Spirituality

Spirituality

Dear Readers, this article is a follow-up to my recent series on religious fascism. It explains what one can find once one goes beyond organized religion and enters the world of the spirit.

“There are no rules of worship. God will hear the voice of every heart that is sincere”.

-- Rumi

To understand the attraction of spirituality, one can begin by understanding organized religion and the role it has played throughout history.

Like all things in life, organized religion has been both a good thing and a bad one. In essence, it has been what people have made of it.

For many, it has provided a positive structure with which to define a path towards inner peace and social bonding over an accepted set of ideas and principles.  It also helped create a sense of belonging and community while it provided some guidance in how to live and interact with others.

It has provided solace with visits from clerics in times of suffering and difficulties. It has collected funds and provided alms to help the poor transverse a period of insolvency. It has also provided a set of rituals that marked the passage from one stage of growth to another through sacraments and ceremonies that underscored a sense of belonging.

On the negative side, organized religions are the product of a man-made theology.

The operative phrase is “man-made”.

As a good lawyer would ask, “cui bono” – who benefits?

Those who write the “spiritual” book, the formulae, the theology are the main beneficiaries.

In many cases, power is their goal. The holy then gets overtaken by the mighty, and the mighty have always sought power over others.

One has only to look at the wealth and political power of the pastors of megachurches in the United States to understand their motivations. Their followers are seemingly blind to the hypocrisy of leaders living lives that Christ would have condemned.

Most civilizations throughout history have had their priestly class. The Iranian and Afghan regimes meld Islam with power and regulate every aspect of human life. The same goes for Orthodox Judaism and Christianity.

Some may hold different opinions from those of their religion and are free to seek change. Others are not so fortunate, and face expulsion from the community, torture, imprisonment, or even death.

For some, religion ceases to be a simple spiritual quest when melded with politics. It becomes a violent negative force as we have seen from the countless religious wars throughout history, and the effects of the “us v. them” mentality that many religions have fostered throughout the ages up to today.

Consequently, for many, organized religion has been found wanting, and many among them have spread their search to what we call spirituality.

Renowned psychiatrist and member of the Royal College of Psychiatry, UK Dr. Maya Spencer, believes that spirituality involves the recognition of a feeling or sense or belief that there is something greater than oneself, something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are part is cosmic or divine in nature.

Spirituality involves exploring certain universal themes – love, compassion, altruism, life after death, wisdom, and truth, with the knowledge that some people such as saints or enlightened individuals have achieved and manifested higher levels of spiritual development than others. Aspiring to manifest the attributes of such inspirational examples often becomes an important part of the journey through life for spiritually inclined people.

Some can achieve this sense through organized religion, but others find religion confining and seek a greater union with a universal entity.

On a voyage through Afghanistan with Canadian Ambassador James George and his wife Carol in 1976, I asked them about their spiritual viewpoint.

Jim compared life to a wheel – the spokes at the circumference are wide apart and solitary, like formal religions. As you get to the center, the spokes converge as one – and that One is the center of all that exists.

Religions offer some pathways through which to explore the spiritual domain. Judaism has the Kabbalah, Islam has Sufism, Christianity has its mystics, and Buddhism and Hindus their masters and gurus. Yet only a small minority of adherents have access to these metaphysical schools, and again, they are based on the teachings of others rather than on self-exploration and awareness.

But those who move from the outer wheel to the hub begin to find unity in their concept of a deity and a holistic experience with the infinite that diminishes “us vs. them” to simply “us” – all seeking a similar path towards wisdom.

All spiritual paths focus on some form of meditation or contemplation that relaxes the mind, frees us from thoughts, and creates a space for our intuition to provide the possibility of a unique transcendental experience.

The late Conny Mendez, a Venezuelan teacher of metaphysics, always asked her readers not to believe a word that she wrote until they had experienced their findings personally.

When one explores within, there is no need for another’s validation of their beliefs because they are based on personal experience, not on another’s vision.

I have always believed that wisdom is a combination of knowledge and experience.

And knowing and experiencing are the keystones to our development as sentient beings.

The dogmatic elements of organized religion can at times restrict experience and knowledge by creating limits to exploration and artificial barriers between the orthodox believer on the one hand and the curious others who seek to learn more.

To progress in their quest for spiritual enlightenment, many turn inward, define, and explore their spiritual paths, and continue to grow more tolerant and accepting of everyone’s right to self-fulfilment, be they believers in a deity or not.

As one progresses in one’s spiritual journey, one might leave behind the community of the religious and often join a community of the spiritual. But there are no hierarchies, since spirituality is a round table, and nobody sits at the head. Each person’s path is unique, yet all lead to the center.

This occurs when one begins to travel down the individual spokes of the wheel and approaches the hub. Definitions converge, and the many varieties of religious experiences reach the unity of the spiritual hub – the essence of it all. The One.

And that is spirituality.