What does Spirituality Mean to You?

Namaste Jesus said:
Without quoting scripture, the dictionary or scholars:
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I just realized something mate. By taking away the things we normally lean on to make our point, you've also taken away the things that often divide us, forcing us to connect on a much deeper level. Both with the group and ourselves. Bloody genius!
 
Aussie Thoughts said:
I just realized something mate. By taking away the things we normally lean on to make our point, you've also taken away the things that often divide us, forcing us to connect on a much deeper level. Both with the group and ourselves. Bloody genius!
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Genius? Hardly. Just something that popped in my head last minute. No intent behind it really.
 
I suppose for me the issue is the term 'spirituality' has become so anodyne as to mean almost anything, and cover all manner os situations from the classically spiritual to the contemporary sentimental.

The traditional commentaries mark the distinctions between the various forms. I take that as my guide. I find that too often, contemporary western commentaries retro-fit definitions, based on commercial marketing savvy, or a sense of entitlement.
 
Thomas said:
I find that too often, contemporary western commentaries retro-fit definitions, based on commercial marketing savvy, or a sense of entitlement.
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Lol... I knew he'd call western philosophy into question sooner or later. You own me $1 NJ!;)
 
Aussie Thoughts said:
Lol... I knew he'd call western philosophy into question sooner or later...
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Whoa, not so fast, Aussie! NJ, you keep your purse shut, mate!

It's not western philosophy that I question, I actually stand by a lot of it – I'm more a Continental than Anglo-American, I'll give you that, and am not a friend of the philosophy of relativism – that got us into the debacle in the Middle East, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya...

It's the self-serving commercialisation that I question.
 
I might also point out, it's the lack of philosophy that has led such terms as 'spirituality' being reduced to almost nothing.

If I may paraphrase a Sufi master on the west:
"The way of the sufi (a very specific spirituality) was once a way without a name, now it is a name without a way'
 
Aussie Thoughts said:
Lol... I knew he'd call western philosophy into question sooner or later. You own me $1 NJ!;)
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The check is in the mail... spiritually speaking.:cool:
Thomas said:
Whoa, not so fast, Aussie! NJ, you keep your purse shut, mate!
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Na, I lost. The actual bet was that western anything would be brought into it. Philosophy, culture, what have you. Don't take it as an attack on your position. Just a friendly wager. I said you wouldn't, Auss said you would.
 
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I can't entirely say I follow a particular religion, but can say "sort of." To me "sort of" takes it out of the strict realm of religion into "spirituality." I suspect the contemporary trends toward reduced religious adherents is due to the "sort of" phenomenon.
 
For me when people tell me they are spiritual but not religious it means their beliefs that are personal to them without the dogma of an organized religion. I personally feel spiritual when I feel connected to something bigger than myself and which makes me feel connected to everything outside of myself. The mantra I tell myself is "God Unlimits but Man limits." What that means to me is that whatever defines God to you speaks of becoming a higher version of yourself than you are without that connection. Religion to me is the boundaries set down to tell you how you must live your life to fit into that particular religion.
 
Devils' Advocate said:
Na, I lost. The actual bet was that western anything would be brought into it. Philosophy, culture, what have you. Don't take it as an attack on your position. Just a friendly wager. I said you wouldn't, Auss said you would.
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LOL, I get you. But how can one not? That would be like talking out of a vacuum, surely?
 
ButterflyLady said:
For me when people tell me they are spiritual but not religious it means their beliefs that are personal to them without the dogma of an organized religion. I personally feel spiritual when I feel connected to something bigger than myself and which makes me feel connected to everything outside of myself. The mantra I tell myself is "God Unlimits but Man limits." What that means to me is that whatever defines God to you speaks of becoming a higher version of yourself than you are without that connection. Religion to me is the boundaries set down to tell you how you must live your life to fit into that particular religion.
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There is a religion that comes closest to my beliefs but doesn't match them exactly. But, I've never been all that big on organized religion.
 
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