The Meaning of Religion and Spirituality – Part 4

For the last couple of weeks we have been discussing the difference between religion and spirituality. So why does this matter? I think that there is a great change occurring and it is important when you say, “I’m spiritual not religious” you have a clear understanding of what that means.

In “A New Earth” Eckhart Tolle says, “Many people are already aware of the difference between spirituality and religion. They realize that having a belief system–as set of thoughts that you regard as the absolute truth–does not make you spiritual no matter what the nature of those beliefs is. In fact, the more you make you thoughts (beliefs) into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself.”

Many “religious” people are stuck at that level. That you quit truth with thought, and as they are completely identified with the thought (their mind), they claim to be insult possession of the truth and an unconscious attempt to protect their identity. They don’t realize the limitations of thought. Unless you believe (Think) exactly as they do, you are wrong in their eyes, and in the not-too-distant past, they would’ve felt justified in killing you for that. And some still do, even now.“

When you search for spirituality versus religion, Google returns 3,600,000 entries. And if you dip into a selection of them you get some interesting results. If the writer is from a Christian or Jewish persuasion, the assumption and many of the articles I have read is that spirituality is an individual, solitary practice. And an article on CNN.com, John Blake wrote, “I’m spiritual but not religious.”

It’s a trendy phrase people often used to describe their believe that they don’t need organized religion to live a life of faith. But for Jeswood priest James Martin, the phrase also hinted something else; egotism:

“Being spiritual but not religious can lead to complacency and self-centeredness,” says Martin an editor at America a national Catholic magazine based in New York City. “If it’s just you and God in your room, and a religious community makes no demands on you, why help the poor?”

This view is consistent with the commentary from Rabbi David Wolpe we looked at a couple of weeks ago where he wrote, “no one expects those without faith to obligate themselves to a religious community. But for one who has an intuition of something greater than ourselves to hold that is a purely personal truth, that it demands no communal searching and struggle, no organization to realize his potential in the world, straddles the line between narcissistic and solipsistic. If the spirit moves you to goodness, that is wonderful. For too many, though, spirituality is a VIP card allowing them to breeze past all those ratchets olds waiting in line for doing the work.”

So why do you think that there is such a derogatory view of those who claim to be spiritual? Obviously it is all fear-based but fear of what? In a blog on Jewish women.org, Samantha Barnett says, “many people claim to be so “spiritual” without attaching that spirituality to any specific religion. For them, spirituality is a state of mind. They are searching for God wherever they can find Him.

There is something beautiful in the search, and yet, without a route in ritual and without a foundation in the divine, that spark can easily be corrupted and used for man’s self interest instead of what it is good and holy in the world.

Even if one is aware of a higher power, spirituality without ritual is like channeling divine light into the world without any vessel to contain it. The light is in danger of burning out.“

So do all these writers really believe that without religion there will be no community and no accountability for peoples actions.

So back to Tolle Who goes on, “The new spirituality, the transformation of consciousness, is a rising to a large extent outside of the structures of the existing institutionalized religions. There were always pockets of spirituality even in mine dominated religions, although the institutionalized hierarchies felt threatened by them and often tried to suppress them.

A large scale opening a spirituality outside of the religious structures is an entirely new development.

In the past, this would have been inconceivable, especially in the west, the most of mine dominated of all cultures, where the Christian church had a virtual franchise on spirituality. You couldn’t just stand up and give a spiritual talk or publish a spiritual book unless you were sanctioned by the church, and if you were not, they would quickly silence you. But now, even within certain churches and religions, there are signs of change. It is heartwarming, and One is grateful for even the slightest signs of openness, such as Pope Paul the second visiting a mosque as well as a synagogue. [A new Earth. First published 2005]

As a result of the spiritual teachings that have arisen outside of the establish religions – – a growing number of followers of traditional religions are able to let go of identification with form, dogma, and religious belief systems and discover the original tap that is hidden within their own spiritual tradition, at the same time as they discovered the depth within themselves.

They realize that that how “spiritual “you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness. This, in turn, determines how you act in the world and interact with others. Those unable to look beyond form become even more deeply entrenched in their beliefs, that is to say, in their mind.”

So, is this the problem that people are talking about different things, believing that they are discussing the same thing? Tolle says we are discussing consciousness while many of these writers believe that we are discussing faith. Totally goes on to say, “we are witnessing not only an unprecedented influx of consciousness it this time but also in entrenchment and intensification of the ego. Some religious institutions will be open to the new consciousness; others will harden their doctrinal positions and become part of those other man-made structures through collective ego will defend itself and “fight back. ”

Some churches, sects, cults, or religious movements are basically collective ego like entities, as rigidly identified with their mental positions as the followers of any political ideology that is close to any alternative interpretations of reality. But the ego is destined to dissolve, and all that’s ossified structures, whether they be religious or other institutions, corporations, or governments, they will disintegrate from within, No matter how deeply entrenched they appear to be.

The most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first. This is already happened in the case of Soviet communism. How deeply entrenched, how solid and monolithic it appeared, and yet within a few years, it disintegrated from within. No one for saw this. All were taken by surprise. There are many more such surprises in store for us.”