My take is that spirituality is an important and vital part of being human, but it is not the same as being religious,  I am not religious - I don't believe in the mystical or the supernatural, yet I am spiritual. Like one other poster, I can get tremendous inspiration from the awesome sight of the Cosmos on a dark silent night, or the 'miracle' of a pristine natural setting.

I also think that Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Well-being  are important parts of Human health. Whether you externalize your spirituality or (like me) internalize it, it should be ignored at your peril.

I also have the greatest respect for the beliefs and world views of other people, and I recognize that what's right for me is not necessarily right for others.. My personal paradigm is that the views of other people are not to be dismissed lightly as "delusions".

However, religion is almost impossible to define. There are many definitions of it, but none of them work for every world religion.

Barnes & Noble (Cambridge) Encyclopedia (1990):

    "...no single definition will suffice to encompass the varied sets of traditions, practices, and ideas which constitute different religions."

The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1990):

    "Human recognition of superhuman controlling power and especially of a personal God entitled to obedience"

Buddhism would not be classified as a religion under this definition.

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:

"a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."

There are many people around Horse Racing Tracks who would bet their money according to their system  of belief, but nobody in their right mind would suggest that they are following a religion.

- And then there is the definition of spiritual. The answer to the question depends on which definition you use ... for Religion and for Spirituality.

Bob_Bennett wrote:

Spirituality for me is a personal path of research, study of many many esoteric and metaphysical texts, and finally a decision on my part as to what to believe.

Question for you: how many of those esoteric and metaphysical texts use as their framework and point of reference the tenets of an organized religion?


don't most of those esoteric ideas derive from a foundation of exoteric dogma and received knowledge?

And if they do, aren't you ultimately creating a patchwork religion of your own, but one comprised of parts that come from (sometimes) mutually exclusive ideologies?

[QUOTE=alanna25;314969]I am having a discussion with a friend who believes by the definition of the word "religion" and "organized" that spirituality falls within the definitions, hence, spirituality is considered an organized religion.

A particular area of spirituality/spiritism, channeling, he also considers to be "organized religion".  I wanted to know, from people who practice spirituality, do you consider yourself part of an organized religion?

BTW, I think he is wrong, as spirituality doesn't have the same structure as organized religions have.

Thoughts?

Alanna[/QUOTE]



I see the two as alternative choices.   Organized religions generally spoon feed the sheep and tell them what to think and what to believe.

Spirituality for me is a personal path of research, study of many many esoteric and metaphysical texts, and finally a decision on my part as to what to believe.

spiritalk wrote:

Why not consider science as a help and aid to finding spirituality? 

Science examines life experiences for their meaning.  Many believe it can only happen with the 5 senses.  But many scientists are seeing the world more as a 'cosmic dance of energies' than a fixed machine in modern thought.

Funny,, I can't think of any instance where science has found "meaning" in life experiences. Science is good at telling us that something happened and the mechanics of that something, or that something simply is, and what that 'is" is  comprised of.

Where's the meaning in that? Seems to me any meaning is meaning simply overlaid on it by the individual. It's arbitrary. Meaning, that take fifty people and an event, and you'll most likely get 50 different "meanings" of that event, even if science can tell you unequivocally what happened from a material point of view.

The way I see it, spirituality is an element that may or may not be a part of any organized religion.


I mean, what is the spiritual? At it's most basic, it has to relate to our own spirit. Which some people don't even think we have; they think the kind of self-awareness that we think of as "higher functioning" consciousness is simply a by-product of evolution.

But that's a guess. Spirituality is separate from Science because Science is at a loss to explain spirit. Science is good at the What? and How? but not so hot on the Why?, I mean, as in, like, why is it there at all in the first place?

That's where religion comes in. First comes the experience. Then comes the attempt to make sense of it, explain it, put it into some kind of context. Science can do that with the material world. But the intricacies of mind and spirit, thoughts, ideas, dreams, etcetera etecetera... not so good. But Religion doesn't have to "prove" it's assertions the way Science does. Because most religions rely upon received wisdom, passed on to us from somebody else's direct experience.

Spirituality, I think, is the experience. So Look at the awe and wonder in a child's eyes as water runs through his or her fingers echoes (deliberately or by chance, I dunno) Blake's lines about seeing heaven in a wildflower and eternity in a grain of sand. It's understanding, in an intuitive, spiritual way, how it's all connected. And nobody needs religion to be able to do that.