Important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality

"I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality. Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of metaphysical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hell. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on.
Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit--such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others. While ritual and prayer, along with questions of nirvana and salvation are directly connected with religious faith, these inner qualities need not be, however. There is thus no reason why the individual should not develop them, even to a high degree, without recourse to any religious or metaphysical belief system. This is why I sometimes say religion is something we can perhaps do without. What we cannot do without are these basic spiritual qualities." dalai lama quote

FAITH IS BEING AWAKE

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week

January 11, 2010

FAITH IS BEING AWAKE

Buddha in your heart is a symbol of faith: you could be immaculate and perfect, as perfect as Shakyamuni Buddha himself. That possibility already exists in you....In this case, faith has nothing to do with praying to somebody. Faith is a sense of dignity.The Christian mystic Meister Eckhart talks about faith in the sense of being awake: being present and mindful and aware of the situation. Faith is seeing things as they are -- whatever that might be -- precisely, directly, and without any hesitation.

From "The Charnel Ground," in The Sadhana of Mahamudra Sourcebook, page 67.

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Teachings by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, taken from works published by Shambhala Publications, the Archive of his unpublished work in the Shambhala Archives, plus other published sources.
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