the other religions that surrounded me. I do agree with him for the simple fact the people don’t bother with other religions unless they are forced to leaving them uneducated and unaware of the climbers. Personally I am now more open to wanting to learning about other religions and feel that others should to.