Spiritual Not Religious – AKA Judgmental and in an Ego Trap

It is time to blow a hole in the expression, "Spiritual not Religious". I am both spiritual and religious, so I am pretty sick of people trash talking religion like it is something bad and that no one who is religious, is spiritual. I hope this posts pisses some people off. Let's start with the word, "Spiritual". This word has a lot of different meanings for a lot of different people. It is vague, misunderstood and nothing to brag about. Many people believe Yoga and Crystals are spiritual, many feel meditation is spiritual. Many people think that being against religion is somehow spiritual and that religion is to blame for all the suffering in the world. Sadly, they are ALL wrong, none of those things are truly spiritual. A spiritual path is one of Unlearning, of breaking out of our social conditioning and becoming authentic. The real meaning for spiritual is "Honest and Self-Aware". This means we are aware of ourselves , our behaviors and the impact we are having on other people and remain honest at all costs. It has nothing to do with pointing out how other people are doing things wrong. Sadly, "Spirituality" is a religion. It is the religion of rejecting and discrediting all other religions in favor of a religion that is vague, dishonest and confused. Now the let's discuss the word "Religion". This word has been poorly defined by Webster, because they are not experts on religion, however I am. My definition for religion is anything we do with regularity in terms of self-care. Whether we pray, believe in a higher power, of have any particular scripture that we follow is irrelevant, those are just some of the activities we do religiously. All self-care rituals are part of our individual religion, which may or may not include the teaching of other people. Self-Care is the expression of our belief system. I groom myself because I feel better about myself when I do, I exercise, read, sleep, eat, pray, work with regularity all for the same reason, because I believe it helps me feel better and the results show that I am correct. The 12 Steps of recovery are part of my religion, I am Omnist. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, and parts of several other religions are also included in my personal religion. I practice the 12 steps and suggestions I have collected in recovery religiously, and I personally consider all 12 Step recovery a form of religion. Most of the general public does as well. It has all the same components, it has principles & philosophy, it has self-awareness work and it has rules and traditions... that is a religion. Here is where I get a little nasty. I have a great deal of self-awareness, in spite of how I still hold anger and have unknown character defects. Technically, I am in an ego trap called Dry Drunk. Thankfully, I am fully aware of it and I am working on it daily. I have spent a lot of time on Facebook, learning about many things and here is what I discovered there. Anyone who claims to be Spiritual not Religious, is basically admitting they are bigots and I do not support bigotry. I have participated in numerous "spiritual groups" on Facebook, only to get kicked out whenever I addressed this exact point. Spiritual people are the WORST hypocrites on the planet. Not only do they practice a religion that they deny exists, they attack all other religions claiming they are wrong. Those people are complete idiots, because I can give you my personal guarantee, I know far more religious people who are honest and self-aware than I do spiritual people who are. They all seem to share the desire to blame religion as the root of evil and they reject any definition of God that is related to any particular faith. It is very easy to stand on the outside of things and point fingers, claiming that there are flaws. I have actually been there, I have spent time practicing and learning things from numerous religions and I am certain, truth can be found in all of them. What the spiritual people really have an issue with, is the judgmental passages. I agree with them on that point and want to offer a lesson in how to read scripture. First, recognize that God does not write books, humans do and humans have Ego. Every scripture I have ever read consists of a combination of Personal Truth and Universal Truth. The personal truth applies to some people, universal truth applies to everyone. When we remove all the judgment, rules, shame and blame from the scripture, nothing remains but the truth. Jesus, The Buddha and Mohammad all taught very similar things. I have distilled them into 4 basic principles, though there are several other healthy religious principles we can follow. Do not harm, because harm will return to you Do not judge, because judgment will return to you Do not lie, because lies will return to you Do not become attached, because attachments cause suffering Simple things and God may or may not have anything to do with it, that is your choice. I have no desire to attack anyone's beliefs, provided they do not violate those four basic principles. In brief, If you have a problem with religion, I recommend that you improve your own religion and forget about what other people are doing. Thank you. Rev. Jeff Rounds for Mixed Recovery, Inc.