100+ Facts About Religion & Spirituality Curated from Books & Podcasts

A philosophy that acts as a connecting tissue for a community needs stories and rituals. Abstract concepts about the nature of reality or morality are not as conducive to cohesive action. 

Religion has played this role all through history. Being the binding agent for the prevailing philosophy. Making the masses act in concert rather than devolving into conflict. 

Tears speak a universal language, but their spiritual meaning is deeply personal.

Across spiritual traditions, tears are seen as more than simple sadness – they hold power and symbolism.

• Cleansing & Release

Imagine tears as a spiritual cleanse, washing away emotional burdens and negativity. Crying can be a release valve for pent-up feelings, bringing a sense of peace and renewal.

Joseph Henrich argues that people from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic (WEIRD) societies have distinct psychological characteristics compared to the rest of the world. He traces these to unique cultural features and historical developments that shaped WEIRD societies over time.

The premise is that culture matters a lot. It affects us biologically. It can and does alter our brains, hormones, and anatomy, along with our perceptions, motivations, personalities, emotions, and many other aspects of our minds.

Spirituality or spiritual practices are often confused for religion but are an entirely different phenomenon having a scientific core: self-inquiry.

People seem desperate to find meaning and patterns and a way to know that they're not stuck in this moment. Astrology follows planetary cycles. When looking at the astrology, similar patterns can be seen that has happened in the past.

Astrology is an intriguing way of looking at the world. Traditionally it has been on the outs with both science and most mainstream religions like Christianity, which puts it in an awkward position of neither wholly scientific nor wholly religious.

One of the most profound spiritual practices is imitating a spiritual master. We can learn from Thomas à Kempis or ask, “What would Jesus do?” in tough times, following spiritual leaders gives us valuable guidance. Every day, we can learn from Churchill, Lincoln, Winfrey, and Buffett. Their stories light the way to personal growth and enlightenment.

It has often been said that surrendering to a higher power can bring happiness, and this is certainly a sentiment shared by many followers of faiths around the world.

A new study published in Trends in Psychology has provided empirical evidence for this claim by examining the relationship between religiosity and depression symptoms.

1. Healthy Religion (Have it or don’t)
2. Good Sleep
3. Good Music
4. Good Laughter

Have these, Health and happiness will be yours. 

• A spiritual experience, according to the father of Western psychology, William James, is a state of higher consciousness.
• Spirituality, in essence, is connectedness, the antithesis of the values of society like capitalism and laws of the land.
• A spiritual state can be achieved by contemplative and ritualistic practices like prayer and meditation.
• Many spiritual traditions like Buddhism report a higher state of consciousness and connection.
• These states of mind need not be rare experiences of a chosen few, but can be reached in daily life by anyone.

You can learn important lessons from different religions, even if you are not religious. These teachings can help you grow as a person.

Here are some ways you can use religious teachings for personal development:

• Acceptance
• Self-reflection
• Morals and values
• Faith and
• Compassion and kindness

Experiencing spiritual awakening when you are surrounded by other people explains this type of spirituality. 

Being in religious groups is one way to experience this spirituality. However, this can also be achieved with any other form of a group – exercising, nature-related activities, meditation, etc. 

For Girard, we are different than animals because of our desires, our myths, our lies. We invent stories, we go to war for abstract concepts etc. This is a the object of his psychological focused philosophy. 

Similar to how class was the nexus of socialism, how casts worked in Hinduism, or rationality in liberalism. 

• Religion is a much broader term than what the fundamentalists have promoted. It can be as objective as science (For example Buddhism).
• Spirituality encompasses a lot more than what various religions try to impose on individuals.

Pirsing goes to great length to use motorcycle maintenance as an example for being fully immersed into the world. He wrote "Zen&The Art of .... " in the 60s, during the Vietnam war and the hippie revolution. A lot of the protestors saw nature loving pacifism as a reaction to the tech-focused future.

Pirsing does not see a conflict between tech and nature. It's not a subject problem, but a quality problem. Technology is not the enemy. He could became awakened by caring for his bike just as a guru would meditate on the mountain.

• All life involves inevitable, unavoidable suffering.
• Life is the mixture of happiness and pain.
• The Buddha wants as to acknowledge this fact(👆) so when we do experience suffering, we don’t take it so shockingly or personally.
• When we acknowledge suffering, we are at peace during times of difficulty because with time this suffering will turn into happiness again.

1. Right View: Understanding and gaining insights into the true reality.
2. Right Intention: Thoughts that are selfless and generous.
3. Right Speech: Communication that promote harmony and is free of malice.
4. Right Action: Taking righteous actions and not causing others harm.
5. Right Livelihood: Living through actions and work which doesn’t harm others.
6. Right Effort: Practicing and cultivating Generosity, Loving-Kindness and Wisdom.
7. Right Mindfulness: A mental state where one is mindful and aware of their body, actions and thoughts.
8. Right Concentration: Indulging in meditative practices.

The End of Work in the coming decades may give way to the rise of 'Deep Play', elaborate virtual reality games mixed with religion, consumerism and other ideologies.

All Christians believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. However, the doctrine is about the relationship between these 3, more than their existence. The doctrine states:

• All 3 beings are equally God. There is no form of hierarchy in between them.
• It is so because the Bible says so, even if we can't grasp the mechanics of it using Aristotelian logic

Spiritual fulfillment refers to satisfaction and contentment from connecting with one’s inner self and a higher power. It is an essential component of personal development as it helps individuals understand their purpose in life and the values they hold dear. Spiritual fulfillment can lead to increased emotional stability, reduced stress, and a more profound sense of meaning in life. With this feeling, you’ll understand what goes on in your life and know there is a good reason behind it all.

What Is Spirituality?

Spirituality is the place within yourselves where your soul can find a sense of peace. It’s a concept completely liberated from any rules, institutions or hierarchy and it’s dedicated to the human soul.

Zen builds upon core Buddhist philosophy. One reaches Zen in 2 ways:

• through principle: understanding that we are all of Buddha-nature, underneath the world ignorance. The problem is conceptual: our ideas and thoughts are mediated by ignorance. 
• through practice: without practicing. Because once you get involved in the practice you elevate the ego.

Zen is really suspicious of concepts, words, etc. To get to the bottom of it one has to eliminate all words. To clear the mirror of our minds and let the dormant Buddha-nature shine. 

Living in a fast-paced world, it can be hard to make time for spiritual practices. Here are some ways to incorporate spirituality into daily life:

1. Practice meditation and mindfulness to connect with your inner self and find calm
2. Take a break from work and read religious texts to change your perspective on life
3. Attend religious services and engage with a community for a sense of fulfillment
4. Too much focus on materialism can make our hearts cold and reduce our empathy

Religiosity typically refers not only to a belief in a higher entity or something greater than oneself but also formal involvement in organized religious activities and specific, measurable acts such as prayer, meditation, service attendance, religious readings, and affiliation with a particular religion or place of worship.

For those who find meaning or purpose in life through religion, religiosity is associated higher levels of positive affects.

This type of spirituality is focused on the intuitional part of the soul . People who have mystical spirituality believe that there’s a greater unity to every experience in life. 

Every experience goes beyond the material or physical world, and everything can be brought into one greater unity. For example, people with this type of spirituality may support the idea that everything happens for a reason. There’s a greater explanation behind everything and that would be what unites all the different experiences. 

Whether it is about the 'secular' or the 'buffet' Buddhism, individuals admit embracing these practices as they prove more efficient both from an emotional and a financial point of view.se

Studies have shown that spiritual people tend to lead happier and healthier lives. Spiritual people cope better with stress, have healthier marriages, and may live longer. But what does it mean to be spiritual? Spirituality means connecting with something greater, like religion, nature, or having a purpose.

Life is a chronicle: of the depths we have fallen into, the peaks we have climbed, and the detours we have taken on our journey. It's not always a straight path. We continue to work on our lives, while trying to remember that our true home is spiritual - the home of love that we never really leave and always resides within us.

Sharing our heartfelt stories with others - in the hopes of bringing more light into a sometimes dark world. 🌟

Religion: Religions are most often based upon the lives, teachings, and beliefs of a historical or archetypal figure (e.g., Christ, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, Muhammad).

Spirituality: By contrast, spirituality is more often based upon the practical application of the founder’s teachings.

The history of Zen starts with myths and legends. The starting legend for Zen is the flower sermon:

"Toward the end of his life, the Buddha took his disciples to a quiet pond for instruction. But Buddha had no words. He instead he held a flower silently before them.

None but Mahakasyapa understood. He smiled and began to laugh. Buddha handed the lotus to Mahakasyapa and he became Buddha’s successor."

This direct transmission of wisdom (with no words and abstract concepts) serves as the foundation of Zen.

Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century. He was of Indian origin, but moved to China, where he is said to have been meditating for 9yrs straight. 

Some of stories involving him are similar to more modern koans. 

• He tells to the emperor he is not impressed with his Buddhist based policies and when asked "Who are you to question the king?" he replied "I don't know".
• His disciple is also awakened suddenly after a paradoxical conversation about the nature of mind.

The fictional world that holiday movies bring to the viewers provides them solace, courage and reaffirmation to move past the obstacles in their real life.

Though watching Christmas movies during holiday season is a ‘ritual’, the movies themselves do not bend towards christaniity or God, but towards true love, the power of family, the meaning of home and relationships.

The Dalai Lama once joked: "While the West was busy exploring outer space, the East was busy exploring inner space". 

Regardless of the veracity of this, it does seem that for contemporary western societies, silence and stillness are an exception, not the rule.

As the Technocore AI civilisation was evolving into an ultimate form it met the Human Ultimate. It met God. What they realized is that God’s trinity is made of:

1. the Void Which Binds
2. Intellect
3. Empathy

The machines did not poses Empathy so:

• they tried to bait the Human God using empathy as its weakness. This is the role of the Shrike.
• they worked on developing empathy by trying to understand poetry. It's why they focused on reviving John Keats. To understand the human spirit through poetry.

Bridging differences means finding ways to create positive dialogue and understanding across race, religion, political ideology, etc.

The Buddhist sage Lin Chi told a monk, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." He meant that those who think they've found all the answers in any religion need to start questioning.

Religion keeps the students dependent on the leader. That is an extreme form of attachment. Not Zen.

The Universe can not exist without consciousness. The structure of reality is something an intelligence produces. We can't operate without patterns. But only humans makes patterns. So ... Intelligence is part of reality. Consciousness thus can be seen as the principality of reality.

And if we accept there are other agents in reality we can expand intelligence to the extreme, to the pattern of all patterns. We usually represented that ultimate congregated intelligence as God.

The pursuit of success is a religion because, like other religions, it is a robust system of meaning-making that operates at emotional and cognitive levels, guides our decisions, contains its own morality, and is practiced en masse by a group of people sharing a largely unexamined ideology.

Enjoying the knowledge of one’s own enoughness while also honoring the imperative to possess some degree of social status might be the key to maintaining balance.

The Diamond Approach recognizes that psychological blocks and childhood traumas can hinder spiritual development. By addressing and understanding these issues, individuals can remove barriers to spiritual insight.

Metaphysical desire is focused on our identity, our ego, our spirit ... the core of what we are. This itself can be broken down into 3 components:

1. Reality. We want our existence to be observed and noticed by others. What really matters is not the physical experience but what others think it's real.
2. Persistence. We want our identities to last through time. We are obsessed with achieving some immortality. 
3. Self-sufficiency: Deals with having the power of the social realm to fulfil our thirsts. It's what Nietzsche calls "the will to power". It has a lot to do with domination over others.

The Diamond Approach is a contemporary spiritual path that integrates both ancient spiritual teachings and modern depth psychology. Developed by A.H. Almaas (a pen name for Hameed Ali), this approach aims to guide individuals toward realizing their true nature and the inherent reality of the universe.

The "theory of holes" is a concept within the Diamond Approach, as developed by A.H. Almaas. It pertains to the psychological and spiritual understanding of deficiencies or "holes" in the individual's sense of self. These holes arise due to certain childhood experiences where essential aspects of our being are not seen, appreciated, or responded to by our caregivers.

Imagine being in a room where you can't control your reactions. You might get angry easily or feel upset without understanding why. This stage is like living on autopilot, where you're not aware of your thoughts and emotions, and you react without thinking.

Humanity is sacralized in Self-spirituality, which automatically makes it an obvious choice for the millennials and youngsters already fed up with how the world works.

This also makes them make sustainable choices like recycling and veganism. While the old-school conservatives label these human-centric feelings as lacklustre, many of the liberals celebrate the individual freedom it provides.

This type of spirituality is believing in a hierarchical structure of things or in authority. 

Often, this type of spirituality is associated with religious beliefs . There are cases when not following the spiritual rules of religion may cause conflicts. 

People with authoritarian spirituality can develop a form of fundamentalist religion. 

More and more people are turning today to Buddhism, in order to find back the quietness that everyday life makes them lose. 

Moreover, individuals claim that Buddhism enables them to deal with their suffering and find joy within.

Religion us not really ablut deities. Religion is about interpreting the world through myth, rituals and folklore. As opposed to data, experimentation and rarionalism.

Religion imposes a narrative structure to the world as opposed to the scientific approach. This also explains why the religious impulse is so universal.

The beginnings of Zen can be traced to India in the 3rd century when we have a school called Buddha Nature, which claimed that Buddha's emptiness is a gift we all share. That Buddha's nature is a connecting force between all that exists. 

The practice found a lot of traction in China through monks like Bodhidharma. The reason is that the interconnectedness the Buddhists were talking about matches the Tao, the connective substance, which is the basis of Taoism (one of the main Chinese schools of thought alongside Confucianism). From China, it moves to Japan, where the Zen name comes from.

1. People that believe there is more to the world than meets the eye, more than the mere material. 
2. People that attend to their inner life (their mental and emotional states) in the hopes of gaining self-knowledge. 
3. People that value the following virtues: being compassionate, empathetic and open-hearted.

“Every circumstance, no matter how complex, challenging, and frustrating, contains a positive seed that should be nurtured.”

Practice simply to give thanks for what we have received.

Spirituality is a personal experience that creates a system of personal beliefs when searching for the meaning of life.

Being spiritual can mean different things to different people. For some, spirituality can be related to religion and even higher power. For others, it can be a non-religious experience such as connecting with nature, art, yoga, meditation, etc.

Let me weave a more captivating tapestry of words for you:

Amidst the delicate cascade of tears, each drop carries profound significance.

In the tapestry of spiritual beliefs, the right eye’s tears unfurl as emissaries of outward expression and purpose, while those from the left eye whisper secrets of inner emotions and intuition.

These glistening messengers, spanning centuries, bear witness to the human soul’s intricate dance.

Our inner peace is more important than anger and other emotions of the ego. It does not depend on external circumstances, but on our willingness to forgive. Forgiveness frees us from any self-centred entanglements.

We do not have to belong to the same religion to be spiritually connected to each other. Our differences can enrich our relationships and help us to understand other perspectives. An open heart allows love to enter through many doors. Forgiveness is the key to our inner peace. ⛩️🧘

The last emperor of India’s Mauryan Dynasty, Ashoka became a patron of Buddhism after witnessing the suffering caused by his military conquest of Kalinga. Following this, he renounced violence in favor of “conquest by Dharma.”

The theory of holes offers a framework for understanding how early experiences shape our self-perception and behaviors. By addressing these holes, one can move toward greater wholeness, authenticity, and spiritual realisation.

Religions are divisions, making people separate from others. Most religions follow the concept of belief, that the truth is already there and you simply have to believe in it.

These religions have imposed beliefs, doctrines and sets of ideas that are supposed to be holding the truth, and some even have deities and other entities with divine power that supposedly protect us from the harsh truths of life: uncertainty, impermanence, death and change. These harsh truths are paradoxically essential for understanding life.

A major issue of early Christianity was:

How could Jesus be God, when the Father was also God?

There were competing theories at the time:

• the most popular early belief (the Arian view) was that the Father was the original God, but at some point during his infinite existence he made a son, that got elevated to the position
• there is one God, but with 3 modes. The same way in which a man can be a father, a son and a husband at the same time. However this didn't catch on because it meant God actually died on the cross ... and you can't kill God.

When Constantine converted to Christianity he had no interest into this theological discussion. Nor did most of the early Christians. However most of the bishops in Alexandria (considered the cultural centre of the empire) were Arian, meaning they believed Jesus was somehow subordonate to the Father. But the head of Alexandian branch did not and Constantine had to intervene.

The council of Nicaea in 325AD was called to settle the issue. Based mostly on politics the Aerian position lost and it was decreed that God and Jesus are of the same substance.

100 years later than the Holy Spirit joined. 

• Intensity - Going through an enlightenment experience regardless of belief makes people experience intensity through feelings of love, joy, or awe. These intense experiences is likely associated with increased activity in the limbic system which is the brain's primary emotional centre.
• Unity - When we feel a profound sense of connectedness with the rest of humanity, God, or the Universe it is associated with a decrease of activity in the parietal lobe of the brain that stores sensory information.

While religion can bring a sense of purpose and community, it can also lead to conflict and exclusion. Extreme adherence to religious beliefs can create intolerance and division. It's important to approach religion with an open mind and respect for diversity.

• Religion can bring community, but also division
• Extreme beliefs can lead to intolerance
• Approach religion with an open mind and respect diversity
• God is understanding and judges intentions, not just practices

1.Path of Knowledge

The main idea behind this practice is the power knowledge gives to people. This practice revolves around the idea that ultimate liberation can happen with acquiring knowledge.

This is not only about learning new things about the world but most importantly, knowledge about yourselves. Self- reflection, who you are, why you do the things the way you do are the main principles of this spiritual practice.

To achieve this, people use methods like studying, meditation and contemplation.

Some of the most famous approaches are Buddhism, Jnana Yoga, Kabbalah.

>Tarzan , the unconscious primitive but physically vital masculine.

>James Bond , suave man of the world.

>Steve Jobs or Richard Branson , integrated masculine, strong, creative, attractive but more androgynous.

>Barak Obama ,integrated evolved masculine epitomising secular values in their most evolved form.

>Mahatma Ghandi or Nelson Mandela , the masculine which now brings the spiritual component into the world, transcending the mundane and secular but without denying it.

>Christ , Mohammed , Buddha, the conscious spiritual incarnation of the masculine, the unconscious masculine.

Emotional Release & Healing: Explore how tears might facilitate emotional cleansing and spiritual growth.

Intuition & Inner Wisdom: Discover how tears from the right or left eye can be linked to intuition and self-understanding.

Spiritual Traditions: Learn about interpretations of tears in various spiritual and cultural contexts.

This is one of the most common types of spirituality. It’s because people experience spiritual peace when they serve others.   

There are many ways to achieve this spirituality, but the core of it is helping others without expecting nothing in return. Doing something that will benefit someone without getting something back is a common way for people to get in touch with their spiritual selves. #4. Service Spirituality

We live in an age of unprecedented anxiety (uncertainty, information overload, social comparison etc). Historically, religion used to ground people by giving them a set of rules and making them part of a divine plan.

Allan Watts observes the fading of Christianity in the West, but instead of defending a return to orthodoxy, he offers an alternative. An eastern perspective, mainly Taoist, focused on embracing insecurity and living in the present.

Adi Shankaracharya asked a question in his book, Prashnavali :

'Who shall achieve victory in the world?'

The answer he provided was:

'Those who have conquered their own mind'

In this post we will learn to conquer our mind by knowing—

1. What is Thought
2. Why Negative Thoughts Arise
3. How to Identify Negative Thoughts
4. Three Step System to Eliminate Negative Thoughts
5. Discipline Your Thoughts— Pleasure vs Happiness
6. Benefits of Solitude
7. Positive 'Chintan'— Train Your Thoughts
8. The Art of Effective Thinking
9. Difference between Religion and Spirituality
10. Four Aspects of Spiritual Thinking

1. Dilution— Distance Yourself From The Thought:

Whenever a negative thought pops into the mind, remember that it is not you. Rather than adopting it, you can distance yourself from it.

2. Substitution— Replace a Negative Thought With A Positive Thought:

When unwholesome thoughts contrary to self-discipline and goodness arise in the mind, the reverse thoughts should be practised.

3. Sublimation— Build A Positive Thought System:

Focus building on the thought chain of positive emotions. Cultivate in your mind wholesome ideas of inspiration, optimism, cheerfulness.

In Sanskrit, mental practice is called Chintan. It means 'deep reflective thought'.

Strategies to train your Chintan:-

1. Think Intentionally: Disregard the programmed response & instead consciously choose your thoughts.
2. Revise Desirable Thoughts: Push yourself past the complaining mind & practice the contemplative thinking.
3. Think New Thoughts: Try new ways of thinking.
4. Feed Your Mind: Feed the mind a good diet of wisdom, inspiration & knowledge.
5. Physical Exercise: Exercise releases pleasure chemicals that supercharge our thinking.
6. Spiritual Exercise: Invest time daily in keeping the mind healthy.

• Attachment Thinking: Our emotions prevent us from seeing things as they are.
• Strategic Thinking: It's aim is to devise an effective blueprint for action.
• Abstract Thinking: Thinking about intangible concepts such as freedom, equality.
• Practical Thinking: Use of common sense to evaluate the feasibility of ideas.
• Mature Thinking: Being aware of our emotions and having empathy for others.
• Spiritual Thinking: To find a deeper purpose to life.
• Divine Thinking: It imbues our every thought with selfless love

Good thinkers are those who can use any or all of these styles depending upon situation at hand.

— Spirituality is the essence while religion is its external form.

— Visit to a sacred place is religion. To sit down in one place and take our mind to the Divine is spirituality.

— To take a bath in the holy Ganga is religion. To bathe our mind in Divine thoughts is spirituality.

— To adorn the body with sacred tilak marks is religion. To adorn our personality with noble and sublime qualities is spirituality.

— To offer oblations of ghee in the sacrificial fire is religion. To offer our obnoxious ego at the feet of God and become humble is spirituality.

Both should be practiced to purify our mind.

Self Awareness

• Distinguishing our lower nature from our higher nature.
• Awareness of the purpose of our life.
• Awareness of the values we live by.

Universal Awareness

• Empathy for others.
• Awareness of the interconnectedness of the universe.
• Awareness of the Spiritual laws that govern the universe.

Self Mastery

• Commitment to keeping our higher self in charge.
• Living according to our values and purpose.
• Commitment to pursuing our spiritual growth.

Professional Mastery

• Serving through your professional work.
• Serving in your personal relationships.
• Serving through your position of leadership.

Through religion, you are taught to have faith in God or the scriptures as being the infallible and ultimate truth of reality.

Spirituality doesn’t dismiss faith; however, it often leans more heavily on direct experience of the soul or divinity.

The core belief behind this type of spirituality is knowledge. Intellectually spiritual people are prone to gaining knowledge of spiritual theories and analyzing the information they get their hands on. 

One form of this spiritual journey is studying theology, for example. However, this type of spirituality is not solely related to studying religion. Any knowledge that helps peopleimprove their spirituality is a form of intellectual spirituality. 

• The real things of life, such as Happiness, Peace, Harmony, Integrity, Security and Satisfaction are intangible but real perceptions and feelings of Subconscious Mind.
• Find out reasons of unhappy, disturbed, deceitful and worried feelings in conscious mind.

• Science and Religion were historically being studied in a 'conflict model' where theological and scientific views were put in loggerheads with each other.
• This contributed to a mistaken view of the past and led to a flawed conception of the future due to the expectations of secularisation.

Many Buddhist monks begin each day with this chant of gratitude:

“With gratitude I remember the people, animals, plants, insects, creatures of the sky and sea, air and water, fire and earth, all whose joyful exertion blesses my life every day. 

With gratitude I remember the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me…..

So many of us turn away from religion because we actually crave meaning, we just also happen to equally crave personalization, and it is that personalization that could explain why millennials are turning to astrology over something more structured and authoritarian, like religion.

This is not an abandonment of religion, but rather a spiritual shift. People, inherently, want to believe something, and are just feeling more comfortable expressing what somethings work for them specifically.

Orthodox Religions like Catholicism focus on belief and the manifestation of that belief. You have to șah the right words, pray and so forth.

Orthopractic Religions like Judaism are much more focus on acting a certain way. How you act is more important than what you say.

Clearly the first are much more popular than the second. Because talking is cheaper.

The ability to read and write not only leads to cultural progress but also changes our biology and psychology. Literate societies have thicker corpus callosa and have difficulty recognizing faces. This is because reading (a skill acquired later in human history) requires using areas of the brain that oral communication does not.

The spread of literacy can be traced back to the rise of Protestantism, which emphasized the importance of individuals engaging with divine words directly. Hence, reading became essential in Western societies, while oral communication ruled the rest of the world.

People with strong faith release control of their struggles and worries to a higher power, which helps to relieve anxiety and stress.

Religious groups also offer a strong source of community and friendships, which is critical for health and happiness.

1. Annica: Life is in a constant flux.
2. Dukkha: Life is painful and causes suffering.
3. Anatta: Self is always changing.

Right Eye: Traditionally linked to happiness or joy. Some cultures consider it a sign of good fortune but in spirituality, it can symbolize an awakening, an insight, or a positive change.

Left Eye: Often associated with pain, sadness, or grief. However, in spiritual terms, it may signify a release of negative emotions, a process of healing, or the beginning of a transformative journey.

Both Eye: When both eyes produce tears, it often represents intense emotional responses. Spiritually, it could signify a profound personal transformation, realization, or a strong connection to one’s emotions.

When it comes to teaching important ideas, religion makes extremely effective use of repetition.

If an idea is important, they teach it again and again. If it’s important, it warrants learning repeatedly. Our secular education systems have consistently failed at this.

In most religious traditions time is like a circle: it closes where it opened. In Hinduism, for example, the world spins along an endless cycle: creation, rise, decline, destruction, and rebirth. This conception is very much fatalistic in nature.

Christians, however, see time as linear. It moves away from the Garden of Eden, and toward a day of judgment, justice, and a divine, peace-filled kingdom. With a linear perspective, time moves from the past to the future. Linear time is better because it allows for progress.  

• In a way, science shares much with religion: Both are used to explain life's unknown. Similarly, they have the ability to make us feel insignificant and elevated. Awe, an intense form of wonder, makes people feel smaller than they are.
• Art primarily appeared in a religious context, but when it parted company from religion, it started to crop up in private collections. These collections began to mix with animal specimens, exotic weapons, and decorative books. Art became associated with science.
• The link continued into the 19th century. The British Museum included everything from animal bones to Italian paintings.
• By the end of the century, science and art had parted company. Major cities started to open dedicated art museums, where people could view paintings. These days, we don't think of museums as places of curiosity, but they remain places of wonder.

Self-enhancement through spiritual practices can fool us into thinking we are evolving and growing, when in fact all we are growing is our ego. The “I'm enlightened and you're not” syndrome:

• "I am aware of things that others are not aware of. "
• "I am more in touch with my senses than most others."
• etc....

We may end up using our spiritual beliefs & practices to avoid genuine contact with our psychological unfinished business. 

The approach considers spiritual realization not as a fixed endpoint but as an ever-unfolding process. There's always more depth, nuance, and understanding to discover.

• Modern society has been described as the Age of Noise, and an Organized Lovelessness.
• Advertising is revealed to be an organized effort to extend and intensify craving.
• People in the modern age worship progress, technology, and their nation-state, all of which can be described as a 'religion'.
• The dogma of such religions was profoundly criticized in the classic books, while paving the way towards newer ways to find God, like meditation.

The Author and Philosopher's fresh take on religion, shaping it as an 'empirical spirituality' was a huge influence in the 1960s and which has since then led to more people (now 27% in the US) being 'Spiritual but not Religious'

It means acting wisely in the world by first reaching a high level of self-knowledge. 

This is acquired through meditation, self-reflection, and psychotherapy and leads one to become more sensitive to the emotions of others, and even to one’s surrounding environments.

• Buddha is believed to have founded Buddhism here around 528 BCE when he gave his first sermon, "The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma", at nearby Sarnath.
• The city's religious importance continued to grow in the 8th century, when Adi Shankara established the worship of Shiva as an official sect of Varanasi
• Tulsidas wrote his epic poem on Rama's life called Ram Charit Manas in Varanasi. Guru Nanak visited Varanasi for Maha Shivaratri in 1507, a trip that played a large role in the founding of Sikhism
• Dying in Varanasi is considered to be the best way to attain salvation or moksha by hindus

Research shows that a lifestyle including religion or spirituality is generally a healthier lifestyle. That can be achieved through meditation, attending a religious service, or praying.

Nurturing your spirit, however, doesn't have to involve religion. It can involve anything that helps you develop a deeper sense of meaning, understanding, or connection with the universe.