Religiously spiritual

What is a spiritual process? How is it similar to or different from religious experiences? Is religion needed for spirituality?

By definition, spirituality is defined  as "the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things." Origin of most of the world religions started with a transforming experience to one individual or a group of people. The revelation of Jesus Christ, Mohammad, the enlightenment of Budha and numerous oriental ascetics. The message delivered by them eventually get altered or transformed when it is transferred from mouth to mouth. For the convenience of masses, the messages would be converted to rituals, which eventually became a meaningless exercise. 

However, if we look into the core messages of the major religion we c

ould see some common threads. The commandments for good life in Bible or 8-fold path in Buddhism or Bhagavat Gita. These are concise, actionable steps to accomplish a stress-less, good life. The original purpose was the attainment of inner peace or enlightenment, in this life. But that is not good enough for most of us. We need a dream life after death, which is offered by religion. I would say this is one of the fundamental difference between spiritual and religious practices. While spiritual practices aim to attain peace and happiness in this life, most of the religion proposes to do good deeds to have a fun-filled afterlife. If you carefully look into the promises offered by religion in afterlives, it would become evident that these are mostly men's fantasies. Women have no big packages in heaven. It is mostly a paradise for men.

While most spiritual practices, such as meditation, is an inward journey, most religious practices are just the opposite, which I assume are closely related to the culture of the society where it first originated. But the fact of the matter is that, although I am not an expert in any religion, if we strip down all the rituals in religions and look for actual messages in the key text, they are pretty much identical. Watch your thoughts, spend some time on the inward journey, help others, practice love, kindness and compassion, use resources in moderation and share the excess, engage in creative activities, respect others freedom. If we can mindfully practice these concepts, we are en route to our personal enlightenment. 

Image Courtesy: http://telling-secrets.blogspot.com/2011/09/spiritual-but-not-religious.html