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This month’s question from my portal “Ask Dieter: Directions
for living a meaningful Life” comes from Christopher in Zurich, Switzerland.
In one of your previous answers here you were writing about the question “Is this everything life has to offer?”. I’m 49 years old and what you might call a “successful” person. And even so this is exactly the question I keep asking myself over and ober again.
I would like to find a path which goes beyond the material success, which is more spiritual. But everything seems to lead to a religious structure. So could you please tell me what is your definition of (the difference between) religion and spirituality, and how to get started with the later one. Thank you and best regards!
Hello Christopher!
Thank you very much for your question(s)!
My definition (and there are hundreds if not thousands out there, just google it or look at wikipedia com :-); and at the end of the day you will have to find your own ), my definition of (the difference between) religion and spiriuatlity is two-fold:
1st) Both aim to explore the ultimate questions of mankind: “Who are we?”, “Why are we here”, and “How to live in harmony”, going beyond the physical appearances and what science can explain (for the time being).
And,
2nd) very simply: spirituality is religion without a God
As to how to get started on a spiritual path:
In the initial phase, do not worry about whether you are moving ahead or backwards because your logical judgments will be very misleading. When you sit for your meditation (which is the “tool” or practicing field for a spiritual way of life), your legs will tell you that you are going backwards, and your family will also probably tell you to stop this nonsense. So in the initial phase, do not judge anything. It is always best to start a spiritual process with an unconditional commitment for a certain period of time. No benefit needs to happen to you. Just simply do the practice out of commitment for six months. After that, evaluate your life and see how peaceful, joyous and calm you are. What is it doing with you?
Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any follow-up question!
Smile, breathe, and go slowly!
With kind regards
Dieter Langenecker
PS: You can find an explanation of the different meditation approaches at http://zenecagate.ning.com
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