Religion /
spirituality
or spirituality / religion
or both
or neither
What follows are just a few thoughts from what I’ve written before
Outline
What is religion / spirituality?
The divine or the spiritual are variously what is real about the world, the essence or power of the world… the manifestation and source of the real and the essence and the power
The words ‘spirituality’ and ‘religion’ have something to do with knowing the divine, how to know the divine, and how to live and be in the light of the divine
I like the word religion because even though people have problems with religions, others don’t. And, there’s lots of spiritual insight in the religions of the world. Religion can be seen as organized, dogmatic… but it may also have the connotation, individual and communal experience and light of the divine and lives lead in its light
I like the word spirituality because it emphasizes personal realization and discovery instead of pre-conceived dogma—but it’s open to relevant content behind dogma. Spirituality is often experimental and not closed minded of its nature (anything can become closed minded.) What of the great insight of the past—this refrain might start a criticism of experimental spirituality. The point is that spirituality and religion are not only about the divine but the individual and communal experience and light of the divine and about lives lead in its light
Whatever works…
And I don’t like either word in that they suggest that the divine is separate from the mundane (this here world) that the divine is somewhere else. I don’t think so. Perhaps what it takes is how to see or how to live and, even, how to see to see and live or the path of living and seeing the truth…
Think of science, by way of introduction, as a certain set of ways, of using certain instruments of knowledge to know the truth of certain portions of reality. Science emphasizes definiteness of knowledge of the ‘outer’ world (the word outer is a metaphor)
Think, then, of religion / spirituality as using any and all reasonable ways, of using all human and communal instruments of knowing and seeing and being, to know and be in all of reality. In religion / spirituality, the entire human, even entire humankind is engaged in knowing the entire universe. The knowledge includes the personal and the unique and therefore not quite as definite and established but also the definite and the scientific. It may or may not emphasize science. And the knowledge is that of the entire universe—inner and outer (as if they were distinct)
The idea includes the personal and experimental as well as the group and the established… and the idea that each can learn from the other. Of course, any system can grow into static dogma or even abuse and so, remembering that perfection is an ideal, renewal is important as fact and as ideal