"I'm not religious but I am spiritual". This has been a popular way to present your authentic spiritual credentials for some time. It is supposed to say I am a sensitive, caring person in touch with the deeper aspects of life and able to expand my consciousness beyond the limitations of a materialistic worldview, but I am not restricted by dogma or authority.
Well, that's fine as far as it goes, but there are problems. It is true that all religions are, to a greater or lesser extent, moribund now. They have run their course, and we have entered into a new phase of human evolutionary development. But it is also true that you can only go beyond something when you have fully absorbed it, and most spiritual but not religious people have not absorbed the lessons of religion. What they are really saying is, I want the benefits of religion but I am not prepared to pay the price. I want the rewards without making the sacrifice. I want the elevation without first going through the abasement.
Far too many spiritual but not religious people think of spirituality in terms of their feelings. But spirituality has nothing to do with your feelings. It has to do with feeling but not your feelings because it is not to do with feeding your soul but getting your soul right with God with no expectation of reward, no selfish motive. Only those who turn to God for love of God rather than the hope to get something in the exchange will find what they are looking for. The rest will follow paths lit with false light to the land of illusion. Religion is there to protect these foolish wanderers from going astray. By eschewing its firm guidance many souls will fall into spiritual darkness, even if to begin with this darkness has a glow to it.
When you die all that matters is the orientation of your will. Whether it be towards God or towards self. Your spirituality counts for nothing since spiritual beliefs can be just as ego-centred as materialistic ones if they are directed towards the satisfaction of the ego. Religion may be limiting in many ways to the developing soul, but just as the embryo needs the protective shell of the egg in which to grow safely so the soul needs the structure of religion. Eventually the soul must, as it were, hatch and go beyond this structure but only when it has developed to the point at which it can safely do so, and the safety here refers to threats to its integrity both internal coming from the ego and external coming from the dark powers, the blacks as they have been called, those forces which stand ever ready to lead souls astray, always preying on their weakest points.
If spirituality means unstructured chasing after feeling satisfaction, it is a tool of the blacks. If it means dedication to God and to serving his will then it has learnt the lessons of religion and the individual can proceed with confidence. But so often these days to be spiritual but not religious simply means to be a taker not a giver. Many people over-estimate their position on the spiritual path, imagining they are closer to the goal than they are. If you reject religion and think you can do better on your own or by following one of the many replacements for/imitations of religion that have sprung up over the last 100 years, you had better make sure your motivation is right. If it's not, you are liable to fall into darkness and illusion.
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