What is Spirituality?

[`mud]

Spirituality is a cognizant sense of one's own consciousness,
and added to that is the fear and guilt built into the laws of `GODS`.

 

[Thief]

Spirituality is a cognizant sense of one's own consciousness,
and added to that is the fear and guilt built into the laws of `GODS`.

I don't fear God for cause of His Law

I think of God.....AS.....Spirit

not human

and I suspect He is reflexive
touch God
and He will touch you back

it might hurt

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The term 'spiritual' is one that many people seem to identify with, especially as so many Westerners are fleeing traditional religious labels. Even some atheists embrace a kind of secular spirituality

Even some atheists?

As others have noted, spirit, spiritual, and spirituality are used in several ways by various people, and we can seldom tell what they mean when they something like being on a spiritual path or having spiritual truth.

I really only use the word when describing experiences that elicit awe, a sense of mystery, gratitude, and a sense of connectivity to the world, such as when standing under a starlit sky and contemplating the drop of light that impacts your cornea to inform you of a distant presence, which, if one is sufficiently educated about what one is seeing, and not just the vast distances, but one's relationship to that star - knowing that we are stardust and how stars like that cooked up the ingredients of our world and bodies, then died releasing their treasures into our part of the universe.

Another category of experience that can elicit that woo-woo feeling (and I don't mean this in a derogatory sense - I like it, too) is understanding some mathematics such as the contemplation of infinity, or logical paradoxes. Also, some music can create that sense of rapture.

There's nothing religious about any of that, which is what I call the authentic spiritual experience, although many religious people want to claim that realm for themselves, By spiritual, such people mean related to gods and the pursuit of understanding them in a process that I find no value in like Bible studies and Sunday school. Somehow, because they believe in spirits like gods, angels, and demons, that makes them spiritual. I don't agree.

In fact, I see their religious beliefs as frequently being the cause of a less spiritual walk as I defined it, since their attention is distracted from our world to some imagined realm and its inhabitant who they then are grateful to instead of appreciating our world for what it is. If you consider matter base, the universe inferior to this imagined realm, and rightfully slated for annihilation to be replaced by something better, that's pretty much the opposite of spirituality as I defined it. That worldview does violence to the connectivity to this world that is an essential element of spirituality. And that is what I call inauthentic spirituality. It's empty.

In my opinion, the authentic spiritual experience as I described it is a mental state created by the brain that feels good in a woo-woo sort of way, one that even a skeptical empiricist can enjoy and might like to cultivate for its own sake whether through sweat lodges or ayahuasca retreats or simply sitting quietly and contemplating the universe or mathematics.

As I indicated, I enjoy that as well, but feel that others are mistaking the significance of that very pleasant mental state and what it actually signifies apart from a psychological state. Those that say that it reveals a mysterious external reality and presence are mistaken, in my opinion. Of course, it's possible that we are somehow experiencing an unseen aspect of reality, but far from certain. It may just be an illusion produced by a pleasant feeling - just the mental state that causes us to believe that we are sensing something out there rather than just our own minds.

This use of the word spiritual refers to something more robust than the religious meaning of spiritual, which can be nothing more than agreeing that there is a god and studying text alone or in groups to know God better, a pursuit which has no value to me, and as I indicated, what they believe seems to actually keep them from growing spiritually. This often leaves them so disconnected from reality that they live life as if waiting at some cosmic bus stop while thinking about a place that doesn't exist, and patiently waiting for death for something better. What could be less spiritual than that?

Just as bad off are those who have had a taste of an authentic spiritual experience, misunderstood it, and spent the rest of their lives chasing after the illusion in what they call a spiritual journey, but appears to be chasing one's tail. These people are also the ones that don't find that ordinary life is sufficiently rich (how spiritual can they be if their experience of reality is just not enough). These people are looking for there to be more, and so invent extra reality and go off for the rest of lives trying to get a better handle on what isn't really there.

They seem to need some magic in their lives and so turn to crystals and herbs hoping for more. Or they desire what they consider arcane knowledge and special insights not available to lesser mortals who they view as less evolved than they are, and turn to masters and gurus for guidance. They want a leg up on the rest of us, and they think it will come from this pursuit.

Good luck to them, but these people don't ever seem to have anything to show for their trouble. We've got several of them here on RF, but I don't see any of them demonstrating anything worth pursuing. Perhaps they are satisfying some need I don't have, because though I found that kind of thing useful for a season, after a time, the rewards diminished then ceased, so I spend little time there any more. Frankly, I see them as ghosts trapped in a room that they endlessly circle looking for something without knowing what it is, and with no chance of success.

They will just keep wandering and clattering their chains indefinitely. They say that they are on a spiritual journey, but I seem going nowhere. This outlook has taken them to exactly the opposite place that they seek. They seem be getting less because of an ineffectual and distracting search of more. They say that they are in pursuit of spiritual truth, but I don't know what that would be beyond just some feelings that comfort them or that they think will lead them to something more. I liken them to the person looking for his keys forever, keys that never existed.

Any of you people that see yourself in this way are free to tell me what it is you have discovered on this journey, and why you think that it would be of value to somebody who feels that he is already on a better path. What are you hoping to accomplish with this activity?

A different understanding of spiritual refers to higher human instincts and their pursuit. We basically divide the set of human urges, drives, and desires into a basic survival subset that we inherited from the beasts, and loftier, strictly human desires such as the search for justice, beauty, self-improvement. These people talk about discovering themselves and self-actualization. This is a useful division, in my opinion, but I don't inject the word spiritual here to refer to the higher self, since to do so adds nothing for me. One could go about this pursuit without framing it as spiritual.

Also, quieting the mind is called spiritual by some, as when gardening or meditating. I'm good with that usage, and would find value there if I had a need for quieting my mind. I don't. I don't experience what many others describe as vexatious internal verbal distractions and false fears weighing them down. I don't want to end the incessant narration going on in my mind. I like it.

Then there's the completely useless pursuit of spirits (ghosts) using so-called spiritualists and spiritual media like fortune tellers, also nothing to do with spirituality as I defined it.

So, as you can tell, I don't have a lot of use for these words and ideas, even in areas where they might apply in my own life. When having those experiences of rapture, I don't need a word for them and don't think of them as anything other than pleasant states of mind.

 

[`mud]

hey @Thief .
After the final loss of spirituality to the Spiritual eithers,
how long will one take to get there, the sisters had no answer.
Depends on Ole Pete I guess !
I'm sure you'll sail through, spirituality in check !

 

[Thief]

Then there's the completely useless pursuit of spirits (ghosts) using so-called spiritualists and spiritual media like fortune tellers, also nothing to do with spirituality as I defined it.

well....there is that notation in scripture

Do NOT keep familiar spirits.....

forbidden practice

though I can't help but wonder......we are not allowed to make a prayer?
to those who have passed before us?

 

[Thief]

hey @Thief .
After the final loss of spirituality to the Spiritual eithers,
how long will one take to get there, the sisters had no answer.
Depends on Ole Pete I guess !
I'm sure you'll sail through, spirituality in check !

I appreciate the vote of confidence

but I suspect.....I will find it needful to sneak in the back window

what?.....they would let a Thief in through the front Door?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Ahh yes...science discovering `heaven` and all it's uncountable residents !

Maybe a thought about all the floating around would be disturbing, yes ?

Oh yah......I forgot about the mansions that `God` was building for everyone.

Oh...no floating...got to get busy honing this sword anyway ! Damned satan !

Yeah, maybe someday science will be able to explain metaphors.

There are those who have realized heaven right here on earth.

 

[`mud]

I do have that !