Spirituality is not the same as religion

-

This quote from Stanislav Grof does a lot to clarify the difference between spirituality and religion.

I don't believe in religion or some man in the sky, but I do believe there is a place in a human's life for spirituality. If there wasn't why would we have created gods in the first place?
“To prevent the confusion and misunderstandings that in the past have plagued discussions about spiritual life and have created a false conflict between religion and science, it is critical to make a clear distinction between spirituality and religion. Spirituality is based on direct experiences of ordinarily hidden dimensions of reality. … Spirituality involves a special relationship between the individual and the cosmos and is in its essence a personal and private affair…


By comparison, the basis of organised religion is institutionalised group activity that takes place in a designated location (temple, church, synagogue), and involves a system of appointed mediators. Ideally, religion should provide for its members access to and support for direct spiritual experiences. However, it often happens that, once it becomes organised, a religion more or less loses the connection with its spiritual source and becomes a secular institution exploiting human spiritual needs without satisfying them. Instead, it creates a hierarchical system focusing on the pursuit of power, control, politics, money, and other possessions. Under these circumstances, religious hierarchy tends to actively discourage and suppress direct spiritual experiences of its members, because they foster independence and cannot be effectively controlled…
 

True spirituality is universal and all-embracing, and is based on personal mystical experience rather than on dogma or religious scriptures. Mainstream organised religions unite people within their own radius, but tend to be divisive, because they set their own group against all the others and often tend to either convert them or eradicate them. There cannot be any conflict between true spirituality and correctly understood science. Transpersonal experiences are a natural manifestation of the human psyche, and there is nothing unscientific in subjecting them to serious study.” - Stanislav Grof

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Becoming who?

-
Image
I haven't felt inspired to write in a long time, today felt different. This morning I was listening to an article about how we change over time. How the details of who we were at 4 or 9 are often lost to us. The little explorer who climbed trees, or the child that loved reading books, making pillow forts and hiding in cubby houses. These past selves remembered mostly by those around us, adults, friends, teachers, some influencing or shaping our lives. Bearing witness to the little personalities, confident or shy, even daring or a little wise, that went on to become fully fledged adults. But in adulthood we shift and change too, moving through different chapters. We can be so different at 16 to 25, changing again as we move through our 30s and 40s. At each stage, shifting tastes and perspectives. Our inner stories and sense of self adapting, perhaps on the surface unrecognisable to the person we once were. Who can tell which self will be staring back in the mirror at 70 or 82? Are w...
Read more

We are but DUST

-
If I free myself from the illusion of legacy. And realise the truth. That everything I achieve, that I create, will one day, ultimately, be dust. Then I am able to play openly and wholeheartedly in the sands of creativity. Knowing the tides of time will clear my mistakes as well as my victories. Leaving behind only the faintest trace of my existence. In that knowledge I am unafraid, emboldened. To take leaps of faith and action far greater than the self-conscious longings for immortality can ever truly realise.
Read more