Is there a difference
When I was new to the AA Program, I had a problem with religion. Organized religion, that is. I had no problem with there being a Higher Power and this Power being called God, or Allah, or Buddha, or Jesus Christ, or any other name. I had never heard of spirituality
I realized that there had to be a power much larger than any who was living a human experience.
How else could the mysteries of life be explained? Birth, death, heartbeat, regular breathing? The creation of the Universe itself, including the creation of the stars, planets, moons, oceans, trees, frogs, and mosquitos?
My problem came with trying to understand the various religions and why so many were created. Each religion acting as if they were THE only true spokespersons for God.
I heard many sermons but seemed to be getting requests for more tithing for various funds rather than what and who God was and how this benefited me. Placing guilt and shame for real and imagined transgressions seemed to be more important than how to recover from them.
When new to AA, I heard that this was a spiritual program, not a religious one. Because the meetings were opened with The Serenity Prayer and closed with The Lord’s Prayer, I really did not see the difference.
Then, wiser heads prevailed and I listened because they seemed to be making sense to me. Religion was man-made and spirituality was personal and Divinely made.
My God wasn’t “up in the sky in heaven” somewhere. He was in my own heart.
My God was not some figure in male human form judging and punishing as He saw fit. He was an energy that was up close and personal and inside us all.
I didn’t have to go through a go-between to communicate with my God. As Emmet Fox said, every thought is a prayer.
Wow! This just shows me that this is a simple program for complicated folks. I saw a picture on Facebook that explained it perfectly. Spirituality is like a huge ocean. Religion is like a fishbowl of water in this ocean. Very much a part of the whole but not the same or even similar. Just a component.
We are all spiritual beings. Living in a spiritual universe. One that is governed by spiritual law.
As Divine beings, we are individualized expressions of God and one with all that exists.
This explains how God communicates with us. Not by speaking a language that can be heard with our ears.
But with feelings, intuitions, senses, vibrations, and instincts. This communication is every bit as real as language. And more powerful!
So, to answer the question posed in the topic, the difference between spirituality and religion is that religion is like a grain of sand in a large beach. The beach is spirituality. Religion is a very small, but important, part of Spirituality. Just one of the component parts of the whole.
No difference between a bead of water and the ocean. Just the size.
No difference between a single hair and the mane of a lion. Just the quantity.
Everyone is a spiritual being, whether they envision themselves as religious or spiritual. Or even an agnostic or atheist. It is what it is! Thank you, God!
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