By Dr. Margaret Paul
You go to church every Sunday and you say your prayers every day. Does this mean you are a spiritual person?
People often confuse spirituality with religion. People can be
both religious and spiritual, but it is also possible to be religious
without being spiritual, or to be spiritual without being religious.
You go to church every Sunday and you say your prayers every day. Does this mean you are a spiritual person?
No.
You practice yoga and meditate every day. Does this mean you are a
spiritual person?
No.
You belong to spiritual group and are devoted to following the
teachings of the group. Does this mean you are a spiritual
person?
No.
What, then, does it mean to be a spiritual person?
Being a spiritual person is synonymous with being a person whose
highest priority is to be loving to oneself and others. A spiritual
person cares about people, animals, and the planet. A spiritual
person knows that we are all One, and consciously attempts to honor
this Oneness. A spiritual person is a kind person.
So, you can go to church every Sunday and say your prayers every
day, without caring about loving yourself, others and the planet. You
can practice yoga and meditate every day without being conscious of
what is loving and what is not loving in your thoughts and actions.
You can belong to a spiritual group and devotedly follow the
teachings, yet still be judgmental toward yourself and others in your
daily life.
There are many people who do not practice a religion, who do not
meditate, pray or belong to any group, who are very spiritual people.
These people naturally do caring things for others. They think about
how they can help. Their thoughts are kind rather than judgmental
toward themselves and toward others. When you look at them, you see kindness in their eyes.
There are many religious people who are anything but kind. We all
know of religious people who are extremely judgmental, righteous, and
outright mean. Can you be both religious and spiritual? Of course!
But only when you are operating in your religion from your heart
rather than from the learned dogma of your mind.
Years ago I very briefly attended a "spiritual" group. People
would meet in an auditorium to hear the leader of the group speak.
The second time I attended I heard a number of parents yelling at
their children and judging them to try to control them. These parents
were being anything but kind with their children. That was the last
time I attended the spiritual group. The focus of the group was
surrender to God, but love was rarely in the picture! They obviously
had a very different experience of God than I did.
My experience of God is that God is the energy of Love that
created us and sustains us. In my experience, "God is Spirit" (John
4:24) and "God is love" (1 John 4:16). Anything that is not of love,
peace, joy, truth and kindness is not of God. Praying to God does not
mean that you are allowing the spirit that is God - the love, peace,
joy, truth and kindness that is God - to guide your thoughts and
actions. Practicing yoga or meditating does not mean that you have
invited the love that is God into your heart, or that you are turning
to that ever-present love to learn about what is in your highest
good, and the highest good of others and the planet.
If you want to be a spiritual person, then let kindness be your
guiding light - kindness toward yourself, toward others, toward
animals, and toward this beautiful planet that is our home. Recognize
that we all have the spark of love that is God within us, and learn
to honor that love so that you can know and experience the Oneness of
all that is.
Practicing Inner Bonding and learning to be kind to yourself inevitably
leads to kindness to others. Inner Bonding is a powerful spiritual path.
