I asked for feedback from our loyal Facebook followers to give me ideas for posts to write here at the site. I received this reply:
You wrote in your first essay: "The only solution to bad religion however is not the abolition of religion as such (contra New Atheism) nor becoming spiritual without being religious (which is impossible) but the formation of good, even better, more mature religion." - why is it impossible to be spiritual without being religious?
This is an excellent question. It is impossible to become spiritual without being religious if one ever wants to share one’s spirituality--that is to say if one is ever going to enter into any form of real deep relationship, community, spiritual friendship and the like. In integral terms this would mean accepting that the universe arises moment to moment consisting of individual and collective, interior and exterior forms of existence (i.e. quadrants).
Once spirituality is shared with another person(s), once someone asks another: “how do you practice and can I do it too?”, then you have a religion. A religion, as Ken Wiber says, is an organized form of spirituality.
You wrote in your first essay: "The only solution to bad religion however is not the abolition of religion as such (contra New Atheism) nor becoming spiritual without being religious (which is impossible) but the formation of good, even better, more mature religion." - why is it impossible to be spiritual without being religious?
This is an excellent question. It is impossible to become spiritual without being religious if one ever wants to share one’s spirituality--that is to say if one is ever going to enter into any form of real deep relationship, community, spiritual friendship and the like. In integral terms this would mean accepting that the universe arises moment to moment consisting of individual and collective, interior and exterior forms of existence (i.e. quadrants).
Once spirituality is shared with another person(s), once someone asks another: “how do you practice and can I do it too?”, then you have a religion. A religion, as Ken Wiber says, is an organized form of spirituality.
Two people practicing spirituality together equals a religion. Religion does not have to be limited only to the recognized so-called World Religions (i.e. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc.). Religion is organized spiritual practice.
After his awakening The Buddha spent a period of time questioning whether anyone could ever understand what he had experienced, whether anyone could really understand what he was about and how he practiced. But eventually he came to accept the need to preach and teach and work with others. And from there we have Buddhism. The Buddha preached his first series of sermons (The Fire Sermon, The Eightfold Path Sermon, etc.) to some ascetic spiritual seekers friends of his and a religion was born.
Religion doesn’t have to be overly organized. It doesn’t have to mean stuff-shirted folks in a building, singing bad music on a Sunday morning.
One way to break a religion down by quadrants is as follows:
UL: The inner experience of the religion (Spirituality)
UR: The practices, the bodily way of being in a way of spirituality (Ethics + Praxis)
LL: The circle of care and friendship that arises in this common shared set of practices (Community)
LR: The organization, leadership structures (Institution)
The answer to the question of why one cannot be spiritual without becoming religious is that (done properly) religion is more sustainable and has more impact. “A personal spiritual journey” alone puts far too much weight and pressure on an individual. It creates more anxiety, frustration, confusion, or in worst of cases arrogance, egotism, and a person closed off from relationship.
St. Augustine, the great Christian theologian, said that sin was the curving in on oneself (i.e. the breaking/avoidance of relationship). In this case, the danger is the avoidance of relationship to others in the spiritual life, to the needs of the world, to The Divine itself.
As long as human beings are going to form relationships with one another and try to achieve some goal together, then they will need structures. They will need structures concerning money, decision-making and authority, ethics (especially sexual ones), service, care for children, elders, and vulnerable ones. Those structures are the exterior social forms of what we typically call a religion.
In integral terminology higher stages/structures of development will not occur unless they include all four quadrants in their development. Any attempt to evolve higher structural forms of social and collective (as well as personal) manners of being-in-the-world will be (by this definition) a religion. Or at least will involve a religion. In fact, likely many religions.
Humans may need to invent new religions (in light of the Divine Grace) in order to meet this demand, but religion of some variety will be necessary. Otherwise the spiritual marketplace will continue to be dominated by individual self-motivated seeking whereby the individual ego becomes the de facto authority and locus of attention. Whatever makes the individual feel safe and good will be practiced until at some point it no longer makes one feel good and then they jettison the practice.
We need to come together as human beings. How shall we live together? That is the question that must force itself upon our consciousness, searing us moment to moment. Applied to the spiritual life the question becomes: How Shall We Practice and Develop Together?
That question (perhaps the most important for spiritual life in the West going forward) will inevitably end in a religion or religions. It is not a question that is often asked or even considered to be relevant. But How shall we practice and develop together is, I believe, the fundamental question for the spiritual life in the post-postmodern world.
Religion will not be the totality of the answer or answers to that question, but no legitimate answer will be embodied in this world that will not be a religion.
After his awakening The Buddha spent a period of time questioning whether anyone could ever understand what he had experienced, whether anyone could really understand what he was about and how he practiced. But eventually he came to accept the need to preach and teach and work with others. And from there we have Buddhism. The Buddha preached his first series of sermons (The Fire Sermon, The Eightfold Path Sermon, etc.) to some ascetic spiritual seekers friends of his and a religion was born.
Religion doesn’t have to be overly organized. It doesn’t have to mean stuff-shirted folks in a building, singing bad music on a Sunday morning.
One way to break a religion down by quadrants is as follows:
UL: The inner experience of the religion (Spirituality)
UR: The practices, the bodily way of being in a way of spirituality (Ethics + Praxis)
LL: The circle of care and friendship that arises in this common shared set of practices (Community)
LR: The organization, leadership structures (Institution)
The answer to the question of why one cannot be spiritual without becoming religious is that (done properly) religion is more sustainable and has more impact. “A personal spiritual journey” alone puts far too much weight and pressure on an individual. It creates more anxiety, frustration, confusion, or in worst of cases arrogance, egotism, and a person closed off from relationship.
St. Augustine, the great Christian theologian, said that sin was the curving in on oneself (i.e. the breaking/avoidance of relationship). In this case, the danger is the avoidance of relationship to others in the spiritual life, to the needs of the world, to The Divine itself.
As long as human beings are going to form relationships with one another and try to achieve some goal together, then they will need structures. They will need structures concerning money, decision-making and authority, ethics (especially sexual ones), service, care for children, elders, and vulnerable ones. Those structures are the exterior social forms of what we typically call a religion.
In integral terminology higher stages/structures of development will not occur unless they include all four quadrants in their development. Any attempt to evolve higher structural forms of social and collective (as well as personal) manners of being-in-the-world will be (by this definition) a religion. Or at least will involve a religion. In fact, likely many religions.
Humans may need to invent new religions (in light of the Divine Grace) in order to meet this demand, but religion of some variety will be necessary. Otherwise the spiritual marketplace will continue to be dominated by individual self-motivated seeking whereby the individual ego becomes the de facto authority and locus of attention. Whatever makes the individual feel safe and good will be practiced until at some point it no longer makes one feel good and then they jettison the practice.
We need to come together as human beings. How shall we live together? That is the question that must force itself upon our consciousness, searing us moment to moment. Applied to the spiritual life the question becomes: How Shall We Practice and Develop Together?
That question (perhaps the most important for spiritual life in the West going forward) will inevitably end in a religion or religions. It is not a question that is often asked or even considered to be relevant. But How shall we practice and develop together is, I believe, the fundamental question for the spiritual life in the post-postmodern world.
Religion will not be the totality of the answer or answers to that question, but no legitimate answer will be embodied in this world that will not be a religion.
