Religiously spirtual and Spiritually Religious

Religious
Of or pertaining to religion; concerned with religion; teaching, or setting forth, religion; set apart to religion; as, a religious society; a religious sect; a religious place; religious subjects, books, teachers, houses, wars.


Religion
The outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having power over their destiny, to whom obedience, service, and honor are due; the feeling or expression of human love, fear, or awe of some superhuman and overruling power, whether by profession of belief, by observance of rites and ceremonies, or by the conduct of life; a system of faith and worship; a manifestation of piety; as, ethical religions; monotheistic religions; natural religion; revealed religion; the religion of the Jews; the religion of idol worshipers.


Spiritual
An ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality;an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”
Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individuals inner life; spiritual experience includes that of connectedness with a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; with other individuals or the human community; with nature or the cosmos; or with the divine realm.
Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life.
It can encompass belief in immaterial realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world.

There have been this discussion and sometimes debate about religion and spirituality. I put the images up here as part of this debate that sometimes goes on.

Some of my friends including myself sometimes say that we are spiritual but not religious.

I have close friends that are very religious.

Anything wrong to be religious and maybe not too spiritual? Or anything wrong to be spiritual but not religious?

And finally, is it possible to be both religious and spiritual?

Who is to say what is wrong or what is right in the first place?

I do not have the authority, the knowledge, the power nor the wisdom to actually say being either is right or wrong.

What is most important of all is what works for you.

If going to church and listening to your pastor every Sunday inspires you and motivates you to be a better person within your own right - then great.

If going to the mosque and praying 5 times a day is what gives you the peace of mind - not the war in mind to be a jihadist - then great.

If going to the temple and lighting a ghee lamp and walking around deities that you know little about gets you going - great for you.

If getting up at 4am and going to some Yoga center to listen to sermons about life and death and end of the world - great for you.

If you are persuaded by some bozo that the world is going to end on May 21 and then he says he calculated it wrong and now the world will end on October 21 - if that works for you, so be it.

At one time or another, Jesus, Mohamad, Budha, etc were all called insane bozo's  but they have a huge following.

I am not God to say the bozo in US with the doomsday prediction is wrong. Although I do not believe him to be right but that is my personal believes.

If Moses said a burning bush spoke to him and you believe him - it very well could have.

Brings me to this stupid joke. This is about 6 or 7 years ago that I heard it and George W was president of US at that time. Moses somehow through some time travel happened to be in Washington and as he was walking along, President Bush spotted him and recognised him to be Moses. So he called out to Moses and as soon as Moses saw Bush, he ran as fast as he could.

Somehow the Secret Service managed to catch Moses and brought him to Bush. Bush asked why did you run away from me? Moses said the last time he saw a talking bush, he was banished for 40 years in the dessert, so he did not want to do the same.

Ya ya, it is a stupid joke.

Whether you are spiritual or whether you are religious is of no real concern to me but does it bother you? Are you happy where you are?

If your divine soul in you is not happy where you are in your path right now, you have to find that inner happiness.

Of course, if you believe in bozo's and think you will get 72 or 99 virgins in the sky for killing infidel, then you are a bloody idiot.

Of course, if you believe some old bozo who can't even predict when he will shit next to predict the end of the world, then you are a bozo yourself.

But look at it, you have your life and I have my life.

When our lives cross paths and if it is wonderful, then great. If our lives cross paths and you find me to be a bozo and I find you to be a clown, then too bad.

And when relationships within family break and when friendships of years fall apart, there is reason and lessons in all these.

I am both religious and spiritual. The thing about me is, you will like me or you will hate me and I personally do not give a phuck if you hate me. I am only filled with love and forgiveness and gratitude for where I am today.

Take care and be well.