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Spirituality is rebellion; religiousness is orthodoxy. Spirituality is individuality; religiousness is just remaining part of the crowd psychology. Religiousness keeps you a sheep, and spirituality is a lion's roar.
Rajneesh
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Spirituality encourages individual thought and freedom, while religiousness often adheres to societal norms and conformity.

In this quote, Rajneesh contrasts spirituality with religiousness, suggesting that true spirituality embodies personal rebellion against established norms, promoting individuality and self-expression. Conversely, he views religiousness as a mechanism of conformity, where individuals follow doctrines and societal expectations, resembling 'sheep' rather than embracing their inner 'lion' that symbolizes strength and independence.

Themes

SpiritualityIndividualityRebellionOrthodoxyReligiousnessConformityCrowd Psychology

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a motivational speech about the importance of following one's own path instead of succumbing to societal pressures.

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There is no separate art of life. If you know how to allow poetry, if you know how to allow dance, if you know how to allow love - if you know how to ALLOW, then you know the art of life. In the allowing, in the let-go, in the surrender, is the art of life. How not to be and to let God be - that is the only art of life.
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Love is not a relationship, love is a state of being; it has nothing to do with anybody else. One is not "in love", one is love. And of course when one is love, one is in love – but that is an outcome, a by-product, that is not the source. The source is that one is love.
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