Spirituality and Religion: Can one Exist Without the other?

The question can only be properly answered when viewed from multiple angles. The first angle is can spirituality exist without religion? The answer is an emphatic no. While many believe that it is not only possible but desirable, as they proudly claim to be spiritual but not religious, a closer examination will reveal the fallacy of this claim. 

Quite often when one thinks of religion their thoughts generally turn to organized religion. But the question being posed is not limited to  organized  religion but simply to religion. What then is religion? Although the word religion is usually defined in conjunction with faith, worship or God, it is also defined as a pursuit or interest which one ascribes supreme importance.Taken in this context the question is viewed from a different perspective. Can one be truly spiritual and not live in accordance to the spiritual values that he holds? If he is spiritual and truly holds that to be important than his life will change to incorporate those spiritual values he holds dear and will be “his religion”. These practices will become sacred to the point that they will not be negotiable to him. Failing to live in compliance to this spiritual outlook will be to compromise himself.

Most of today's religions were begun by someone who had a spiritual experience.That experience  was so arresting and so significant that the person who had it changed their entire life dropping all their former pursuits in a search for the Author of the experience. So important was this experience and its impact on  them that no stone was left unturned in their endeavor to share the knowledge  gleaned from their encounter. The teachings, practices and thoughts garnered from  the spiritual experiences of these individuals is what has become the religions we practice today. Although the epiphanies of these prophets, saints and sages may not necessarily be our own they are a mirror of the human condition and a window into the human psyche. Just as their experiences have changed their  lives so do we experience things that change our lives. These changes can create practices that we perform “religiously”. Something as mundane as a fender bender can affect someone to the point that he will never again drive without his seat belt. It may impact him to the point where even a trip around the  block will not be attempted without wearing a seat belt. This practice has become sacrosanct or sacred to him, not in an organized religious way sacred,but sacred nonetheless. If something as pedestrian as a seat belt can have this impact then certainly one who is spiritual or has a connection to a higher power will also affect changes in his or her life that are as true as the experience or outlook which birthed them. Spirituality is the mother of religion. It is the force which drives the life, and produces the thoughts and actions  of the inspired individual.

Next we must consider, can spirituality exist without organized religion? Although academically we may be tempted to say yes the reality is no, at least not a lasting spirituality. Spirituality without the counsel and guidance of organized religion often devolves into “the cult of me”. Everything now revolves around me, what I think, what I want or what I feel is right. I am now the author of my own faith with my spirituality as both my accomplice and my guide. My world is shaped by my unsubstantiated views produced by the self-anointed prism that the ego has erected in front of my experiences. With nothing higher than my own ideals to aspire to there is no impetus to learn or to understand anything outside of myself and therefore no opportunity for real growth. My only filter to what I will allow to enter and shape my views, is my already established views on what I think is worthy of consideration. This cult of me is the opposite of the aim of religion or spirituality.  While both attempt to subjugate the ego, spirituality outside of organized religion through this cult of me can by default sanction and inadvertently champion the pursuits of the ego under the guise  of it being the only genuine truth of the truly enlightened. Spirituality then dies to make room for the birth of a crude imitation; the exhortations of the stirred ego. As religion is the successful birth of the true spiritual experiences in man’s life then hedonism and megalomania are the results when it miscarries.

Finally we ask, after the spiritual experience is established and concretized into ritual can religion now continue its existence without spirituality? The answer to this is yes. By providing the remnants of a spiritual experience without the actual experience religion can cause many to leave off from pursuing the goal which the experience seeks to impart, union with the Author of the experience. Instead organized religion can cause its adherents to substitute in place of their own experiences the relics of the experiences of the author of their faith now present in the form of ritual. These artifacts of spirit can become a safe haven where one never has to engage his own spirit or venture out to tame the wilderness which is his own personal psyche. Devoid of the personal investment of one’s own spiritual experience the practice of religion can become rote and totally disconnected from its source or original intent. Religion then becomes a cold series of disjointed events, rituals and practices with no attainable goal but the exercise of ritual. Yet religion, even in this undesirable state, through the rote exercise of its rituals and practices such as the giving of charity, has the power to benefit the world persistently in a way that spirituality will fail  to do in the spaces of time it is not appropriately enthused. And even in this state all is not lost, for contrary to popular belief the practices of religion can  lead to the spiritual. In fact this is the reason that the rituals exist.The rituals are there to plot a map of the spiritual domain where the author of the  faith had his or her encounter with the Divine and lay out a system that enables the practitioner to have the same experience. One may ask, how is it possible that rote actions and procedures which by their humdrum nature are contrary to spirit be a catalyst to induce spirit? 

Let us consider the case of an aspiring classical pianist who, by rote, practices a selection every day. At first it is cumbersome and may even feel unnatural. Every note must be tediously played over and over again with the utmost attention to detail until it becomes second nature. Only when he has surpassed the burden of remembering which note comes next can he begin to enter the piece he is playing to seek a union with the spirit of the music. He now not only engages each note with passion but he also comes to realize that he must play the silence or pauses between the notes with  the same intensity as the notes themselves if the spirit of the music is to find expression in his playing. This exhilarating achievement of experiencing the spirit  of the music was only made possible through the dry and rote everyday practice of music. This phenomena is possible in every practice across the spectrum of human experience including the practice of religion. Though there is a danger of being caught in the snare of the comfort that the rituals of organized religion provides, it may well be worth the risk for the checks and balances that organized religion places on the ego. One who submits himself to the performance of the ritual even for the ritual’s sake has still  succeeded in subjugating his ego. However the one who enters the practice of religion seeking the Divine can, in a manner similar to that of the classical pianist, elevate the rituals of religion to that of a celestial art and through the ups and downs of life produce the music of heaven and the song of the soul. By engaging in this process his observances will provide a body so that the spirit can have and give life. The faithful in every religion have tried, tested and proven the efficacy of this process in providing an ego-less guide that the spiritual seeker outside of organized religion is sorely lacking.

Arthur White is a seeker of truth in all the many forms that it may present itself in.

We will be discussing this concept live on August 1st at Temple Beth-el in Suffolk, VA. Hope to see you there! Click http://spiritualityreligion.eventbrite.com to register!