Spirituality

Ted Reads Spirituality

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Forty years ago, I was sitting in a large auditorium with hundreds of others, listening to an internationally renowned Christian minister. He was famously known for, instead of standing behind a pulpit, delivering the message de jour wandering the aisles of the auditorium.

As usual, I was sitting upfront in a seat right next to the aisle. As he was nearing where I was sitting, his eyes and mine met, he seemingly interrupted his message, put his hand on my left shoulder, and said “You know there is a difference between religion and spirituality, don’t you?”

It felt as if lightning bolt went through my body. I literally felt physically shocked; stunned. He looked up and moved on.  I was left sitting there with my experience, wondering, “WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THAT?????

I hadn’t ever heard that. I didn’t know of the difference, but those words changed my life. Since then, I’ve been fascinated, humbled, freed and challenged to learn more about what he meant.  I’ve spent the following decades exploring the rich and varied ways people connect with and express what they call their “spirituality.”

What I have learned is that there is a spiritual part in all of us. It is just one of many aspects of what it means to be a human being. It is a mostly quiet, essential part of us that asks questions such as who am I? Who are you? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What happens next? What’s the source of good and evil? What’s with all the inconsistences I see and live? What’s love and hatred all about?

All the existential questions. Over the years, I’ve come to see spirituality as something we all carry within us, whether or not we practice a religion. Whether we recognize it as ‘spirituality’ or not. It’s how we each wrestle with, answer, and live life’s most enduring questions.

As Pulitzer Prize–winning psychologist Ernest Becker observed, “We all must have adequate (for ourselves) answers to life’s mysteries to feel whole and at peace.”  Religions are designed to answer those questions for us, so some people don’t have to live with all that angst. For some that design works perfectly and is sufficient.

Every religion (approximately 10,000 at last count) has its own set of answers. I have found a richness in each I’ve spent time learning about. I’ve found that some people work at answering these questions outside of any particular recognized religion.

I’m one of the latter.  I am one of those left with the mystery of it all, questions unanswered and are surprisingly ok with not knowing; always keen to keep looking.  Innocently, simply curious about how others answer those questions, and finding ourselves often in awe with what we find.

It seems that since human beings have inhabited this earth it has been essential for them to answer these questions. That always makes me smile and wonder why. I have found that nearly all religions and belief systems are very defensive of their way of seeing things.

So much so, that people have killed each other over differing answers to the same questions. Neighbors, Family Members. Friends. Countries.  Gone to war, in some form, to defend or promote their answers to these questions. Now THAT is weird.  Questions that are unanswerable because never will all human beings totally agree to the same answers.

Sometimes I get together with others where we ask and answer these existential questions.

That’s a too rare, fun, and cool experience for me.

He was right, there is a difference.  Thankfully. 

I have found some things that work for me. 

I’m wondering what your experience has been.