Spirituality vs Religion: Where do you stand?

What does it mean when people say I am spiritual and I am not religious?

Religion is associated with dogma, stagnant institutions, hierarchy, prejudice, narrow mindedness, and outmoded forms of thinking. Spirituality, on the other hand, is a way of taking what is valuable in religion - methods of self transformation, supportive communities, etc. - and practicing it in a way that is free from the negative aspects of religion.

Spiritual people are the seekers and practice and believe in things based on the experiences of life. But religion is based on faith, and faith is blind.

Religion knows everything, so, a religious person. But a spiritual person doesn't know everything because life keeps evolving. A spiritual person won't say that he knows everything because spirituality has no boundary.

Religions are organised, everything is written and pre-defined that what happens after death and who goes where. That's not a case with spirituality.?

A spiritual person keeps learning throughout life and keeps evolving with a period, and the only reason is that there is no boundary in spirituality. Spirituality gives freedom to all types of beliefs and opinions. But, in religion, the boundaries are defined, and you can't question its existence.

Spirituality is an Open Source platform where source code could be modified, like UNIX/Linux. There is non-stop upgrade and evolution in an open source. If you are a great programmer, you can go ahead and make changes based on your capabilities, and there is no limit on it. If you are a great seeker and on the spiritual path, there is no end to attain spiritual heights.

Religion is not an Open Source platform. The source code is hidden, and you are not allowed to modify anything in that. You have to use and believe in what is given to you; there are always limitations. The upgrades are not possible in an organised religion, and if you try to do so, you will cause enough trouble. That's why after a certain point, it stops answering all the questions.

Religion is about MY GOD(depends on the religion). Spirituality is about unity, oneness and truth.

Some religion seek to expand their power in the world, and they all claim that they are the right path to god. They also claim the right to have an opinion on certain topics, like what to marry, how to live a life, what to eat. All of these things send a shiver down a spiritual persons spine.

A spiritual person is disgusted by that. Because its not freedom and love based. Spiritual people tend to consider that values that unify us, like love are what matters. And how can you function on love and oneness if you are comparing your own god, with another god.

This is why they don't want to be considered religious. Because a religious person will silently think that his own religion is the real one, the important one.

A spiritual person understands that no religion is the right religion, its simply the attempt to understand and get closer to oneness with the universe in a subjective way. So anyone who is worshiping some specific god, is misdirecting people in to a certain idea of god, created by human ego.

To put it simply, a religious person cares about spreading and worshiping the truth of his institutionalized worship place and following a certain laid out path to god(like a fan of some brand), a spiritual person cares only that we all understand that we came from the same place, and that in essence, we all are one.

Spirituality, on the other hand, is more about a certain acknowledgement that there exists something greater than what we can currently perceive. A force in the universe that may not necessarily be scientifically measurable, or merely not yet.?

I'm disinclined to call this concept "God" because of the many associations that word has with people, including myself. I don't believe at all in there being some deity-like being that "has a plan" for us or that has preferences over things that matter to us here on Earth.?

The idea that "God hates gay people"—to use a particularly noxious example—is not just harmful, it's downright offensive to our collective accomplishments as the human race.

Spirituality is, in a way, a sense of childlike wonder about the universe being able to show us so many things we can't even imagine, but a firm belief (or leap of faith) that such things do exist out there.?

That faith, that belief, can be found at the core of multiple religions, but one can have that faith while not subscribing to any religion at all. (Speaking only for myself, for example: I’m deeply spiritual but not at all religious.)

The ideas behind many religions are positive, supportive and tolerant, but the requirements of strict adherence to certain specific rules, traditions, rituals or behaviors, gives them a certain self-obstructing element that often stands in the way of that religion evolving with the times.?

For instance, circumcision made sense as a religious practice in a time when people have no idea yet what bacteria and viruses even are. Similarly, restricting women’s solo travel made sense in times where a lone woman on the road would be particularly prone to rape and death with no recourse.?

Thankfully, times change.But while times change, and our understanding of religions’ moral codes and guidelines changes with them, the problem with old codified religions is that the texts themselves generally don’t change and evolve. This creates a disconnect, a cognitive dissonance, where you are increasingly tasked with having to figure out the moral meaning of an old lesson in today’s new context.

Personally, I believe in a universal balance. A “cosmic force” that is more a natural phenomenon well beyond our measuring capabilities than some conscious being of a higher power. This universal balance is truly universal, in that it works across all of time and space.?

For instance, if humanity at one point in the future completely tears itself apart, destroys itself almost or entirely, I believe it would be the counter-balance to humanity's taking from nature without giving back enough.

Nature (and the universe) loves a good balance of things. Ecologies flourish when they are balanced, and when disruptive elements are introduced, that balance can get lost and, sometimes, the ecology as a whole comes apart.?

A rising tide lifts all boats, but a fierce and sudden wave disrupts and causes chaos. Similarly with human society: we are stronger when we leave no one behind, exploited and diminished. When we lift up the poorest and weakest among us, we create civilization.

But what really drives my spirituality is my belief in the universe’s seeming listening ear. Throughout my life I have occasionally put my wishes out into the universe—not through prayer, but in concrete or tangible ways all the same—and found the universe to provide me with exactly what I asked for, or needed.?

The skeptic in me would previously dismiss this as coincidence, but after decades of life experience filled with this pattern happening again and again, I’ve become a firm believer in resonance with the universe

—that if you operate on a positive frequency with the universe and tell it your goals with great clarity and conviction, the universe will help you achieve them.

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

— The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho