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Namaste.
Religion and spirituality are all about perceived concepts, on an individual and/or collective level.
I could say something which relates to myself, that is true for me alone and have others disagree with me because it is not true for them, but they cannot prove their way of thinking any more than I can prove mine...and so all we can say is 'God bless you and have a nice life'.
Spirituality is an individual concept/idea, that we are each working towards our own personal growth and are at different stages of it, but are not bound by any teachings, dogma or anybody else...however, that isn't entirely true either, or else certain 'spiritual authors' and 'gurus' wouldn't be as popular as they are...for mankind always seeks justification, acceptance, camaraderie, tolerance, importance and self-image...and so the more people who agree with their beliefs and opinions, the more people who follow their way, the better because they are 'not alone' they have others to 'talk to' now and to bounce ideas and philosophies off each other...and maybe a hundred people will get involved in a 'spiritual movement' and publish their collective works and findings...and thus a religion is being born.
However, they will be the very first to say "oh no...we are not religious because religion does 'bad things' in the name of it and we do not"...giving examples like ISIS or the Spanish Inquisition...totally forgetting that it's not the religion which causes it, but mentally unstable adherents of it (fanatics) and totally forgetting that other religions like Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism etc exist apart from the Abrahamic ones which their minds will automatically associate with 'religion'.
I could say that I am Hindu...I could say that I am spiritual and there would be thousands who would disagree with me on either front, or I could say that I am 'That' or I am 'Brahman' and have everybody agree, even if they haven't realised this for themselves and don't know about it anyway.
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