Spirituality
I developed this section awhile ago,
but just recently a friend asked me to clarify my spiritual
beliefs via email. The following is excerpts from my
response.
My perspective on religion can really
be defined in my use of the terms. Religion to me has
the feel of a more organized population approach and
incorporates the larger sects of Christianity, Judaism,
Taoism, Muslim, etc.
My use of the term spiritual or spirituality
is more of an individual approach to tapping into that
which we can not see, hear, touch, taste, or smell...the
feeling we get when loved ones pass away and we feel
their presence, the feeling we get when we feel we are
not alone in a room and yet we see nothing, de ja vu
experiences, "psychic" experiences where we
feel something is going to happen, dream it first or
just think about something such as an old friend and
then it happens, i.e. they call you the next day.
Spirituality to me means exploring
the unexplained and finding your own personal explanation
for what these experiences mean to you as an individual.Your
ideas may correspond to many others or overlap, but
you never set yourself up for others to dictate what
you can and can not experience and what those experiences
mean.
My essential problem with religion,
in the way that I use the term, is that by allowing
others to control your spiritual experiences, you allow
for those in power to be extremely exploitive. They
can use your
positive belief to unquestioningly start wars, collect
money for their own cause, and perform other unspeakable
crimes against humanity, thus negating the essence of
spirituality.
Not to say that all organized religions
or churches are guilty of this, just saying that this
is how the system works. If churches ask for your dying
loyalty to their cause, and you pledge it, the opportunity
for exploitation is there.
Spirituality on the other hand allows
you to make your own decisions, your own viewpoint on
every issue. Spirituality is your own personal experiences,
feelings, and interpretations of events and what they
mean to you. Organized religions, therefore, even including
covens, Catholics, Buddhists, Baptists, and Quakers,
however different, share a "religious" idiom
of belief and dedication to those shared beliefs.
In terms of my specific ideas of God
or the "almighty" figure, my personal spiritual
belief is that she or he or it is so complicated that
we may not be able to understand the nature of what
we call God.
I think that there is a purpose to our lives, I believe
in karma and reincarnation, and I think that spirits
and what we call a God exist and help us through our
life.
These constructs have helped me define
my feelings of spirituality and how I interpret my spiritual
experiences. In terms of differences in beliefs among
people, I think that the most important thing is that
you have an idea of your spirituality that is malleable.
Once you get stuck on one concept or
one belief system, you close yourself off to other energies.
I think the movie dogma said it best when they said,
"You don't have to have faith, just a good idea."
|
