Spirit

[djns9437]

What does it mean to be spiritual?What does living a spiritual life consist of?Is the Holy Spirit part of living it?Is it the conscienceness of God in are lives?Is it a means to and end,or is it there for some other reason?Is it a Christian thing or can anyone be spiritual?Thanxs for your thoughts!!

 

[Tariki]

A good question.............

"Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there." (A member of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Perhaps just to get the ball rolling.............a quote from the book "The Spirituality of Imperfection"......

"What is spirituality? To have the answer is to have misunderstood the question. Truth, wisdom, goodness, beauty, the fragrance of a rose - all resemble spirituality in that they are intangible, ineffable realities. We may know them, but we can never grasp them with our hands or with our words..................And yet they exist; they ARE. Love exists, evil exists, beauty exists, spirituality exists. These are the realities that have always been recognised as defining human existence. We do not define them, they define us. When we attempt to "define" spirituality, we discover not its limits, but our own."

When the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov asked him how to know whether a celebrated scholar whom they proposed to visit was a true master, he answered......."Ask him to advise you what to do to keep unholy thoughts from disturbing you in your prayers and studies. If he gives you advice, than you know that he belongs to those who are of no account"

Oh yes!

 

[Eudaimonist]

What does it mean to be spiritual? What does living a spiritual life consist of? Is it a means to and end, or is it there for some other reason? Is it a Christian thing or can anyone be spiritual?

Some very good questions.

I have a very different perspective on this issue than Christians do. I regard myself as a spiritual person, however I'm a nontheist and a metaphysical naturalist!

I think that to be spiritual means to have "internal" goals relating to the development of one's conscious self, and this is contrasted with being "materialistic", which is to have excessively external material goals. (I think that ideally one should have BOTH spiritual and material goals, and that these should be integrated together into a non-dualistic pattern of living.)

Spiritual goals (for me, at least) include pondering the deep philosophical questions of life, developing moral character, having a positive attitude, improving self-esteem, experiencing my values in the world, and the like. I think that these can be thought of as ends-in-themselves, and not as mere means to an end.

 

[dlamberth]

What does it mean to be spiritual?What does living a spiritual life consist of?Is the Holy Spirit part of living it?Is it the conscienceness of God in are lives?Is it a means to and end,or is it there for some other reason?Is it a Christian thing or can anyone be spiritual?Thanxs for your thoughts!!

Great, great questions!! Thank you!!

Yes, everyone IS spiritual. For instance, the “awe-ness” that one experiences as they gasp upon a rainbow is a spiritual experience.

With in the spiritual experience is a reaching outside of yourself to bring in to it….(i’m searching for words)…..an awareness that touches one’s soul. Does that work for words?

Being aware of the spiritual, I’d rather call it, “being awake” in and of itself is also a mystical experience. Which is why in my mind, I can’t separate the spiritual from the mystical. And because for me, the nature of the Human Being is that of a spiritual being, our nature is also mystical. I think that there would be an improvement of self-esteem in people if we acknowledged this aspect of our Human nature.

I’ve talked to Trappist Monks about this, and the ones I’ve talked to also think the that the spiritual is also the mystical and that it is a basic human component.

To add one more thought, the knowledge gained by bringing in to the soul by an awareness of experience via the spiritual experience is also what gnosis is. I’m not looking at the Christian Gnostic (big G), but at the act of gaining knowledge via direct inner spiritual experience (little g).


...

 

[Ryoko Ozaki]

I think that spirituality is awakening and gaining an understanding of the truths in the universe. I can't really say too much, for it is hard to explain in words. However, God's not up there(to me) and I'm very spiritual.

Oh yeah, I also think that developing your spirituality means starting to look past material things and begin to see what truly matters.

 

[MoonlessNight]

Since I have come to believe that the universe is in some way divided between material and spiritual realms (not that I know what these spiritual realms would be like. At the moment I lean towards a realm of forms, but that's just personal preference. Regardless...) Being spiritual would therefore simply be placing one's attention on the spiritual realms, and spiritual knowledge, rather than concerning oneself with the material world.

 

[Teh Wiccan]

I think that spirituality is awakening and gaining an understanding of the truths in the universe. I can't really say too much, for it is hard to explain in words. However, God's not up there(to me) and I'm very spiritual.

Oh yeah, I also think that developing your spirituality means starting to look past material things and begin to see what truly matters.

VERY nicely said!

 

[Tariki]

I have heard it said that there are no coincidences..........I recently read these words, from a book by Ken Wilber..."Grace and Grit"........so I offer them....

"Spirituality has to do with actual experience, not mere beliefs; with God as the Ground of Being, not a cosmic Daddy figure; with awakening to one's true Self, not praying for one's little self; with the disciplining of awareness, not preachy and churchy moralisms about drinking and smoking and sexing; with Spirit found in everyone's Heart, not anything done in this or that church."

Perhaps a little bit "dualistic" from a Buddhist perspective.............yet words worth reflecting upon.

 

[Ryoko Ozaki]

They are very nice words and I can fully understand them. Being Buddhist I have experienced a lot that makes me believe the way I do and don't just have beliefs in Buddhism because it sounds nice or because I've found ways to make it seem real.