Religion And Spirituality

Most could recognize a religion and even name a few among the many: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc. Religions share characteristics such as being social groups with defined boundaries of thinking and behaving, who gather on a regular basis for rituals reminding them of their boundaries, and have had a history spanning more than a generation.

Spirituality is personal rather than social, defines little but is communicated in brief, sometimes witty sayings or suggestive stories, has no rituals except living by implementing those sayings in daily lives in awareness of each moment and who are not concerned with the pedigrees of history.

Religion can sometimes be an obstacle to spirituality. A law of the Jewish religion in the time of the Nazarene was "Love your neighbor as yourself". However the religious definition of "neighbor" at the time was very narrow in Judaism, similar to the denominational distinctions of the history of religions. The Nazarene's spirituality was broader and he shares it with a story. You probably have heard it. It's called the parable of the Good Samaritan. The shocking thing about the title is that according to Judaism, Samaritans were not neighbors because of their religion. Samaritans were not good. Most religions, in our time, still define "neighbor" narrowly. Love, even more narrowly.