The Key to Spiritual Growth - Take Up Some Practices

Religion means different things to different people. Regardless of what religion you believe in, there is one thing in common: you benefit from it the most if you seriously pick up some practices.

A lot of my Muslim friends, who take fasting seriously during Ramadan month, have strong realization about life through the practice of fasting. During fasting, they really feel the spiritual uplifting at the 'gut' level literary - instead of just intellectual understanding about their religion.

With the liberalization of our society, many people take a casual attitude towards their religions, therefore we have many "Christmas" Christians, "Wesak Day" Buddhists, "Thaipusam" Hindus, etc. If we see our religion just as rituals, or seeing them as mere intellectual philosophies, then we won't benefit from them much. Without personal experience at the 'gut' level of our religion, there is no spiritual gain. Therefore, I would say that taking up religious practices is the key to spiritual growth.

But we have to understand that the practices are not the end itself, they are merely path to spiritual growth. I took up a few practices some 20 years ago: vegetarianism. abstain from killing - including mosquitos and ends, and not taking liquor. I knew at that time that these practices themselves will not make me wise, but their side effects will. Such practices demand strong mindfulness of my physical and mental states. When I stop taking meat, I need to be mindful of what I eat. When I stop killing, I need to be mindful of my spontaneous response to events like mosquito bites - which usually is giving the mosquitos a slap and kill them. A stronger mindfulness has helped me tremendously in my life for the past many years.

Other people who took on practices like daily prayer, meditation, long term commitment to charity and disaster relief works, chanting, celibacy, etc, usually has a lot of great personal experiences to share.

You may ask: is giving donation a good practice? My view is that it is definitely a good practice. Just that we need to do it regular enough and do it with compassion rather than with intention of getting name and fame. Practices are not one-off action, but a repeated and conscious and habitual action.

So, the key to spiritual growth is taking up serious religious practices.