Religion and spirituality are really just two different fingers pointing towards the same truth we all seek.

RECONCILING RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

By

Bill Cottringer

    I have heard a certain phrase that bothers me to the point of wanting to try and explore it further. This is because I think it represents a fundamental problem of our time with all the classic symptoms that we all may want to chip in and do something to alleviate.  The phrase is “I am spiritual but not religious.” The typical reply I usually offer—“then you may not really be either”—doesn’t seem to be working very well. Hence, this article as a means to try and explain my thinking on and understanding of this matter.

     This following is not exactly a novel or profound idea, but a central challenge and drive in life for all of us is to continuously learn, grow and improve. We seem to be designed as a perpetual learning machine, even when we seem to be retreating to a safer, status quo position.  One of the most fruitful ways we can do this is to tap into the resourceful wisdom water of the invisible but very real religion-spirituality well. We are all looking for the sense of satisfaction, contentment, completion and success of knowing the whole truth and the meaning of life that only comes from this unified, single-minded well. Some of us know this with full awarness but many just seem to think they do. Maybe this is the meaning of the biblical admonition, "Many are called, but few are chosen." And maybe those chosen few just have not figured out how to package the importance and urgency of a religion-spirituality reconciliation, with communication that connects the two. 

     There also seems to be another major division between people—those who are avid searchers for truth and meaning of life and those who don't see a compelling need to do that sort of "passive contemplation" (although a classic research project using interviews with seniors over 90 revealed that this was their main regret in life--not having done such contemplation). And among the searchers, the division is furthered between persons aligning themselves with one of the many religions available and those siding with one form of spirituality or another. We have a classic standoff with neither side really understanding the other very well.

     There is one thing that none of us should lose sight of--that  this last division is really artificial in most ways because both sides seem to be pointing towards the very same truth in between. The trouble is they may both be taking their chosen side a little too seriously and not accepting anything from the other persepctive even if it does make sense. As it turns out, the division really is invisible, but then again, it is the invisible things that are hardest to know and talk about with any degree of accuracy, certainty and agreement. This blurry, fuzzy reality is miscommunication waiting to happen.

     What is the main cause of this fundamental problem we have about knowing an accurate, complete version of reality of the invisible, indivisible truth of life? There are three fault-contributors:

1. The way the brain works in hoodwinking us into believing the absolute certainty of what we think we know, which is rarely ever so (we generally only accept new ideas that fit well with what we already believe; and we will resist unlearning them with all our might, regardless of the compelling evidence to the contrary!). But what we resist persists.


2. And the babble we all use to try and communicate this nonsense to ourselves and others, which is currently producing total consusion and misunderstanding and making the division that more marked and annoying.


3. Both sides of the religion-spirituality equation are trying to go too far with their side's understanding--from the science of pure intrinsic understanding to the science of prediction, manipulation and control. They have both evolved from merely a means to an end, mistakenly to the end in themselves. Bad mistake!

     Let’s take a slight detour. Each of the four main levels of beings in the universe adds something new to the next step in a definite hierarchy. Minerals just are. Plants live. Animals are conscious. And humans are self-aware. As humans, and because of our self-awareness function, we have more potential to develop further than the rest of the food chain; but that’s not going to happen until we end silly feuds between illusory opposites such as the truths and untruths about religion and spirituality and rejoin both halves of the same coin to see the whole picture.

     No doubt, religion probably started it all by dividing itself into so many world religions and then further divisions of world religions such as the endless denominations of Christianity. But the New Age spiritualists (no clearer than the multitude of Christian denominations) have certainly made up lost ground with all their wild imaginary, unverifiable claims and carte blanch rejection of religious authority without substituting a better truth standard.  

    The only question we need to ask and answer is who is more correct? And even that question turns out to be a wrong assumption that the brain needs for the premature closure of certainty. The answer actually depends upon your own level of awareness and degree of evolution in consciousness. The “best” tentative answer is that they both have something important and valuable to contribute. Most of the theology of religion is generally sound (and it didn't become that way without intelligent, critical thinking) and has something important to say; but so does the invisible personal mystical experience of the spiritualists. And of course the potentially "negative" connotations of these two words themselves may be interfering with understanding that they are not really “opposites.”

     For those who reject religion (especially Christianity), the truth is they may not have given enough time and effort into really understanding the true meaning of what is and isn't being said in biblical scriptures or their theological interpretations (or they never found a church to help that process along). And that is probably because too many offensive religious dogmas and laws were imposed even resulting in religious wars, of all absurd things (it isn't the people's fault for rejecting organized religion; it is the religion's fault for overstepping its bounds, taking itself way too seriously as the only answer, and not exploring people's firsthand experience that didn't seem to fit comfortably into what the particular church stood for or was trying to control).  

   Also, the common, unthought-out literal translations and interpretations from religious theology often miss the genuine depth of meaning that our minds and souls desperately need, as often delivered by spirituality more directly, by-passing the brain's tendency towards erroneous thinking. Those who reject spiritualism probably don’t understand it well enough because such experience can’t be thought and dissected or worse yet, manipulated and controlled.  It is direct knowing of the invisible that can’t be verified in any of the normal ways. But isn't this the same as most religious doctrines?  See the similarity that we all have forgotten along the way?

   How can you be certain of the truth of something from any source?  You really can't . It all boils down to a leap of faith--even with your senses. After all optical illusions can be pretty convincing! 

The meaning of such daunting biblical challenges as "Man cannot live by bread alone" and "the truth shall set you free" seem to have direct applicability to both spiritual and religious living in helping us live a good life that both perspectives "preach."  

     So what is the solution to this important quandary for at least half the people on the planet? There are three  easy-to-identify but hard-to-apply solutions for consideration:

1. As a self-aware individual, consider the value of becoming  more conscious of your own consciousness—think about your thinking so you can be a little more correct and complete with what you think you know. In other words clear your mind so you can allow the right ideas and beliefs to occupy valuable space, instead of giving preference to the nonsense that is probably hogging space. Then begin to realize that what you see depends more upon where you are looking from and the picture just keeps getting bigger, the more you open your eyes. Try not to automatically reject and idea that makes you uncomfortable and look to understand it better.


2. Secondly consider slowing down and allowing yourself to listen to the ridiculous quantity of babble presently going on. You have to change languages to avoid being held as a hostage to the one we are all currently using, that is resulting in all the preponderance of miscommunication and misunderstanding. That is why poetry was invented—to capture a sliver of reality in a different language that can hit a bulls eye in the heart and spirit and leave the mind alone. We simply can’t solve the current problem—which is finding the truth and meaning about life—by using the same language that hid it from us.


3. Both spirituality and religion may want to think the order and frequency in which they speak the two voices of God--acceptance and unconditional love first and foremost, and then the gentle encouragement to be better in learning, growing and improving. Of course both sides may want to share a mutual secret about how you really do know the truth of something you are certain about (the proof is always in the pudding--the best way of being and living aren't talked about; these things are demonstrated for others to see). Actions always outspeak words.

    The words “religion” and “spirituality” are only organized letters that try to capture the essence of the most important wisdom in life; they are only a small finger pointing towards something much larger. Take the simple four-letter word love for another example. What exactly does that word represent? The answer makes up a large library.  Maybe I am posing more questions than answering any, but isn't that the purpose of our quest to understand and find meaning in life?

     This religion vs. spiritualism “debate” may be the most common, fundamental gap between people that takes on many different forms of a continuum anywhere between optimists and pessimists, Republicans and Democrats, thinkers and feelers, war mongers and pacifists, and believers and non-believers. I believe we would all be irresponsible if we didn’t at least try for reconciliation in acceptance of the need for balance in such a perpetual divergence. It may affect the outcome of all our lives.

     The best way for this reconciliation to begin is for us all to concentrate on improving how we communicate about such a fundamental difference. This will happen when we each practice conveying more equality, freedom, acceptance, honesty, spontaneity, empathy, politeness, tentativeness and positivism and less superiority, control, judgment, dishonesty, strategy, insensitivity, rudeness, certainty and negativity.

   And in the end, the real question we seek to answer with our lives is, “How much power do I have to create the future I want?”  The answer depends upon a few things such as what your experiences have lead you to believe and what you choose to believe based on the level of self-awareness you have achieved. We are all seeing the same thing with different eyes from different places. And those variables add great difficulty to the communication process which is already handicapped trying to talk about untellable things.

 William Cottringer, Ph.D. is President of Puget Sound Security in Bellevue, WA. He is author of You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too and The Bow-Wow Secrets:  seeing & Being Your Signature Self. He can be reached at bcottringer.com or (425) 454-5011.