Spirituality versus Religion

Spirituality versus Religion

It has become quite popular in recent years to distinguish between spirituality and religion.

It’s true that there are valid distinctions between the two, but there are also a number of problematic distinctions which often and unnecessarily divide the two fields of thought.

One principal problem with attempts to separate religion from spirituality is that the former is saddled with everything negative while the latter is exalted with everything positive.

Religion is spiritual and spirituality can also be considered religious. One tends to be more personal and private while the other tends to incorporate public rituals and organized doctrines.

 The lines between one and the other may often not be clear or distinct depending on the interpretation.

Consider these definitions:

        Religion is an institution established by man for various reasons. Exert control, instill morality, stroke egos, or whatever it does. Organized, structured religions all but remove god from the equation. You confess your sins to a clergy member, go to elaborate churches to worship, told what to pray and when to pray it. All those factors remove you from God.

        Spirituality is born in a person and develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all facets of a person’s life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is often times forced. Being spiritual to me is more important and better than being religious.

        True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.

Consider the following in favor of the spiritual path:

        There is not one religion, but hundreds

        There is only one type of spirituality

        Religion is for those who want to continue rituals and the formality

        Spirituality is for those who want to reach the Spiritual Ascent without dogmas

        Religion is for those who are asleep

        Spirituality is for those who are awake

         Religion is for those that require guidance from others

        Spirituality is for those that lend ears to their inner voice

        Religion has a dogmatic and unquestionable assembly of rules that need to be followed without question

        Spirituality invites you to reason it all, to question it all and to decide your actions and assume the consequences

         Religion threatens and terrifies

        Spirituality gives you inner peace

         Religion speaks of sin and of fault

        Spirituality encourages "living in the present" and not to feel remorse for which has already passed - Lift your spirit and learn from errors

         Religion represses humanity, and returns us to a false paradigm

        Spirituality transcends it all and makes you true to yourself

        Religion is instilled from childhood, like the soup you do not you want to take

        Spirituality is the food that you seek, that satisfies you and is pleasant to the senses

        Religion is not God

        Spirituality is infinite consciousness and all that is - It is God

        Religion invents

        Spirituality discovers

        Religion does not investigate and does not question

        Spirituality questions everything

        Religion is based on humanity, an organization with rules

        Spirituality is DIVINE, WITHOUT rules

        Religion is cause for division

        Spirituality is cause for union

        Religion seeks you so that you create

        Spirituality causes you to seek

        Religion continues the teachings of a sacred book

        Spirituality seeks the sacredness in all the books

        Religion is fed fear

        Spirituality is fed confidence

        Religion lives you in your thoughts

        Spirituality lives in your conscience

        Religion is in charge of the "to do"

        Spirituality is in charge of the "to BE"

        Religion is a dialectic

        Spirituality is logic

        Religion feeds the ego

        Spirituality makes you transcend

        Religion makes you renounce yourself to the world

        Spirituality makes you live with God, not to renounce him

        Religion is adoration

        Spirituality is meditation

        Religion is to continue adapting to the psychology of a template

        Spirituality is individuality.

        Religion dreams of glory and paradise

        Spirituality makes you live it here and now

         Religion lives in the past and in the future

        Spirituality lives in the present, in the here and now

         Religion lives in the confinement of your memory

        Spirituality is LIBERTY in AWARENESS.

        Religion believes in the eternal life

        Spirituality makes you conscious of all that is

        Religion gives you promises for the after-life

        Spirituality gives you the light to find God in your inner self, in this life, in the present, in the here and the now…