What is spirituality?

Greetings everyone. I have posted few times long ago and then I have become a silent lurker. Though I wanted to write on many things, but somehow I hesitated and resisted the thought because of the changing nature of ATS and so many disinformation agents showing up and diluting or destroying the information from the original posts. And then there is a tendency that if any thing other than American, about other cultures, or even on Europe or Australia (unless about UFOs and aliens), does not get much attention, which is unfortunate.

Anyway, here, I would like to share my thoughts on spirituality. I did a search and found certain podcast on spirituality, a member humbly asking other members to ask him about spirituality and so on. Though interesting, I did not find them satisfactory and I can't post there since what I'm going to write is irrelevant there.

When people speak about spirituality, it is always about god, Jesus, Krishna consciousness, religion, good against evil, etc. In modern spirituality, we often hear “I'm spiritual but not religious”, which I'm not sure whether that person really understood that phrase or not. Or worst, there is this thing called new age religions, which is all about combining old teachings from all around the globe with quantum mechanics, law of attraction, parallel universes, quantum entanglement and other mumbo jumbos.

I'm going to try something generic based on logic without including God, soul, life, death, interconnectedness, afterlife, reincarnation, etc. Please be gentle this is my first thread (contd.)

reply to post by CosmicScorpion


Spirit is nothingness.
There is nothing solid here but there seems to be 'something' happening.
It is nothing happening.

When pleasant words are easy, bitter words to use,
Is, leaving sweet ripe fruit, the sour unripe to choose

Meaning: To say disagreeable things and foul words when agreeable and gentle words are at hand is like eating unripe fruit when there is ripe

– Thiruvalluvar, Thirukkural, Kural (couplet) 100

There were huge trees ripe with juicy fruits standing tall on a sacred site. They were the last of their kind. People found the trees, ate only the sour unripe fruits. Those were the people, who preferred foulness to sweetness, ignorance to knowledge, blinkers to bird's vision, cage to wings, immorality to morality, self indulgence to sharing and caring.

In the process, there were no fruits left to ripe and mature giving healthy seeds. The seeds left on ground from unripe fruits turned into dust decaying. Now, the sacred trees are slowly withering. Unfortunately no one had the sense to notice it.


Spirituality, first and foremost of all, is any intelligent species', any individual's, very important duty: their Karma (1. good deeds, the to do's and must do's, 2. understanding the impending consequences for disturbing truth and harmony and thus not meddling with them) and their Dharma (the high moral way of living). It's the responsibility and obligation of any intelligent species, especially when they are ranked at the top of their planetary ecosystem or any hierarchy, to do good and be good so that the harmony and balance are maintained and the process of civilization will be at check going haywire.

Second, spirituality is about the quest for understanding the unknown, the spirit and the spirit world as it may be called, which forms a greater part of an evolved intelligent species' psyche and the ecosystem they are attached to it. Any knowledge that contributes to the betterment of all life forms and civilizational process is sacred. And thus, knowledge about the unknown, which is mightier than the observable and the known, elusive to intelligence, forms greater reality, that no intelligent species has any sense (sensory organ) to observe it in its full form is sacred due to the complexity in achieving it. This knowledge and search for this sacred unknown are therefore worthy of veneration. This sacred unknown is harmonious and neutral in nature rather than a unison and juxtaposition comprised of both good and evil.

It is this sacred realm holds a possible near perfect answers to questions like: Whence and how the species came into existence? What is the meaning and goal of life? What is life, death, soul, consciousness, intelligence or wisdom? Who created the world and who is his creator and his creator and his and his... if at all there is one such creator? Or, is it creation as opposed to a creator? Why are they here in this particular place and time? Are there others out there? And so on.

Being an intelligent species capable of reasoning and understanding the grandeur and harmonious nature of the cosmos, spirituality for them should be about practicing humility due to the fact that their knowledge is so very limited and there are much bigger things (e.g.: creation, illusion,...) exist beyond their limited senses (sensory organs) and intelligence.

Spirituality should help establishing a strong relationship based on intense and sincere emotional and mental communion with this greater reality, which teaches how to lead a fulfilled and enlightened life in balance with harmony. An enlightened life filled with awe, reverence and compassion towards the world surrounding them and other species populating it playing important roles such as balancing and beautifying it.

(contd.)

Spirituality may not be about gods versus demons, good against evil or heaven and hell. But it is definitely not about religions (especially founded religions) nor one single sacred book nor any belief system, not about preachy monks and gurus, “all seeing” prophets, sons of god, enlightened ones, chosen ones and their prophecies. Most importantly it should not be about “one single” person's spiritual experience and teachings, which formed the basis for most of the influential religions of today.

Spirituality and spiritual teachings should come from the collective knowledge and wisdom of well informed communities. Here, the phrase “well informed communities” is very important. If a community or society is not knowledgeable, anyone or any group can falsely claim that they are enlightened ones or sons of god or chosen ones and start to preach or claim spiritual reign over them for that particular person's or group's own benefit. A well informed community will reject any such false claims. This collective knowledge of spiritual teachings could be wise advice from learned men, wisdom from far-sighted elders, collective knowledge of enlightened intellects, people or group, large body of non-authoritarian scriptures, which chronicled the spiritual experiences of a multitude of above said people and so on.

In the end, it is all about choosing agreeable things, having right choices, right thoughts, right actions, speaking right words, eating ripe fruits and let those sacred trees thrive and spread all over so that future generations could reap the benefits and enjoy the fruits of life.

Today, in our world, because of false spiritual teachings, lack of understanding of spirituality and lack of spirituality itself, harmony and equilibrium across the biosphere, across cultures and communities, across our known world are tampered with, polluted, butchered and turned foul and sour. The process of civilization is in disarray and the fabric of civilization is torn in several places.

People are well content choosing disagreeable things and consume only sour unripe fruits. Those sacred trees representing harmony, knowledge and life, whose juicy ripe fruits are elixir to mortal souls, are left to wither.

reply to post by CosmicScorpion

Originally posted by CosmicScorpion
In modern spirituality, we often hear “I'm spiritual but not religious”, which I'm not sure whether that person really understood that phrase or not.

I don't think there's one definition for spirituality. To each person, it's likely to mean something slightly different. For example, I consider myself spiritual but not religious. And I understand perfectly what I mean. It's more likely that you don't understand what I mean. Hence, these discussions.

My spiritual beliefs don't include God, quantum mechanics, laws of attraction, parallel universes, quantum entanglement, good and evil or reincarnation, but DO include soul, spirit, love, energy, afterlife, life, death and interconnectedness. To each his or her own, I say.

A big mistake lot of people make is that they think Spirituality = Religion or even Gods. It is not, It is self awareness and as well as awareness of nature around you.

The feeling you get when you are alone on a morning, sitting near a river stream with nothing but nature sound and warm early sunshine... that is probably your spirituality being aware, close to being nothingness.

Whatever excites your mind in a clam manner, that is not induced in an artificial manner, when you smile when you look at certain things for no reason... when your eyes wander off when your mind is blank....

Experiencing and becoming one with the world ....with your mind.

reply to post by CosmicScorpion


Spirituality is All That Is.

reply to post by CosmicScorpion


I like your breakdown. Not a bad assessment.

Spirit comes from the latin word spiritus, which means "breath", before it lost all meaning due to religious intervention. Spirituality cannot be about Gods or angels or different planes of existence, as those who would further pervert the idea might say. It is simply about life and living.

Originally posted by CosmicScorpion
In modern spirituality, we often hear “I'm spiritual but not religious”, which I'm not sure whether that person really understood that phrase or not.

Having spirituality doesn't mean being religious. I feel like you eluded to this very thing in your following posts, yet this statement contradicts the rest of your thread since in implies that you need one to have the other which isn't true.

Religion is just a set of standards are rules to go about worshiping some god or gods. It can involve spirituality, but just like you can have spirituality without religion, one can also be religious without being spiritual. There are many people who attend church just because that is what they've always done.

Spirituality is a way of life where everybody is amazed by and which creates the possibility for others to become the same.

In the end, it is all about choosing agreeable things, having right choices, right thoughts, right actions, speaking right words, eating ripe fruits and let those sacred trees thrive and spread all over so that future generations could reap the benefits and enjoy the fruits of life. 

Spirituality, first and foremost of all, is any intelligent species', any individual's, very important duty: their Karma (1. good deeds, the to do's and must do's, 2. understanding the impending consequences for disturbing truth and harmony and thus not meddling with them) and their Dharma (the high moral way of living)

So, you start a thread on "spirituality" then give us RELIGION.

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
reply to post by CosmicScorpion

 

Spirit is nothingness.
There is nothing solid here but there seems to be 'something' happening.
It is nothing happening.

Yes, that 'something' happening is what I called the 'sacred unknown' and 'the quest to know what it is".
That is what we don't have any sensory organs and intelligence to exactly observe in its full form.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
reply to post by CosmicScorpion

 

Spirit is nothingness.
There is nothing solid here but there seems to be 'something' happening.
It is nothing happening.

Spirit is not nothing, Spirit is something, in fact, Spirit is matter, only refined matter, it is closer to light, yet heavier than light, for light is not matter, but Spirit is, just because you cannot see something, doesn't make it nothing. Dark matter for example, is still matter.

As for the OP, spirituality is being in-tune with the universe, in-tune with the Creator of the universe, if you do not believe in the Creator, then you must believe in the universe, spirituality is being in-tune with all things, being in-tune with the universe.

If someone says I'm spiritual then immediately does something that you feel in your bones is disrespectful to the earth, you know they are, in that moment, un-spiritual.

Originally posted by WhoKnows100

So, you start a thread on "spirituality" then give us RELIGION.

In my posts I tried to carefully avoid the idea of religion.

Karma and Dharma are not religious terms. They are 'technical terms' of certain philosophical ideas. It's like (a+b)^2. If the listeners don't understand, you may need to expand it by saying it is equal to a^2+b^2+2ab.

As given inside the parenthesis,
Karma = 1. good deeds, the to do's and must do's, 2. there will be impending consequences for disturbing truth and harmony
Dharma = the high moral way of living

In fact those terms will require pages and pages to explain them in their full form. For example, the word 'Dharma' also means 'giving alms', 'rightful way of living', 'morality', 'religion', etc.

Only that those words are in the ancient language of Sanskrit.

And, the quoted lines are from Thirukkural, a poetry written in ancient Tamil language comprised of 1330 couplets dealing with everyday secular life, philosophical ideas, management, how a king should be, nature of relationship between man and wife, nature of truth, speaking truth, etc. It's void of any religion and known as THE most secular literature ever written by mankind more than 2000 years ago.

Originally posted by Krazysh0t

Having spirituality doesn't mean being religious. I feel like you eluded to this very thing in your following posts, yet this statement contradicts the rest of your thread since in implies that you need one to have the other which isn't true.

Religion is just a set of standards are rules to go about worshiping some god or gods. It can involve spirituality, but just like you can have spirituality without religion, one can also be religious without being spiritual. There are many people who attend church just because that is what they've always done.

Well, I clearly avoided any religious views in my posts. And I clearly meant, to be spiritual you don't need any gods, or belief systems, religions, etc.

Also in my posts I clearly mentioned, that spiritual teachings should come from "the collective knowledge of well informed communities' spiritual experiences", not from a religious head or one single sacred book, etc.

Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by CosmicScorpion

 

I like your breakdown. Not a bad assessment.

Spirit comes from the latin word spiritus, which means "breath", before it lost all meaning due to religious intervention. Spirituality cannot be about Gods or angels or different planes of existence, as those who would further pervert the idea might say. It is simply about life and living.

Thank you.

As you said, it is simply about life and living. But also about let living, humility, awe, veneration and compassion towards this beautiful world surrounding us. Without the control called spirituality, any intelligent species ranking on top of the biosphere hierarchy will go for a full dominance over the world. And that is exactly what is happening today.

spirit-u-ality

Breaking down the word it means having the components of spirit.

So, what is spirit?

Connection, to everything around you. You will see once you truly know this connection, without seeking to understand it, just know it, you will find that all your concepts about karma and dharma fall under it, but these are concepts, ideas.

To be honest, you shouldnt think too much about it

Not thinking, is enlightenment. Haha!

reply to post by CosmicScorpion


Well with this I agree, I was just trying to understand the confliction between that particular quote and the rest of your post. The rest of it is well written.