We all know that religion exists; almost all of us are part of one. Still, there’s a significant difference between religion and spirituality and this difference- this conscious shift toward understanding only ourselves that the universe around us the way it works, why we are here has dramatically changed over about the past seventy to eighty years and moved more so toward spirituality. So for starters, let’s see what’s being religious and spiritual?
What Is Religion?
Religion at face value is a very rigid system. It is, in a sense, an organisation of beliefs of the face towards a particular story or plotline. These views relate not only to the culture we live in but to why we are here as humankind -what the meaning of life is and how the universe began, and this is where religion mainly focuses.
The origination of us as humans gave us the ability to exist. These beginnings almost always revolve around a God- a centre head figure, an omnipotent source in the universe that created and dictates our lives and gives us rules to live by. And from these rules, we get different religious morals, different religious ethics, different religious expectations.
What Is Spirituality?
It is about personal growth in all ways and forms, from physical to mental, from yoga to meditation to education, and so on; it continues down these lines and that we used to progress ourselves in the way we think and feel and understand. What’s going on is a spiritual practice, which makes it so beautiful as we create these spiritual perceptions for ourselves to fulfil what we want to know.
We think of ideas in ways that we can make life better for us, for everyone around us, and this relates not only to us but to figureheads we see that has been praised through the centuries, such as the Buddha, Jesus Christ himself, Zen masters and so on. These are not religious people. These are spiritual people who are simply preaching ways of making life better in all shapes and forms.
So what is the difference?
1. Heaven And Hell
Religion promotes a lot of fear and scarcity of you must follow these rules, or you will go to hell, you will be condemned, you will be stoned to death. All of these things arise from religious textbooks. A religious person is scared of going to hell. A spiritual person has been there already. Religion promotes fear by conveying the message that God wants you to be religious but God never asked you to be sacred. He wants a relationship –a connection between the two of you that can make your life living heaven.
2. Spirit Of God
Religion is what man believes about God. Spirituality is the actual spirit of God. The spirit of kindness, The spirit of compassion, The spirit of love etc. It’s the spirit of God that makes us whole.
When you follow the former, you are following men’s interpretation of God, when you follow the ” Holy Spirit ” you are following God. God is reincarnated in many different religions and scriptures teaching the same thing, but people twisted and made something else somewhere along the way. The message is the same. God wants us to know that they are real and is with us always.
3. Belief
Religion is all about belief. It is a coercion of the mind into thinking that if we believe “x,” then “y” will happen to us. And the “y” that will occur is focused upon our safety and security. Believers are bonded to the belief out of intense fear that if they stop believing “x,” then the protection of “y” will be lost to them – and will instead be replaced with new consequences, or “z,” which involves a horrific, frightening “end.”
So belief is all about fear and the inability to live with uncertainty. Spirituality is not about believing; it is about becoming. Its focus is on an open-minded search for truth, coupled with an intense desire to grow spiritually – all to become more than we once were: more loving, more giving, more focused upon others.
An authentic spiritual practise also involves giving up belief because belief stymies spiritual growth. In other words, spirituality is not about wanting to believe; it is about the search to know while letting the chips fall where they may, which means that spirituality is all about courage, and the willingness to live gracefully with uncertainty. Cheers.