Spirituality & Religion
This Monday I wanted to touch on something that people will at some point ponder in their own lives whether the confide in others for help or not. First I want to try and break these things down individually then in correlation to each other.
Spirituality in a short and simple is learning and believing in yourself and the world around you, finding meaning in solace in these to build your faith.
Religion is an organized and structures system of faith, in one or many omnipotent beings usually having set practices, values, and rituals.
Truly the difference between spirituality and religion is that there is a wrong and right way to practice a religion and spirituality has room for a lot more flexibility. Which is why you can be spiritual but not religious and being religious inherently means you are spiritual. Sometimes clients have asked me if they are doing their religion a disservice because the also believe in more than just their deity** of choice.
What I want people to remember is regardless of your preferred belief system what is most important in developing your own relationship with yourself just as much as you do with your faith. In the same way going to church does not make you a Christian if you solely participate in your faith when you’re there or abstaining from sin only when there are eyes on you. Spirituality is about finding our own personal sense of integrity while religion might provide guidelines or a framework to work from. Though Spirituality is more flexible in nature there are still structures and concepts you will have to abide by. Like Universal Laws, etc. Think of it like college; Unless you go in for a STEM degree (predesigned course work for your religion, more rigid in nature) you are apart of the liberal arts track where you can try and build your degree by taking courses and seeing which ones you enjoy the most or excel in before you choose your major (towards your theoretical sophomore year you would have discovered the structure and spiritual practice that works best for you and will refine your practice from there).
Another thing that clients have mentioned to me is their worry if it is blasphemous to see psychics or use crystals for example. In a monotheistic religion there is usually a clause about worship and that is should strictly belong to said diety as well as how the world was created by this diety intentionally filling it with what we see on Earth. That being said most religions have prophets written into their lore and thus go to the respective house or worship to “hear the word” from those who may have a more tangible or strengthened relationship with divinity or a “gift” for moving people, to me that is the same thing as going to see a psychic. And if we also believe in the intentionality of the world around us was crafted for us to use and develop ourselves why wouldn’t we be able to use crystals? I think this essentially boils down to devotion. If you are apart of a monotheistic religion as long as you maintain your devotion to your deity and use these resources as apart of your practice then you avoid blasphemy.
Of course because I gave an example about the Church earlier I think it’s fine to add this in here too. Sometimes people ask me when they find out that I am spiritual and or do spiritual work if I denounce religions or am apart of one. Though you can do both, I come from a Christian/Catholic family. Like I mentioned in the Pros & Cons of Pop Culture bit, as long as you do your own research to truly understand instead of running with how things can be easily misconstrued due to the vast game of telephone societies unknowningly play; I have a lot of respect for almost all religions despite the fact that I have yet to find one where I can confidently devote myself to their structures, principles, or rituals. Though I think that there is truth in each and every one as well as a bit of fabrication (due to prolonged interaction and history of mankind). Transparently speaking though out of all the religions I have researched the one I feel is a bit more symbiotic to me is Shintoism, though my love for my hyper-urban life and some of their rituals have deterred any commitments out of respect for the religion as a whole. Anyways, tangent over!
In all it is not Spirituality versus Religion. It is Spirituality and/or Religion. The distinction is up to you as the individual either way the prerequisite for what you choose will come from a deeper understanding of who you are and sometimes who you would like to be.Thanks for reading this far and I hope of course that there was something helpful in this for y’all.
** Every culture and religion all stem from their lore/mythology. The story of their mythology (being that no one can physically vouch for meeting them on Earth) can come with their holy book (Bible, Quran, etc). Because of that they are a deity of their said mythology. As long as there are believers that power of belief is what gives a deity power. What is your god or goddess may not be someone else’s, but that doesn’t void their divinity or their power. Due to some faiths being monotheistic in nature when I am referring to divinity I prefer to use Deity to avoid the confusion or pronouns for which God/Goddess and or to avoid blasphemy.
