Reconciling Religion & Spirituality

RECONCILING RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

By

Bill Cottringer

     Wow, this title is a rather bold attempt to do something quite grandiose in a very un-humble style, but somebody has to at least try! I have heard a certain phrase that bothers me to the point of wanting to debate it. The phrase is "I am spiritual but not religious." The typical reply I usually offer—"then you may not really be either"—doesn't seem to be working very well. Hence, this article.

      This is not exactly a novel or profound idea, but a central challenge and drive in life is to learn grow and improve. One of the most fruitful ways to do this is to tap into the resourceful water of the invisible but very real religion-spirituality well. We are all looking for the sense of satisfaction, contentment and success of knowing truth and the meaning of life that only comes from this single well. Some of us know this and some don't. Maybe this is the meaning of the biblical admonition, "Many are called, but few are choosen."

     There also seems to be another major division between people—those who are avid searchers for truth and meaning of life and those who don't see a compelling need to do that. And among the searchers the division is furthered between persons aligning themselves with one of the many religions available and those siding with one form of spirituality or another.

     But for all practical purposes, this last division is meaningless because both sides seem to be pointing towards the very same truth in between. The trouble is they may both be taking their chosen side a little too seriously. As it turns out, the division really is invisible, but then again, it is the invisible things that are hardest to know and talk about with any degree of accuracy, certainty and agreement.

      What is the main cause of this fundamental problem we have about knowing an accurate, complete version of reality of the invisible, indivisible truth of life? There are two fault-contributers:

 
1.  The way the brain works in hoodwinking us into believing the absolute   certainty of what we think we know, which is rarely ever so (we generally only accept new ideas that fit with what we already believe!)

2.  And the babble we all use to try and communicate this nonsense to ourselves and others, which is currently producing total consusion and misunderstanding.

 
     Let's take a slight detour. Each of the four main levels of beings in the universe adds something new to the next step. Minerals just are. Plants live. Animals are conscious. And humans are self-aware. As humans, and because of our self-awareness function, we have more potential to develop further than the rest of the food chain; but that's not going to happen until we end silly feuds between illusory opposites such as the truths and untruths about religion and spirituality and rejoin both halves of the same coin to see the whole picture. Religion probably started it all by dividing itself into so many world religions and then further divisions of world religions such as the endless denominations of Christianity. But the New Age spiritualists have certainly made up lost ground with all their wild imaginary, unverifiable claims and carte blanch rejection of religious authority.  

    The only question we need to ask and answer is who is more correct? And even that question turns out to be a wrong assumption that the brain needs for the premature closure of certainty. The answer actually depends upon your own level of awareness and degree of evolution in consciousness. The "best" tentative answer is that they both have something important to contribute. Most of the theology of religion is generally sound (and it didn't become that way without intelligent, critical thinking) and has something important to say; but so does the invisible personal mystical experience of the spiritualists. And of course the potentially "negative" connotations of these two words themselves may be interfering with understanding that they are not really "opposites."

     For those of you who reject religion (especially Christianity), the truth is you may not have given enough time and effort into really understanding the true meaning of what is and isn't being being said in biblical scriptures or their theological interpretations. Literal translations and interpretations miss the genuine meaning that our minds and souls need, as delivered by spirituality more directly, by-passing the brain's tendency towards erroneous thinking. Those who reject spiritualism probably don't understand it well enough because such experience can't be thought and dissected. It is direct knowing of the invisible that can't be verified in any of the normal ways. But isn't this the same as most religious doctrines?  See the similarity?

   How can you be certain of the truth of something from any source?  You really can't . It all boils down to a leap of faith--even with your senses.After all optical illusions can be pretty convincing! 

The meaning of such daunting biblical challenges as "Man cannot live by bread alone" and "the truth shall set you free" seem to have direct applicability to both spiritual and religious living. 

     So what is the solution to this important quandary for at least half the people on the planet? There are two easy-to-identify but hard-to-apply solutions for consideration:
 

1. Consider the value of becoming  more conscious of your own consciousness—think about your thinking so you can be a little more correct and complete with what you think you know. In other words clear your mind so you can allow the right ideas and beliefs to occupy valuable space, instead of giving preference to the nonsense that is probably hogging space. Then begin to realize that what you see depends more upon where you are looking from and the picture just keeps getting bigger, the more you open your eyes.
   
2. Secondly consider slowing down and allowing yourself to listen to the ridiculous quantity of babble presently going on. You have to change languages to avoid being held as a hostage to the one we are all currently using, that is resulting in all the preponderance of miscommunication and misunderstanding. That is why poetry was invented—to capture a sliver of reality in a different language that can hit a bulls eye in the heart and spirit and leave the mind alone. We simply can't solve the current problem—which is finding the truth and meaning about life—by using the same language that hid it from us.

     The words "religion" and "spirituality" are only organized letters that try to capture the essence of the most important wisdom in life; they are only a small finger pointing towards something much larger. Take the simple four-letter word love for another example. What exactly does that word represent? The answer makes up a large library.