Spiritual But Not Religious

Isn’t it so freeing to realise that we can be spiritual without the shackles of an institution, an oppressive doctrine, an authority figure, or a controlling force in our lives? 

Freedom is everything. The freedom to choose. The freedom to say yes, or no, to explore without somebody, or something coming along, and forcing someone into doing something, or believing something. 

Whenever I write a post about God, or Jesus, I can feel people confusing spirituality and religion. And I can completely understand this, as I thought exactly the same. The story of Jesus has been tightly concealed within institutions of oppression, control, and abuse. But pick up a Bible and read the gospels, and see how much strife Jesus and the disciples got from the religious leaders. His story is not one of ‘religion,’ but it was quite a clever tactic of Satan to make it appear so. 

It is about freedom. We have the freedom to choose, we have the freedom to say yes, or no, but we also have something else. 

Do we want freedom without limits? This is something that as a parent has always fascinated me, and many reading this may be familiar with the concept of radical unschooling, when parents offer children a life of limitless, infinite opportunity. 

After watching the documentary about Osho’s life, Wild Wild Country, I was interested in learning more about the lives of those who had lived in his Ashram, and I read two memoirs. One was Breaking The Spell By Jane Stork, and the other was My Life in Orange by Tim Guest. What struck me most, was how sad the Ashram was for the children. Tim Guest, who grew up in the Ashram, writes about having the complete freedom to roam, and spend the days doing exactly what he wanted. But what he wanted more than anything was his mother, who was doing her own free roaming, in spiritual practises and they were mostly separated. Jane Stork’s daughter was sexually abused at the Ashram, and her son died young from cancer. The children did not get what they needed most; all the freedom in the world can never make up for the lack of connection to their parents.  

To me now, wondering around the spiritual realm feels a little like being a child at Osho’s Ashram. What use is freedom, without love and connection? 

Yes we can have connection to others around us, but what if they are also children, like ourselves? Children in a big bad neighbourhood, where demons roam and spiritual warfare is constant, even if it looks like love and light a lot of the time. We can try and take on demons ourselves, but only a parent can help us recognise the demons that don’t even look like demons. Only a parent can provide the sense of safety, and love, that is bigger than our own childlike selves. Only a parent can take us home. 

It is my belief that there is a loving parent, there beyond the veil. He is not oppressive or controlling, in fact, he’s so quietly behind the scenes, that so many don’t believe he’s there. He does not enter our lives without being invited; ‘For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.” (Matthew 7)

Once invited, there are times when this parent does suggest a limit. For me, it does not come as a voice, but it does come as a strong suggestion in my brain, such as that there is no point in eating anymore crisps, or picking up my phone yet again. Knowing this comes from God, I just can’t go against it. 

Like any good parent, he knows what we need better than ourselves, and is able to cut through the clutter of our fallen world, and offer some good advice. 

I’m forever grateful to my fellow children, who took me by the hand, and showed me the door. There was someone behind there after all.