PRACTICES OF NON-THEISTIC SPIRITUALITY

Key Word: Non-theistic spirituality, religion, spiritual practice, God, the sage

For many people, spiritual practice is associated with one or another theistic religion. But this association is not inevitable. Both in the ancient and modern worlds, teachers of certain wisdom-traditions offered techniques of spiritual development that did not require belief in God or gods. In this paper I discuss the practices of eleven such traditions: five from India (Advaita Vedanta, Samkhya, Yoga, Jainism and Buddhism), two from China (Confucianism and Daoism), and four from Greece (Cynicism, Epicureanism Stoicism, and Scepticism). These traditions differ from one another in many respects, but all (1) are grounded in philosophies or worldviews in which the gods are absent or subordinate, (2) advocate non-devotional spiritual practices, and (3) offer a conception of the wise man or Sage. In contrast with practitioners of theistic religions, who often engage in sectarian conflict and violence, practitioners of non-theistic traditions tend to be concerned with individual development and thus avoid sectarian violence.

Peter Heehs                                                                                                The Author is an independent scholar. He is the au- thor or editor of eleven books. He can be reached at peter.heehs@auromail.net