What is spirituality?

I

I_Voyager

New member
Hey, all.

What is spirituality?
What is the fundamental base of it?
What makes humans or life spiritual?
What isn't spiritual?
What describes a spiritual being or a spiritual event?
What connects you to your spirituality?
What is it to you in comparison to physical or even social systems?
 
To me, spirituality is a recognition of and aiming for a connection to something atemporal, therefore external to the universe as modelled by the space-time continuum.

Its fundamental base is that there is something outside of the physical universe (including dark matter).

What makes humans spiritual is the ability to conceive of this, whether it be true or false.

A spiritual event is one in which you become personally aware of the possibility that there is something atemporal. A spiritual being is anyone or anything connected to that atemporal existence, but often with a somewhat vested interest in the temporal (esp. life).

That which connects me to the atemporal is something that exists in the temporal but has a closer link than I to the atemporal. Aka, middle management. My goal is to get good at communicating with middle management.

I am currently mostly ignoring middle management.
 
I like this basic definition:

"Spiritual wellness is being connected to something greater than yourself and having a set of values, principles, morals and beliefs that provide a sense of purpose and meaning to life, then using those principles to guide your actions."

That's the core bit -- the sense of being connected to something bigger than yourself, and trying to live/lead a principled life. What that bigger thing is, and what those guiding principles are or come from will differ.

I would add that, to me, "spirituality" is individual. Spiritual practices vary, e.g., body things like yoga or moving meditation; creative things like art, music; justice things like donating to the food bank.

The Tree of Contemplative Practices – The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

www.contemplativemind.org www.contemplativemind.org

This describes several practices, things that feed the spirit, allow one to experience wonder, awe, deep joy. Some people get that from hiking in nature. Some people get that by playing an instrument.

When individuals want to come together in pursuit of those spiritual practices, including worship/prayer in community rather than worship/prayer as a single person, then it becomes "religion." And whatever beliefs and worldview the worshippers share is going to vary from religion to religion.

At least, that's what I think.

Galagirl
 
Hello I_Voyager,

I do not consider myself to be a spiritual person. I am an atheist. Which to me is to say, I am an unbeliever. The two big things I don't believe exist are, a) God, and b) an afterlife. Note that the existence (or nonexistence) of an afterlife is, for me, far more important than the existence (or nonexistence) of God. In fact, the only reason God would matter to me is because if God existed, then there would be a much greater chance that an afterlife also existed.

So what do I consider a spiritual person? A spiritual person has faith. A spiritual person is a believer. What does a spiritual person believe in? That varies, but mostly it is in supernatural things. Some spiritual people believe that we are all One. That individuality is an illusion of sorts, that we only experience in this life. That when we die, we rejoin the Universal Consciousness. To some spiritual people, that Consciousness is God. To others, there is no God.

What does a spiritual person do? Some pray. Some meditate. All have a moral code of some sort (but then, so do atheists). Some spiritual people derive their moral code from scripture (especially the Bible), and/or from spiritual leaders. Some derive it from their own sense of reason. Some teach, some learn, some do both and some neither. Some spiritual people are enlightened. Some seek enlightenment. Most have a purpose in life. Many are in search of that purpose.

The above are just my current perceptions.
Regards,
Kevin T.
 
For me, being spiritual is not a belief. It is an inner knowing (especially in the Greek way, which they called gnosis). If I don't know much, I am at least a seeker of knowledge/gnosis.

My spirituality is made of practices. It is not worship in the way some religions do it, by kneeling before a cross or an icon, and praying to that as if it could hear them. It is not dressing a certain way on one day of the week, and going to a designated building, and following a liturgy prescribed to me by a male priest or pastor.

As a feminist, and being as I am drawn to a balance between male and female deities/energies, I identify as a Neo Pagan. The practices that help me feel connected to life, giving it a "meaning and a purpose" (although those are hard to define), consist of doing everyday activities with a sense of belonging to the flow of life. So, in anything I do, I can feel that spiritual connection. For me, some activities more directly connect me to life, earth, god/dess: cooking and eating healthy food, entheogens like cannabis and mushrooms, hiking or otherwise being in nature (camping, swimming, gardening, going to the ocean, watching sunsets), reading certain books, being with children and their pure energies, watching certain videos, dancing, singing, chanting, being beside a fire, and/or especially sex, give me that feeling.

I find sitting in a church to be empty and meaningless. I prefer meditative actions. Just sitting and praying on a hard pew, or being lectured from the pulpit, or singing some old song about Jesus do nothing for me. I like to think for myself, so having the theme of the Sunday service chosen for me every week never did anything for me, and it never will.

I try to be aware of the natural holidays, such as the solstices and equinoxes. I am especially drawn to doing self-selected rituals on Yule, Ostara and Beltane. I also like to pay attention to the phases of the moon.
 
The question I find I have given the expressions and descriptions made here is on whether or not belief in a real, non-physical existence is necessary to be truly spiritual, or can a person be spiritual but hold no beliefs about the existence of non-material entities.

These days I appear to be having something *like* a spiritual conflict when I think about the relationship between information, form, potential, probability and physics. I think I can no longer tell whether physical relationships or information are more fundamental. This begs metaphysical questions about physics for me that leaves me with no obvious solutions, but a sense of incompleteness, which wasn't perhaps so daunting during my stronger atheistic days.
 
Pantheism could fit that condition.
 
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Evie said:
Pantheism could fit that description.
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Maybe... My conception of things has no stable deity or universal intentionality expected, except in the possible terms of a civilization higher than a type-5 civilization on the Kardashev scale, which I do not necessarily think exists. I have more questions and uncertainties than beliefs or expectations. Nor any stable way to make or test hypotheses.
 
If spirituality includes, or allows for, a belief that when we die, our consciousness is simply snuffed out of existence, and what remains of who we were, namely our body, eventually returns to the earth and never again knows sentience ... well, if that is spirituality, then count me as a spiritual person.

The word "spirituality" features the word "spirit," reminding us that spiritual people believe (or know) that every human individual has a spirit, a soul, an existence outside the physical, or within the realm of a finer, more sophisticated physical. Whether that spirit is individual, or merely a part of a greater Universal Consciousness, us up to each spiritual person to decide.

It is sad to think that we are on our own in an indifferent universe, and I hope I'm wrong. But until I feel the prints of the nails, so to speak, I will continue to believe that Jesus is not risen. I'm sure he would be if he could.
 
kdt26417 said:
If spirituality includes, or allows for, a belief that when we die, our consciousness is simply snuffed out of existence, and what remains of who we were, namely our body, eventually returns to the earth and never again knows sentience ... well, if that is spirituality, then count me as a spiritual person.

The word "spirituality" features the word "spirit," reminding us that spiritual people believe (or know) that every human individual has a spirit, a soul, an existence outside the physical, or within the realm of a finer, more sophisticated physical. Whether that spirit is individual, or merely a part of a greater Universal Consciousness, us up to each spiritual person to decide.

It is sad to think that we are on our own in an indifferent universe, and I hope I'm wrong. But until I feel the prints of the nails, so to speak, I will continue to believe that Jesus is not risen. I'm sure he would be if he could.
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But look at some of the common threads in explaining spirituality from the experience of being a spiritual person. Seeking knowledge, pursuing meaning, knowing there is something greater than yourself, awe, joy, practice, ritual. Principled living.

If we were to turn around and ask what an emotion is we can get abstract and talk about happiness or anger, or talk about certain biochemical systems. When we talk about spirituality there are many real things here spirituality is doing, so when we ask what spirit is it might be similar to asking about emotion. Just because we do not know the biochemical answer to the question of a feeling doesn't mean there is no love.

Even under the condition of atemporality the idea of universal platonic forms is spiritual, but ultimately the idealist vs realist debate is unsettled in every generation. An atheist with a penchant for philosophy and good living might be sufficient to be called spiritual, under all conditions given, but actively believe in no god or spirit if they only understand their place in the universe. Since they'd know about the greater physical system for above them of which they are a part.
 
Ah, but the knowing that there is something greater than myself, that is where I diverge from spiritual people and spiritual beliefs.

I believe that a spirit is an imaginary construct, as real as Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. I did not always believe this, I used to be a spiritual person. But then, I also used to be a monogamous person.

True, we do not have all the answers. We do not know what "love" is. That is where belief comes in, we "believe" according to our best understanding of the limited knowledge available.
 
kdt26417 said:
Ah, but the knowing that there is something greater than myself, that is where I diverge from spiritual people and spiritual beliefs.

I believe that a spirit is an imaginary construct, as real as Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. I did not always believe this, I used to be a spiritual person. But then, I also used to be a monogamous person.

True, we do not have all the answers. We do not know what "love" is. That is where belief comes in, we "believe" according to our best understanding of the limited knowledge available.
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Still there's a leap from diverging on thinking there is something greater than self, to refuting spirituality on the basis of there being no stable thing we can presently call a spirit. Even in this thread alone no one predicated being spiritual on having a spirit. Maybe spirituality is no less dependent upon knowing what a spirit is than illness is dependent upon knowing how the humors are off balance. There being no humors says nothing about what it means to be ill. Maybe there being no spirit says nothing about what it means to be spiritual?
 
I do not refute spirituality. I merely distinguish between spiritual beliefs and my own beliefs. If I have a spirit, then I will know, when I die, that the spiritual people were right in their beliefs. If I do not have a spirit, then I will never know. While I am still alive, I am just making my best guess.

You can certainly say that I am a spiritual person, and I will not argue with that. I just don't think that most spiritual people would want me to be counted among their ranks.
 
kdt26417 said:
I do not refute spirituality. I merely distinguish between spiritual beliefs and my own beliefs. If I have a spirit, then I will know, when I die, that the spiritual people were right in their beliefs. If I do not have a spirit, then I will never know. While I am still alive, I am just making my best guess.

You can certainly say that I am a spiritual person, and I will not argue with that. I just don't think that most spiritual people would want me to be counted among their ranks.
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Me neither I suspect. I want to know what the other folk in the thread think. Both about what we said to each other and what the others in the thread said.
 
I probably don't even belong in this discussion. What place does an atheist have in a discussion about spirituality? I don't know. Maybe I am just riding on what little belonging I derive from the spiritual beliefs I used to have.
 
kdt26417 said:
I probably don't even belong in this discussion. What place does an atheist have in a discussion about spirituality? I don't know. Maybe I am just riding on what little belonging I derive from the spiritual beliefs I used to have.
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Seems like a very insecure musing.
 
Since we're talking about spirits and souls (at least one of which I believe is at least a bridge between the temporal and atemporal) I also thought I'd share my country's indigenous notion of the same:

maoridictionary.co.nz

wairua - Te Aka Māori Dictionary

Search results for 'wairua'. Search the Māori dictionary with the online version of Te Aka Māori-English, English-Māori Dictionary and Index
maoridictionary.co.nz maoridictionary.co.nz

Māori have a deep pre-colonisation spirituality, but there are also differences between tribes (iwi), including which Atua (gods) they honoured. But there is a definite belief in the spiritual as in what happens after death.
 
Sure. I can share more of what I think.

I_Voyager said:
The question I find I have, given the expressions and descriptions made here, is on whether or not belief in a real, non-physical existence is necessary to be truly spiritual, or if a person can be spiritual, but hold no beliefs about the existence of non-material entities.
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I'm going to call it "god/dess," just to have a name for ease of writing. It might even be plural gods/godesses, depending on the world view of the person.

Is a belief in "god/dess" necessary to be truly spiritual, or can a person be spiritual but hold no belief in a "god/dess"?

I think think a person does not have to believe in any god/dess stuff. They can be spiritual without it. They also are going to have a spiritual health dimension of wellness without it.

I think most people don't have to have a huge religious education background or science background in how our brains and hormones and things work to understand these sentences:
  • "This person is really mean-spirited."
  • "This person lack a generosity of spirit."
  • "This person is in poor spiritual health."
I think most people could recognize suffering of some kind is going on with the person.

When I ask that kind of question, knowing that not all people believe in any kind of "god/dess," I use this instead.

"How do you experience wonder or the Divine, by whatever name? What are your spiritual practices, the things that feed your soul, make your heart sing? Art, music, something else?"​

I find that leads to more meaningful conversation in getting to know them. Those who believe in a "god/dess" tell me about that. Those who don't tell me about their other things. And those who lack spiritual or religious vocabulary can still tell me what they groove on and what lights them up on the inside.

kdt26417 said:
I probably don't even belong in this discussion. What place does an atheist have in a discussion about spirituality? I don't know.
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Kevin, I think you have a seat at the table. Atheism is a worldview, and there can be an atheist spirituality. Why wouldn't you have a place?

kdt26417 said:
You can certainly say that I am a spiritual person, and I will not argue with that. I just don't think that most spiritual people would want me to be counted among their ranks.
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There's no actual "spirituality police" that's going to boot you from the "world religions discussion table," though some people try to act like it, just because your worldview might challenge their own. I think that says more about their own confidence in their beliefs, or their comfort with, acceptance of others believing differently, more than anything else, maybe even their ability to hold to seemingly conflicting things as both being true at the same time.

It's like that "truth" exercise, where the teacher holds up a card to students sitting in a circle, and one side of the class says it is white and the other says it is black. And when the teacher shows both sides, they come to realize it is both things-- white on one side and black on the other side. So, depending on where you sat in the circle, it looked different to you than to someone sitting elsewhere.

Moving on from "either/or" thinking to "both/and" thinking.

I can accept and respect that other people with different worldviews might have a belief in a god/dess of some kind, and practice a certain religion. Or not. I actually lean more in the pantheist/humanist direction. I enjoy reading god/dess stories, but I don't have a personal belief in them.

I think most religions try to help you to be or become your best self. If it helps them do that, really become their best selves, lead well-principled lives, have at it.

You might enjoy reading the Golden Rule Poster.

https://www.scarboromissions.ca/golden-rule/golden-rule-across-the-worlds-religions

To me, there is nothing wrong with having an agnostic, atheist, humanist, or a religious naturalist worldview -- any of the non-god/dess angles.

Most are good with working towards more peace in the world. They just don't want anything involving god/dess-type beings, beliefs, etc., for themselves. They prefer a different religion and/or spiritual practices to help them get grounded again in their values, principles, and principled living.

"Religious naturalism is a perspective that finds religious meaning in the natural world and rejects the notion of a supernatural realm." Such a person would find meaning and wonder being out in nature, and their spiritual practices might be things like gardening or talking hikes. Not getting the time to engage in the practice may lead to their spiritual wellness taking a hit. Life cannot just be work, sleep, work, sleep.

There's also nothing wrong with believing in a god/dess kind of worldview. Those who do want some of that.

I do not think a person's worldview would block them from being spiritual, prevent them from being concerned about their spiritual wellness or working on their spiritual practices, or living out their values in the world.

Whatever it is people have as their "bigger thing," the challenge is finding out what bigger things we share in common.

Is it really going to stop people from helping pack boxes at the food bank if the volunteer group has an atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Pagan, etc., in the group? No, because their shared bigger thing might be a value of "helping others."

You might enjoy reading this brief.

Explanatory definition of the concept of spiritual health: a qualitative study in Iran - PMC

Scientists and researchers have examined spiritual health from different angles and proposed various definitions, but a comprehensive definition does not exist for the term as of now. The present study aimed to offer the definition, components and ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

For me, the god chunk is conventional and could be expanded to worldview instead, since not all people believe in a god or goddess. But apart from that it resonated.

I think, when we die, our bodies return to earth, and whatever else happens after that is mystery, because nobody comes back from being dead to be able to tell. I think making peace with one's own mortality is one of those "big-question things" that people and all religions wrestle with. I'm at peace with it. All things have a season. Including me.

I_Voyager said:
These days, I appear to be having something like a spiritual conflict when I think about the relationship between information, form, potential, probability and physics. I think I can no longer tell whether physical relationships or information are more fundamental. This begs metaphysical questions about physics, for me, that leaves me with no obvious solutions, but a sense of incompleteness, which wasn't perhaps so daunting during my stronger atheistic days.
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What kinds of questions? Do you mean you are experiencing a shift in some core beliefs in that area, so it kind of feels like a crisis of faith thing?
 
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