I have listened to Rob Bell's video on "Rediscovering Wonder" again, and somewhere in the middle of the video, he mentioned about people calling themselves spiritual but not religious. To him, spirituality is about having a childlike wonder, and being free to question, discover and explore (the mysteries of life) with a sense of awe and wonder, and being open to different ways of looking at things, whereas religion is about being dogmatic and fundamentalist. This view sits well with me.
On another note, it is perhaps no surprise that many people in the christian circles, such as evangelical preachers in general, choose to equate spirituality with Jesus because Jesus has been a central figure in christianity for so long (about 2,000 years or so) that people in mainstream christianity have all along assumed (including myself in the past) that he was a historical character - after all, the idea of Jesus coming to save, love, heal and comfort us and to set us free from religion is a comforting and compelling thought itself. It may explain why the recent video "Why I hate religion but love Jesus" is so popular among those in the christian circles.
To me, after coming to see the bible as a collection of myths and legends, I now see spirituality in a broader perspective - for example, native Amercian spirituality to me is considered spirituality, which revolves around the concept of our oneness with the Great Spirit and with Mother Earth and all living things. Music is spirituality too. I think anything that enables us to keep in touch with our soul can be considered spirituality.
In my recent blog "To be spiritual is to be amazed", I concluded:
"For me, I would say any belief that does not cause harm to oneself or others and instead produces the fruit of love, peace and unity is of the truth because the truth always sets us free."I have also read the article "Spiritual, But Not Religious", and I can relate especially to this observation.
"Forsaking formal religious organizations, these people have instead embraced an individualized spirituality that includes picking and choosing from a wide range of alternative religious philosophies. They typically view spirituality as a journey intimately linked with the pursuit of personal growth or development."I agree spirituality is meant to be individualised, since everyone has a subjective view or opinion about God/Divine, which is influenced by a person's upbringing, culture, experiences and so on. Each person's experiences in life are unique, and it has been suggested by some inspirational sources that we all have our own unique spiritual DNA, so to speak.
I also believe we are already spiritual beings on a human journey, so there is no need for people to become more spiritual (in the sense of becoming more holy or moral or perfect, which itself is a form of legalism). The fact that we are moved by music, art, beauty and love is testimony that each of us is spiritual, and yet at the same time, we also need to connect with our humanity, in terms of our emotions.
I suppose the general idea I have at this point of my journey is that spirituality has to do with experiencing a sense of inner bliss that is unchanging, whereas humanity has to do with our emotions and thoughts (such as those of fears, worries, anger, disappointment, hurts as well as happiness, peace, elation, excitement, passion) that are fluctuating and everchanging - I would say both are equally necessary and normal and natural parts of our human existence. We all need to embrace both the spiritual and human sides of ourselves.
