Contemplating Spiritual vs. Religious

In a THOUGHTS column a while back I talked about my “Vision Quest” and pursuing a spiritual path. When have I ever heeded the old warning of discussing religion and politics, especially politics? Politics and religion seem to bring out a primal passion in human beings to the point of war and death. The long, sordid history of mankind bears witness to this. Over the centuries they have been used as an excuse to segregate, discriminate, minimize, torture and eliminate whole groups of fellow human beings on Planet Earth. Of the two, religion would seem to be the least likely weapon against mankind and yet it stands out.

In my 57 years of life, I have been a Presbyterian, a member of the United Church of Christ, an elder in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. I have been an attendee of Unitarian Universalist Churches, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic Church services. Since moving to San Antonio, I have attended Quaker Meetings and Unity Church services. During my time as a Lutheran, I completed a two year Bible study class and could quote chapter and verse by its end. For most of my life, I thought of myself as a Christian. Later, I declared myself a “born again Christian.” Jesus was my Savior because He died for my sins. If I accepted his grace for free and took the words of the Bible as the unalterable words of God, I was assured a place in Heaven. Then I began to read and think outside the box.

I guess I can lay my “wayward path” at the feet of my mother at some point. She began reading books about Edgar Casey. We would have long discussions about the concept of Reincarnation. She was an avid reader and even though she came from good Presbyterian stock in her youth, she opened her mind to other things in her later years. The more I studied history, and in particular the early Christian Church, the more I realized that there were more questions than answers when it came to…religion. As a Christian, I had to accept that out of all the world religions, there was only one true path to God…Jesus Christ. All other beliefs were false. One way! One belief! And yet, the tenets of many of those other world religions say that THEY are the one true way. THEY are the only path to God. Wars have been fought over which religion is the one TRUE religion.

I was dealing with the end of my first marriage when I began to think about religion vs. spirituality. Weren’t they one in the same? If you are a religious person, doesn’t that also make you a spiritual person? Eventually, I came to an understanding that one did not assure the other. Being a religious person did not necessarily mean that you were a spiritual person. Eventually, I saw myself as a spiritual person. From that point, I felt that no one religion had all the answers. Each was man’s attempt to understand his dual nature of spiritual and physical being. Religions were created by men and were therefore subject to interpretation and fallibility. (Wow! Look out! Them’s fightin’ words, stranger!) And so started my spiritual path, my spiritual journey. From that point, I was free to consider and read other philosophies, beliefs, religions and thought. Books, CD’s, movies, people and teachers began to cross my path in my quest for spiritual enlightenment. They would literally jump out at me. Each was a piece of a puzzle without end. The more I learned the more I began to realize…how little I know.

Am I still a Christian? Well, yes and no. I accept that Christ is truly the Son of God and a very enlightened being, but then so too were others like Buddha, Moses and Mohammed…even me (child of God, that is). Is Christ my personal savior? Well, again, yes and no. To me His salvation for us was in what He had to teach while He was among us in the flesh…not that He died on the cross for our sins. Read Deepak Chopra’s book, The Third Jesus, to get a better handle on this concept. (Heresy, you say! I can hear it coming, folks.) My path has led me to this place and each one of us has to reconcile our belief system or our faith with our own spiritual reality, whatever that may be. My reality is not your reality. I’m no more “right” than anyone else. If the tenants of your faith or particular denomination give you peace and understanding…then you are blessed. Your own spiritual path has led you to that place at that time. But will you realize that the path continues?

The real question is, can man evolve to realize that we are One and that we can no more cut off our fingers to spite our hands than we can condemn our fellow brothers and sisters for perceived offenses or differences. We are connected and One with all that there is. Heaven and Hell no longer have relevance when we realize that we are forever… we are eternal. Our THOUGHTS create our reality and Love defines our being. If we can only evolve, perhaps we can stop fighting and killing over our politics and religion at last.

So you see, you can pronounce judgment on me and send me to Hell (your Hell) but, if reincarnation is real…I’ll be back (in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger).

FOOD for THOUGHT...