Having just returned from a trip to Mexico, I want to share some experiences of the widespread need and the thirst for a spirituality that is not stuck in dogma, doctrine and sectarian politics. Mexico is an interesting country with an ancient civilization that has helped shape a unique brand of Catholicism, mixed with the demands of modernity and a burgeoning high-tech industry and a technologically hip younger generation only partially seduced by materialism and dissatisfied with the solutions offered up by tradition.

These tensions are visible in the daily newspapers. Some would have it that the capital- like so many major urban centers- is a world apart from the rest of the country, creating a sort of liberal-conservative divide already familiar in the United States. The Federal District has permitted gay marriage, abortion and a host of other measures that provoke heated protest in some sectors of the population. That liberal-conservative dichotomy between the capital and the rest of the country, however, is only part true of this culturally and nominally Roman Catholic nation, judging from headlines the other day that in the State of Oaxaca there was a protest that clinics were NOT performing the abortions recently mandated by Mexican law. What a contrast to the United States!

There are those who, recognizing that we cannot merely choose between tradition and modernity, are seeking ways to integrate the best of both without perpetuating the rigidities of either. Mexico seems to be teeming with creativity in this area. From filmmakers to physicians, there are many seeking to speak to the need for a more inclusive approach that respects the variety and diversity of experience, but also seeks and finds a means to achieve a more integrated understanding.

To that end, I was invited to speak on radio and television programs and to a large annual conference on Holistic Health and Wellness called the ExpoSer- literally the "Being Expo". An estimated 40,000 people passed through the doors of this event over the weekend, proving that this theme is of fully mainstream interest. Like many such conferences, this three-day event consisted of a long list of talks and programs offered by various supposed experts in their respective fields. The topics ranged in seriousness from Quantum Physics to several New Age themes of perhaps questionable authority. Much like my experience at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona in 2004, the didactic portion of this massive event was partially subsidized by hundreds of vendors setting up booths in a massive ware-house type space to hawk everything from incense to acupuncture treatments to herbal medicines, to clothing and exercise gear. And of course there were the book vendors. Major publishers and private specialty presses alike were there in recognition of the marketing reality of what is required these days to sell books.

Having spent several hours signing copies of my own book, I was struck by the amusing juxtaposition of feeling on the one hand like someone sitting on the river bank selling river water, and on the other hand by the mysterious chemistry of what attracts people to buy a book in the first place. I met hundreds of people. Old, young, highly educated, uninformed, affluent, of modest means, pretentiously "spiritual", and humble seekers- and yet all thirsting for something that would inspire, expand, explain, somehow make more sense or give more meaning to their lives.

This was a refreshing experience for me, a helpful reminder that people in what the U.S. often treats patronizingly under the term "developing nations" struggle with the same longings and challenges as those in our allegedly superior society. Put simply, humanity seems instinctively drawn to something more unitive, and the longing for that seems to intensify under conditions of social, economic and political duress.

What is also refreshing is to see that both because a country like Mexico has a culture far older than ours, and yet is newer to the push for modernity, it is in some respects perhaps less hampered than we by staid ideas and rigid paradigms of conventionally "modern" society. One of my radio and TV interviewers, Dr. Octavio Nahum Ganum, is a certified M.D., but one who has attempted to bring together "traditional" and "modern" medicine- using a combination of alleopathy, homeopathy, herbalism, acupuncture and ancient notions of dietetic balance to promote wellness. The program is highly successful, and is subsidized by the sale of a huge range of native herbal and dietary health products that are even exported to China. Many people who came to my own talks told me they had done so because of my appearance on the doctor's program- clear proof that there is a widespread public interest in such matters and approaches.

In one of my presentations at the ExpoSer I was asked to speak on my book, The Tantric Jesus: Christ as God, Guru, and Self. Now in its second edition in Spanish, it is an exploration of the spirituality of Jesus- comparing the traditional "orthodox" version of Jesus with that presented by the Gnostic texts- and then comparing both to certain Hindu and Buddhist Tantric teachings that may fill in gaps in the Gospel narrative that are not easily explained by the Judaism of first century Palestine. Part history, part theology, partly a manual of the spiritual life seen through the words and deeds of the spiritual giants of human history, it is a book, moreover, born of more than thirty years of direct experience of immersion in both Christian and Hindu cultures. Deliberately a-typical in its approach, the book tries to speak to the reality both of people's doubts of some aspects of traditional doctrine and dogma about Jesus, and their instinctive longing for some sort of enlightened or holy role model to inspire them to live better, more fulfilled lives.

In this, as many other occasions in Mexico, I was once again struck by the peculiarly Mexican mixture of deep devotion and open-mindedness regarding spiritual matters. This is, after all, a country whose pre-Colombian traditions found ingenious ways to adapt, or adapt to Catholic doctrines without sacrificing their own essence. The Maya tree of life became the Christian Cross, the blood sacrifice of kings to protect and assure the wellbeing of their people became Jesus' atoning sacrifice on the cross. All Souls Day became the thinly veiled pre-Columbian Day of the Dead- a yearly portal to the world of ancestors and spirits whose guidance was sought by the living.

Juxtaposed against this fluid attitude are, of course, deeply entrenched social paradigms of class and ethnicity that still plague Mexico. There are sectarian lines of demarcation being firmly drawn too. I learned that even the term "Christian" in Mexico and much of Latin America, now denotes exclusively the Evangelical, born-again subspecies of a nomenclature that by rights and in theory embraces all those who recognize Jesus as the embodiment and focus of their faith- whether Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, or Independent Churches. Reminding me of the religious right's attempt to appropriate all religious dialogue and opinion to their own agenda in the United States, there are similar stresses seen in Mexico, though the lines of class and race may play an even larger role there. Yet despite this spiritual tension, and perhaps in evidence of the East Indian notion that polarization is the nature of this Age in which we all live, a practical, emotive spirituality easily grasped and readily experienced seems to cut across all intellectual, social and economic barriers.

The second of my presentations at the ExpoSer was a combination talk/workshop on the theme of Unitive Consciousness and Effective Spirituality. Taking as its basis the theological and scientific premise that all existence is a manifestation of energy- moreover, of a single conscious energy- we explored together how we perceive that energy, how it literally is the link that binds us all to each other, and how we can make use of that energy to expand our own consciousness and alter our life experience for the better. To drive the point of its universality home, we did several exercises using chant from different traditions- in both Sanskrit and Spanish- to demonstrate that the same essential experience could be had through a variety of apparently different means. DVD's of the workshop were made available by ExpoSer to the participants and they sold out immediately. Though personally gratifying to feel that the presentation was well received, more importantly it showed me once again that the hunger and thirst for spiritual stimulation and growth is real and widespread- spanning issues of class, nationality and religious background, and that it behooves us all to put aside preconceptions about who may be interested or receptive.

Already invitations are coming in for future events in Mexico, and the possibility of establishing a permanent FID base and presence there. Time will tell how all that plays out. But clearly our charter as a non-sectarian educational organization is being confirmed by public response to what we have to offer. One interviewer identified us much as one of our former board members had several years ago: Faith In Diversity is less an institution in the ordinary sense, than it is a movement. Though some day we may be able to offer a full curriculum in a semi-academic setting, our work of spreading an inclusive message and encouraging an open-minded examination of the spiritual traditions and practices of the world through the media and public discourse, has planted many seeds that are already starting to bear fruit. My hope is that everyone who has been touched by our programs, enjoyed our website, or simply been inspired by one of our members, will share that with others and "pass it forward".

Robert H. Stucky is the Executive Director of Faith In Diversity Institute.

Copyright © 2006 by Faith In Diversity Institute