Although most people use these two terms almost interchangeably, the two terms are very different from one another.
Religion is intellectual, that is, it involves the brain and thinking. Spirituality on the other hand is not something ones brain can perceive, experience, or ever Know.... except in an abstract sense.
Spirituality emanates from within ones Spiritual realm, and this is a super subtle realm within oneself that contains ones Soul, and the Operational Energy of ones Soul that I refer to by the symbol "Apapsyche".
Your Apapsyche communicates with you via your intuition. When you intuit something, it comes as a concept. That is, there are rarely words associated with it, but it is more a complete thought... and when you attempt to "think" about it, it vanishes like smoke blown in the wind. The reason an intuited concept vanishes when you attempt to "think" about it is that thinking involves the Left-Hemisphere of your brain, and intuition utilizes the Right-Hemisphere of your brain. Actually, your intuition comes directly from your Apapsyche.
Perhaps it would help if I reminded the reader that the Whole Human Being consists of three simultaneously existing and yet separate realms of vibrational energy. All three of these share the same time and space. From inside to the outside, these are: Your Spiritual realm (including your Soul and its Apapsyche); Your MIND realm; And your physical realm (including your brain, physical senses, and your physical body). Most people are aware of only the physical realm, and the other two realms are quite unknown to them.
Your brain cannot perceive either the MIND realm, or the Spiritual realm. Your MIND realm cannot perceive your Spiritual realm. So, when you are thinking, you are using the Left-Hemisphere of your brain. To do this, the Attn Aspect of your Apapsyche must be located in the L-H of your brain. By the way, when the Attn Aspect of your Apapsyche is located in the L-H of your brain, you are unable to experience your emotions, which are contained in your MIND realm, or intuition which is from your Apapsyche.
In order to become aware of your intuition, your Attn Aspect of your Apapsyche must be located in your R-H and this is rarely done.... because to do so is like experiencing a sense of "losing control". So it takes some practice to open yourself to your intuition on a regular basis.
The point here is that the Spiritual within oneself cannot be accessed by ones brain or thinking. To access it requires ones Attn Aspect of Apapsyche to rise within oneself and literally move into a different realm of reality... and as I said, for many this is far too scary to do. So when many people experience a bit of unusual emotionality associated with some religious activity, they often tend to believe they have had a Spiritual experience.... when what they have had is an emotional experience only.
The difference between an emotional experience and an actual Spiritual awakening may seem subtle to one who has yet to experience an awakening of his/her Apapsyche to an intuited bit of Spirituality, but this difference is in reality quite vast. To come to Know in an Absolute way some Spiritual Truth is very different than establishing an intellectual truth based on emotionality. With a Spiritual Truth, one would readily accept death rather than deny ones Spiritual Truth, whereas with a religious truth one holds on to it as long as it does not interfere in ones life in any substantial way.
The key is that Spirituality is of an Absolute nature while religion is of an intellectual nature. To know a truth based on belief is one thing, to Know something because it has become ones Reality is quite another matter entirely. A Spiritual Truth is not something one believes is true, it is part of ones being that one would not deny on threat of death. Accompanying an awakened intuitive Spiritual Truth from within ones Apapsyche comes a bit of enlightenment that makes clear how one is a Spiritual being, and that this Reality overrides all other relative truths one once was attached to. A Spiritual Truth has nothing to do with this plane of illusion, but causes one to awaken to a Spiritual Reality that is so Real that the Faith one acquires from it makes the prospect of death welcomed and not something to fear or resist. One awakened to a Spiritual Truth does not become suicidal, but such a one is no longer fearful of death.
So the difference between religion and Spirituality could be said to be a difference between outside information and inside Knowledge. The one is comforting but the other brings both strength and Peace.
James W. Patterson, Ph.D., Esogist, or docjp, is founder of Esochology, EsoEducation, and is a student of the Esoteric realms [the MIND and Spiritual realms within Man, or those
two-thirds of the human being that many believe cannot be accessed], and Western mysticism. Click Here , or Here for additional research in Esochology and the "Unknown" in Man.
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