I have friends who equate spirituality with Christianity. I have other friends who would equate spirituality with anything but Christianity. What's the difference between spirituality and religion? I wish I could remember who said this, because it's exactly right: spirituality is something we all have inside us. The various religions are our ways of working out our spirituality.
What is helpful for me is the analogy of a wheel. The various religions and other belief systems are the outside of the wheel - seeming very far from each other. But as you follow the spokes down, they get closer and closer together, until they meet at the axle. So it is with us, I believe. The deeper we go into the heart of our various traditions, the closer we come to the divine and to each other. I have more in common with a deep-thinking, deep-feeling Buddhist, than I have with one who holds shallow beliefs in the doctrines of Christianity - particularly one who is exclusionary in belief, and seeks to keep or even strengthen the walls between Christianity and other religions. Nor do I feel any commonality for anyone who follows a sky-god, paternalistic, judgmental religion, whether that's Christian, Muslim, or anything else.
Recently Karen Armstrong developed the Charter for Compassion, which states "The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect." Her belief is that the Golden Rule: do unto others as you want others to do to you, or as she says it: Don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself is at the heart of all religions, and is something we can all agree on and aspire to. I urge readers of this blog to sign this charter, and seek to live out its principles. The Charter can be found at: http://charterforcompassion.org/.
I have been thinking about the distinction here as well. I have come to understand that I am not religious. However, I am I am highly curious and interested in religion as an institution and in how people experience this--maybe because it so outside the realm of my own experience. But spirituality is a totally different matter. Spiritual thinking can be found way back in the human evolutionary record. I believe that in some ways, spirituality in a part of what makes us human. You do not have to even believe in any god to be spiritual. In fact, once I gave up searching for a god I could believe in, I was able to begin nurturing a spirituality that is authentic and meaningful for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shari! You said it well.
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