The ingredients of holy and proper spirituality:
Mix ritual with the right amount of spirit and you have spiritual.
Yup, that's it!
The big challenge is that many times we get the quantities wrong, or we skip a bit of one ingredient and we are left wanting; wanting more ritual, wanting more spirit, or wanting out of this lifeless search for spirituality.
The 3 most common mistakes when mixing this concoction are:
Cognitive dissonance, idealism, and sameness!
Some people believe one thing but do differently. A father once told me that he believes you must be honest, always. In the same conversation, he told me he was once working from home and when his boss had called as he was picking up a child from a sports game, he said that he was logged in to work. A blatant lie! Why did he do this? He loves the ideal of complete honesty yet feels that sometimes it does not need to be practiced. He does not have enough ritual (action) to back up the spirit of his belief.
Another one says that the world is corrupt and we cannot change it! The best is to not engage with the world. No ritual! Move to a beautiful place in nature, go off the grid and there find spirituality.
While there is a lot of spirit there, (alcohol is called spirits perhaps because it also takes one "off the grid") there is no ritual!
The third type goes the other way. They say it is all the same. I just need to act the right way. There does not need to be any spirit. While this works for a period of time, the ritual becomes lifeless.
The correct amounts are recognizing that there is this need for balance. Using the balancing act to help us grow ensures that 1) our action exists, 2) it is in line with our ideals, and 3) is infused with the spirit, the meaning.
Enjoy the mixing and let us know how your spiritual journey works out.