Spirituality
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Spirituality
What Is Spirituality?
Spirituality is relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. Synonyms include immaterial-ism, dualism, in-corporeality and eternity.
Spirituality has long been associated with religion, deities, the supernatural, and an afterlife. Many equate spirituality with religion, but the two are separate entities, religion being one way humans can experience spirituality. Spirituality may include introspection, and the development of an individual's inner life through practices such as meditation, prayer and contemplation.
The spiritual and the religious
While the words religion and spirituality are often used interchangeably, an important distinction exists between spirituality in religion and spirituality outside religion.
Traditionally, religions have regarded spirituality as an integral aspect of their religious experience, or faith. Religion has long arrogated spirituality for itself, claiming that true spirituality cannot be experienced by the secular. However the human emotions of awe, wonder, and reverence are also the province of the secular/scientific, in response to our highest values[vague], or when observing or studying nature, or the universe. Those who speak of spirituality outside religion often identify themselves as "spiritual but not religious" and generally believe in the existence of many "spiritual paths" (denying that there is an objectively definable best path to follow). Such people often emphasize the importance of finding one's individual path to spirituality. According to one poll, some 24% of the United States population identifies itself as spiritual but not religious.
People of a more New-Age disposition tend to regard spirituality not as religion per se, but as the active connection to a force/power/energy, spirit, or sense of the deep self. As cultural historian and yogi William Irwin Thompson (1938) put it, "Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather religion is the form spirituality takes in civilization."
Secular spirituality often carries connotations of a believer having a faith more personalized, less structured, more open to new ideas and myriad influences, and more pluralistic than the doctrinal faiths of organized religions.
Some modern religions see spirituality in everything. Religious Naturalism in a similar vein has a spiritual attitude towards the awe, majesty and mystery seen in the natural world.
For a Christian, to refer to him or herself as "more spiritual than religious" (may, but not always) imply relative deprecation of rules, rituals, and tradition while preferring an intimate relationship with God. The basis for this belief is that Jesus Christ came to free humankind from those rules, rituals, and traditions, giving us the ability to "walk in the spirit" thus maintaining a "Christian" lifestyle through that one-to-one relationship with God.
However there are many religions who see spiritual awareness as simply a part of their faith and an extension of their relationship with God.
Spirituality and personal well-being
While people may practice prayer and believe it affects their health (for example adherents of Christian Science), no scientific evidence supports the efficacy of prayer. In keeping with a general increase in interest in spirituality and complementary and alternative treatments, prayer has garnered attention among some behavioural scientists. Masters and Spielmans have conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of distant intercessory prayer, but detected no discernible effects.
Spirituality has played a central role in self-help movements such as Alcoholics Anonymous: "...if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead...."
If spirituality is understood as the search for or the development of inner peace or the foundations of happiness, then spiritual practice of some kind is essential for personal well being. This activity may or may not include belief in supernatural beings. If one has such a belief and feels that relationship to such beings is the foundation of happiness then spiritual practice will be pursued on that basis: if one has no such belief spiritual practice is still essential for the management and understanding of thoughts and emotions which otherwise prevent happiness. Many techniques and practices developed and explored in religious contexts, such as meditation, are immensely valuable in themselves as skills for managing aspects of the inner life.
Spiritual path
With regard to the quest for spirituality, it can be said that there are various spiritual paths which can be followed, and therefore no objective truth or absolute by which to decide which path is better. Because every person is different, the choice can be left to the individual's own sensitivity and understanding.
The terms religion and spirituality can both refer to the search for the Absolute or God (or whatever name you want to use). One might say that the key difference is that religion is a type of formal external research, while spirituality is defined as a search within oneself.
With respect to religion, this implies that spirituality takes on the following characteristics: faith becomes more personal, less dogmatic, more open to experimentation, and is based upon personal experience. From this perspective, religion and spirituality can be seen as merely two stages in the inner growth of the faithful aspirant, so much so that many followers of constituted religions consider spirituality to be an intrinsic and inseparable aspect of their religious experience. The relationship between religion and spirituality can, thus, be seen comparable to the relationship between container and content, between form and substance, or between theory and practice.
Spirituality, in a wide variety of cultural and religious concepts, is often seen as a spiritual path, along which one advances to achieve a given objective, such as a higher state of awareness, outreach wisdom or communion with God or with creation. Plato's Allegory of the Cave, which appears in book VII of The Republic, is a description of such a journey, as are the writings of Teresa of Avila. The spiritual journey is a path that has a dimension primarily subjective and individual. For a spiritual path may be considered a path of short duration, directed at a specific target, or a lifetime. Every event of life is part of this journey, but in particular one can introduce some significant moments or milestones, such as the practice of various spiritual disciplines (including meditation, prayer, fasting), the comparison with a person believed with deep spiritual experience (called a teacher, assistant or spiritual preceptor, guru or otherwise, depending on the cultural context), the personal approach to sacred texts, etc. If the spiritual path is the same in whole or in part, with an initiatory path, there may be real evidence to overcome. Such tests usually before a social significance, are a "test" for the individual of his reaching a certain level. Spirituality is also described as a process in two phases: the first on inner growth, and the second on the manifestation of this result daily in the world.