Spirituality and Religion

“Many people are already aware of the difference between spirituality and religion. They realize that having a belief system — a set of thoughts that you regard as the absolute truth — does not make you spiritual no matter what the nature of those beliefs. In fact, the more you make your thoughts (beliefs) into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself.”
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

“Religion is for those who don’t want to go to hell, and spirituality is for those who have already been there.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey.  We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
— Stephen Covey

“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church.  For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the Spirit.”
— Kahlil Gibran

“Unfortunately religious leaders model themselves after civil governments and treat people accordingly. In doing this they fall in the same trap that the scribes and Pharisees fell into, making religion a tangible set of measurable religious observances, which is legalistic and superficial. In doing this they become the focus of religious observance rather than God, and it is their endless rules and their rituals rather than love of God and concern for others that occupy the people’s attention. Customs and practices and traditions then replace true service of God and these become a serious obstacle to real growth in the love of God.”
— Father Joseph Girzone

“One cannot simply assume that spirituality will shower them with its gifts for free without the thought, prayer, or the connection it takes to become in tune. The gifts and the tools will be available in unlimited bounds when one strives to become in tune.”
— Lisha Marie Odney

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Come settle with me, let us be neighbors to the stars.
You have been hiding so long, endlessly drifting in the sea of my love.
Even so, you have always been connected to me.
Concealed, revealed, in the unknown, in the un-manifest.
I am life itself. You have been a prisoner of a little pond,
I am the ocean and its turbulent flood. Come merge with me,
leave this world of ignorance. Be with me, I will open the gate to your love.
— Rumi