What exactly does it mean to be "spiritual" but not religious?

[tekla]

To me it would be more of an understanding of your part in what Rachel Carson called 'The Web of Life' that everything is connected to everyother thing and trying to understand your role in that so you a.) don't overplay your part b.) understand how your decisions, actions and inactions help or hinder everything else in the web of life. 

[LordKAT]

I like your description, Tekla. It seems the best way to think of life, the universe, and everything.

[tekla]

I had a teacher once who used to say (of course we thought was a total crackpot) that if anyone with two brain cells to bounce thoughts off of, sat down and really thought about the world in our place in it, the first thing they would do when they stood up was throw away their car keys and walk home.  Given the last month I think pretty much anyone with a car in their drive-way might as well just go down and pour the oil in the Gulf themselves.  (And please spare me all those 'ever expanding ass on a vinyl seat' reasons that YOU need a car.  That's the 'royal you,' not 'you Kat')

The reverse is also crackpot.  The same teacher once told me that the thing that so facinated me with the Romans was that I couldn't figure out how they managed to do all that without my personal help.  True that.  Anytime you start to think you are important, or that the world is a better place with you in it, you're just fooling yourself.  The day before you were born the sun rose in the east, set in the west, people fell in love and people fell out of love and life went on.  And on the very next day after you die, the same deal is going to go down like it has every day inbetween.  Life was fine without you, and when you're dead and gone, life is still going to be just fine.

That's why I never participate in any of those "I'm going to kill myself" "Oh don't the world is a better place with you in it" threads. How do I know that's true, I can pretty much assume its not.

[glendagladwitch]

Given the last month I think pretty much anyone with a car in their drive-way might as well just go down and pour the oil in the Gulf themselves. 

Not long ago, I saw on the news that if you were to take all the oil spilled in the gulf so far and refine it, it would equal the amount of gas we use in the US every five minutes.

So if we did what you suggested, and emptied all of our tanks in the gulf, the result would be much much worse.

[King Malachite]

You go to nature, not to a church.

That's how I feel.  Spirituality is wher your heart and mind is your guide insead of a book. 

[mixie]

One of my favorite explanations of this was Rumi's poem Love Dogs.

I had the pleasure of seeing this performance in person.  Coleman Barks is unbelievable. He's one of the official translators of Rumi

[Celia]

"Spirituality is the need, and religion is the junk food." - Pete Townshend

Not sure I'm perfectly in agreement with Pete, but I do often personally sense spirituality as some yearning or longing for something I can never seem to put my finger on.  And all too often, religion is junk food.

[Anatta]

"Spirituality is the need, and religion 'is' the junk food." - Pete Townshend

Kia Ora Celia,

It's a good way to put it... I like it

Metta Zenda

[tekla]

And like junk food when you need real food, it's not making you stronger, it's making you weaker.

[Anatta]

And like junk food when you need real food, it's not making you stronger, it's making you weaker fatter .

Kia Ora Tekla,

Just a little tweaking....

Metta Zenda

[tekla]

Fatter is generally weaker, slower, less stamina - all that bad stuff.  So sure.

[AbraCadabra]

OK, let me try...

Religion is to me about dogma, being dogmatic, sticking to set rules that were put down by someone else and then called... canonical if the rules are set from up the hill (Vatican). Or like religiously brushing your teeth 3 time a day as set down my mom?
If set by some other 'authority' it may be called heretical, sectarian, un-believing, etc. etc.

Spirituality to me is about AWARENESS (inner awareness) of what's out there that is not immediately accessibly, by touch, vision, smell, etc. - but a lot by some 6th sense, or intuition. It is NOT at all bound to anything like dogma or defined by canon, standard, rule, norm, principle, tenet, law, list, or catalogue.

Some things can be intuitively bad, but looking at it more 'flat' they may seem just useful.

Spirituality is related to creativity and creativeness, religion to 'secured' believes and emotional security in doing what is deemed to be 'right or good' as opposed to be 'wrong or bad' and as lid out by ... standard, rule, norm, principle, tenet, law, list, or catalogue.

OK, as I said - just a try...
Axélle

[Julie Marie]

Religion is of this world.  It is programmed into us socially.  No one is born religious.  We are taught to be religious.

Spirituality is not of this world.  It's an intangible.  It's something very different for each person but also very much the same.  It can't be defined, only experienced, if one allows it.  But it is in all of us.

I used to think I was benefiting from religion, that being religious was why I felt better inside.  But I was wrong.  I used religion as a vehicle to get in touch with my spirituality.  I thought that was the only way because that is what I was taught.  Once I took a step back and looked at the whole thing, I realized religion was a social construct.  And I didn't need it to get in touch with my spirituality.

Today I get far more spiritual benefit by sitting out under the stars, letting the waves lap at my feet or taking a quiet walk through the woods, than I ever did sitting in man-made structure filled with gold and marble and images of a man tortured and crucified two thousand years ago.     

[dalebert]

Axélle-Michélle and Julie Marie, those were both beautiful posts that ring very true to me. I'm a member of the Society of Friends as of a few years ago. I considered myself atheist for many years and now identify as Panentheist. But I would remind that labels are so limited and that's just the most apt short label I've come across for describing my beliefs. Friends don't talk to God as so many do during prayer, sometimes asking for things, or even asking for guidance. When I hear my loved ones praying who aren't Friends, it sounds almost vain, like they know all the answers already and are just going through the ritual to demonstrate devotion. We believe God speaks to all of us via the still quiet voice within so we pray silently and listen intently for guidance, sometimes for an hour or more at a time.

[mixie]

Mircea Eliade talks about the difference between the Sacred and the Profane.  The Profane is the material world. The Sacred is a spiritual sense of heirophany or "oneness with holy."  Spirituality would be the Sacred.  Religion would be the Profane.


http://www.bytrent.demon.co.uk/eliadesp01.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Eliade

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

Spiritual=Personal Journey-----Religious =Public Transport !

When it comes to describing spirituality, it's like the Taoist saying  "Those who know don't say[can't put into words] and Those who say don't know!"

Metta Zenda

[Julie Marie]

When I hear my loved ones praying who aren't Friends, it sounds almost vain, like they know all the answers already and are just going through the ritual to demonstrate devotion.

When I "was religious" I often did what I did, like go to church and pray, to demonstrate I was a good Catholic.  And if no one was watching, I kept that arrow in my quiver ready in the event anyone challenged my "good Catholic" status.  It was a show I and so many around me put on because none of us really lived the "good Christ-like life", at least not consistently.  We do have moments though.

I was in high school when the hypocrisy struck me.  I was driving past our church on Sunday while mass was in session.  I saw the father of one of my friends sitting in his car, parked outside the church, reading the newspaper.  I later asked my friend what that was all about.  He told me his dad did that every Sunday to keep the peace at home.  My friend's mom was a devout Catholic.  His dad, obviously, wasn't.  So he'd leave the house, as if he was going to church, park out front of the church, then head back home after church let out.  No worries.

I realized I wasn't the only one who felt pressured to perform.  Even grown adults were pressured into this Catholic performance.  And, to keep the peace, we all went through the motions.

[Padma]

Though I'm technically a Buddhist, my relationship with whatever that's supposed to be has become very, very personal. My feeling is that, in some way, religion is a collective practice but spirituality is a personal experience. This isn't meant to be a definition, it's just how I see it from a certain angle.

To me, spirituality expresses itself in the sense of being part of something bigger than I am - but the something doesn't have a personality, so it's just me knowing that everything else that's "not me" is way bigger than what I think "is me", so it's worthy of respect, and I'd rather be connected than disconnected. Whether I like it or not, I have an effect on the world I'm in, so I'd like to have a good effect. And I'd like to allow myself to be affected by the world, too (I don't always want to let that happen).

[Soren]

"Religion is for those who fear hell; spirituality is for those who have been there"

[dreaming.forever]

For me, being spiritual but not religious is about finding my own truth instead of clinging to the "truth" that others (religious leaders, etc) have supposedly found. The only reason I ever had an interest in religion was out of fear of finding out a horrible truth (such as "God exists, but he hates you," or "There is no meaning in the universe, all of it is chaos, and your life doesn't matter at all"); religion is, for the most part, an elaborate fairy tale (in which the "happily ever after" is almost always after you're dead, of course) and "god" is the easiest thing to blame and/or pray to in hopes of things magically becoming the way you want.

Once I got over that fear, I felt a lot freer being able to find my own spiritual path instead of relying on what tradition and such created. My beliefs are based on my own experiences, theories (assumptions, if you want to be technical about it), and such, and I no longer find myself searching for "the answer" to it all--I don't think anyone really has "the answer," and if anyone does, it's probably personal enough that nobody else could really understand it if they explained it.

I think it's normal for people to cling to religion until they are okay with being autonomous (if ever--obviously a lot of people are religious their entire lives), after which it becomes less about following rules/commandments/"prophecy" and more of an exploration of what the truth of things really is.

So, to sum it up, I think being spiritual but not religious means you're finding your own way, you're probably open to a lot of possibilities but you're not stuck on "this *insert any belief system* is the absolute truth, and no other religion has a scrap of truth in it" assumption. Religion is the easy way out of people's philosophical dilemmas (the whole "where did I come from, what's the meaning of this, why am I here"). Being spiritual but not religious is a little bit like you're rebelling, because you have to really figure it out yourself instead of choosing option A, B, or C (as in, "will I be Catholic, Jewish, Baptist... etc") and relying on other people (the religion's founders and/or leaders) to have it all figured out for you.