"Here is my creed:
1 - I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe.
2 - That he governs it by his providence.
3 - That he ought to be worshipped.
4 - That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children.
5 - That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.
These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion." [Smyth, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, 10:84.]
Ralph Waldo Trine
Here is a golden thread that runs through every religion in the world. There is a golden thread that runs through the lives and the teachings of all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in the world`s history, through the lives of all men and women of truly great and lasting power. All that they have ever done or attained to has been done in full accordance with law. What one has done, all may do. This same golden thread must enter into the lives of all who today, in this busy work-a-day world of ours, would exchange impotence for power, weakness and suffering for abounding health and strength, pain and unrest for perfect peace, poverty of whatever nature for fullness and plenty. Each is building his own world. We both build from within and we attract from without. Thought is the force with which we build, for thoughts are forces. Like builds like and like attracts like. In the degree that thought is spiritualized does it become more subtle and powerful in its workings. This spiritualizing is in accordance with law and is within the power of all. Everything is first worked out in the unseen before it is manifested in the seen, in the ideal before it is realized in the real, in the spiritual before it shows forth in the material. The realm of the unseen is the realm of cause. The realm of the seen is the realm of effect. The nature of effect is always determined and conditioned by the nature of its cause. To point out the great facts in connection with, and the great laws underlying the workings of the interior, spiritual, thought forces, to point them out so simply and so clearly that even a child can understand, is the author`s aim. To point them out so simply and so clearly that all can grasp them, that all can take them and infuse them into every-day life, so as to mould it in all its details in accordance with what they would have it, is his purpose. That life can be thus moulded by them is not a matter of mere speculation or theory with him, but a matter of positive knowledge. There is a divine sequence running throughout the universe. Within and above and below the human will incessantly works the Divine will. To come into harmony with it and thereby with all the higher laws and forces, to come then into league and to work in conjunction with them, in order that they can work in league and in conjunction with us, is to come into the chain of this wonderful sequence. This is the secret of all success. This is to come into the possession of unknown riches, into the realization of undreamed-of powers. ["In Tune with The Infinite", Ralph Waldo Trine, 1897]
A learned man was once asked to explain the difference between Religion and Spirituality. His response was profound:
? Religion is not just one, there are many.
? Spirituality is one.
? Religion is for those who sleep.
? Spirituality is for those who are awake.
? Religion is for those who need someone to tell them what to do and want to be guided.
? Spirituality is for those who pay attention to their inner voice.
? Religion has a set of dogmatic rules.
? Spirituality invites us to reason about everything, to question everything.
? Religion threatens and frightens.
? Spirituality gives inner peace.
? Religion speaks of sin and guilt.
? Spirituality says, "learn from an error".
? Religion represses everything which is false.
? Spirituality transcends everything, it brings you closer to your truth!
? Religion speaks of a God; It is not God.
? Spirituality is everything and therefore, it is in God.
? Religion invents.
?Spirituality finds.
? Religion does not tolerate any question.
?Spirituality questions everything.
? Religion is human. It is an organization with rules made by men.
? Spirituality is Divine, without human rules.
? Religion is the cause of divisions.
?Spirituality unites.
? Religion is looking for you to believe.
? Spirituality you have to look for it to believe.
? Religion follows the concepts of a sacred book.
? Spirituality seeks the sacred in all books.
? Religion feeds on fear.
? Spirituality feeds on trust and faith.
? Religion lives in thought.
? Spirituality lives in Inner Consciousness.
? Religion deals with performing rituals.
? Spirituality has to do with the Inner Self.
? Religion feeds the ego.
? Spirituality drives to transcend beyond.
? Religion makes us renounce the world to follow a God.
? Spirituality makes us live in God, without renouncing our existing lives.
? Religion is a cult.
? Spirituality is inner meditation.
? Religion fills us with dreams of glory in paradise.
? Spirituality makes us live the glory and paradise on earth.
? Religion lives in the past and in the future.
? Spirituality lives in the present.
? Religion creates cloisters in our memory.
? Spirituality liberates our Consciousness.
? Religion makes us believe in eternal life.
? Spirituality makes us aware of Eternal Life.
? Religion promises life after death.
? Spirituality is to find God in our interior during the current life before death. -We are not human beings, who go through a spiritual experience.
-We are spiritual beings, who go through a human experience. [Source UnKnown]
See Also