When we use the word "spirituality" as a label for our own personal collection of religious beliefs, what word is left for us to refer to a collection of ideas and practices related to our spirit and that of others?
If we have no word to refer to a collection of ideas and practices related to spirit, how do we attend to them? How do we attend to our spirit and that of others without language for doing so? How do we talk about spirit without a language for it? It's like trying to talk about physics or psychology or anything else without words for what we're talking about.
When we use "spirituality" to refer to a personal collection of religious beliefs we misuse the word. We misuse it by using it in a way that has nothing to do with spirit. We thereby put ourselves at risk of deceiving ourselves into believing that our collection of religious beliefs has something to do with spirit when it doesn't. What does belief in some of the sayings of Jesus, karma, remembering past lives, transcending ego, identifying with the divine and other religious beliefs have to do with our spirit and that of others?
Likewise, when we use the words "spiritual beliefs" to refer to religious beliefs, then we have no words to refer to beliefs about our own spirit and that of others. We misuse the word "spiritual." We do so because of our allergic reaction to the "r" word: religious. In fact, what we call "spiritual beliefs" are, more often than not, religious beliefs.
More on this in Part 3
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