Spirituality and Religion

This is an excerpt from an essay by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, printed in Reconstructionism Today, Autumn 2005.

What is spirituality and how does it differ form religion?

I understand spirituality to be a mode of living in the awareness of the divine presence, the sacred. It is a recognition of the transcendent, an apprehension of the interconnectedness of all life. The spiritual life is rooted in experience, encounters with the self, others and the world. It's the realization that where we are is no coincidence, that we are in the places we inhabit, with the people we meet, not by accident, but to redeem the holy sparks there.

Religion is the container for the life of the spirit. It is the gravity that anchors spirit to earth, translating the vision of the soul into the responsibility of the individual and the mandate of the community.