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Spirituality

Koldo

Outstanding Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!
 

dybmh

ויהי מבדיל בין מים למים
Spirituality: Acknowledging a non-material aspect to reality. Some extend this to include a universal collective Spirit, some isloate it to include only human souls, some may include animal souls, a God or gods, or anything inbetween.

The soul is the summation of emotional and intellectual capabilities of a living thing.

Hopefully I don't need to define 'living' :p
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!
I have absolutely no idea, as it's a catch-all word. When someone says they're spiritual, I'm at a loss to understand. For me personally, the closest words I can think of right now are introspective and caring.
 

nPeace

Veteran Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!
You can be sure you will get diverse views on this.
Perhaps it might be good to start where spirituality begins.
For example, where does it originate, or what is its source.
If it is of or from God, then that is where we start.
However, with so many gods, worshipped by diverse people, in diverse ways, again, you will have different views.

In that case, it will be very hard to grasp the concept, if one is not holding any one view as the truth.
For me, spirituality is mentioned and described in the Bible.
It can be stated in a basic way, or more detailed, but it's only grasped in light of truth.

See 1 Corinthians 2:14-16, and Jude 19
Literally, spirituality means to have spirit.
However, that's quite broad. What spirit?
See Galatians 5:22 contrasted with verses 19-21.

I think you can probably see, it will require time to explain, since stating it in the most basic way, might be for many, hard to grasp.

To be spiritual though, involves being concerned with the things of God... simply put.
Spirituality therefore would mean having a mind that is totally in line with God's view.
 

Jeremiah Ames

Well-Known Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!

Spirituality:
A level of consciousness at a considerably higher level than earthly existence.
An insight where you now can observe your earthly existence from a higher vantage point.

Earthly, like an animal that only looks to the earth, maybe like a cow.

Spirituality, like an eagle that sees the sky as well as the ground.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!

I'd say this is the closest I came across
Spiritual Awakening Signs: 10 Authentic Symptoms + 5 Spiritual Traps

What is spirituality? (Signs 1-10)

1. Perhaps the most essential and authentic signs of spiritual awakening can be observed in your daily behavior.

2. A Deepening in Your Emotional Wellbeing
As such, there’s less resistance to feel (even negative emotions we resisted before). Instead of sedating yourself and running from your feelings, there’s a growing willingness to confront emotions like fear, anger, and guilt.

3. A Tendency to Slow Down and Reflect Back
So another spiritual awakening symptom is that you begin to slow down more often and reflect back. An impulse comes alive in you to more clearly understand yourself and your behavior. The Buddhists call this Stopping and Seeing.

4. A Shift in Priorities and Values
Locating authority within ourselves changes our values. We can develop our personal ethical framework where we evaluate what’s best in the context of the moment. The ego is unable to do this because basic needs drive it; only the Higher Self can.

5. A Transformation of the Inner World
Another spiritual awakening sign is a profound shift from this external world to one’s inner realm of thoughts, feelings, dreams, and imagination. In Buddhism, this dimension is called the subtle realm, and it’s considered more real than the gross dimension of our waking state.

6. Holding the Opposites Together

7. An Experience of Okayness and Inner Freedom
The ego is our source of fears, desires, and constant tension. When the ego is no longer in control, there’s an inherent sense of okayness—regardless of what’s happening in our lives (good or bad).

8. A Deeping Sense of Self-Honesty and Personal Responsibility
Now, you feel a growing sense of responsibility and accountability for your thoughts, emotions, and actions. It’s for this reason that psychotherapist David Richo says the last gateway to mature adulthood is guilt.

9. A Massive Change in Lifestyle Choices
Another noticeable sign of spiritual awakening is that you become highly conscious of your lifestyle choices.

10. A Sense of Interconnectivity or Oneness
The Original Spirit has no such fear or sense of separation. It doesn’t play the ego’s game of “us versus them.” The Spirit doesn’t identify itself with gender, race, nationality, religion, or a species. It simply is. And it exists outside of space and time, so death isn’t a relevant concept for it.

Give or take to one degree or another.

All religious experiences I came across have a combination of these things through profound experiences and practices. There are a lot of attributions to these experiences whether its the cause (which some call god) or the practice (traditions and things of that nature), meditation, prayer, so have you.

How they get to these points and definitions thereof depends on their religious views and how committed they are to their practices and theologies. If it's part of their lives (if it defines it) I'd say that's spirituality.

I never had this experience just little blurts, but to use that word I think these things most apply.
 

Brickjectivity

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!
It means 'contemplative'. If you contemplate things then that is spiritual. Planning is spiritual. Spiritual things are intangible but at the same time indestructible. An example of something intangible but indestructible are the times tables. You can't touch them, but they are permanent. Music is a spiritual thing. Images are spiritual. Words are spiritual.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!
I'll start with Jesus' words found at John 4:23-24 to worship his God with spirit and truth.
So, one must have a spirited (lively) worship. Not meaning emotionally stirred up.
A spiritual person would try to cultivate, progress and display the 'fruit of God's spirit' as listed at Galatians 5:22-23.
Trying to keep 'Bible instruction' in mind helps keep a person to be spiritually minded or spiritually awake !
Without spiritual nourishment ( feed the mind on God's Word aka Bible ) one could starve spiritually.
Then, there is the importance of being spiritually clean being free from what are false religious teachings.
To 'walk by faith' ( Not using sighted objects/idols ) would show one to be a spiritual person.
Set the mind on spiritual things, and Not on fleshly things or material accumulation of things.- Romans 8:6 B
 

mangalavara

नमस्कार
Premium Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!

Currently, my understanding of the very term spirituality is based on the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary and my beliefs as a Hindu whose philosophy can be described as Viśiṣṭādvaita or 'Qualified Monism.'

Basically, spirituality is the state of being concerned with the 'spirit' in some way. For me, the term spirit refers to two things: the jīvātman or 'soul self' and the Paramātman or 'Supreme Self.' The former is who I really am inside the body, mind, intellect, and ego. The latter is God who is boundless yet seated within me. Spirituality then is the state of being concerned with the soul self and the Supreme Self.

There are different ways I can practice spirituality. For instance, as I do my work or any chore, I can do it with the devotional attitude that what I do is for the Supreme Self. Other examples of practicing spirituality are contemplating the differences between body and soul self, 'seeing' the Supreme Self seated in myself and other beings, and meditating on the Supreme Self as the personal god that he is. Even reading certain scriptures of my religion is a way for me to practice spirituality.

I hope this is informative. :)
 

syo

Well-Known Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!
I've absolutely no idea what spirituality is. And to be honest, I don't really care to learn. I think it's beyond me. :cool:
 

Bree

Active Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!

to my mind, spirituality means a persons thoughts, feelings, intentions, motivations, morals and ethics are in harmony with the creator. God is a spirit, his way of thinking and his standards, morals, likes and dislikes are far higher then our own. When a person adopts his standards and way of thinking it can be said that they are a spiritual person.

And we can get to know how he thinks and feels by reading his word the bible where we can read his laws and see how he deals with mankind.
 
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URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
I've absolutely no idea what spirituality is. And to be honest, I don't really care to learn. I think it's beyond me. :cool:
I don't think love would be beyond you, nor possibly: joy, peace, patience, kindness, mercy, goodness, etc.
If displaying such qualities are not beyond you, then you do have an idea of what spiritually is or includes.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!
Spirituality is "Religious lite." It is people who want to feel good about believing in things without any of the work of having to do anything.
 

ajay0

Well-Known Member
Please, describe to me what you understand by the term 'spirituality' in the most detailed way you can. Also, please, don't read the other posts before you reply to this post. Everyone is welcome to participate!

When people are alone, they become spiritual. When in company, they become religious. ~ Sadhguru

You can say Sadhguru's eloquent statement sums up spirituality for me.

I would say most people are religious, not spiritual.

If people were spiritual and kept to themselves in solitude and silence for just three months, the whole covid issue would have ended long time back due to lack of transmission.
 
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