Sage Bennet

Sage Bennet had always loved meditation, but between her philosophy doctoral studies and failing marriage, she never seemed to have time for it. Then she contracted double pneumonia and was forced to slow down. “I remember sitting in candlelight one night when it was 30 degrees below zero thinking, ‘I love to meditate. Why aren’t I meditating more?’” So she moved to a meditation center not far from the University of Wisconsin, where she was teaching, and began to recover. Not only did she learn from the different spiritual teachers who visited the center, she also worked in the library where she had the opportunity to devour books from every spiritual tradition. Later, while teaching a college course on world religions, she began taking her students on what she calls “the wisdom walk”—a journey through the wisdom and practices of the world’s major spiritual traditions. “I saw people really benefiting from the practices. Not only were their lives better, but their prejudices disappeared. They became more respectful and embracing of other traditions,” says Bennet, who finally decided to collect the material into a book, Wisdom Walk: Nine Practices for Creating Peace and Balance from the World’s Spiritual Traditions (New World Library, April; PW starred review, Feb. 26). Each chapter highlights one major practice from one of eight traditions: from Hinduism, home altars; from Buddhism, meditation; from Islam, surrender to prayer; from Judaism, Sabbath; from Christianity, forgiveness; from Native American spirituality, reverence for nature; from Taoism, trust; from New Thought, visioning; and from all traditions, service to others. But readers don’t have to give up their own faith to benefit from other traditions, insists Bennet, who is Jewish but also an ordained New Thought minister serving at the Agape International Center of Truth in Los Angeles (founded by Michael Beckwith, who is featured in both the film and book versions of The Secret) and through her own ministry, Radiant Paths to Wisdom. “I realized that one of the traditions I knew the least about was Judaism, so taking the wisdom walk helped connect me with my own tradition,” she said. “It’s not about conversion, it’s about understanding.”