What's the most spiritual, but not religious, thing you do on regular basis?

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I am a mystic. What this means is that rather than conceive of reality as part of a story that I heard from others, or simply claiming that the story doesn’t exist or isn’t relevant to humanity or individuals, instead I accept all stories and ideas as reflective of an ultimate reality.

In my very early twenties, I was part of a Wicca coven. I learned how ritual and esoteric spirituality worked. In my mid twenties, I did a great deal of meditation and introspection into the meaning of things. In my late twenties, I achieved a spiritual awakening and started talking to God directly.

In my thirties, I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as a personal savior, and recontextualized the spirituality I’ve done in light of the realization that every last spiritual thing I’ve done in my life, is kind of a weak candle compared to the pure, unadulterated onslaught of divinity that is available to anyone who simply accepts Jesus into their lives.

Let me give an example. In my mid-twenties, I experimented with a popular spiritual technique and framework by the name of the Law of Attraction. I used to keep a journal of things I wanted to manifest. I would cross out the things in the journal that had already manifested.

Everything I wrote in that journal, I crossed out. I stopped writing things down in that journal when I realized that everything I’d wanted before I started keeping the journal was already manifesting in the same way. Nothing about the bookkeeping affected the natural gifts from God in any way. The Law of Attraction involves a certain attitude that makes it easier for the universe to provide. Once you’ve mastered that, “using” the Law of Attraction is the same as just “doing things.”

Nowadays I say, if you want something from God, just ask God. Asking God or Jesus naturally exercises all the things about the Law of Attraction that makes it powerful. The teachings of Christianity are so unbelievably powerful, but hard to actually learn and use. Other techniques, of esotericism, of philosophy, of anything that seeks to selfishly appropriate divine power, is simply miniscule compared to the power of surrender. All spiritual techniques are mental tricks to help the conscious mind surrender just a tad bit more.

Religious techniques are simply more powerful. But not even I can consistently be religious. I know there are more powerful ways to do what I want to do. But supreme power just isn’t my bag of tea. They have a nasty tendency to strip away aspects of individuality. Humans are loathe to give up their individuality, and God doesn’t want to take anything away from us that we are identifying with.

So instead I simply talk to God. My favorite time to do this is at 5 in the morning. The communication is strongest early in the morning. I often get up at 8 to go to work feeling really powerful like I might be God. And I go through the day and I’m reminded of my limitations as a person. The juxtaposition provides a feedback loop through which I can more clearly understand myself over time.

I don’t know if this is really not a religious process. Personally, I think that talking to God is an intensely religious thing. But I’m pretty ignorant of theology and I’m really not all that interested in learning it other than for historical edification. So whatever it is I’m doing in my mysticism is not religiously informed.

I don’t believe that learning the theology will make my mysticism all that better. I do read the Bible and that does help. But the direct Word of God is not all that religious. Many religious over time discouraged people from reading the Bible directly. They thought only they had the right interpretation of what scripture actually meant.