Combat spiritual self-indulgence

Otherwise, you know, Rabbi, let me know when your holy castle gets incoming Email service. What's a few hundred years between friends, but,,, Time to wake up.

Incidentally, what manner of 'combat' o you propose?

Rabbi?

Pardon if I'm not as 'indulgent' as you imply. But....... *looking around* You had a point?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dzogchen-ponlop-rinpoche/is-buddhism-a-religion_b_669740.html

Siddhartha was a truth seeker, nothing more. He wasn't looking for religion, as such -- he wasn't particularly interested in religion. He was searching for the truth. He was looking for a genuine path to freedom from suffering. Aren't all of us searching for the same thing? If we look at the life of Siddhartha, we can see that he found the truth and freedom he was seeking only after he abandoned religious practices. Isn't that significant? The one who became the Buddha, the "Awakened One," didn't find enlightenment through religion -- he found it when he began to leave religion behind.

The Rinpoche puts Buddhism in perspective. A religion is not what the Buddha intended but rather the enlightenment that can only be found with freedom from preconceptions of reality and spirituality.

If everyone possessed the best qualities of Spirituality
but did not participate in religious organizations

The Rabbis, ministers, and priests would be out of a job.

David, Great post. Thanks

Rabbi David, I really really appreciate your wise insights. I have been waiting to read something like that for awhile, about spirituality and religion. I have actually thought about writing a book about the total unity and inseparability of spirituality and religion.

I find it unfortunate that some people have turned this issue into a sort of political drama, another reason to be disunified and argue about something. You really covered all of the bases in your comments, making it clear that religion doesn't exist without spirituality and that is its foundation. I consider myself to be a person who is both spiritual and religious and it has been interesting navigating various circles of people, some of whom consider themselves to be largely or exclusively one or the other.

May we all move towards the unity that our Creator has destined for us.

""When someone tells me he is spiritual but not religious, I always ask "How much do you contribute to charity?" Spirituality is a feeling. Perhaps even a connection. Religion is a system for bringing goodness into the world.""

Wrong!

Religion may say, 'How much do you give to an organization called charity? Take all you can and then 'give' enough!'

Spirituality says, 'Giving. How much do you love to be giving.' Furthermore, spirituality also says, sometimes, 'Don't take more than you need to begin with.'

Sometimes spirituality says 'Sharing' when religion just says, 'Kickback to salve the shame of taking too much from others.'

Not to be against charities by any means. But they might have less work to try to do in the first place if we were all more with the human spirit, not claiming "This 'charity' compensates for religiously taking or voting to take from others or profit by injustice."

""Does religion always work? Of course not. But too often spirituality is just a way of skimming the emotions off religion while disclaiming any obligation: I don't have to do anything because I feel so deeply.""

Maybe it's "religion" that has such a shallow and self-serving view of "spirituality" that that's all you can teach, Rabbi, but that ain't so.

""Spirituality is song and soulfulness. Religion? When people bring meals to the bereaved, that's religion. ""

No it's not. Or at least it shouldn't *have* to be. It's just 'taking credit.'

""When they organize charity drives, that's religion. When churches set up the largest relief organizations in the world, that is not spirituality; it is religion.""

No, that's just *clout.* It's a good thing to *do,* of itself, and sometimes a good way to organize it, but sometimes it really is just part of the whole dynamic of 'Vote Republican, accumulate all you can, wonder why it's never enough, then give some back to salve the guilt.'

(And sometimes it's just an 'advertising budget' but I'll rein in cynicism, there.)

Spirituality means having and living spirit *all the time,* not just when someone 'makes it official.'

Rabbi Wolpe says: "When someone tells me he is spiritual but not religious, I always ask 'How much do you contribute to charity?'...Spirituality is song and soulfulness. Religion? When people bring meals to the bereaved, that's religion. When they organize charity drives, that's religion. When churches set up the largest relief organizations in the world, that is not spirituality; it is religion."

I was raised outside of any religious tradition, but I have deeply spiritual beliefs that have evolved over many years of reading, listening, thinking, and feeling. These beliefs sustain me and spur me to try and be a better person. They drive my ethical worldview and inform the way I treat others. They encourage me to strive for tolerance and to take a humble view of my own significance.

My spirituality has brought me to engage with charities well beyond handing over a check or making a few phone calls. I've volunteered in hospice settings (giving hands-on care to dying people is a pretty direct route to humility), with domestic violence shelters, and in literacy programs. I've shopped for food, clothing and holiday gifts for homeless families and for personal-needs items for battered women. I've tried to be a good neighbor to the elderly couples who live on either side of us. I try to be a good listener when someone needs to talk. ("Listener," that is; not advice-giver.)

These activities are simply part of my life -- part of my "spiritual practice," if you need a label. My husband leads his life similarly. Neither of us was raised in any religion, and we are not affiliated with one now.

While I will grant you that large-scale relief efforts don't happen without huge organizations to operate them, I do believe that spirituality at the individual level -- on a day-to-day basis -- can bring help, comfort, relief, and even sometimes happiness to people in need.

Organizations are very good for some things, and those who wish to mobilize charitable efforts with large armies of volunteers do well to associate with religious groups trained and schooled to do charity work.

However, to dismiss those of us who practice our spirituality but don't attach to a religious system as somehow self-indulgent Hollywood types is deeply unfair and wildly uninformed.

And to do so in the derisive language that Rabbi Wolpe has used here is nothing less than a display of deeply rooted prejudice and ignorance.

The good rabbi is obscuring the main reason "religions" are opposed to "spiritual" people.

Spiritual people don't feel the need to pay the salaries of people like the good rabbi.

David,

"When someone tells me he is spiritual but not religious, I always ask "How much do you contribute to charity?""

When someone tells me that that he or she is religious, I ask him or her "How many homeless people have you invited into your home?"

Rabbi, I know plenty of atheists who give of their time at food banks, hospitals, animal shelters, homeless shelters, etc. Idnetification with a religion is not necessary in order to put legs on your compassion.

Rabbi, I agree when you say many people who claim to be spiritual do not do anything about their vague feelings or affinities. But to characterize religion solely as the practice of acting on ideals of doing good in the world is to miss that many people who do not believe in religion also do good works and contribute to their brothers and sisters who need help.

You blow off criticisms of the closed-mindedness that religion inspires in many of its adherents.

When Southern Baptists announce that they're against gay rights and evolution, it's not about doing good, it's about condemning people who are different than they are. When Orthodox rabbis and adherents call Arab people names, or say that Reform and Conservative Jews aren't "Jewish enough", it's not about doing good, it's about petty tribalism. When Muslim authorities announce what kind of music and art people can consume, or what they can wear or do with their hair, it's not about doing good, it's about exercising power over other people's lives.

Likewise, you also ignore the fact that the rigid adherence to religious rules does not free one to do good works, instead it causes inflexibility of thinking. It keeps people from progressing morally, it encourages them to cling to sexist, racist, or discriminatory practices. It gives them an excuse to treat their fellow human beings with disdain because they have chosen differently.