spirituality


Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving as it may perceived eternal verities regarding Man's ultimate nature, often contrasts with the temporal or with the worldly. The central defining characteristic of spirituality is a sense of connection to a much greater whole which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. Equally so, spirituality influences matters of sanity and psychological health. As with some forms of religion, the emphasis of spirituality is often on personal experience. It may be an expression for life perceived as higher, more complex or more integrated with one's worldview, as contrasted with the merely sensual. In Eastern traditions, spirituality (adhyatma) is also defined as that which pertains to the soul (atma).

The spiritual and the religious

An important distinction exists between spirituality in religion and spirituality as opposed to religion.

In recent years, spirituality in religion often carries connotations of a believer having a faith more personal, less dogmatic, more open to new ideas and myriad influences, and more pluralistic than the faiths of established religions. It also can connote the nature of a believer's personal relationship or "connection" with their god or belief system, as opposed to the general relationship with the Deity understood to be shared by all members of that faith.

Those who speak of spirituality as opposed to religion generally believe in the existence of many "spiritual paths" and hold that there is no objective truth about which is the best path to follow. Rather, adherents of this definition of the term emphasize the importance of finding one's own path to whatever-god-there-is, rather than following what others say works. The best way to describe this view is: the path which makes the most sense is the correct one (for oneself). Many adherents of orthodox religions who consider spirituality to be an aspect of their religious experience are more likely to contrast spirituality with secular "worldliness" than with the ritual expression of their religion.

People of a more New Age disposition tend to state that spirituality is not religion, per se, but the active and vital connection to a force, spirit, or sense of the deep self. As cultural historian and yogi William Irwin Thompson put it, "Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather religion is the form spirituality takes in civilization." (1981, 103)

Directed spirituality

One aspect of "being spiritual" is goal-directed, with aims such as: simultaneously improve one's wisdom and willpower, achieve a closer connection to Deity/the universe, and remove illusions or false ideas at the sensory, feeling and thinking aspects of a person. The 'Plato's cave' analogy in book VII of The Republic is one of the best-known descriptions of the spiritual development process, and thus, an excellent aid in understanding what "spiritual development" exactly entails.

Others regard spirituality as a two-stroke process: the "upward stroke" is inner growth, changing oneself as one changes his/her relationship with the external universe, and the "downward stroke" is manifesting improvements in the physical reality around oneself as a result of the inward change. Another connotation is that change will come onto itself with the realization that all is oneself; whereupon the divine inward manifests the diverse outward for experience and progress.

Spirituality and personal well-being

Spirituality, according to most adherents, forms an essential part of an individual's holistic health and well-being.

Due to the broad scope and personal nature of spirituality, however, one can perhaps better understand it by focussing on key concepts that arise when people are asked to describe what spirituality means to them. Research by Martsolf and Mickley (1998) highlighted the following areas as worthy of consideration:

* Meaning – significance of life; making sense of situations; deriving purpose.

* Values – beliefs, standards and ethics that are cherished.

* Transcendence – experience, awareness, and appreciation of a "transcendent dimension" to life beyond self.

* Connecting – increased awareness of a connection with self, others, God/Spirit/Divine, and nature/Nature.

* Becoming – an unfolding of life that demands reflection and experience; including a sense of who one is and how one knows.

Spirituality and science

Analysis of spiritual qualities in science faces problems like the imprecision of spiritual concepts, the subjectivity of spiritual experience, and the amount of work required to translate and map observable components of a spiritual system into empirical evidence. Nevertheless, certain connections have been made. Prominent scientists such as Niels Bohr, David Bohm and Anton Zeilinger have articulated spiritual consequences of quantum physics. The yearly conferences between scientists (including Zeilinger) and the Dalai Lama, one of which has been published under the title of The New Physics and Cosmology: Dialogues with the Dalai Lama, are exemplary explorations of the overlaps between these areas.

Rudolf Steiner and others in the anthroposophic tradition have attempted to apply scientific methodology to the study of spiritual phenomena in order to shape a spiritual science. This is not an attempt to redefine natural science, but to explore inner experience, especially our thinking, with the same rigor as we apply to outer (sensory) experience. The scientific criteria of intersubjectivity and repeatability have, however, rarely been met here.

Ken Wilber represents a recent attempt to unite science and spirituality. He has proposed an integral theory of consciousness.

History of spirituality

Until recent centuries, the history of spirituality remained bound up within the history of religion. Spriritual innovators operated within the context of a religious tradition, and became either marginalised/suppressed as heretics or separated out as schismatics. In these circumstances, so-called "spiritual" practices such as shamanism remained in the sphere of the religious, and even non-traditional activities such as those of Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Being belonged in the province of religion.

Schmidt (2005) sees Ralph Waldo Emerson as a pioneer of the idea of spirituality as a distinct field.

The distinction between the spiritual and the religious became more common in the popular mind with the rise of secularism and the advent of the New Age movement.

Spiritual traditions and communities

* A Course in Miracles
* Anthroposophy
* Bahá'í Faith
* Buddhism
* Catholic spirituality
* Christian Science
* Christianity (Holy Spirit, Pentecostalism)
* Discordianism
* Esoteric Christianity
* Ethical Culture
* Feminist spirituality
* Gnosticism
* Hinduism, Hare Krishna, Vedanta
* Islam, Sufism
* Jainism
* Judaism, Kaballah
* Neo-confucianism, Taoism
* New Age, New Thought, Spiritualism, The Dances of Universal Peace
* Paganism, Neopaganism, Modern Gallae
* Religious Science
* Restorationism
* Rosicrucianism
* Shamanism
* Sikhism
* Spiritism
* Subud
* Surat Shabda Yoga
* Thelema
* Theosophy
* Unitarian Universalism
* Wicca

Yeah I preffer the term "power greater than myself" to the term "higher power"...I can deffinately see plenty of powers greater than myself in life, so it helps me...

There's a metaphysical part to "secular Spirituality" and a cultural part, isn't there?