Spirituality without Beliefs
I view myself as a spiritual person, but this has more to do with my lack of beliefs than my actual beliefs. What I mean by this is that I don’t have much faith in materialist reductionist explanations of the universe, and I do not consider myself to be an atheist. I feel uncomfortable about defining myself by what I don’t believe, but there is so much that is unknowable to me that it is becoming difficult to say what I believe. To keep things simple it is just easy for me to say that I’m spiritual.
I’ve come to the conclusion that ultimately life is one huge mystery, and this is what makes it so wonderful. I feel that all beliefs, including scientific ones, are just stories that we have developed to help us make sense of what it means to be alive. Some of these stories may do a better job than others of describing this experience, but ultimately they are trying to describe something that cannot be contained by language. I now say that I believe in God, but my god is completely beyond my comprehension – it is the mystery that can’t be described.
Problems with the Spiritual
One reason for why I can feel hesitant about using the word “spiritual” is that people tend to associate it with something beyond normal living. I made this mistake for a long time (I mean that this was a mistake for me – it might not be a mistake for someone else). I went searching for something special that I hoped to find if I meditated hard enough or believed in the right kinds of things. I now see that I went looking for the spiritual in all the wrong places. It was so close to me that I just couldn’t see it.
The thing that I now refer to as the “spiritual” is all that is left when my beliefs about reality are removed. It is what lies underneath all the stories that buzz around in my head. It is something so wonderful – way better than anything I could have hoped for. Yet it was so easy for me to miss because it was never hidden in the first place. This spiritual is always there in everyday life, but the stories I use to make sense of life act as filters.
Spirituality without Beliefs and with Beliefs
My spirituality lacks beliefs. This works for me because I can be a right pain in the ass when I have beliefs that I feel the need to defend. I’ve been forced to give up on beliefs for similar reasons that I needed to give up alcohol – I’m an addict! This is not to say that I’m opposed to other people’s beliefs because I’m not. In fact by admitting that I know nothing it makes it easier for me to entertain the beliefs of other people. I don’t see their beliefs as a threat to my lack of beliefs.
I said in the first paragraph that I know nothing about my god, but this is not completely true. It is obvious that whatever this amazing thing is, it loves diversity so maybe there is room for many different beliefs and non-beliefs.
Good stuff, Buddhism beyond dogma, ideas, belief, intellect etc then Christianity (etc) beyond etc. Beyon p[romotional stuff as well.
Nice to hear from you Bill.
I’m starting to look upon these beliefs as an addiction similar to alcohol. Some people seem better able to handle beliefs than others, but they get me into trouble because I take them way too seriously. Some of these beliefs will be like beer and some will be like whiskey, but they are all poisonous in my hands. The cure for my alcohol addition was complete abstinence, but it is hard to make it through life without any beliefs so the cure for this is that any beliefs/stories are kept in check by my core acceptance that I don’t really know anything (and I probably never will).
Hey Paul, excellent article, you said it right about not defining yourself by what you don’t believe in and the inherent mystery and unknowability of ultimate reality. I thought you might enjoy this passage from my Asbestos Head book which totally jives with what you’ve written:
Asbestos is very concerned about religion so he tries attending the local God’s Anonymous meetings every week where every weak soul sits in rows, mouth closed,listening to some guy’s interpretation of twelve guy’s interpretations of some guy’s metaphorical teachings from two thousand years ago. He finds this as useful as a hole in the head only more damaging to his brain, so he starts studying theology, philosophy, and the history of metaphysics for himself and finds that it’s this manner of introspection, this questioning of the unanswerable that expands his spiritual awareness and fills him with what some call God’s love, some call peace of mind, and others call crawling from the allegorical cave and seeing the light.
For him the light manifests as a series of realizations regarding the nature of knowledge. Mainly that he knows nothing, and neither does anyone else; including priests, mathematicians, scientists, and all other people using God, Numbers or Formulas to magically boost their ideas from subjective interpretations to Objective Truths.
Asbestos decides it’s his spiritual responsibility to study the thoughts and beliefs of everyone around him and throughout recorded history, because arbitrarily choosing a church or simply inheriting religion is lazy, limiting, and inconsiderate. It’s lazy because you leave spirituality up to genetics or geography. It’s limiting because you loose faith in anything outside your pre-packaged box of beliefs. And it’s inconsiderate because by choosing any exclusive religion you make the decision that all others are wrong.
Even members of the few religions that encourage open practice of other religions are bound to their group identity like poster-children, constantly defending the individuality in their collective faith. But that’s like bragging how modest you are. If you wish a collective relationship with some group’s conception of God, go find the next Holy place, read it’s Holy text, perform some Holy rituals then go home alone feeling like Holy shit, spitting out someone else’s existential excrement. If you wish a personal relationship with God, there’s no religion to follow, no group to join, and no book to read. There’s nothing to do but wander the world ever wondering why, and never decide.
Ultimately, any system that gives answers to metaphysical questions is suspect because it grants Truth to things We can’t know through experience. A more educated approach to the unknown is utter agnostic apostasy: accept you don’t know and couldn’t even know you’re right if you knew it. Spiritual questioning is best left unanswered and simply explored throughout Our lives as We all exist in the mystery.
Also thought you might like this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQTYkc4h8Ks
Peace!
~Eric
Thanks Eric, I enjoyed that video, and I’ll check out your website.
I’ve found that there is a great freedom to admitting that I don’t really know anything. The mystery is wonderful, and I don’t need to understand how it all works in order to enjoy it. I remember thinking about God as a child, but the mystery of life is far superior to any god that could come from my imagination.
I have the same reservations about belief systems as Asbestos. All these beliefs ever manage to do is limit my thinking.
Thanks
Confusion and illusion can arise out of over-reliance on language. The phrase I like is “Reality
or Truth is in the realm of the ineffable”, which is equal to what you said.
The one who wants or needs to know what God is and does may benefit from realizing
that the needer/wanter/person is also just a concept. In other words, the I is just a psycho-
social concept mistaken for Realty.
I definitely agree with you Rubin about over-reliance on language. I see it as acting along with beliefs as a filter on reality. Somebody wise once said the “Tao that can be named is not the real Tao”.