In the beginning….. (pun intended) all I wanted to do was discuss from my personal perspective what I felt was a topic of interest; What is Religious versus Spiritual? I have come to understand that people could be Religious without necessarily being Spiritual and that people touting that they were “Spiritual not Religious” may not necessarily be correct in that statement but perhaps they are more seeking Spirituality instead of Religion but all of this was going to require some explanation. So I decided to start with what I felt was at the core of the word “Religious”, which is dogma, and from there the can of worms opened up. That plus searching for what others had written on this same subject seemed to be coming up short for me so I set off to “fill in the gaps” and now I am finally writing Part 3 of what’s turned out to be an expansive discussion of this topic. In order to assist the conclusions I’m making here, I’m including recaps of Parts 1 & 2 (along with some additional commentary) but at the same time am suggesting that you take the time to read them in their entirety as they both comprehensively contribute to the final conclusions I’m making below.

Recap of Part 1 – “Dogma” first appears to be at the core of what’s used to define the word “Religious” because it determines what “faith” you follow as in Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Native American, etc. Dogma much of the time is assumed to be “law” because in the various definitions of it you find “authoritatively laid down “ or “set forth in an authoritative manner” not to mention “considered to be absolutely true” yet if you look at it from the Etymology perspective (aka the root origins of the word) you consistently find “philosophical tenet”. My old yellowing Random House dictionary says it the best for the meaning of tenet, “A belief or theory held as true.” Tenet also appears quite frequently in the various definitions of dogma I found along with “doctrine” and “code”. I originally summed it up as follows, “These (definitions) have used the words “system”, “specific”, “authoritatively laid down”, “prescribed”, “settled or established”, “doctrines….morality and faith”, “principle or belief”. Sounds pretty concrete, yet in the (other) definitions…it is stated more tenuous using “proclaimed as true without proof” and “accepted as authoritative”.” Think about it for a minute and realize that thousands of people have died at the hands of “dogma” because my dogma is better than your dogma because it has been “authoritatively declared” as the “official word of God”. Yet when adding all of the root elements to the various meanings you get that dogma is “A philosophical belief, principle, theory, established opinion, or doctrine held, established, prescribed, and proclaimed to be absolutely true without proof and accepted as authoritatively laid down as by a church relating to matters such as morality and faith.” So many meanings so little time for understanding.

Recap of Part 2 – My initial 30 mins of poking around online for the meaning and root origin of dogma showed me, to my surprise, just how subjective it really is and from there it’s not much of a stretch to say that the various versions of how dogma is used is done to suit the specific needs of each religion. This then forced me to ask the question of who’s doing the thinking when it comes to Religion, you or the dogma. Not only that but from a comment I made in my blog post, “Oprah vs Christianity” about The Believing versus The Feeling that when relating it to dogma the conclusion is if The Dogma is doing the thinking for you, then it’s also doing the feeling for you and now that brings into question of who’s really in control of how you feel about God. This is particularly true when you consider that the veracity of many faiths is not allowed to be questioned. For example I’ve read that the Bible was not allowed to be questioned until the early 1900’s and to some degree many still never really do. As a result of my own personal experience in conjunction with what I’ve witnessed with others, more and more people seem to be concluding that their innate feelings of The Divine are not in alignment with what their traditional dogma has been telling them and the bravest of those are seeking answers outside of their previously established dogmas. This why Part 2 focused on the discussion of why so many are leaving “dogma” and turning to “spirituality”.

The core of Part 2 centered around how The Feeling and The Believing can create conflicts in those that attain a personal relationship with The Divine that slowly begins to conflict with the teachings of The Dogma but the fear of ridicule or even banishment can cause much stress with many either remaining quiet or “adjusting” themselves accordingly in order to fit within the mainstream The Dogma requires (is it any wonder why sheep, shepherd and flock are used?). One of the most commonly cited conflicts in Christianity is how can a loving God have such wrath and vengeance? Or how can a loving Father send his only begotten Son to his death in order to redeem the world of its sins through his blood? Yes, there are many answers to these questions much of the time citing The Dogma as the source of the answer but for many this ends up not being enough in the long run. This is demonstrated by a growing number of seekers looking for something more in response to their questions that their original Dogma just isn’t sufficiently answering (see survey in Part 2). The conflict comes from The Believing being the determinant for The Feeling when in actuality it is not required because The Feeling is innate and requires no dogma for its existence.

Part 3 – For me it again comes down to the emotional connection you make. When you have made an undeniable connection with The All That Is, you will obtain a sense of the Unconditional Love that is within The All That Is, regardless of how you choose to see it. It is from this place that I’m making the distinction between The Believing versus The Feeling. I realized after many years of seeking that The Divine will appear to you in the form you need to see him/her/it. If that is a White Man with a White Robe, White Beard, and White Hair what I like to call “The 4 W’s God” then that is how The Divine will appear to you. If you need to see The Divine as a burning bush; then so be it. If you need to see The Divine as The Great Spirit; then so be it. In other words all that is required is the emotional connection to The Divine and the form it takes is irrelevant because it’s all about THE FEELING!!! Because I no longer adhere to any kind of pre-established dogma, I choose to see The Divine as The Formless Form. It is an essence, an energy that is everywhere at once. It is in All Things, at All Times, in All Places. There is nowhere it is not. I have recently seen The Divine referred to as “The Isness” a version of which I’ve also used in the past.

What I have come to realize about the difference between Religious and Spiritual is that you can be Religious and not Spiritual or Religious and Spiritual. There are also those who say they are “Spiritual not Religious” but in essence many are really seeking the Spiritual in lieu of Religious if for no other reason than The Dogma has become insufficient in answering the Call of their Hearts. The difference in all of these is determined by the emotional connection. The very first time I got to experience this was at my second Firewalk 16 yrs ago. A young woman showed up who was a devout Christian. She walked the fire with no incident and claimed it was her faith and love for Jesus that got her through it. I, on the other hand, had gotten an intense blister on my previous Firewalk from which I learned to “Get out of my head and into my Heart” as that was the cause behind how it happened. I was pissed that this “First Timer” who hadn’t done all the things I had done got through it with such ease. I was, of course, in Judgment of her and had to admit it during the Firewalk. What I eventually realized years later was that her emotional connection is what gave her the “Faith of Protection”. Over the past 16 years being involved with energy work, I’ve developed the ability to “sense” people. As a result of that, even though I may have absolutely no reference to The Believing that someone is adhering to, I can sense that The Feeling it produces in them is the same or similar to the one I feel. This then allowed me to see differences in how I was coming to understand The Divine in comparison to those that were following some kind of Religion and from that I eventually realized that difference was based on the emotional connection. Everyone who is intimately connected to their faith has an emotional connection but too often it contains Judgment, many times thanks to both The Dogma and the ensuing ego reactions, which I’ve discovered affects the overall connection. This is why I say that “Judgment is the unwillingness to accept another unconditionally” and why I believe it is one of the core elements of what differentiates Religious versus Spiritual. Any unwillingness to accept another unconditionally is directly related to your unwillingness to see The Divine in another and in turn your Self if for no other reason than “We Are All One”. Once I realized this I vehemently searched and removed any and all Judgments I had. Today I can feel when I’m in Judgment of another and then have to make a choice as to what I will do about it which more often than not involves me looking to where I’m sharing the same energy that my Judgment is projecting onto this person. Once I discover that, the Judgment immediately dissolves and is replaced by Unconditional Love for that person.

Regardless of the ascribed dogma or not, those that have come to understand the Unconditional Love of The Divine then not only see but feel and live that unconditionality as the Oneness in All Things; you no longer see or feel any separation. You know that we are all connected and what you do to another you so do to your Self, what I have come to call “The Golden Rule v2.0”. When you come to understand this you cannot hate another for then you are hating your Self. You cannot bring harm to another because you are bringing harm to your Self. Essentially you see, feel, and live that ALL life is precious and from there you honor and respect the Sanctity and Sovereignty of ALL Life. This then becomes easy to discern because your actions speak louder than your words because they are being supported by your emotional connection to The Divine. It purely becomes a way of Being.

So take a look around you and in the world in general. Where do you see Spirituality in Action? Is it in the acquisition of Wealth and Power via Endless Greed in the Wealthy, Ultra Wealthy, Global Elite or whatever you want to call them? No because absolute power corrupts absolutely and when the Sanctity and Sovereignty of human life is superseded for wealth and power there is no essence of Spirituality there. Is it in someone who will kill another in the name of whatever their god is? Absolutely not because the dogma of these religions has ascended up into the ranks of the ego which then isolates them from the others as the ego loves a good separation due to its “better than” nature. Is it in another who condemns you to hell or won’t talk to you because you don’t follow the path of “the one true god”? Absolutely not because when The Divine is in All Things, at All Times, in All Places there is no where The Divine is not. This is why in Part 2 I quoted Ex. #29 from A Course in Miracles, “God is in everything I see”. This means that The Divine is contained within the totality of the diversity of All Life, a concept that many have a hard time seeing at its extreme levels. The Divine awaits you through the connection of your Heart. If you haven’t done so yet then what are you waiting for?!?! The Christian Dogma says it very succinctly, “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it is answered.” It is there for the taking and all you have to do is open your closed Heart and the wonders of the Unconditional Love of The Divine will greet and embrace you. Let it find you without any others telling you what or how and in that you will completely and fully establish your own personal connection that will be unlike any others because pure and simply it is your connection and that is a wondrous thing indeed!!! I was told many years ago that I have a “Customized Spirituality” and I wouldn’t have it any other way as it allows my Heart to seek this emotional connection to The Divine (aka The Feeling) in any and all ways using whatever tools are at or will be at my disposal. When The Divine is The Infinite then this is a never ending process of unfoldment into and towards The Infinite Unconditional Love of The Divine. Every day brings yet another opportunity for discovery. Now go and find it for your Self!!!

BE THE MIRACLE!

If you have not done so, please read Part 1 before reading Part 2.

If you have read Part 1 and found it to be thought provoking, get ready to get your mental socks blown off!! There is a high probability with this post that you’re going to be shaking your head in disbelief and saying “No way is this true!“, which by the way is a common reaction when people’s beliefs are being seriously challenged. This is why the previous post delved into the various areas that I have come to realize are involved in Truth Seeking.

The next level of Truth is just below your current level of Truth and upon your initial arrival there it’s going to be confusing and sometimes hard to accept.

During the ensuing days after 9/11 the one thing that a lot of Americans did was to reinforce their Patriotism by displaying the flag and saying “God Bless America”. From my perspective, the blessings of God are bestowed upon you continually without fail, 24/7, whether you are asking for it or not. Why? God so loves his children that not loving them is never a consideration.

As a parent, when your child does something wrong, do you stop loving them? You may not agree with what they are doing and even attempt to circumvent it, but ceasing the act of love is not a consideration. Being made in the image of God, then it follows that God does this on an even more expansive level.

I tried to convey to some that the fact that the presence of God is in your life with or without the asking. In other words you cannot not have the presence of God in your life that it is actually impossible to disconnect from God. Hence there is never a reason to ask for Blessings that have continually flowed into your life without ever having to ask for them. All I got in response to this was the “deer in the headlights” look because the big question that resulted from all of this was “How God could let this happen?”

Let’s go back to the parent analogy.

God created this playground called Earth in which his children are allowed to play freely, as in the use of their Free Will. As any parent would do, there are times when intervention is required (aka Divine Intervention) and times when it’s best to let them work it out. How many times do parents tell their children incessantly to not do certain things, but they thought they knew better or even could get away with it? When these scenarios become excessively chronic, the loving and wise parent needs to let the child learn the lessons the hard way as in Tough Love. Sometimes this involves getting hurt mentally, emotionally, or physically, and in the most extreme cases all of these. Some of Life’s Lessons just end up being learned the hard way. Most everyone can attest to it at least once.

This is going to result in the response that in this analogy God let those people die. Before I address this issue I need to preface it with some other information.

The reason that I continually discuss The Believing versus The Feeling in some of my previous posts is because I have come to understand that The Believing currently is what is establishing The Feeling but most importantly it is the main driver of what separates us. I stated in “Religious versus Spiritual Part 2” that “God is The Infinite, a concept our tiny minds can’t grasp because everything around us is finite. If dogma says that God is This and Only This or That and Only That, does this not limit the Unlimited?” If your Believing refuses to accept anything outside of it, then the result is that you are limiting the unlimited feeling of The Divine.

If that is okay with you, then let it be so. In contrast to that are the constant comments I hear or read about how so many people are looking for more. Which one are you?

When you are constantly seeking more and more ways to understand The Divine the result is more and more revelations which are feelings of The Divine. This is why I’m asking you to suspend your disbelief because that may well be what’s limiting the presence of The Unlimited in your life. Many people have a hard time stepping outside the boundaries of their Believing of God because of the fear of the affect it will have on their Feeling of God; something they cherish and hold as sacred. What I’m saying to you is to give it a chance for there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. I am consistently awed and humbled by the continuing expansion of the presence of the Divine in my life to the point that my eyes will overflow with unabated and overwhelming Joy!!!

The concept I will now present to you has to do with The Perfection of The Divine. I first learned about this 10 years ago and it totally changed the way I look at it. There’s a bit more to it than what I am about to state, but the crux of it is that God is incapable of creating anything less than God. That pure and simply is an impossibility. A molecule in the body of God has the exact same capacity to create unlimited Universes as the entire body of God. There are many places this train of thought will lead you (assuming you are willing to accept it) but for now I’m going to associate it with the previous playground example.

The answer to the question of God allowing those people to die in the sense of letting his children work out their issues on their own is “Yes”. How can that be? If God cannot create anything less than itself and God is an Infinite Being, then to create you as a finite being is less than that and hence an impossibility. Therefore God does not view death in the same way you as you do. You view it from the place of Finite where God views it from the place of Infinite. God sees that you just changed from your Finite form to your Infinite form and the only thing you left behind was your finite physical body. In doing so God sees that all you did was leave the playground and returned home.

I’m not done yet, it gets even crazier than this!!!

In The Spirituality Behind 9-11 Part 1 I said, “…no part of the Spirit is Unconscious as in unaware”. When you add this into the mix, this then begs the question, who made the decision to die? Was it God allowing the ultimate form of Tough Love or some part of the Unseen Consciousness that you are not aware of? The answer is “Yes”.

If you’re having a hard time with this, at first so did I. This is something that you sort of have to take a teaspoon at a time and let it settle in.

One of the things I’ve heard over and over is that “No Soul leaves this world without choosing to do so.” At first that sounds fine. You come here, do your dance, and then it’s time to go. It was another matter altogether when I started taking that idea “to the streets” observing how it works. Watching people whose lives have basically come to an end in one form or another and then hanging on in a conscious or even semi-unconscious state for a long time makes you question that. What about being brutally murdered? What about incidents where the death is sudden for whatever reason which is then followed by irrefutable evidence that their Spirit is still hanging around?

Where’s the choice in that? Why did it take so long especially if suffering is involved? Why not just leave and move on? Why would someone chose to leave in such a brutal way? How could someone make the choice and then “hang around”? As simple as the statement may seem, its application into everyday life can result in limited understanding no matter how much you accept that “No part of the Spirit is unaware”.

Although I’ve come to understand some aspects of this, there’s always the individuals “Journey of a Soul” and that then becomes between them and the “Forces Beyond”.

Taking this to the events of 9-11, these people all chose on some level to be there and return home or die as we prefer to call it here in this place called Earth. This has to be then followed by “WHY?!?” In this case I cannot say I have the complete answer because of the amount of people in a single incident there is easily multiple reasons for the choice individually. In order to even begin to understand the individual level you’d have to go through extensive interviews of the affects it had and continues to have on the ones this affected. Each one is a unique experience in itself and is determined by their individual “Journey of a Soul”.

As far as the level of The Collective is concerned; I stated at the end of Part 1 that there is a storm coming and I was NOT kidding. I’ve been saying it a lot for almost a year but thought it had to do a situation with my previous employer. Many of the things that I thought would happen there have not occurred. This forced me to re-evaluate this feeling eventually realizing that I was being too narrow-minded in my focus and have since come to realize the Big Picture of this statement with the finalities of it in the last several days.

There’s a storm coming and its affect will be on the entirety of Humanity; we are on the cusp of a Major Evolution. The affects that 9-11 had on The Collective was just the beginning of preparing for this. This initial reaction of forcing us to ask “Why?” and the ensuing resulting quests for “Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here?” is the gift they all offered to The Collective for without it so many would have never even thought about it.

I cannot say if the storm will happen all at once or gradually over a period of time but what I can say is that it will put you in the place of asking these questions and more, and the answers will determine the direction we as The Collective will take.

All things with The Spirit involve Choice and so shall this. We will be given the choice to Evolve or De-Evolve. Sounds like a simple choice, right? Maybe not when the answers involve letting go of deeply and long held beliefs of Who You Really Are which may currently be vehemently and voraciously guarded and protected, you will find yourself at many crossroads many of which will be infused with Fear because the redefining of The Self can be frightening for many.

This is why I ask this question in Part 1 and will leave you with it again; What amount of Death, Devastation, Destruction and Mayhem will it take for you to entirely drop your boundaries of Separation and see and live as The Collective? Look around you and within yourself, WE have got lots of work to do!!! The results will be The Birth of The Collective Humanity and life here will never be the same….or not, then it will be more of the same as is Death, Devastation, Destruction, and Mayhem where Choice is limited or even worse predetermined as this is what De-Evolution entails.

The Choice is as much yours to make as it ours.

BE THE MIRACLE!

I’m sure that your initial thought upon seeing the title of this post was something related to the word “blasphemous”. How could anyone state that a day that claimed so many lives via such a hideous event could contain hidden elements of Spirituality? Of course there were the continuous comments made by certain facets of the Christian community that this was God’s punishment for our secular lives. Personally, I never bought into that. I have a much deeper yet controversial view of that which I will explain in Part 2.

Sometime shortly after the initial affect settled down I had a revelation about the Big Picture of this day. The statement I’m about to make is going to address something most people don’t ever think about in their day to day lives. It is a known concept in the area of Jungian psychology called The Collective Unconscious but as far as your day to day vocabulary it is non-existent because as a general rule, the general populace doesn’t think outside of its immediate boxes. There is nothing wrong with that because It Is What It Is Until It Isn’t.

I have only briefly studied Carl Jung but intend to do more because I see his work as the foundation of the Human Trinity that consists of the Conscious, Sub Conscious, and Super Conscious and from the little that I’ve studied contains deeply Spiritual indications. The little that I have come to understand of this in relation to Spirituality is that no part of the Spirit is Unconscious as in unaware; hence I refer it to as The Collective Consciousness or The Collective in short. Because the Spirit exists in the Unseen and people generally accept the edict that if you can’t see it then it doesn’t exist, then that which pertains to the Spiritual Consciousness resides in our unseen or unconscious minds. Enough of the psycho spiritual babble for now.

The revelation I mentioned previously in connection to The Collective comes from watching all of the television coverage during the attacks, subsequent destruction of the WTC towers and the aftermath of the experience. Many people were looking to God for the answers as to how this could happen to us. At that point I realized that from the perspective of The Collective that there were a huge number of people in a single incident turning to God, regardless of how that God is defined (I’ve already discussed the My God Your God stuff). If you think about this for a moment in relation to The Collective, it then ends up being the most spiritual moment in the entire history of mankind, namely because the population of the Earth in conjunction with the technology connected the entire planet to this incident.

So now that I’ve got you thinking about this in conjunction to the affect it had on The Collective Consciousness, what does it mean? For many, nothing, because most people do not think or believe they exist in anything outside of their immediate experience. Something of this magnitude cannot only have a single result. This will end up being the pivotal point for all of humanity but the first thing that has to happen is that humanity is going to have to wake up. Some of it has, but much of it is still sleeping, but not for long; the alarm is getting ready to ring.

The one thing I can tell you about the affect on The Collective for sure is that moments of this magnitude show us Who We Really Are both as individuals and as a society. Do you remember the continuous stories of bravery? How about the stories where our barriers totally disappeared? There were stories of people helping people regardless of race, creed, color, status, money, etc. It was humans helping humans for the pure sake that they were humans in need of assistance. Essentially it was humanity at its Unbiased Best. At that time no one was a Princess, or Prima Donna or WAP, or Nigger, or Honky, or Spic, or Pagan, or Christian or Buddhist or Jew or Muslim or…… the list can go on and on and on. There were absolutely no barriers that traditionally separate us to the point of judgment, hate, separation and most importantly, violence.

This occurred most profoundly on 9/11/01 but after that there were other incidents such as the Tsunami in Asia and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, to name a few, where similar things happened and many who were too far away reached in their wallets and purses to support those who suffered through disasters that occurred this time via nature. Although we do not get to see it often in the news, I’m sure such unbiased actions have also taken place in the many areas of our world where war rages on.

Once the smoke literally and figuratively cleared we eventually got basically back to business as usual with the poor being taken advantage of by the rich, the Christians bashing those who don’t adhere to their “Ours is the Only Way”, politics are run by big money at the expense of the people and again, the list can go on and on and on and on. In the end they are all related to any and all of the thoughts centered around “I’m better than you”. Essentially the ego is running amok and could easily lead to our downfall if not corrected because this only leads to continued and expansive divisiveness which has a very long history of resulting in death, devastation, and destruction which at its very worst has led to genocide. This is not the traditional Freudian/Jungian idea of ego but more of an expansion of it I’ve discovered that will eventually be explained. This is closer to the idea of the ego in A Course in Miracles but not exactly.

For me this begs the question of why does it take disasters of these magnitudes for us to see the Oneness in each other? If “Ask and it is given” and “Knock and it is answered” are true, how does this equate to 9/11 being the most spiritual day in the history of humanity in conjunction with the continuing struggles of this planet, whether that’s the economy, health, or the incessant wars? You see most everyone only sees these statements in how it applies to them yet I’m telling you that it DID affect The Collective and has not been forgotten. Carl Jung said it is “a reservoir of the experiences of our species”, so once experienced it is never forgotten and has to affect the ensuing experiences.

The Divine is the Alpha and The Omega. It is limitless and unbounded. Hence it knows no boundaries of separation and therefore hears both The Individual and The Collective simultaneously and responds accordingly in that mode of “Ask and it is given”. From that reservoir of experiences just what are we asking for and what will it take for permanent resolution?

The way that I’ve come to understand the healing process is that at first you get a tap, if you don’t respond then you get a push, if that doesn’t work then it becomes a shove, if the message is not heeded then it becomes a smack and before you know it you get your ass kicked for the only reason of not paying attention to the resolutions that God is giving you. It’s the adage of “God deliver me from my pain….No, not like that!!!” while continuing to scream that God is not there for you and then “punishes” you with a disaster. Your life will tell you all about your Self IF you let it and that most importantly includes the communications from The Divine.

If the question and the answer are issued simultaneously because God loves you so much as to never hide the answers from you, then who is the source of your frustrations in the resolution of your problems? It is you. As simple as this answer sounds, it is actually too complicated to get into right now.

Yet the continuing spiral of our world into endless debt and war can only cause The Collective to continually ask for release from this madness. So this then begs the question that if disaster, murder and mayhem are the current tools that get us to drop our boundaries of separation resulting in Actions of Oneness while at the same time we are clamoring for the release of this madness, then what level of disaster, murder and mayhem will it take for the change to be permanent on a global scale?

Think I’m full of shit and don’t know what I’m talking about. Just wait. There’s a storm coming that will eventually change the face of the globe you live on. I’ve been dealing with healing for the past 15 years. Since 9/11 I’ve been observing The Shove and it’s turned into The Push. If the energy for resolution is intense enough The Smack can quickly turn into The Ass Kicking. When this happens on the scale of The Collective in its entirety, as in a global level, it plain and simply will not be pretty meaning death, devastation, and mayhem on a global level. Whether that’s instantaneous or graduated, man made or natural is yet to be seen.

This will not be the kind of storm your Auntie Em told you about.

Does it have to happen this way? No not really. Although some are waking up the Big Question is if it’s enough, because when I look around and carefully listen and observe the words, actions, and deeds of others, I see and hear a lot of separation, divisiveness, holier than thou, better than or less than, basically Minds and Hearts that are asleep and living in a dream and it saddens me when the answer is as simple as SEEING THE ONENESS IN ALL THINGS and acting accordingly.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely and in a world where the ego runs so fervently amok, something so basically simple seems to be so far away because the littleness of the ego adores its power and when that’s allowed to occur pervasively over long periods of time it will fight to your death to retain it. I can only pray that I’m wrong in that what I see or hear is from a limited perspective, but recently I’ve been paying more attention on a global level and my sadness has deepened.

BE THE MIRACLE!

This is a continuing conversation, therefore it is important that you read Religious versus Spirituality Part 1 before reading this post.

A few days before writing this I received an email from a friend with two USA Today articles on this type of subject. The first USA Today article is called, “Religious Americans: My faith isn’t the only way” and the second one is called, “Survey: More have dropped dogma for spirituality in U.S.” (note: take a look at the fascinating survey results). It’s interesting to note that the oldest one has ZERO comments where the one on dogma and spirituality has, at the time this is being written, 1,791 (updated 9/10/08) comments. Obviously the latter has gotten the attention of a large group of people.

I read several pages of the comments and the fascinating thing is that they are very similar to the type of comments written in reaction to the YouTube “Church of Oprah” with the main difference being more comments from the “other side”. It’s also very interesting that the first article has absolutely no reaction but in just over 24 hrs there has been an average of one comment per minute (assuming no one is sleeping). Why? It comes right back to The Believing vs. The Feeling that I originally discussed in my post “The Church of Oprah vs Christianity“. The first article is about how my way is not the same as your way. Okay, big deal, we see that all the time. The second article is about people turning away from dogma, the cornerstone of ANY religion and turning to this nebulous thing called Spirituality. So again, The Believing is being attacked here, even though it’s in a more mundane fashion than the Oprah YouTube phenomenon which was more attacking so it could promote a book. This article is only publishing the results of a survey but perhaps the reactions are forcing the readers to re-evaluate their Believing when there are statistics that challenge the dogma that supports their Believing. In other words, “Why are so many leaving dogma and turning to spirituality?”

Taking all of this into the context of what it means to be “spiritual” with dogma being used as the basis of the definition, it not only puts dogma into the realm of a personal opinion but also being religious or spiritual as a personal experience. This then takes us back to the comment in my first post about The Believing and The Feeling. Believing is based on thoughts and Feeling on emotions. As in language, we both can decide that what we see in the distance is a tree, but that does not say that we will ever fully agree on exactly how we feel about that tree. For example, perhaps that tree looks a lot like the tree one of them fell out of as a child and severely broke a limb, where for the other it looks just like the tree where he/she first made love. Both people are looking at exactly the same tree, but are having entirely different emotional reactions, which again points to experience affects how you feel about what you see which in turn can affect your Beliefs.

Taking this to the altar of religion, two people can be within not only the same religion but also part of the same physical church and neither of them may fully agree on how they FEEL about God. In this case The Believing is fundamentally the same but the resulting Feeling may not ever truly match and again be based on previous personal experiences. As a result the dogma, principles or doctrines of a religion are normally vigorously and clearly stated to ensure that the resulting feeling is as much the same as possible (did you know that nothing in the Bible could be questioned until the early 1900′s?). The congregation of a religion then looks to a main figure of Authority to bestow upon it The Believing in such a way as to ensure they all feel the same way and if ever doubted The Dogma is then reiterated to bring the correct Feeling into the religious commonality. You see this quite clearly in the “Church of Oprah” comments and ensuing video responses. The Dogma is being reiterated over and over and over again. When this is being done by the main figure of Authority it ensures that The Believing is legitimized which then reconnects to The Feeling the congregation has come to know as a result of The Believing as stated in their Dogmatic Doctrines.

An excellent example of this is one of the “Church of Oprah” response videos. A pastor was going to use Critical Thinking to validate his verity. What was amazing about this was he talked as though the congregation should have the answers and asked his questions expecting them to respond, very few of them did and much of the time it wasn’t what he was exactly looking for which then made it look like he was leading them to the results he had predetermined. I was quite surprised at the minimal congregational response that was coming from someone claiming that he had taught them all of this. It was clear that they entirely depended on his Authority to determine their Believing.

The congregation has bestowed upon this main figure the responsibility of delivering The Dogma, he is The Authority, to the point that the Dogma determines how they should think which then “thinks” for them. If Dogma thinks for you, then Dogma feels for you, and doesn’t that rob you of your Free Will, a God given gift? You were born with the capacity to feel a plethora of emotions, why would you allow anything to do it for you? Does that not rob you of the one thing that makes you a human being? If Life is more about the experience of the journey then what kind of life are you living if feeling is done or directed for you?

What would happen if you thought about it for your Self, outside the constraints of The Dogma, could it be possible that you might come to some different conclusions? If so you might not then fit in with this specific religion any longer which then threatens you to become an outcast and then you’ll have to find it for yourself, a frightening scenario indeed. If there are so many interpretations to the word dogma in various dictionaries where the editors of them make the decision for you based on their interpretation which in turn determines how you feel about the word, might not the main figure of any religion have their own interpretation? The most negative extremes of that have been people like Jim Jones and David Koresh.

As this occurs, it can also be done at the cost of condemnation of those that don’t adhere to that Believing which only furthers our separation as a society. This is where I believe the detours begin with those that claim they are Spiritual not Religious.

Somewhere along the way their Feelings were not in sync with The Dogma of The Believing resulting in a conflict. These people thought enough for themselves to question some of the things they were being told via The Dogma. The more this conflict continues the more The Dogma becomes the object of the cause and by releasing one’s self from this, the conflict then ceases but leaves the individual at a loss because there is now a lack in that which supplied The Believing. The degree to which The Believing and The Feeling are interlinked will depend on where this person will now go. If the two were intertwined then one cannot be without the other and the person will be left faithless. Once some sense of The Feeling has been established, then other works are sought out that at least align with a Feeling that comes from deep within.

Without dogma to guide us to that which we call God (that word means something different to everyone because of the feeling associated with it) then all we are left with is The Feeling but not knowing what to do with it. This is why I contextually disagreed with the comment made on the Oprah video that “God is a feeling experience not a believing experience. If your religion is a believing experience, if God for you is still about a belief, then it’s not truly God”. This is actually true but only the first sentence. This is why I ended with the evolving human being. Here language was not established well enough to establish dogma as we know it, but that did not stop the presence of The Feeling. There is plenty of evidence in the graves of our ancestors, long before there was written language of spiritual beliefs being practiced. Some may say this is early dogma, but it is more in alignment with ritual because Part 1 showed the definition of dogma includes doctrines. The Feeling was calling to them so as the mind continued to develop so did the ways to discover what this feeling was and from that ritual sprang forth which eventually led to dogma.

With or without The Believing, The Feeling is there and essentially The Believing is not required to touch The Feeling. It is a calling from deep within. To quote a Buddhist phrase, it is the sound of the soundless sound, an essence that is just there, no explanation for it, it is just there. It is The Beckoning but is also a small still voice within that can easily be drowned out by the Circus of the Mind and if that has been infiltrated with The Dogma of The Believing then the resulting Feeling will be in proportion to what The Dogma of The Believing allows.

Let me put it this way. It is said in the Bible that God is The Alpha and The Omega and in the totality of God there is no beginning and no end. That God sees all, knows all, and is in all places. So it’s not a big stretch to take from this that God is The Infinite, a concept our tiny minds can’t grasp because everything around us is finite. If dogma says that God is This and Only This or That and Only That, does this not limit the Unlimited? In turn does it keep you from perennially discovering The Divine? Many years ago when I started on this Path of Spirituality I decided that no one will tell me how to think about God but what that did was force me to confront The Feeling and emphatically state, “Show your Self to me!”. What happened and continues to happen is the constant unfolding of the presence of The Divine in my life. It is a never ending wondrous adventure filled with Joy and the excitement of continual discovery!!

When dogma isn’t working for someone they either leave the religion without ever pursuing an alternative, or The Feeling continues to call to them and they seek out alternative writings that they can connect to. One of my absolute favorites comes from one of the exercises in “A Course in Miracles”. Exercise #29 simply states, “God is in everything I see”. For me, when I opened up to the infinite possibilities that The Divine offers, then it’s only a matter of time before you experience it in everything you see.

I have been getting a number of search referrals for “Religious versus Spiritual”. Upon doing my own search for this term and reading some of the results, it appears that this is a common quest for many people yet amazingly there is at best overlapping consensus and at worst disparity of consensus. Some of these people use the root of the word Spiritual, breath, as their starting point and from there state that we are all Spiritual, yet it doesn’t seem to truly explain what it means. Does this again require the recipient to come to their own conclusion? If for no other reason than Exercise #29 from above I agree that we are all Spiritual. The explanation for me is one that defines the level of your personal connection to The Divine or “that which we call God”.

Part 3 gets to the core of what I’ve personally come to understand is what truly defines the difference between Religious and Spiritual. It’s not as obvious as you may think and I’ve not seen anyone else explain it quite this way, at least not to my satisfaction which is why I ended up writing such an extended discussion of this topic because I don’t feel it’s as simple as some have made it out to be.

BE THE MIRACLE!

Have you ever stopped for a moment and thought about the differences between these two words? Think about when they’ve come up in conversation long enough and you might notice some things.

The most common one for me is that more people will “defend” their beliefs with Spiritual more than with Religious. In other words, whenever the subject of “Belief in God” crops into a conversation, especially if you ask someone what religion they are and some will respond with that they are “spiritual not religious”. I see this as a defense and can attest to that mainly because I am “guilty” of it. When this is the response, the person has rejected the notions of religion in favor for something not so specific and needs to state that. The one thing that I have not ever heard is the opposite of someone saying they are “religious not spiritual”.

So just what is the difference? Most people, especially those that claim the “spiritual not religious” stance will tell you the main difference is in the word “dogma”. Let’s then start with the “Grammar of It All”.

Per http://www.etymonline.com; Dogma – “1541 {another source stated 1590-1600} (implied in dogmatist), from Latin dogma “philosophical tenet,” from Greek dogma (gen. dogmatos) “opinion, tenet,” literary “that which one thinks is true,” from dokein “to seem good, think” (see decent). Treated in 17c.-18c. as Greek, with pl. dogmata.” So there we have it, right? Not really because this is using the word to describe the word, so big deal if dogma is from the Latin or Greek of the same name. So that didn’t help.

If you just take the referenced Latin and Greek, tenet appears in both. Cross reference tenet (http://dictionary.com) you get opinion and dogma in the definition for tenet which exemplifies the peculiarities of the English language where we use the same set of words to describe another set of words. I take this to mean they have similarities with very subtle differences that are never really explained leaving you to come to your own personal understanding of their use. Using what has been given between these two; then it’s a philosophical opinion or tenet (opinion, doctrine, principle) that which one thinks is true. Let’s bring that down to something more manageable and say it’s a “philosophical opinion, doctrine, or principle that one thinks is true”. This leaves itself open for lots of speculation because you may not agree with what I think is true, but then again opinion is used in the definition.

When looking over the actual results at http://dictionary.com, the speculative “one thinks is true” doesn’t appear in these definitions. The various dictionary definitions are actually more solidly stated than that. Take a look:

Random House Unabridged Dictionary

1. A system of principles or tenets, as of a church.
2. A specific tenet or doctrine authoritatively laid down, as by a church: the dogma of the Assumption.
3. Prescribed doctrine: political dogma.
4. A settled or established opinion, belief, or principle.

American Heritage Dictionary

1. A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a church.
2. An authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true. See Synonyms at doctrine.
3. A principle or belief or a group of them: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present” (Abraham Lincoln).

These have used the words “system”, “specific”, “authoritatively laid down”, “prescribed”, “settled or established”, “doctrines….morality and faith”, “principle or belief”. Sounds pretty concrete, yet in the definitions below it is stated more tenuous using “proclaimed as true without proof” and “accepted as authoritative”.

WordNet® 3.0 © 2006 Princeton University

1. A religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true without proof
2. A doctrine or code of beliefs accepted as authoritative; “he believed all the Marxist dogma”

So just what is it then? Is it declarative or presumptive? The only answer I have for you is “Welcome to the English Language”!!! Language as a general rule is inadequate in relating not so much how we see the world but most importantly how we FEEL about it. The best example of this is the word “LOVE”. Think about how many ways that’s used and the various meanings that result. That’s why it takes words to describe words and even then the use of them can be somewhat personal resulting in many “that’s not what I meant” phrases spoken consistently throughout our daily speech. I wrote in a journal many years ago that “Language is the expression of emotions” and this demonstrates just how personal the use of language is, yet that doesn’t necessarily mean that the larger your vocabulary the better you can express yourself mainly because if you use a word that no one understands then your left with being misunderstood especially when many won’t ask what you meant.

All of this just to get to an understanding of the word dogma? Yes because this is begging answers to much larger questions. As much as we use language in our everyday lives, do you ever think about its emotional subtleties? Do you ever think that sometimes you’re just not understood? Do you truly know how you really feel on ALL levels of your Self? If so, how well do you communicate that and are words ever enough? If no two sources for the meaning of dogma totally agree then doesn’t that indicate that there’s a level of personal meaning even with the editors of these sources? Whose meaning do you use? The one that makes the most sense? Okay, but didn’t you come to that mental conclusion by going on how it felt for you? Did you also come to that conclusion on your own? As in no one told you how to think about it?

The point I’m trying to make is that if there can be such disparity with the definition of a single word that forces YOU to come to your own specific conclusions on exactly how to use the word, do you do that with all things of the Mind or do you let others think for you? If emotions are at the core of it all, then if you let others think for you don’t you let them feel for you also (or at least end up telling you how to feel)? If that is the case, does this enliven your Soul?

As much as we think about our world, what is really important is how we feel about our world. That is what has the greatest impact no matter what our take is on these “nasty little things” called emotions, we can’t escape it. When you bring this to the subject of God, whether that be via Religious or Spiritual, the final result of it all will come down to how you feel. This is why it’s said that it’s not the goal that’s important, but what we experience along the way.

Where does that leave us with dogma used to discern the difference between Religious vs. Spiritual? I’ll discuss that in my next post where I’ll pick up where I’m leaving off here. For now, think about the role that emotions play in your Life for I promise you their role is of a magnitude much larger than you have ever imagined.

Part 2 explores how this discussion of “Religious vs Spirituality” seems to be a popular subject that no two people seem to agree on. It delves deeper into this bringing again back to The Believing and it’s relationship to The Feeling. Check it out and let me know what you think.

BE THE MIRACLE!