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    Religious or Spiritual? How the Difference Can Affect Your Happiness
    Religious or Spiritual? How the Difference Can Affect Your Happiness
    Religious or Spiritual? How the Difference Can Affect Your Happiness
    Ebook55 pages1 hour

    Religious or Spiritual? How the Difference Can Affect Your Happiness

    By Lee Hager and Steven Hager

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    About this ebook

    Most of us assume the words “religious” and “spiritual” mean the same thing. And why not, since the two words are often used interchangeably. But that wasn’t always the case. Does it matter whether you’re religious or spiritual? Can the way you approach the Divine affect your happiness? Discover the hidden meanings in these words and uncover a forgotten approach to Ultimate Reality.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLee Hager
    Release dateJan 31, 2011
    ISBN9780978526139
    Religious or Spiritual? How the Difference Can Affect Your Happiness
    Author

    Lee Hager

    Brought up in fundamentalist Christianity, Lee & Steven spent over twenty years as dedicated Christian teachers. Although their service to others was the most gratifying aspect of their lives, other important parts of the puzzle were missing. They were disappointed that their faith had not resulted in the deep and sustaining peace and joy they believed it should, and it failed to offer satisfying answers to their questions about God. Eventually their continued questioning resulted in excommunication. They continued their search for several years, but kept finding the same disappointing answers. Frustrated by severe illnesses, family and financial problems, and their seeming failure to find God, they made a suicide pact. Before carrying it out, they prayed one last time, but this prayer, and the result, was very different than anything they had experienced before.Instead of asking for what they wanted, they laid aside all their personal preferences and preconceived ideas. For the first time, they were willing to accept any message they received as long as it resulted in a connection with Source. The answer they got came from a most unlikely source: quantum physics. They suddenly realized that science and spirituality create a powerful synergy that can transform our lives. The misery and fear we each experience is the direct result of our misperception of the universe and our place in it. The Beginning of Fearlessness: Quantum Prodigal Son is a spiritual quest and scientific adventure written to help you let go of the misperceptions that have made you miserable.

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      Book preview

      Religious or Spiritual? How the Difference Can Affect Your Happiness - Lee Hager

      Religious or Spiritual?

      How the Difference Can Affect Your Happiness

      Lee and Steven Hager

      Published by Oroborus Books Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2011 Lee and Steven Hager

      Discover other titles by Lee and Steven Hager at Smashwords.com including:

      The Beginning of Fearlessness: Quantum Prodigal Son

      The Gospel of Thomas: Where Science Meets Spirituality

      Fearless Spirituality: What Sages Knew and Science Discovered

      Understanding Gnosis: Inside and Outside the Gnostic Gospels

      Also available in print at online and storefront retailers

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the authors. All rights reserved.

      ********************

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Language

      Part One: Spiritual

      Chapter One: Lost Meanings

      ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ Gods

      Divine Ground

      Chapter Two: What Spiritual Means

      What Gnosticism and Spirituality Have In Common

      The Gnostic Jesus

      Chapter Three: Spiritual Awareness

      Part Two: Religious

      Chapter Four: What Religious Means

      Religion Evolves

      Chapter Five: The Master is Elevated

      The Message Becomes Sacred

      Chapter Six: The Price of Structure

      Clergy

      Part Three: Doing or Being

      Chapter Seven: Will You Do or Be?

      Doing

      Being

      *********************

      Introduction

      I am here to pull out the chair beneath your mind—and watch you fall upon God—Hafiz

      Can the way you approach God affect your happiness? Does it really matter whether you’re religious or spiritual? Is there any real difference between the two? Most of us assume the words religious and spiritual mean the same thing. And why not, since the two words are often used interchangeably. But that wasn’t always the case. If you look up the original meanings of religious and spiritual, you’ll find out they once described two very different approaches to the Divine. The further we dug into the subject, the more astonished we were. Finally, we realized that the loss of the original meanings of these words was affecting the happiness of millions of people around the globe. How did this change in understanding come about, and what does it mean for you?

      Language

      We’re all constantly absorbing information, and much of it comes to us through written or spoken language. Language is extremely powerful. It can be used to spread valuable information, but it also has the ability to manipulate our thinking and change our world view without our awareness or our consent. Language is, without question, fluid and dynamic. Words are nothing more than temporary symbols that we use by unspoken agreement. This quality allows language to keep up with our changing world, but it’s also where communication breaks down and word meanings are lost. Here are just a few of the reasons we all experience communication problems:

      ***The same word means something slightly different to each and every person that uses it because they’re filtering it through their own experience. (For example, if someone says the word apple, you might think of a fruit

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