Spirituality does not come from churches and temples.
Spirituality exists in soul, which is deeply rooted beyond consciousness in our hearts.
It is the spirituality that cannot be seen and heard by our senses.
It can never be understood by head-reason, but only by experiencing it with the soul.
Religion, the English word for religion, is derived from the Latin word ‘re-legere’, "to observe carefully." In other words, religion is synonymous with the word meditation. Religion does not mean a church or temple.
ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ
I am re-reading the mountain path of Carmel, written by St. John of the Cross in the 16th century, and it was difficult to understand the book, before meditation training, but I think I can understand the meaning a little after reading it after meditation training. Mystic theology is a guidebook to gain faith through meditation and contemplation, that is, to build faith by understanding words taught by God or Buddha through contemplation/meditation and experiencing them through observation.
In Chapter 3, faith is called a dark habit, because in order with faith for people to believe in the truth revealed by God, it is impossible to obtain faith with human’s reason, only with the absolute light of God, and in the realm of God's truth, our human mind falls into darkness and reason loses its light. It is said that the light of reason can only be used to understand the phenomenal world.
Corinthians 2:9: "All that God had prepared for those who loved him was not seen with his eyes, not heard with his ears, and not thought with his heart. It's the same as what the words mean.
This content is the same principle as Buddhism. In Buddhism, it is said that in order to listen to enlightenment, that is, the Buddha's teaching voice, only goes by zen meditation. Zen meditation is the most important method among the six paramita, six methods for enlightenment, and Buddhism also offers a wide variety of methods for mediation.
Even in Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, it is defined as enlightenment to listen to soundless sounds and to see formless forms. Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism all coincide in reaching enlightenment.
Many religious people-monk or pasters illogically and unreasonably apply their scriptures into the world and preach and lecture. It's making people's minds darker. Faith and realization in God are things that people cannot realize with the world's knowledge, experience, and thoughts gained from the six sensory organs of human.
Even knowledgeable people seem to rush into giving up the joy and grace of spiritual enlightenment by giving up on God with too superficial world knowledge.
Paul Koo, March 17, 2023