Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." Is this religion or spirituality?
Perhaps the distinction is quite simple. Religion insists that Source is above me. Spirituality discovers Source within me.
In the core-silence of my heart, I find the Beloved. Yet precisely in this discovery, the non-dualist may insist on a spirituality without God. One who transcends "religion" may assume that he must transcend divine relationship and merge into impersonal unity.
Spirituality is intimacy. The transcendental lover is free to fall more deeply in love with Krishna, with Christ, with Mother Divine, with whoever one chooses as ishta-devata, the chosen aspect of God-Consciousness. Of course, the ishta-devata is none other than the deepest radiance of one's Self. But realizing the Self is a dance, a courtship, a play of two-in-one and one-in-two. Without relationship, where is the delight?
St. Augustine wrote that God is intimeor intimo meo, "more inward to me than I am to myself." Source delights in intimacy with its manifestation as individual mind. God delights in playful friendship with the soul.
My Beloved does not descend from above. My Beloved wells up from the depths of my heart, like a tear. And will ever pray, "O Lord, you taught the wave to become the sea. Now teach the sea to dance in the wave."
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