Spirituality?? Whats it all about?

Gillo

Ok, here’s my take on Spirituality.

Basically, I see spirituality as being more important than religion, yes the two of them definitely go hand in hand, but for most people spirituality is a much deeper experience than religion. Maybe I am linking the two of them to much, but religion I would few as more of an organized idea, which people follow, some follow it blindly, some follow it and question it and finally others don’t follow any religion.

Recently I read a book, The Story Of Virtue by Joe Humpheries, it basically puts forward the idea that the majority of religions actually teach the same ideals; admittedly they have their own way of teaching these ideals. Christianity centers on one god (lets not argue over the trinity), Hinduism centers on a number of gods, Buddhism (AFAIK) doesn’t have a god a such; but if you look at these and most other religions what you’ll see is that they teach the same idea’s. Basically respecting yourself and respecting others this in turn affects what happens in this life and indeed after you die (whether through a heaven / hell scenario or reincarnation).

JH’s book put forward 14 virtues which he argues are the tenet’s of the majority or religions, different religions place more emphasis on different virtues (eg; Islam has a strong emphasis on Justice , where as Buddhism would be strong on charity). The virtue’s are; Empathy, Compassion, Charity, Self-Discipline, Loyalty, Audacity, Honesty, Humility, Tolerance, Wisdom, Work, Love, Justice and Mercy. Once you live a good life and follow (at least some of) these virtues then you are on the right track, obviously which of these virtues you put the emphasis is up to you and what you personally believe in.

This is where it gets tricky with Spirituality, how do you reach that “higher” (spiritual) level?

I’ll stop now before I start to waffle, (hope I haven’t started to already.
What’s your opinion?
How did / do you develop your spirituality?

6th

gillo wrote:

.....how do you reach that “higher” (spiritual) level?

Well living your life as best you can and holding true those 14 virtues you mention is a very good start.

gillo wrote:

How did / do you develop your spirituality?

I dont know if you "develope" your spirituality, to me spirituality is the way i live my life and the way i choose to look and interect with the world around me. Your Spirituality may evolve as you grow and learn but its not a "skill" as such taht you can build on.

I'm not sure if i'm getting you right but it sound like you are looking at it in the way we are talking about the Development Circle on another thread.

A Spiritual Development is more about the development of ourselves as spiritual beings not about developmenting our actual spirituality?

I've alot running through my head right now so i hope that post makes some kind of sense

stevenmu

The difference I'd see between spirituality and religion is that spirituality is more focused inwards on yourself, whereas religion is more focused outward at some deity or deities. Of course, that's not really true for everyone, for many people, depending on their religion, their spirituality and their religion are the exact same thing.

I'm not sure really how somone can develop their spirituality. I suppose the best way might be to expose ones self to different ideas as much as possible, but there's more to it than that. I think the biggest development I've made is being able to accept that there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answers, in fact most of the time there isn't any answers at all just more questions. To me spirituality is the biggest puzzle of them all, and it's one for which there's possibly no solution. A few years ago that would have annoyed the hell out of me, but I can kind of accept it now and just enjoy the ride, and that's development to me anyway.

I've ended up rambling a bit myself there, it's very hard not to

6th

stevenmu wrote:

The difference I'd see between spirituality and religion is that spirituality is more focused inwards on yourself, whereas religion is more focused outward

Thats does seem to be one of the biggies.

stevenmu wrote:

I suppose the best way might be to expose ones self to different ideas as much as possible, but there's more to it than that.

Its more of an evolution of ideas and beliefs than development.

stevenmu wrote:

I think the biggest development I've made is being able to accept that there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answers, in fact most of the time there isn't any answers at all just more questions.

stevenmu wrote:

but I can kind of accept it now and just enjoy the ride

That would be my biggest "developement" in the last couple of years too, I kinda find it funny when i see threads like the one on Paranormal about questioning spirits about the afterlife, as Steven said ... once you get past those things its all about enjoying the ride.

hairyheretic

My own definitions would be that spirituality is your connection what whatever you believe in, and religion all the man made stuff (churches, priests, dogma etc) that grows up around it.

Spirituality I consider important, religion not so (as I define them at least)

lostexpectation

spirituality is what you believe in

is there any 'in' in spirituality, not just no belief, but no focus, no you them, it, there are those virtures but not external onus to follow them, all vague like.

Gillo

6th wrote:

I'm not sure if i'm getting you right but it sound like you are looking at it in the way we are talking about the Development Circle on another thread.

A Spiritual Development is more about the development of ourselves as spiritual beings not about developmenting our actual spirituality?

Sorry I prob didn't post too clear, yes I am interested in development circle, what I meant was how did different people become more away of ther spirituality, say through meditation, yoga or indeed religion as an example. Obviously it's a personnel thing, what suits one person will not suit another, but I was curious to hear what people had tried and what had worked for them.

Philosophically, I suppose you could call it more of a journey than a development.

6th wrote:

To me spirituality is the biggest puzzle of them all, and it's one for which there's possibly no solution. A few years ago that would have annoyed the hell out of me, but I can kind of accept it now and just enjoy the ride, and that's development to me anyway.

It reminds me of Tommy Tiernans story about the month who tried to figure it all out, and it does make a lot of sense, I suppose in a way you have to let it happen to more you try to be aware of one's own spirituality the more you'll become aware of your lack of it.

Luckily my lunch is over and I have to go back to work, this'll shut me up for a while.