A Guest Blog from Marilyn McFarlane, Author of Sacred Stories

I’m a travel writer who wanders the world in search of stories. In my journeys, I look for sacred sites — mighty cathedrals, ancient temples, circles of stones, holy groves of trees — that always give me a sense of awe. Whether it’s from collected human worship over the centuries or an all-powerful presence some call God, each is permeated with spiritual significance and mystery.

When I wrote Sacred Stories: Wisdom from World Religions, I called upon my memories of such sites as a way into exploring the incredible diversity of religious beliefs. I remembered walking the stone labyrinth in the great cathedral in Chartres, France; chanting with the Dalai Lama and monks in an open-air temple in Dharamsala, India; setting a candle—one among flickering thousands—afloat on the River Ganges. I entered a tiled mosque in Morocco, listened to drumming in a sweat lodge in Oregon, and knelt among the ruins of Demeter’s temple in Sicily. From these experiences and more, I caught glimpses of the tremendous variety of humanity’s attempts to connect with spirit. Every religion has its own ways of seeking to explain its vision of the divine expressed in sacred sites, holy books, and stories.

The differences seem profound. More striking to me, though, is how much the underlying values of world faiths are alike. The most basic, which almost all share, is the Golden Rule—”do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”  The rule may not always be followed in practice, but it’s an ideal that is common throughout humanity.

Each faith has stories that are unique yet similar to others: miracles, parables, lessons, creation stories, instructions on how to follow the faith.  As I sifted through these stories and chose the ones I considered most representative, I thought about those sacred sites scattered around the world, the many I’ve visited and the many more I have yet to see. From caves to cathedrals, they reveal a human connection across time.

Because we do have so much in common, I believe that ignorance underlies much of the world’s religious intolerance and suspicion. Many (I would guess most) people know nothing of others’ religions except a few stereotypes that are usually negative. We can change that through education, by learning the stories that are the foundation of a faith. That provides understanding, and from understanding comes tolerance. That is not the same as agreement, but it can mean acceptance. People will always hold varying beliefs—we’re too diverse not to—and the sooner we accept that reality the closer we’ll come to peace among nations. Sacred Stories, by introducing seven spiritual paths and their time-honored stories, may help to bring us one small step closer.

Sacred sites for each of the religions included in the book are briefly described in the Parents/Teachers Guide, which is downloadable here.

If you’d like to recommend a sacred site or a story to other readers, please comment. I’d love to hear from you.