“One may identify as being any combination of religious and spiritual, but being religious doesn’t automatically make you spiritual, or vice versa”.

I grew up in a Catholic family, my father was my first catechism teacher, under the mango tree in our first house in Jalan Kilat, Butterworth Much later I discovered other traditions full of truth, beauty and grace.

One day, I found the following words in a poster in Ipoh. It was an instant connection. Bought it and framed it. It’s still hanging on the wall at home. Attributed to the wise Indian Chief White Cloud, it is inspiring, evocative and at once humbling:

In a past life, I think I would have been a native Indian, not that I am not one now!

There is something you cannot explain in words what Indian spirituality hints, like this one:

“Listen to the air. You can hear it, feel it, smell it, taste it. Woniya wakan—the holy air—which renews all by its breath. Woniya, woniya wakan—spirit, life, breath, renewal—it means all that. Woniya—we sit together, don’t touch,

but something is there; we feel it between us, as a presence. A good way to start thinking about nature, talk about it. Rather talk to it, talk to the rivers, to the lakes, to the winds as to our relatives.”

- John "Fire" Lame Deer, Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions

Then there are the contemporary songs that carry a spiritual message. Some may dispute that we need to draw a line between the secular and the sacred. I like the Jesuit priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s quote:

I think we need to hold those thoughts in tension. Otherwise, we may be missing the trees for the forest. Here’s one example from 1965 , a contemporary song that resonates deep in the soul:

“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”

- R.W. Emerson