Let me clear my throat...

I suppose I should define what I mean by mutt, spiritual mutt in particular. By spiritual mutt I don't mean that I pick and choose smorgasbord style. There is nothing more disturbing to me than that style of spirituality. I remember seeing on the news the story of a woman who had an altar and she had various symbols from various different religions. She was a Christian, or something, who attended synagogue, and on her altar she had various symbols from various eastern religious traditions, a mish-mash of all kinds of things.

She chose all; in so doing, she really chose none. The thing that is scary about this is that her reference, her judge, of Truth is herself. There was no external frame of reference to guide her; ultimately, she was the one who determined what was true or not and she picked and chose what she believed to be the truth. In so doing, I do not see how she can really get into the depth of any one tradition. It is in the depths, it is in the choice, that we find the truly, deeply spiritual. If we are the frame of reference for truth, we go no deeper than self. And we are not talking the Self, the Atman, of which Hinduism speaks. We are talking the self against which the Self speaks. We are talking the ego.

To the best of my knowledge, all the mystics operated from within a chosen path. While their results display remarkable similarity, this only came after searching the depths of their respective tradition. By doing so, they recognized the depths of the same in other traditions. A mystic is not someone who sees the surface similarities and says all religions are the same and thus labels themselves a "mystic." In today's spiritual marketplace, the term "mystic" is the equivalent of saying "Oh, I'm spiritual, not religious." This is language that basically says either I do not wish to commit or I do not want to put in the time. I am my own truth.

A true mystic will be called that by someone else. A true mystic would see the label itself has no value.

My primary path is the Christian path. No matter where I go, no matter what I study, it all comes back to Jesus as my focus in terms of understanding God's character. I don't, however, close myself off to God's whispers - or shouts - wherever they may be found.

By mutt I am talking more about pedigree. I am talking about those influences, those life choices, those things that have contributed to where I am today, what has brought me here. All those things don't just vanish. They are there. A little agnosticism, a little skepticism, a little Daoism, a little Islam, a little mythology from the Joseph Campbell school of thought, a little bit of Oneness Pentecostalism and a whole lotta passion for knowledge. Put it altogether and you've a spiritual mutt.

My career path, my musical tastes, my taste in music, my relationships all follow this pattern. Woof.