What does spiritual practice mean to you?

[Spirit of Light]

For people who are spiritual or religious the word, spiritual practice often comes up.
But what does it mean to you? What is the part of the practice? What is it you are practicing?

To me, spiritual practice means the cultivation of body and mind, to heighten the morality, speaking truth, being benevolent and show compassion toward others.
But it is the part of purifying thoughts, actions and spoken word that is the cultivation, then meditation and if the path one follows have exercised one work on perfecting the moment and doing them correctly.
So it is not a practice that is over when meditation is finished, or when the exercise of movements is done. cultivation of mind and body is actually a 24/7 cultivation, even in sleep.

But I am curious to hear what others see as the practice within the path/teaching they follow.

 

[wizanda]

But I am curious to hear what others see as the practice within the path/teaching they follow.

We have to be in alignment with all forms of yoga to be in a state of balance continually, and then consciously aware of the dimensions to live within them...

Therefore perfection takes timing, and timing takes perfection; where both come from practise.

In my opinion.

 

[Spirit of Light]

We have to be in alignment with all forms of yoga to be in a state of balance continually, and then consciously aware of the dimensions to live within them...

Therefore perfection takes timing, and timing takes perfection; where both come from practise.

In my opinion.

Do you practice Yoga as exercises or is it only a mental practice in your case? What do you try to better in your own spiritual way of life? (For you as a person)
What do you try to perfect?

 

[wizanda]

Do you practice Yoga as exercises or is it only a mental practice in your case?

The exercise externally, is not as important as the internal understanding of how each form affects the chakras.
[GALLERY=media, 8856][/GALLERY]
We only need to do a few sit ups, and occasional plank to have a strong core; whereas understanding our position in the matrix as a rainbow, is a continual conscious understanding.

What do you try to better in your own spiritual way of life? (For you as a person)
What do you try to perfect?

Continually studying spirituality, where higher conscious learning is part of Jnana Yoga, and Raja Yoga is then to sit meditating on the deeper meanings.

Only the Source of reality is 100% maths; I'm just wanting to learn everything it can teach us.

In my opinion.

 

[Spirit of Light]

The exercise externally, is not as important as the internal understanding of how each form affects the chakras.
[GALLERY=media, 8856][/GALLERY]
We only need to do a few sit ups, and occasional plank to have a strong core; whereas understanding our position in the matrix as a rainbow, is a continual conscious understanding.

Continually studying spirituality, where higher conscious learning is part of Jnana Yoga, and Raja Yoga is then to sit meditating on the deeper meanings.

Only the Source of reality is 100% maths; I'm just wanting to learn everything it can teach us.

In my opinion.

I understand what you mean But when it comes to exercises I did not mean sit-ups or another form of training the body to be stronger, sorry it did not make that clear in the previous post.
I know many Asian cultivation paths have what we today call Qi Gong, to strengthen the spiritual awakening. Example in Falun Gong there is some exercises that strengthen the energy needed to Cultivate to higher levels (Gong energy is not the same as Qi energy)

It was more similar to this kind of practice exercises i was thinking of.
But also how do people go about to heighten their own morality?

I know some religions only base their teaching of faith and belief but not much on cultivation themself as human beings

 

[wizanda]

there is some exercises that strengthen the energy

I'm in a lazy physically active state at the moment, and though mentally do gymnastics all day, I'm more dedicated to sharing spiritual knowledge...

The physical aspects are lacking, and I am well aware that mind, body, soul, creates a pyramid of power - where the body is a Temple.

Yet considering in the Age of Enlightenment, we've got infinity to do that all day, and others might not; what is lost is regained by the giving of power.

in Falun Gong

Today I'm reading through Zhuan-Falun - So far I'm very impressed, and think 'Li Hong' is very astute knowing stuff of ancients.

It clearly will encourage me to put more practise into creating movement in the chakra system; as I get the mechanics, yet need to do the Core work to get Falun circulating.

But also how do people go about to heighten their own morality?

Karma Yoga is right action, and Kirya Yoga is internal repentance; once we walk that path, we try harder.

When we climb Jacob's Ladder of the Commandments, we realize everything around us is a part of Divinity in some way.

Through mindfulness we come to awareness - We are hurting ourself, when we hurt others.

As we learn more from what causes contrast to others, the more our understanding of morality becomes a higher level of observation.

In my opinion.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

The phrase means exceedingly little to me.

 

[sun rise]

Spiritual practice to me is trying at every opportunity to become more loving by small acts of patience and kindness. And it means repeating a name of God and contemplating an image.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

For people who are spiritual or religious the word, spiritual practice often comes up.
But what does it mean to you? What is the part of the practice? What is it you are practicing?

To me, spiritual practice means the cultivation of body and mind, to heighten the morality, speaking truth, being benevolent and show compassion toward others.
But it is the part of purifying thoughts, actions and spoken word that is the cultivation, then meditation and if the path one follows have exercised one work on perfecting the moment and doing them correctly.
So it is not a practice that is over when meditation is finished, or when the exercise of movements is done. cultivation of mind and body is actually a 24/7 cultivation, even in sleep.

But I am curious to hear what others see as the practice within the path/teaching they follow.

Since I'm here, I'll genuinely answer this question. It's not a "traditional" answer as most feel spirituality is or is not or don't define it as such. That's one thing about spirituality, accepting that each his own. Which is also a cultural difference too. Some people see spirituality within a community, others individually.

Does individual enlightenment, practice, etc a more profound and, I guess, correct spiritual path than practicing and being enlightened as a group?

Healing With the Arts | Art and Healing
They have a free art healing workshop class on Coursera and a workbook as well)

Spirituality for me is creativity, freedom, and sexuality. I'm not restrained from self expression, I many mediums in life from movement, words, arts in which to do so. Spirituality doesn't mean you're perfect. You can be childlike in your approach. Spiritual practice is acting like a child and being a child regardless how old you are and your experiences as such.

The link above I participant pretty much all the time. I'm also reading their book Healing with the Arts which is a more detailed workshop for using Art (movement/words/visual art/sound) and whatever medium you're called to for self healing, healing for others, community, or earth (with where one wants to focus if not all).

If it helps you grow regardless if it's religious or spending time with family or a paint brush, it's a spiritual path to me.

I know not conventional; but, some people look to spirituality as meditation and worship others "create" the name to help them live in with within themselves.

 

[Quintessence]

As one who rejects the modern distinction between "spiritual" and "religious" I interpret anything designated as "spiritual practice" as meaning "religious practice."

In my tradition, "spiritual" translates into "otherworlds" and therefore "spiritual practice" would mean activities that engage the otherworlds. And there are lots of those - anything from practicing the fine arts to rituals honoring the ancestors.

But when folks in my surrounding culture talk about "spiritual" they don't mean the otherworlds. They mean religious practices. I could go on a rant about how annoying I find the whole "let's call religious things spiritual things" but that's not very constructive. Most religions worldwide and throughout history have been about practice - the very practices labeled as "spiritual" by the "spiritual but not religious" crowd. They're religious practices. Granted, what makes something religious as a practice is inherently subjective and arbitrary. It's something with a particular depth of meaning, that grounds you in life's meaningfulness and purpose or articulates your strongly-held values. It might be celebrating people's birthdays, centering yourself within your own mind, planting a beautiful garden, or writing poetry.

 

[Jainarayan]

For me, by rights, everything should be spiritual practice... my dharma, my way/path/duty. I'm not one to meditate for the goal of knowledge or enlightenment, I am an aspiring bhakti yogi and karma yogi... a devotee of a personal God, and one who dedicates actions to God. I say aspiring because I am far from having achieved any fluency in these paths. They build sequentially, just like in school we learned block print, then cursive script; we learned to add and subtract, then multiplication and division; we crawl, then walk, then run. For me, the two most important "commandments" (bad word, actually; "guides" is better) to perform spiritual practice are from the Bhagavad Gita:

Work must be done as a sacrifice to the Supreme Lord; otherwise, work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore ... perform your prescribed duties, without being attached to the results, for the satisfaction of God. 3.9

Always think of me, be devoted to me, worship me, and offer obeisance to me. Doing so, you will certainly come to me. This is my pledge to you, for you are very dear to me. Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto me alone. ... 18.65-66

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

I see spiritual practice as a hobby engaged in by people who can know no more about any sort of "spiritual realm" or "mystic facet to reality" than I do pretending that they are all very knowledgeable, even though none of them can agree on or demonstrate a damn thing. That's what I see.

 

[sun rise]

As an addition to my last post, I ran across this:

 

[Vinayaka]

For me, the practice is different than the results of the practice. What's important is that the practice changes the individual for the better ... gaining of self-discipline, greater tolerance for people, greater love for the planet, humility, wisdom, uplifting others, and all that. If practice doesn't aid with that kind of evolving, then of what use is it?

 

[ADigitalArtist]

As an addition to my last post, I ran across this:

I agree with that, in that I think that's when you'll be tested and from that conflict comes new growth. But I still think meditation and body-mind exercise is very useful for strengthening your ability to self-evaluate and put yourself into the calm you'll need when the **** hits the fan, so to speak.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

For people who are spiritual or religious the word, spiritual practice often comes up.
But what does it mean to you? What is the part of the practice? What is it you are practicing?

To me, spiritual practice means the cultivation of body and mind, to heighten the morality, speaking truth, being benevolent and show compassion toward others.
But it is the part of purifying thoughts, actions and spoken word that is the cultivation, then meditation and if the path one follows have exercised one work on perfecting the moment and doing them correctly.
So it is not a practice that is over when meditation is finished, or when the exercise of movements is done. cultivation of mind and body is actually a 24/7 cultivation, even in sleep.

But I am curious to hear what others see as the practice within the path/teaching they follow.

Cultivating qualities like love, self-control, and being peaceable. Galatians 5:22-23. And putting them into practice.

We’re similar.

 

[danieldemol]

Spiritual practice to me is trying at every opportunity to become more loving by small acts of patience and kindness...

That’s pretty much what it means to me. Putting the virtues into practice.

 

[Spirit of Light]

That’s pretty much what it means to me. Putting the virtues into practice.

Yes. without practice and development of our virtue, how could we even dream of gaining spiritual wisdom

 

[sun rise]

I agree with that, in that I think that's when you'll be tested and from that conflict comes new growth. But I still think meditation and body-mind exercise is very useful for strengthening your ability to self-evaluate and put yourself into the calm you'll need when the **** hits the fan, so to speak.

When meditation etc is part of the means as you've indicated I see it as you do.

One way I learned this lesson happened many years ago when I was studying Aikido. Part of the practice was not to directly engage an attacker but to just step aside. Then we learned to use the attackers energy to disarm and defeat him. It's a lesson that has stayed with me and has helped from time-to-time in interpersonal situations where I've been attacked.

 

[MonkeyFire]

Belief in life which is hope happiness and heaven.