Religion vs spirituality

All the world’s major religions have active mystical strains, sustained by those who, in their hunger for God, penetrate through the creeds and beliefs of religion to arrive at its living centre, the personal experience of God.

This is the chief distinction between religion and spirituality. Religions accept the experiential truth of their founders unquestioningly. Spirituality ventures into the very zone of the founders. Followers of religion believe. Spiritual aspirants want to know. So if someone says she believes in God, know that she is at best religious.

Which is not to discount religion. For believers, religion is a source of strength. It helps build an identity and furnishes a viable code of values. Above all, it is the springboard from which to leap into spirituality. Why so? Because only spirituality yields the great truths of life and God and affords the possibility of discovering your true Self. Only spirituality holds the secret of self-realisation and self-transformation. While religion is like being enclosed in a lovely, warm, cosy home, spirituality is like breaking out into the fresh open air, knowing that all of it is home.

This is why only spiritually mature people can appreciate the commonalities that link all faiths and paths, without being bound by any. We recognise that there are many ways to reach God and that none need conflict with the other. Each of us is unique, and we respond differently to different catchwords, spiritual techniques or philosophies. The intellectual will think his way to God, the artist will feel his way to God, the doer will act his way to God, and so on. All these paths are necessary, for they cater to the infinite diversity of human inclination.

Once we accept this, the fundamentalist will have no influence over us. Only through spirituality can we truly understand our own religion. Until then, as St Paul put it, we see through a glass darkly, not comprehending what we see.

The writer is editor of Life Positive magazine.