“Telling people you are spiritual but not religious is often greeted with a confused face. People tend to think of spirituality as something very strange and mysterious. They even struggle to differentiate it from religion.
The truth of the matter is that spirituality is perhaps the most natural thing there is. It is simply your own conscious self recognizing that you are more than just a body, that you are a soul with infinite potential.
Religion is a path to God. Spirituality is also a path to God. However, they have differences in approach.
The essence of religion:
Fear God and obey God.
The quintessence of spirituality:
Love God and become a divine representation of the Creator.
Some of the main differences between religion and spirituality –
1. Experience vs Belief. Religion usually entails adhering to a certain dogma or belief system. Spirituality places little importance on intellectual beliefs but is concerned with growing into and experiencing the Divine consciousness.
2. Fear vs Love. Quite often religion takes the approach of fearing God. Religion is often concerned with sin, guilt, and a concept of a God who punishes. The spiritual approach to God is through the path of love. This is a love where there is no judgment – only acceptance. Spirituality feels so-called sins are really just ignorance based on a false belief of who we are.
3. Where is God? Often religion talks of God as being high in the heavens. At times God can seem far from the reach of aspiring humanity. Spirituality shows us that God is omniscient and omnipresent and can be felt as a living presence in our own hearts. Spirituality says there is no separation between the Creator and Creation.
4. One True Religion vs Universality. Many followers of religion feel that only their path can lead to salvation. They have tremendous faith in their own religion, but at the same time, they feel other religions are wrong. Therefore, they can feel a necessity to convert others to their faith.All spiritual persons are religious but all religious persons are not
necessarily spiritual.
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There is nothing more toxic to the soul or dangerous to your development as a person than believing in something that is wrong, misguided, and outdated.What I am talking about here specifically is religion.
Now let me be clear. I’m not talking about religious texts necessarily, or God, or Christ, or Buddha, or any of the wisdom contained within various religions. I am talking about religious fundamentalism as it currently exists.
There is a difference between having a personal relationship with God and being buried head-deep in religious dogma and spiritual ignorance.”
