But isn't this exactly what the word 'religion' means?
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Please Define "Spiritual"
- Thread starter Nakosis
- Start date
But isn't this exactly what the word 'religion' means?
Gargovic Malkav
Well-Known Member
I only use the word spiritual when referring to a specific psychological experience - the spiritual experience. It has nothing to do with spirits (gods, angels) or magic. It is the thrilling and meaningful experience of a sense of connection to the cosmos or a part of it. It occurs in a variety of settings. One might be filled with awe, gratitude, and wonder as one looks at the Milky Way and contemplates one's relationship to the stars. It can occur while gardening, if one feels a sense of satisfaction and connection to nature, a sense of belonging. It can be experienced listening to some music or observing some art, which is described as a moving experience. Or just having a hearty laugh with a stranger, with whom for that moment, a sense of connection and bonhomie occurs - all is right with the world. I also get it playing with my dogs, when I marvel at their existence, and feel a sense of connection to them. It's the same thrill. So is falling in love - the infatuation stage - which is very thrilling and rapturous, but also in the mature stage of love, when the connection is of a different nature than infatuation.
Mathematicians describe the same with elegant mathematics, which has a kind of beauty to them, as with Einstein. Ptolemy expressed a similar sentiment describing his geocentric solar system, one that I referred to above that informed star gazers are familiar with when they contemplate the vast distances separating us from the stars of the night sky yet understanding that we are made of their ashes, and one feels a sense of connection and a thrill. Here's how Ptolemy described the experience: "I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch the earth with my feet: I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia."
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
Spiritual to me is the abstract realities of being that are described by words such as love, patience, virtue, compassion, etc.
When a person can possess qualities of character to act, and express themselves in the world that to me is spiritual.
There may be an extra dimension to reality for all these qualities of being but that's not necessary to be spiritually inclined.
Emotions and feelings are merely effects of the spiritual. Emotions and feelings are tied to chemistry I believe. Clearly there is more going on then emotions and feelings. There are understandings involved in spiritual realities. Understandings developed through character. For example, love doesn't always feel good; sometimes, often enough, love suffers.
If I were to base my life on feelings and emotions instead of understandings, wisdom, and knowledge of the spiritual I'd be ever changing with no constancy.
When a person can possess qualities of character to act, and express themselves in the world that to me is spiritual.
There may be an extra dimension to reality for all these qualities of being but that's not necessary to be spiritually inclined.
Emotions and feelings are merely effects of the spiritual. Emotions and feelings are tied to chemistry I believe. Clearly there is more going on then emotions and feelings. There are understandings involved in spiritual realities. Understandings developed through character. For example, love doesn't always feel good; sometimes, often enough, love suffers.
If I were to base my life on feelings and emotions instead of understandings, wisdom, and knowledge of the spiritual I'd be ever changing with no constancy.
New religion on its own perhaps? ... the SBNR
Yup. The personal ego can fasten on anything. *I* am more spiritual than you are for example. Or the ego can seize on "I'm worthless". It's called "hydra-headed" for that reason.
Just FYI, if anyone gets to this point in the thread and reads it, I define spiritual as wellness of mind.
Spiritual pursuits I see as efforts to support my mental well being.
I know there are other meanings being used but to me they are more based on something that someone has imagined to exist. Like ghosts or non-physical realities.
Myself, I wouldn't use the term in that way but I understand other people do.
Spiritual pursuits I see as efforts to support my mental well being.
I know there are other meanings being used but to me they are more based on something that someone has imagined to exist. Like ghosts or non-physical realities.
Myself, I wouldn't use the term in that way but I understand other people do.
Sgt. Pepper
All you need is love.
^ This.
I went years without identifying as religious because I had not yet arrived at a religion that fit my worldview.
SBNR is a vast and varied group, just like your current religion. I spent few years in my youth there too, until I discovered my beliefs actually matched with something. Perhaps I even identified myself as spiritual, although it was such a long time ago, I can't remember.
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
No, there are different understandings of what religion is.
Messianic Israelite
Active Member
I have my own definition but I'd like to hear from y'all first.
Not really looking for a dictionary definition here. Just what it means to you personally.
John 4:23 says "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." John 4:24 says "Yahweh is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Being spiritual should be defined as anything that brings us closer to Yahweh, who is Spirit. Anything that nourishes the Holy Spirit. Studying the Word of Yahweh, meditating on His Law, singing songs of praise etc.
Today they are people who say they are spiritual and yet not religious. The Bible teaches a religious way of life. A set of rules which we are to live by. Therefore claiming to be spiritual and not religious is quite absurd in my opinion. You might elevate certain concepts like mindfulness, but the Bible is quite clear in what constitutes the spiritual way of life. You can't be spiritual without keeping the Laws of Yahweh. Yahweh is Spirit. His Spirit is contained in His Laws.
I thought I should add to my post. The fleshly lusts (carnality) are diametrically opposed to the spiritual way of life (1 Corinthians 3:1).
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I don't really use the word "spiritual" as contrasting with "religious" in any way, mostly because I do not recognize any clear meaning in the word "religious" on its own, as I explained in @SalixIncendium 's companion thread.
I guess they are synonimous to me, even though many uses of that word have or seem to have a definite intent of contrasting spirituality with religion.
Sincerely, I find it a bit strange that it is so rare for people who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious" to immediately contextualize the claim to make it clear in meaning. Most of the time I end up assuming that the claimant either doesn't want to align with any organized denominations (however they happen to perceive those) or, more frequently, that they do not want to be perceived as actively rejecting religion while also not having much interest in actively pursuing religious activities.
I guess they are synonimous to me, even though many uses of that word have or seem to have a definite intent of contrasting spirituality with religion.
Sincerely, I find it a bit strange that it is so rare for people who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious" to immediately contextualize the claim to make it clear in meaning. Most of the time I end up assuming that the claimant either doesn't want to align with any organized denominations (however they happen to perceive those) or, more frequently, that they do not want to be perceived as actively rejecting religion while also not having much interest in actively pursuing religious activities.
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I'm not of the mind that identifying with a specific religion is necessary to be religious or have a religion. Historically, this isn't how people thought about religion or being religious. It wasn't some sort of box you checked, it was just who you are, what you did, who you belonged to... your life ways more or less. A combination of Western intellectualism and institutionalization constructed our modern notion of check-a-box religion. I find that model useful at times, but I'm not particularly enamored with it since it basically considers institutionalized religions like Catholicism to be the "standard" for what religion is "supposed to" look like.
Others obviously have different perspectives on this, and I respect that. A lot of this perspective I have came from doing a bit of reading on the "spiritual but not religious" movement and why it became a thing (from a scholarly perspective). It was (at least in the U.S.) a reaction against certain elements within the dominant religions of Western culture that aren't present (or less present) in non-Western or non-Abrahamic religions. Since people's framing for understanding "religion" is so dominated by the Abrahamic "standard" it's understandable to conclude "well, that word must not be the right one for what I'm doing then."
In many ways, that's not wrong. There was a time I agreed with that approach and wouldn't use certain words because I let the "standard" define the terms for me. As soon as I realized it made no sense to do that, I stopped. I needed to understand terms and concepts as a Pagan and not surrender language to the Abrahamic cultural hegemony. Controlling language use is how you control a people and erase or destroy their cultures. Having gotten into studying the history of indigenous peoples of the Americas lately, that's been a bit more on my mind lately.
Exaltist Ethan
Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
As a spiritual naturalist, I see permanence in nature to be spiritual. The billions of years Earth and the Universe have existed, and the even longer existence of the multiverse and so on. Permanence in nature may not make sense in the sense that everything changes, however, the things that are permanent in nature will be permanent amongst humans one day, and things permanent in humans will be permanent in nature one day. As I see it, the two most spiritual things are us, humans, and nature, or The Omniverse. Our grand unification will mark the dawn of a new era of reality, one which God will be of all because all will be God. That to me is more spiritual than anything written in scripture or done with the prophets we are supposed to believe.
NOT a dictionary definition?
Okay. Spiritual means 'of the more positive dreamy emotions'.
PruePhillip
Well-Known Member
I have my own definition but I'd like to hear from y'all first.
Not really looking for a dictionary definition here. Just what it means to you personally.
What the word 'spiritual' is MEANT TO MEAN is the spirit.
It's not a lovely evening with a loved one, a beauitiful sunset or anything like that - they're just CARNAL things.
The spirit is that which lives within us, and the spirit is that which can reach us from outside of the material universe.
The 'spirit' in this sense exists only as a concept / thing imagined in an individual brain.
And the OP asks me for my personal take, which is as above. By all means add your own.
('Carnal things' is a big tent, but it's got plenty in it that I've found to be emotionally rewarding and important. And of course, if it wasn't for carnal things none of us would be here. So, ever subject to the basic rule Do No Harm, I'm a serious fan.)
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
I still haven’t really, and I doubt I ever will. I bought a bespoke suit once, from a Jewish tailor working out of a small shop in the East End of London. It fit me like a glove. No religion I’ve looked at has fit me like that suit, but it’s okay. I’m comfortable in any garment so long as I wear it very loosely; start tightening it here and there, doing up buttons etc., and it begins to pinch.