Understanding ourselves
For completeness, let’s look at a dictionary definition for spirituality as well. Doing so helped clarify religiosity; let’s see if it helps here too:
Spirituality: concern with things of the spirit, which is defined as: a fundamental emotional and activating principle determining one’s character; any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings [like god or angels theoretically can, for example]; the vital principle or animating force within living things
Clearly spirituality can exist anywhere someone is genuinely searching, and it encompasses personal integrity and building character. It lends itself well to individual exploration, even if you’re a member of a huge religion. Rituals of spirituality, from what I can tell, are honest and individual, even if the ritual is originally of an organized religion. We all find meaning in different ways as we seek an inner Truth, and we all take our own paths towards that goal.
Searching for understanding
For some, spiritual enlightenment can be found in the beauty of a sunset; for others in artistic creation; yet others find it embodied in a church or temple. What is important is we pursue our own individual integrity, not that we slavishly follow any particular ritual we’re told to follow.
These individually significant rituals take an infinite number of forms. Finding your personal rituals for seeking spiritual awakening will calm and center you, and help you deal sanely with life. Keep in mind, however, they’re the means, not the ends, to apotheosis; their purpose is to prepare your mind or Self to find your own personal enlightenment. Mine had to do with horseback riding, oddly enough:
[H]orse-back riding was where I found and claimed my particular spirit, where my personal soul or deity could be found. It was just myself and a large, friendly mammal to carry me effortlessly into the countryside, where I could find inner peace in my contemplation of the horse, the team the horse and I made, and the lovely scenery around me. And wasn’t a powerful part of this experience the ritual that led up to the actual ride?
True, sometimes I did not look forward to pulling on my boots, hiking out to catch the horse, cleaning and grooming it, tacking it up… but by the time I finally got out and was riding, didn’t I somehow feel more ‘right,’ more in tune with the world around me? And conversely, wasn’t the ritual of returning to the barn, untacking the horse, picking out its hooves and washing it down, a similarly slow but satisfying return to the concerns of the real world?
It was a surprising, pleasing realization — riding horses out in the country was where I felt most at peace, most integrally a vital, connected part of the world. I wonder how often we dedicate ourselves, perform, and perfect our rituals… and never even realize it?
Internalizing understanding
That’s the difference between organized religion and spirituality, for me. The former justifies and maintains what are often cruelly damaging cultural hierarchies, by stifling free thought or any questioning of the status quo. They deny truth, trample the inherent dignity of the human spirit, and refuse personal growth or honesty.
The latter — spirituality — is a sincere and on-going quest for enlightenment, nirvana, one’s personal Light or Truth or Oneness with the All — which requires oppression of none, but rather ennobles and sometimes uplifts its seekers-of-truth.
Sounds a bit pie-in-the-sky, doesn’t it? ;-)
Enlightenment
For the longest time I assumed an increase of reason and education would slowly but inevitably clear away the dusty, clinging cobwebs of stifling religious dogma. What I couldn’t figure out was why it wasn’t happening faster — did people really want to be fleeced and herded thoughtlessly about by manipulative clergy claiming they had the only One True Way? What was wrong with us? Why wouldn’t this pesky, short-sighted “god” concept just finally go away?
It took a long time for me to work out a personally acceptable, intelligible answer to those questions. First I had to realize the pleasure of mythic mystery, which could be appreciated on its own — the interesting “truth” of a good story lies in its allegorical applicability to life, not in scientific cause and effect.
Then I had to learn the difference between organized religion and spirituality, thanks to a wonderful, fascinating series of classes on the bible. I also eventually realized religions didn’t always have to stifle, thanks to the perceptive Bishop John Shelby Spong’s wonderful and intellectually challenging books — in particular Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism and Why Christianity Must Change or Die.
The final step was a book titled, appropriately, Why God Won’t Go Away to finally show me what was actually happening, and why it was a very good thing indeed. You should read it yourself, of course, but in a nutshell, the book postulates spirituality is bred into us as an unexpected side-effect of an evolutionarily beneficial, socializing trait. Spirituality is our desire to feel an honest Oneness with the All — and we can feel it by learning how to reach within ourselves.
So, in effect, our deities really are within. They always have been, waiting patiently for us to discover them and, through them, ourselves. The Greatest Journey Ever, the pursuit of the Magnificent Enlightenment, is still that most amazing, terrifying, confusing, wondrous, rewarding search of all — the quest to Know Yourself.
As was said in the final strip of the lovely Calvin & Hobbes comic, “Everything familiar has disappeared! It’s a magical world… let’s go exploring!”
I can’t wait to see what we find out.
I’ve been reading your October Firestarter and one thing caught my interest. I’m wondering about this quote in particular:
“What then with the millions we have sent to hell if these norms were not valid?”
You found it arrogant, which on first blush I found arrogant as well, but I’m wondering if the context of the priest’s comment might have been a different one.
Certainly to say ‘What about all the people we sent to hell based on these norms?’ would imply that the person is thinking that they actually sent people to hell based on those norms. But what if the context was subtly different? What if instead he meant that people were sent to hell because they followed those norms rather than did not obey those norms? Which is to say, what if because of those teachings, people who followed them were sent to hell? It casts the phrase in a somewhat sadder light, rather than one of pure arrogance.
However, me being who I am, I do not know the original context and the priest was probably bemoaning the fact that they had consigned so many people to hell already because of these norms, how would it look if we changed our mind?
Oh, on that I fully agree. Moreover I can’t picture any deity giving that kind of power to fallible, temporal mortals, which is why I find the doctrine of excommunication so additionally baffling.
The Firestarters are generally more interesting to provide feedback on than the reviews. Most of the reviews are, “Well, yeah, it’s a book review.” As usual, you’ll probably need to have this and the article open to make sense of it, as I’m going to make commentary as I read.
It’s very good that you’ve got a definition for religiosity there.
Hold on, I have to go read this again from the top. I’m not sure I understood it. From the comments at the bottom, it’s clear that I’m missing something (this does not surprise me. I often have little understanding of “spiritual” things).
Okay. The section on Religiosity is perfectly clear and makes the problems with any organized group of power-wielders clear, be they religions or governments. Now to read the second half again.
You asked, “Do I have a fluffy New Age definition?” Do you think you do or not? “…searching for the divine, the inner Light, the Oneness…” that could sound kind of New Agey to me, but not excessively so.
Of course, I may not actually understand the concept of what’s being discussed here. I don’t think I’ve ever had an experience like you describe. I’m not sure I even fully understand what it is that is being described. I’ve heard a lot of people in a lot of places describe similar things, and have only wound up feeling somewhat lost and confused. The words make sense, but the feeling they’re trying to convey eludes me.
Having read it again, it makes as much sense as I think it will. You are clear in what you’ve found and what you believe and what you’re trying to say. I don’t think I completely grasp what you’re saying, and my missing an important referent to it is not your fault. I don’t know how to correct this, and occasionally it worries me. Usually I don’t think about it.
My searching has at least found a home base (I don’t think I’ll ever stop searching though; it’s more of a journey than a destination). A bit more than five years ago I joined a Unitarian-Universalist church locally. The heritage is Christian, but the Unitarians broke free hundreds of years ago because they don’t believe in the divinity of Christ and Universalists because they don’t believe in Hell.
So we are “heretics” in both the religious and original (think for yourself) senses of the word. American UU’s (the two churches joined forces early in the 1960’s) are somewhat more eclectic than our European counterparts (adding elements of many other spiritual traditions), but the main philosophy is still “think for yourself.” I describe it as “dogma-free” religion!
I think one of the main issues in most religions isn’t that they are “organized” but that they have become a major part of an important world culture and thus have evolved into a “power player” so to speak. Most, if not all, religions started out as spiritual teachings, but morphed into some other beast as they gained more and more power.
The first priority of any powerful entity is to stay powerful, even if it means betraying inherent principles. (There may be a few exceptions out there, but not many.) And those who are most invested in keeping power are the most opposed to independent thought and allowing “others” (usually women & minorities) to have any power.
One comment I have to make is about your phrase “speculative framework designed to assign responsibility for their lives to anyone but themselves.” I agree, in principle, with what you are saying, though in my experience there is a very fine line in there somewhere between that and “everything in your life is your responsibility.” It has taken me too many years to learn to let go of issues that I have no control over and be able to trust that I’ll be able to handle whatever comes. (And believe me, I’m still learning…)
It is sad that so many people seem not to want to think for themselves… Simply too much effort? Or one of my pet peeves: too turned off of thinking from school experiences that often punish original thinking and are designed to foster conformity and acceptance of “one right answer” given to them by an authority figure…
I will have to add those books to my (ever expanding) reading list. They sound very interesting…