December 20, 2011
from PreventDisease Website

Spanish version

 

 

 

Spirituality is not about a religion. Neither is it about gods and rituals.

 

Spirituality is a principled way of life; it's an attitude.

Religion is an institution established by man for various reasons:

  • exert control

  • instill morality

  • stroke egos,

...or whatever it does.

 

Organized, structured religions all but remove god from the equation. You confess your sins to a clergy member, go to elaborate churches to worship, told what to pray and when to pray it.

 

All those factors remove you from god.

 

Spirituality is born in a person and develops in the person. It may be kick started by a religion, or it may be kick started by a revelation. Spirituality extends to all facets of a person's life. Spirituality is chosen while religion is often times forced.

True spirituality is something that is found deep within oneself. It is your way of loving, accepting and relating to the world and people around you. It cannot be found in a church or by believing in a certain way.

Consider the following in favor of the spiritual path:

  • There is not one religion, but hundreds

  • There is only one type of spirituality

     

  • Religion is for those who want to continue rituals and the formality

  • Spirituality is for those who want to reach the Spiritual Ascent without dogmas
     

  • Religion is for those who are asleep

  • Spirituality is for those who are awake
     

  • Religion is for those that require guidance from others

  • Spirituality is for those that lend ears to their inner voice
     

  • Religion has a dogmatic and unquestionable assembly of rules that need to be followed without question

  • Spirituality invites you to reason it all, to question it all and to decide your actions and assume the consequences
     

  • Religion threatens and terrifies

  • Spirituality gives you inner peace
     

  • Religion speaks of sin and of fault

  • Spirituality encourages "living in the present" and not to feel remorse for which has already passed. Lift your spirit and learn from errors
     

  • Religion represses humanity, and returns us to a false paradigm

  • Spirituality transcends it all and makes you true to yourself
     

  • Religion is instilled from childhood, like the soup you do not you want to take

  • Spirituality is the food that you you seek, that satisfies you and is pleasant to the senses
     

  • Religion is not God

  • Spirituality is infinite consciousness and all that is. It is God
     

  • Religion invents

  • Spirituality discovers
     

  • Religion does not investigate and does not question

  • Spirituality questions everything
     

  • Religion is based on humanity, an organization with rules

  • Spirituality is DIVINE, WITHOUT rules
     

  • Religion is cause for division

  • Spirituality is cause for union
     

  • Religion seeks you so that you create

  • Spirituality causes you to seek
     

  • Religion continues the teachings of a sacred book

  • Spirituality seeks the sacredness in all the books
     

  • Religion is fed fear

  • Spirituality is fed confidence
     

  • Religion lives you in your thoughts

  • Spirituality lives in your conscience
     

  • Religion is in charge of the "to do"

  • Spirituality is in charge of the "to BE"
     

  • Religion is a dialectic

  • Spirituality is logic
     

  • Religion feeds the ego

  • Spirituality makes you transcend
     

  • Religion makes you renounce yourself to the world

  • Spirituality makes you live with God, not to renounce Him
     

  • Religion is adoration

  • Spirituality is meditation
     

  • Religion is to continue adapting to the psychology of a template

  • Spirituality is individuality
     

  • Religion dreams of glory and paradise

  • Spirituality makes you live it here and now
     

  • Religion lives in the past and in the future

  • Spirituality lives in the present, in the here and now
     

  • Religion lives in the confinement of your memory

  • Spirituality is LIBERTY in AWARENESS
     

  • Religion believes in the eternal life

  • Spirituality makes you conscious of all that is
     

  • Religion gives you promises for the after-life

  • Spirituality gives you the light to find God in your inner self, in this life, in the present, in the here and the now

There are a dozen attributes to life, to building a positive attitude, embedded in the very word 'Spirituality'.

 

Each letter of the word 'spirituality' has a representing meaning.

  • 'S' stands for Seva, to think beyond yourself and reach out to others. Seva is to be selfless in your thoughts and way of life. Most of us are sevikas or sevaks in some form or other; for we know that the joy of giving is far greater than the joy of receiving.
     

  • 'P' signals two aspects, the first of which is the passage of life. None of us are immortal.

     

    So on this passage of life as William Penn, the poet wrote,

    • "I expect to pass through the life but once, if there be any kindness I can show, let me do it now, as I shall not pass this way once again."

    And even as you do so, please do it with a sense of perseverance for perseverance can move mountains. So run your own race in very act of life.
     

  • Moving on to the three 'I's in the word 'spirituality', these reflect three distinct values.

     

    Integrity, Inner Voice and Inspire - be inspired and inspire others.

     

    Integrity is character. Inner voice is the stairway to spirituality as it always goads you to do what is right, to live by one's conscience and by values. Following this stretch is inspirational for you and others as well.
     

  • 'R' is to learn to smell the roses on your way. Being positive is so restorative. You will never feel that you are ever in the midst of a storm. Every situation can then be faced with equanimity and fortitude. For one knows that this, too, shall pass.
     

  • 'T' stands for transcendence, so transcend with inner reflection, meditation, yoga, self-control and compassion. The second 'T' says, if you practice these creative ways of looking at life, you will surely attain tranquility and be at peace with yourself.
     

  • 'U' is all about the universality and oneness of humankind. On realizing this, increasingly you are able to brush aside prejudices. Differences cease to matter. Aren't each one of us just a speck in the universe?
     

  • 'A' is for acceptance. Accept yourself and others unconditionally. 'A' also entails the total negation of arrogance, and with humility being the ACE in your chosen field.
     

  • And this brings us to the letter 'L' that reminds you to have the largeness of heart to remember only the goodness of people and blanket out any pain or hurt that is encountered in varying degrees of relationships. The past and future are of no relevance as we cannot control or predict either. Most important, learn to travel light. The Moment is now. Life is too short, so cherish every moment.
     

  • 'T', the second last letter in spirituality, stands for Trust.

     

    Something that Steve Jobs would say:

    • "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

    How true!
     

  • And finally - 'Y' - the last letter, stands for You - and for me, too. Only YOU can make this happen.

May peace, happiness and universal love continue growing in your heart.

 

You are all that is.