What is spirituality?

Question

Do you feel emotionally spiritual with many religions, beleifs, and ideas?

Answer 1

I use the world ‘spirituality’ to get at the idea of living deeply, passionately and truthfully.

Of course 'spirituality' in common usage takes on many other connotations. It often gets confuse with religion, for example. And then there are the macho types see spirituality as a sort of warm, fuzzy weak-mindedness. Other confused folks think that spirituality is in conflict with passion or strong desire. These connotations are unfortunate because true spirituality is actually a very tough, passionate, embodied experience that involves a combination of both deep thought and deep feeling. I think that true spirituality (in contrast to simply having the warm, fuzzy feeling that God loves you because you are doing what some religious leader says you should do) is neither “soft minded” nor “without desire”. I would say that “open mindedness” is important because starting on a spiritual journey will (if you do it right) challenge your ordinary conceptions of reality and meaning.

Religion is often like a game of "follow-the-leader" or "Simon says". This is not always entirely bad, but too much of it means that you are not truly thinking for yourself or engaging your unique path.

“Soft minded” means that you don’t think critically. “Open minded” means you are willing to consider possibilities that might seem “weird” at first glance. The deepest things in life often seem weird or incomprehensible at first glance.

The question of desire is highly controversial. Some spiritual traditions emphasize overcoming desire, or becoming “unattached” to emotions, but in my view this sort of terminology is often misunderstood. To become “unattached” to your emotions does not mean that you strive to become emotionless. The goal is NOT to be like Mr. Spock on Star Trek (or Data, for you Next Generation fans ;-) The goal is to recognize that your true Self is not limited to the emotional turmoil of daily life. Your emotions are real and they are important, but so is your capacity for reason. Your emotions are like road signs. Some spiritual traditions view these signs as “distractions” that try to lure you from your true path. I disagree. I believe that these signs are aspects of YOURSELF calling you to explore realms of your own Being. Strong emotions are like big, impressive signs, and they typically indicate something of great value to be explored.

Of course you need to keep in mind an important distinction between EXPLORING you emotions and blindly following them. If you can understand this difference, then you can understand the notion of unattachment. Exploration is an active, Self-guided process in which you engage your emotions to see what treasures may be buried beneath the surface of ordinary life. You engage your emotions in order to understand them – understand their source and their meaning for you. You need to be able to ask: “What does this emotion tell me about myself?” To make this work, you will need to have FAITH in yourself – faith that all of the elements of your experience are meaningful if you can understand how to recognize what this meaning is. Faith is a leap, and no one can take this leap for you – you must do it yourself.

In contrast to exploration, there is mere following. Following is a relatively passive process in which you let your emotions and/or other people (friends, family, society) lead you around. They point out the things that THEY think are important, they set the boundaries for you, and you uncritically do whatever they say. They will tell you that a certain feeling is “spiritual” and if you do these certain sorts of things, God will reward you; if you don’t do these things, you will be punished. If you ask questions about God, or ask how THEY know so much about the meaning of life, they will tell you that you are being petulant, arrogant, prideful, etc. – you have no business questioning God (which really means: “You have no business questioning our definition of God, or our view of what God wants.”)

Following in this fashion is, in reality, the opposite of spirituality. Spirituality is about actively engaging your Self and Being. Mere following is a form of giving up your freedom and closing off your potentials for authentic life. A computer simply follows the instructions of it programmer. It has no spirituality because it has no capacity to explore its own Being. Humans (as conscious creatures) ALWAYS have the capacity to explore their own Being, and thus always have the capacity to live authentic spiritual lives, but since they are free, they also have the capacity to imitate the computer – they have the option of denying their true capacity for spiritual growth, which is, in effect, to deny their spiritual essence. They still have a spiritual essence, but they don’t recognize it and cannot meaningfully connect with it.

A true spiritual path is not “soft minded” and it is not detached from the trials and tribulations of daily life. A true spiritual path is a tough path that will evoke a great many powerful emotions (joyful, sorrowful, frightful, erotic, ecstatic…), so it is good to find guides and allies to help with your journey. Guides and allied do not LEAD you anywhere, but rather, they walk beside you and give you an opportunity to see yourself, and understand your situation, in ways that you typically cannot do on your own. The great religious figures of history can be guides and allies if you let them speak through the deep thoughts and passions of your life, but if you let their followers become your leaders, you will wallow in the cesspools of these people's inadequacies and your own unfulfilled spiritual potentials.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Answer 2

I believe spirituality is connectedness with the unseeable and untouchable realm

Answer 3

http://youtu.be/PIQmdkDvrYc