What does Spirituality Mean to You?

Thomas said:
Yeah ... I'd say it would appear impossible to discuss spirituality without recourse to 'scripture, the dictionary or scholars' and not be sentimental ...
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Agreed, but I don't really see that as a problem. To me, spirituality and sentimentality go hand in hand. One in a sense defining the other.
 
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Thomas said:
so what's the difference?
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Sentimentality looks within ourselves from outside. Spirituality looks outside ourselves from within.
Devils' Advocate said:
I'm not sure how you come to this. Sentimentality is closest to affection than any other word. Not seeing how that connects to spirituality.
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I'm not saying that spirituality and sentimentality are the same thing necessarily, just that over the years I've noticed that one seems proportionate to the other. Perhaps even one being the result of the other. I'm not really sure.
 
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I would have thought, without reference to the world's wisdom, we're rather making up definitions as we go along ... ?
 
Thomas said:
I would have thought, without reference to the world's wisdom, we're rather making up definitions as we go along ... ?
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True enough, but then that's what I asked for in the OP. Personal thoughts; your own definition.
 
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Namaste Jesus said:
DA suggested that we need a thread to discuss things spiritual and that from his perspective, he wasn't exactly sure what qualifies. Ok with that in mind, let's find out. Without quoting scripture, the dictionary or scholars:
What does Spirituality mean to you?​
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Well there's a strong warm sensation that fills my heart and when I express it in words my tear ducts open... this usually happens when reciting prayers or readings that have impact but also when I'm visiting places that have resonance in my life.
 
Reading back over the thread it is interesting that some answer it with thought responses and others answer with emotional responses. So a corollary question which would be of interest - Do you see spirituality as an intellectual exercise or an emotional one. 'Both' is also a viable answer, from which one can conclude than 'neither' is also an appropriate answer.

What say you?
 
Devils' Advocate said:
So a corollary question which would be of interest - Do you see spirituality as an intellectual exercise or an emotional one. 'Both' is also a viable answer, from which one can conclude than 'neither' is also an appropriate answer.
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I'll take a stab at that. Spirituality as a topic can be approached either way, while spirituality itself is neither. The way the question of spirituality is posed in the OP however, forces a more introspective, philosophical response. I find the responses here very insightful. I'm also impressed that after 3 weeks it's still on topic.
Namaste Jesus said:
Sounds like self in the flesh over-thinking it...;)
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To be sure.
 
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Devils' Advocate said:
Do you see spirituality as an intellectual exercise or an emotional one.
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I see it as an holistic exercise, of both mind and body.

Certainly in the advice and commentaries of the Traditions, there are the mental errors that undoes one's spiritual effort, and the emotional ... so I would see it as an all-encompassing self discipline.
 
Namaste Jesus said:
DA suggested that we need a thread to discuss things spiritual and that from his perspective, he wasn't exactly sure what qualifies. Ok with that in mind, let's find out. Without quoting scripture, the dictionary or scholars:
What does Spirituality mean to you?​
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First you have to become something and if allowed to reincarnate you will need to become something again and again to become yourself inside of yourself. You must understand that we are here and not here at the same time. Once you become yourself inside of yourself then you will be able to become yourself in every life time, who you truly are, to find yourself in life. If you do not become yourself in life then you will not become yourself in death to understand yourself. Spirituality should be our ability to find yourselves in both death and life and to understand all that is or was.

Powessy
 
Namaste Jesus said:
DA suggested that we need a thread to discuss things spiritual and that from his perspective, he wasn't exactly sure what qualifies. Ok with that in mind, let's find out. Without quoting scripture, the dictionary or scholars:
What does Spirituality mean to you?​
Click to expand...

Spirituality is only meaningful to me if it is the nature of the universal in Creation in an evolving natural diverse spiritual and physical process. Ancient religions have more of a wooden limited view of spirituality related to only their religion and cultural context whether Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedic beliefs (Hinduism), or any of the other beliefs in spirituality.

From the universal theist perspective the Baha'i Faith believes in the evolving natural spiritual universal process in terms of Revelation from God. From the secular humanist perspective the Unitarian Universalist perspective embraces a diverse evolving human physical and spiritual from a diverse human perspective.

Both views present a realistic universal process that reflects the nature of our existence as it is, and not how we want it to be.
 
Does anyone have personal thoughts on this?

Can one truly remove the books they've read, the sermons they've heard, the discussions they've had, the experiences?
 
For me, 'spirituality' the word means absolutely nothing. It's a vague catch-all phrase that gets tossed around a lot, and I suspect means something different to each person using it, with many not really knowing what it even means to them. I've even asked people, 'What exactly does that mean?" to get sort of blank stares.

The phrase, 'spiritual but not religious' has even less meaning to me personally.
 
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