How to know yourself-70: Spirituality and Religion

Spirituality and Our Inner World

We continue our journey into spirituality and the inner world. Today’s theme is about our internal landscape:
How well can we separate religion from our inner world? How do they interact? How do they affect our daily lives? How have these relationships changed since childhood? What factors shaped us? Where do we stand today?

First of all, when we mention spirituality, especially in our culture, it’s very common for people to immediately think of religion. This, however, leads us into a significant misconception.
Religion describes organized practices and shared teachings in a systematic way, while spirituality is more of a personal connection to an unexplained system.
This distinction shapes not only our perception of the world but also how we understand our place in it.

For example, for a very religious and unquestioning person, most of what we are discussing (or will discuss) holds no meaning. For them, life’s responsibilities are simply fulfilling the requirements of their faith and leaving the rest to the Creator — a view closely aligned with fatalism.
But this approach overlooks individualism, personal responsibility, and our agency in life. This gap is what, for example, Mevlana bridged by blending his unique interpretations with religious thought.
Some turn to Eastern philosophies, finding a connection between lost faith and the feeling of belief through concepts like karma.

In my view, unless you examine your inner world deeply, all of these are essentially the same.

Belief itself is, to some extent, shaped by childhood learning and culture — feeding fears, and perhaps rooted in our ancient tendency to deify anything beyond our comprehension.
As we grow older and as external factors change, our own reality takes shape.
Understanding this transformation is an important discovery for personal development and self-awareness:
Did we surrender ourselves to rules and fears? Or did we find them incompatible and evolve into a different path?

As our capacity for questioning grows from childhood onward, we may also begin to question the validity of the beliefs we inherited.
Did this process make you hold onto faith more strongly? Did it lead to disappointment? Or did you experience the relief of breaking free from intellectual captivity?
For instance — did the phrase “breaking free from captivity” just now make you uncomfortable?

Like every religious system, Islam offers guidance through a set of rules. Yet over time, numerous superstitions become integrated into the religion itself. The constant reinforcement of fear also blurs the line between what is rational and irrational.

In my opinion, both believing and not believing are choices — and they should be fully conscious choices.
Our inner world, however, is a separate matter. Interest in supernatural forces is less about belief itself and more about emotions: about what nourishes us, what gives us a sense of peace.

Contrary to what we’re taught and what we frequently encounter, inner peace is a concept independent of the external world.
Therefore, the goal is not to seek it, but rather to build it — and that is what self-discovery is about.

In the end:
“The strength you need already exists within you,” as some say, or to paraphrase: It’s all inside us.