Religion vs spirituality

News Type: Other — Seeded on Mon May 29, 2006 2:23 PM EDT

Article Source: dnaindia.com

All the world's major religions have active mystical strains, sustained by those who, in their hunger for God, penetrate through the creeds and beliefs of religion to arrive at its living centre, the personal experience of God.

This is the chief distinction between religion and spirituality. Religions accept the experiential truth of their founders unquestioningly. Spirituality ventures into the very zone of the founders. Followers of religion believe. Spiritual aspirants want to know. So if someone says she believes in God, know that she is at best religious.

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{"commentId":142390,"authorDomain":"servetus"}

Servetus

All these [spiritual, mystical] paths are necessary, for they cater to the infinite diversity of human inclination.

Once we accept this, the fundamentalist will have no influence over us. Only through spirituality can we truly understand our own religion. Until then, as St Paul put it, we see through a glass darkly, not comprehending what we see.

The above is the conclusion of the seeded article. But however much Paul emphasized a spiritual (as opposed to legalistic, "carnal") approach, he did not advocate that any path to "God" is good. In fact he most adamantly claimed that Heathens were blinded, because the "mistook creature for Creator" and the Jews were in a blind alley, because, although they knew the true God, they put all their trust in the efficacy of rituals and sacrifices, which in themselves are useless.

Also Paul most adamantly based his approach on the Real Resurrection of Jesus, and condemned those who claimed to preach a more "spiritual" sense of "resurrection", which, according to them, was already available for everybody.

Even admitting that some people are specially endowed for an "experience" of the divine (which I doubt), not all would agree that it is "knowledge" of things spiritual that make the difference. According to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Moses, for instance, the "most important thing" is:

«Love thy God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. And [if you really do love Him above all], love thy neighbour like yourself.»

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3 votes

#1 - Wed May 31, 2006 9:12 PM EDT

{"commentId":142707,"authorDomain":"yaakov"}

Yaakov

Religions accept the experiential truth of their founders unquestioningly. Spirituality ventures into the very zone of the founders. Followers of religion believe. Spiritual aspirants want to know. So if someone says she believes in God, know that she is at best religious.

I don't know about others, but in my religion (Judaism), being religiously observant and aspiring to spiritual goals go hand and hand. (I am not talking about the Kabbalah Center here - different religion). And if you define spirituality as "aspiring to know" then that in itself is a Jewish religious requirement.

{"commentId":142707,"threadId":"7594","contentId":"233648","authorDomain":"yaakov"}

3 votes

#2 - Thu Jun 1, 2006 4:17 AM EDT

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