Most of the Wisdom Traditions evolved during what is called the Axial Age, between 800 and 200 BCE. A postmodern seeker might ask, "Why should we go back to these ancient faiths?" The answer is that during this period of history people worked as hard to find a cure for their spiritual ills as we do today trying to find a cure for cancer.

Karl Jaspers who coined this phrase, referred to this period as "a deep breath bringing the most lucid consciousness". He was particularly interested in the similarities in circumstance and thought of the Age’s figures. These similarities included an engagement in the quest for human meaning and the rise of a new elite class of religious leaders and thinkers in China, India and the West.

These three regions all gave birth to, and then institutionalised, a tradition of travelling scholars, who roamed from city to city to exchange ideas. These scholars were largely from extant religious traditions, Homer, Socrates, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Thucydides, Archimedes in Greece; Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Deutero-Isaiah in Canaan; Confucius, Siddhartha Gautama and Lao Tzu in China, and India, and Zoroaster in Persia. Jaspers held these were are all axial figures; none at that time were interested in old worn out doctrines or metaphysical notions. Religion was about behaving in a 'way' that changed you.

References to the 'way' are a part of all wisdom traditions. The way is not a single path, but all the many paths leading to the same destination. As wayfarers on the path, we discover that the way is our path through life, our own personal journey in search of meaning, truth and purpose. Over time, we learn there is no final destination . . . only the journey. Spiritual principles are found at the core of the Twelve Steps of AA and easily traceable throughout all the Wisdom Traditions. This suggests that these principles are universal; crossing the boundaries of culture, language, religion, time, as well as political ideologies and belief systems.

When looking across the spectrum of the Wisdom Traditions we find seven common spiritual themes:

As I examined the 12 Steps of AA through the lens of the various Wisdom Traditions I discovered that each Tradition provided a path; a guide to follow in a language, culture and history particular to each ones understanding.

Historically speaking, each of these traditions can aid us in understanding that we belong to a much larger whole; a wholeness that informs us that we are more integrated than we appear.

Houston Smith, in the Illustrated World’s Religions, encourages us to live in the mystery . . . "in a place where known unknowns become known, unknown unknowns proliferate; the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. Things are more integrated than they seem, they are better than they seem, and they are more mysterious than they seem; this is the vision that the wisdom traditions bequeath us."

Blessings

Rev. Terry