The starting point of all religions is the peak experience - the moment one finds one's ture nature. When the mind turns into and dissolves into its source ie no mind. It all starts with tthe non physical essence
Look at the starting point of Islam, Christianity, sikhism, Budhism and all the other religions. You will find that someone attained to Truth, then people gather around them. The awakened presence is obliged to say the unsayable to help others. Saying only as much as the listener is capable of taking in..His words speak directly to the listener's energy.Then after the Master dies, a whole lot of teaching is put together in form of books. Hence all religions have different set of of does and don'ts. But the essence is absorbed only by only a few. Most get busy with rules and precepts of religion. Because that is easy and convenient, ther is no challenge involves. Then religion becomes a social mechanism- that fulfills hierarchial needs of belongingness, sense of social purpose etc etc. Coffee mornings, charity, jihad- they all come into play.That is religion. When the teachings are conveniet.
Spirituality is the quest of Truth. When there is a living presence. To be open to that presence is spirituality but to follow a book of rules is religion.
Spirituality is not a genre per se. Its not that you believe in Reiki, energy, flow, unconditional love etc etc then you are "spiritual". Although the modern idea of spitituality seem to have become so.
The crux of all spirituality is to find who you trully are-beyond what you think, undersatnd, feel and already know. Sacificing the known for the unknown is spirituality. To go beyond your cherished concepts is spirituality.Religion can come alive too. but that happens rarely.only if the heart is open, but normally mind tries its best to run away, rebel, pinch its pipes, because living presence is the ultimate challenge. You cannot fool a living master. Look back how challenging even the 12 desciples found it to keep their heart open to a living breathing Jesus. But once he is gone, look at the number of Christians!
Religion is easy. Its all to easy to love/hate religion. The real challenge is to stay wide open. Then spirituality is a burning desire which burns away your separation, until only the flow remains
I know I'm now just a reader but wasn't the original posting about Spiritualism - not about spirituality?
" I ask out of curiosity, as I think there is some confusion in the wider community about the differences between Spiritualism and Spirituality."
between Spiritualism and spirituality....
spot the difference? 😉
must get back to being a reader!
Why is Spiritualism not regarded as a religion?
I would have thought that it is. It has a public face and is therefore more than simply personal belief. (I mean no hierachy by 'more than simply...' - hard to find completely neutral words sometimes.) One could, if one wished, find a Spiritualist Church. We can certainly find 'Spiritualism' on the BBC Religions pages. And although it isn't listed as an option on the UK Census, along with many other religions, it is counted if written in under 'other' (32,000 on the 2001 Census).
[Of course, the whole Census count is slightly artificial. I guess if you are a Roman Catholic you can just tick RC and be done with it, but otherwise you have to know what is counted. For example, if you wrote 'Heathen' on the 2001 Census, you were counted as "no religion", whereas, if you wrote "Pagan" you were counted as Pagan (31,000).]
I feel as if there is a thin line drawn between other well known religions and Spiritiualism.
Like when hubby was in hospital one time,he filled in the form for entry for hospital.
Where religion is he put 'Spiritualism' and was asked by the nurse 'What kind of religion is that?'
:rolleyes:
I feel as if there is a thin line drawn between other well known religions and Spiritiualism.
Like when hubby was in hospital one time,he filled in the form for entry for hospital.
Where religion is he put 'Spiritualism' and was asked by the nurse 'What kind of religion is that?':rolleyes:
I don't think the 'thin line' is between Spiritualism and the rest. There are bound to be more well known and less well known religions. And the ignorance of one nurse doesn't mean that Spritualism isn't recognised.
I have had exactly the same reaction to putting 'shamanism' on forms and have several times noticed 'pagan' being misinterpreted as 'atheist'. Most people do not take a huge interest in such matters and will have heard only of the most common of religions.