8 replies to this topic

[tiffanyt]

Hello everyone!  I'm currently conducting research and I would love to know what YOUR definition of spirituality is.  What constitutes spiritual as opposed to religious?  What activities do you engage in to be in a spiritual state (e.g., meditate)?  Any help you guys can offer would be awesome!

[Simbi Laveau]

Spirituality does not equate being religious .
I ,personally,am a very spiritual person ,but I am not religious .
I do not conform to the ritual practices ,but I communicate with what I feel is a universal system of the connection of all living beings and souls.

I do some ritual practices,but I don't have to go to a building to pray,or talk to some ordained individual ,to feel as if I connect with god .
You can do it sitting in your room .

I don't think certain dietary practices will black ball you spiritually ,if you do not follow them .I don't believe you will go to hell if you are not baptised or bar mitzvahed .
Those are religious issues ,that must be followed by some people ,or they feel they are not complete . I do not have these restrictions .

Edited by Simbi Laveau, 21 November 2012 - 01:50 AM.

[Hilander]

To me spiritual is something that comes from within and religion is something that is taught.

[Beany]

A reverence for all that is.

[me-wonders]

Spiritual?  feeling connected with the earth and the universe.  A sense of being more than my ego.  In fact, being as attached to my ego, as I am to the clothes I am wearing.   I really enjoy music, audio tapes and lectures that are transcending.

I am wanting to get into rituals that increase my connectedness with the earth and the seasons.  I think it is a mistake to spend our lives in temperature controlled buildings, and to live too much in our heads, and too protected from the cycles of nature.

I walk a lot with my dog, mostly along the river.  Where I live, we have a beautiful long park along the river, full of trees and animals.  Some days are so awesomely beautiful it is almost more then I handle, such as the break in rain we had today, and the rainbow above the trees and river.

Beany, on 21 November 2012 - 03:10 AM, said:

A reverence for all that is.

That is a real good answer!

[Ligia Cabus]

Spirituality is a condition (ontological condition), the real state of all beings in their first essence all beings, (including the called brute beings, rocks, minerals, atoms. Considering the principle according which all things are live and all things are endowed with consciousness in different degrees).

All beings, in their  origin, are in a state of spirituality or, condition of spirits. First, the beings are spirits. After, along a mysterious process of evolution, the beings can take, form or develop a body made of more or less dense substances.

The beings that are immersed in a much dense substancial body, like humans, need a technic that help them to perceive or to remeber of  the spirituality of their essence. This technic is called religion, from the latin - religare that means reconnect itself with the reality of their spiritual essence and the origin of this essence, the matrix,  that people call God.

The technics of religare (of religion) are many: like meditation, or practice of prayer. Many try to do this using drugs that alter the self perception. I pray,  means that I talk with my Creator in silence.

Edited by Ligia Cabus, 21 November 2012 - 07:02 AM.

[Armchair Educated]

any thought process that is for the betterment of yourself and others, contemplation, forgiveness, love.
i would say christianity but every one when they hear this word asscioate it with what bad people have done and used it as an excuse for people who try to convert but only through pride and not a love of sharing something they have experienced.

Edited by Armchair Educated, 21 November 2012 - 09:49 AM.

[me-wonders]

Armchair Educated, on 21 November 2012 - 09:47 AM, said:

any thought process that is for the betterment of yourself and others, contemplation, forgiveness, love.
i would say christianity but every one when they hear this word asscioate it with what bad people have done and used it as an excuse for people who try to convert but only through pride and not a love of sharing something they have experienced.

Christianity is problematic because of the idea of spirit being external to self, and a separation of God and fallen man.  Some Christians may agree we are spiritual beings having a human experience, but I don't think that fits the Christian understanding of being born in sin and needing to be saved by a supernatural being, and also tempted and possibly possessed by another supernatural being.   Superstition is believing in supernatural beings, and Christianity seems to confuse a belief in supernatural beings with being spiritual, and I don't think they are the same thing?  

There is the soul, but does this make us spiritual beings?  We are created not as animals and not as angels, but?   I really don't understand the belief.

[Artaxerxes]

Most people think of religion as doctrine, believing what someone else tells them to believe, someone else's interpretation of God, who Jesus was, and Eastern Religions.   Doctrine that has a stamp of approval from some organization or group..

Spirituality on the other hand is more ephemeral, less set, and able to change with additional information or experiences.   It's not necessarily what everyone else believes.  People who claim that they are more spiritual than religious are more apt to allow someone else to have their own separate and unique beliefs.    Less set.