[Advaita-l] New topic for Discussion - Religion vs Spirituality

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Ryan - PraNAms

Thanks for sharing your wisdom. You have made very good points. You mentioned that advaita was the original teaching all the religions that have old testament as starting point.

Now just a question, since you are member of this list, do you think 1. Vedanta is required for a seeker for self-realization 2. Does one need a guru or teacher.

Hari Om!
Sada

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 3/23/16, Ryan Armstrong <ryanarm at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] New topic for Discussion - Religion vs Spirituality
 To: "kuntimaddi sadananda" <kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com>, "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2016, 2:35 AM
 
 namaste Sadaji
 
 I think that there is a large difference
 between the two.
 In brief:
 Religion is about ritual and the
 organization and regulation of social affairs.
 Spirituality is turning the attention to Truth
 and allowing the paramaatman to manifest without
 ego-interference.
 
 Having grown up in the Catholic
 tradition, I found that it offers paths to spirituality. 
 But these are often hidden in the practices.
 One of the problems with the
 Christian tradition is that even through Christ taught
 advaita, when the religion was organized (centuries after
 his death), it became politicized.
 Christianity and Islam are both
 grounded in the Judaism - they share the Scripture called
 the "Old Testament."
 But interpretation and practice have
 led to divergent paths.
 
 In Genesis, the first book of the
 Old Testament, there is the scene of Adam and Eve in the
 Garden of Eden.
 They are told not
 to eat of the fruit of the tree of "knowledge of good
 and evil".
 In Religion, the
 interpretation is geared towards what is good and what is
 evil.
 In Spirit, this is a
 statement of the movement from unity (advaita) to plurality
 - dualism.
 Good and Evil is the
 first duality.  Before that, Adam and Eve knew only of the
 One.
 By eating the fruit they
 gained the "knowledge" of duality and hence were
 "driven out of paradise".
 
 I believe that religion has a place
 - it allows for an order in society which would be chaotic
 otherwise.
 It also contains the
 seeds which can lead to Spirituality.
 Spirituality on the other hand is a
 more "personal" endeavour.  
 In
 my opinion, it is the direct experience of the One - and the
 constant striving to remove the impediments in the being
 which cling to the idea of being separate and individual.
 
 Yours in
 Truth
 Ryan