Breaking Down Religion Vs. Spirituality

Let's discuss some false presuppositions that limit us in our journey with faith and spirituality. In the vastness of the human condition, does it serve us to view our spirit from a linear? We often talk about either/or when it comes to avenues to approach our growth in this area.

Transcript

What is up everyone?

Cara Payton here with the Happiness Habit Podcast.

So glad you could join me for another episode.

Today is going to be perhaps a conversation,

I hope it reaches you at the right time or right in the middle of these questions that I am getting about the notion of spirituality juxtapositioned against religion or why we do that to ourselves,

Why we have this dichotomy that seems to exist between the religious and the spiritual.

And you know when I first was presented to me as a kind of a debate of like you know do you consider yourself religious or spiritual and I kind of felt a little odd because you know in my experience I did that,

I did.

I left the church when I was in my mid to late 20s and I found something a little too in one particular sermon I was sitting in church and I found myself just kind of off put by the message that the pastor was giving and without any question,

Without any pause I kind of just you know decided that that message you know wasn't for me and that maybe church wasn't for me.

I threw the baby out with the bathwater and decided to get up and leave church and it had been you know not a long time coming but just slowly I just found myself not resonating with some of the messaging that was going on in the church and you know I felt that way that I was leaving the church,

That I had outgrown it and I used that word in my mind I remember specifically thinking that oh you know now that I've left the church I'll go into something a little bit more mature or a little bit more grown or you know something that holds more space for me to exist and I found spirituality and it was funny because you know I went whole hog into you know the numerology and the crystals and the meditations and the essential oil.

I went full on into that you know now I'm,

I went from father God to mother earth and the thing is I also found myself in the same place of okay well I've done all the things,

I have collected all of the status,

Collected all the checkpoints that you do with spirituality as I did with the church you know I was doing the Sunday,

Wednesday,

Saturday night you know at church I had become a Bible study regular,

I was somebody who clocked in and volunteered and was you know checking the boxes in the church and in religion and so I had gone what I thought was a totally different direction.

I had moved into spirituality and I considered myself to be an enlightened person which you know of course is the number one sign that I didn't know a thing and that I was far from enlightenment but in there I was growing my knowledge of what faith was and how I was going to operate as a human being and I still felt like it was missing something and as I moved forward you know I got rid of the crystals,

I you know put away the meditation pillow and I just kind of okay how can I make it none of these things,

None of these extremes in the pendulum are working you know where is my,

Where is my middle ground,

Where am I actually supposed to be and it was then when I finally opened that line of questioning with myself like what actually works for me,

What holds me entirely,

It seems like I'm such a different human being that I need a different type of spiritual experience,

I need a different type of faith and maybe you feel like that too and what I'm coming up against these days is that we have viewed all of this the wrong way,

We have viewed this as some sort of linear growth process that we're growing up or we're growing down or we're going forward or we're moving back and to be one place or another to choose one path or another means you have to cut off the other side.

What if in your meditations you have your Bible still,

What if in church it's okay to talk about more of a spiritual realm or the law of attraction or the universe itself as a whole,

You know what if God,

Jesus,

Universe all,

What if all of those things are talking about the same thing and we're bypassing half the picture every time we turn around just for no reason.

I find myself more met,

My needs more fulfilled when I'm allowing myself to just expand and add,

You know the law of attraction had a place for me in my journey,

You know the mindset,

The science behind what my brain is doing to me whereas it relates to heart coherence and brings all of that into peace,

You know where was Jesus on that scale,

Surely mind and heart coherence is something he was a master at.

So then in the spiritual realm as far as a teacher is concerned,

Jesus is still regarded as a heavy teacher,

An awesome teacher.

So what disservice are we doing to cut him out to go one way or to try and belong for no reason other than the obligatory sense of okay I need a category,

I need a label.

We have so many different religions and I'm literally just talking about the one that seems to be juxtapositioned against spirituality the most.

You know we don't talk about how any other religion seems to flash in the face of spirituality other than the Christian one and why?

It's you know it makes sense to me to assume that Jesus meditated,

It makes sense to me to assume that that man had zero doubt of who he was as a son of God and the Bible translation actually talks about being a child of God,

Not that you're a literal offspring of God but that you are a child of God and that is true for all of us.

Son of God,

Child of the universe,

All of this language that gets us so pivoted against one another.

Jesus become a trigger word and for no reason.

For many reasons of that which we have done to ourselves,

You know the religion,

You know the extremes on any side,

You know with the overly spiritual we have the overly religious,

Those people are not really what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the reasonable ones in the middle who don't know which direction to go because they think they have to go a direction.

What if they don't cancel each other out?

You know ask yourself that in your experience of faith,

In your experience of spirit,

Do you really feel like where is that coming from that you feel like you have to turn from one to go to the other?

Does that come from a deep heart conviction?

Does that come from something that you've read or does it come from an association or an assumption of what society,

What we've done to each other in these camps of this is where affluent white families live,

This is where prominent Christians live,

This is where Catholicism thrives,

This is the Jewish community,

This is is it something that you're doing to yourself?

And then think about it,

Where have you found the most peace?

Where have you been peaceful?

Have you ever been peaceful?

Have you found that you've adopted enough?

Have you you know are you still in the search for knowledge?

Are you still exploring?

And would the God that you know and you correlate with and you relate to and you love or that loves you,

Would they shun that?

I can't help but thinking that you know a perfect,

The ideal of perfect perfection,

God is love,

You know we I think we can all agree that God is supposed to be the face of love.

I can't imagine something that is known for love to turn around at something it's created and because they're in an exploration phase or a questioning or an adoption or an evolution of their knowledge of me if I were God and they're just finding their way to me closer and and gaining things along the way that could potentially add to their context of who I am to them.

I can't imagine turning my face on that and saying I'm sorry no you've gone the wrong way.

There are methodologies and tools that can be used against us no doubt but if we're leading with our heart and our mind in coherence with one another and we are truly able to develop that inner compass and that knowing that questioning system that goes within deep within that knows what it knows inherently if we follow that I don't think we can go wrong.

You know it could be a total hallucination but you know our rules,

Our stuff that we put on things,

Our labels,

Our limits that's where we go wrong.

We can be we can be tripped,

We can be stumbled,

You know Christians talk about being tempted by the enemy a lot but a mind that is coherent with its heart with that heart planted firmly in the soil of what it truly believes in inherently because if it is a child of God where it's planted is a good place.

I don't think that somebody can be tempted too far from God.

We are always in the palm of God's hand even if we stray even if we go really really far I tell you in my experience I have definitely felt that I have strayed far.

I have found myself so lost so upside down in my own journey with spirit with my own journey with religion and faithfulness and I still found myself the moment I turned the moment I pivoted the moment I added something to it the moment I allowed my heart that space to breathe and go this way and more and more and here you go even in the contrast even in the doubt even in the darkness that stuff was all powerful powerful information to help build that contrast because once you have a contrast you know where you're supposed to be you know how you don't want to feel and the more you feel it the more you go okay I have more information of how this develops the not wanted path and so I can turn better.

I don't think God or the universe or source or the creator of all that we live in cares much for the places that we can also get to that are off you know out of the way I think those also provide valuable information because when you know when you don't where you don't want to go and what you don't believe in what doesn't feel good you know even more and that much more of where you do want to be where you are supposed to go what does align with you it's all just information and if we could start allowing ourselves the permission to have that journey that spiritual journey that faithful journey that religious journey whatever as as one as a collective input every step on that map counts every step gets us closer we are supposed to experience ourselves as an ever expansion and I think we do us a huge disservice by moving it up moving it down going right or wrong it's all information and so if you're struggling with where do I fit in you know I just I feel like I'm adding more to my radar more to my mind more to my heart than the women in my church the men in my church or you know I start to feel like I'm being isolated or alienated from my spiritual group of girls because I still go to church or I have a Jesus I pray you know I would I would question if you're really among your peers among people on your path that you're meant to be around what is meant for you will not miss you and so when you recognize something that does not no longer serves you no longer is an alignment let it go and move closer and when you find something that does feel good does resonate does hit you where it counts add it in and keep doing that if it's a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit there if you're aligned with yourself what you add will be for your good if you're not aligned you know taking on information could be a bit of a challenge because if you're not aligned you don't necessarily know what's true for you you don't necessarily know the direction you're going alignment with yourself is key first who is that what is it founded in where its values what does it believe and then go out into the world and seek your faith.

Reviews

Kara, thank you for putting into words how I have always felt 🙏

Thank you for sharing this talk. I agree it is not an either or thing and you go inside to find your own truth. ❣️

FINALLY!!! Someone who I can relate with about this!!! Love to chat with you?
I always say that I believe in the Bible, because it is a real book, but it’s a history book written by Man…. Jesus didn’t write it, so I know it’s there, I just don’t live my life by it!!! God is not some magic man in the sky!!
All ways of believing should be allowed and loved!! Thank you!!
Please let me know how I can get ahold of you? 💕

Perfect timing for me to recommend in my group here in Insight Timer. A discussion we are opening up about GUSS (God Universe Source Spirit) - and how it’s all linguistics. Thank you 💗