SPIRITUALITY at deeper thought

Agreement on the meaning of spirituality is very important as we begin to consider this subject. This is because in the course of time this word “spirituality” has acquired diverse, and sometimes conflicting meanings.

Diverse Meanings of Spirituality 
If we search through the Internet today we discover that there are more than 5 million entries when we search for spirituality definition and more than 11 million entries when we search for spirituality meaning. When we put the quotation marks in order to search for the exact terms, we discover that there are more than 15 thousand entries for “definition of spirituality” and more than 1.9 million entries for “meaning of spirituality.”  This just shows us even on a cursory level the diversity of definitions and meanings of the word “spirituality.”

What is most obvious in the meaning of “spirituality” is that it comes from its root word, which is “spirit”. The suffix “-uality” qualifies the use of “spirit” in this instance. 

So a basic definition of spirituality is the quality of one’s sensitivity to the things of the spirit. And what are these things of the spirit? These are those that cannot be directly perceived by our senses but whose effects can be deduced or inferred by our observations, like love, justice, peace, etc.

Basic to this understanding of spirituality is the premise that we regard the human being and/or the rest of creation as composed not only of matter, but of something immaterial, something invisible, something beyond our present knowledge. There is always more to what we can perceive with our senses and know with our reason.

So the basic meaning of spirituality is that it is a term which encompasses everything that we cannot see directly with our eyes, directly perceive by the other senses and know by our mere reason. That is spirituality in its basic meaning.

• My Thought

The definition of spirituality can be best understood in Hinduism! Spirituality simply means every living form primarily is spiritual... a spiritual being... a cosmic essence that manifests the cosmic system! As detailed in various sacred scriptures of world... our soul atman... the spirit within is absolute master and controller of body and not vice versa!

As per Bhagavad Gita meaning of spirituality means diving deep into inner self and realizing our true identity... our soul atman... the spirit within! It is only through path of spirituality human beings gained enlightenment (kaivalya jnana) and finally salvation (moksha). The stage of enlightenment can never be reached via path of religion... path of rituals!

We need understanding difference between spirituality and religion. For reaching God we need traveling path of spirituality... path of absolute wisdom! God Almighty can never be reached via path of religion... path of bhakti yoga!

How To Lead a Spiritual Life...????

This title presumes that the person knows what the spiritual life is. But most people do not know what a spiritual life is. 

• Comparison of Three Levels of Life

All of us live a physical life, the life of our body. So, we simply look at our body and ask how does this body live. We lead a physical life because of the body that we have.

Almost all of us also live a mental life, the life of our mind. We think, we reflect, we reason. So we have a mind. The ones who do not live this life would be the mentally retarded. They have a mind but their mind no longer grows. They may be 50 years old physically but their mind has remained at the level of a 1 or 2 years old. But for most of

us we lead a mental life.

But to lead a spiritual life is different. For one it may be confused with leading a religious life. Up until the last century most people thought that the religious life was a spiritual life. So, we had religious orders and congregations whose members thought that they were leading a spiritual life because they were leading a religious life: praying, reading the Bible and other spiritual books, meditating, helping their neighbors, etc.

• Spiritual Life Is Not Necessarily a Religious Life

But lately we noticed a phenomenon. Non-religious persons have been busy in learning more about the spiritual life. And when they discuss the spiritual life, they were not at all referring to the religious life of people. In fact, some of these non-religious persons who were doing research on the spiritual life thought that the spiritual life is in many ways totally different from the religious life.

So, the question is, if the spiritual life is different from the religious life, how do you start to lead it?

The religious life is started by a certain ritual, like baptism or the donning on of a religious garb or habit. The spiritual life is best started by a teacher who guides the student to this spiritual life. The teacher may employ a ritual or he may not. But he is there to guide the student as a tour guide would guide a traveler as they enter a building of historical importance. 

This was the approach taken by Teresa of Avila who wrote a book on the spiritual life with the title of THE INTERIOR CASTLE. She conceived of the spiritual life as a mansion with many rooms or a castle with many dwelling places. 

Again our question is: How do you start to lead the spiritual life?A reflection on a common experience we have may make us understand the answer to this question. After we answer this question, we answer the second question: How do you continue to lead this spiritual life after you have started leading it?

• The Start of Our Spiritual Life

Here is the common experience we have which may help us understand how we can start to lead the spiritual life. 

When we were children our parents told us to do something, either pick up their shoes or go to a certain part of the house. Most of the time we obeyed. There were times when we did not obey. For the times when we obeyed, we ask now, Why did we obey? 

It was because we heard the voice of our parents and we naturally thought of obeying the word signified by that voice. In other words, the means of communicating between us and our parents, besides gestures and looks, was the word. This is very important to notice because it is the word which, upon reflection, we realize has power. 

When we grew up, we have had more uses of the word. But it is the word that has power. In the army especially, one word can move thousands of soldiers to stand on their feet at attention. The commander shouts "Attention" and all the rest follow. 

The word is most powerful. This is the entrance to the spiritual life, knowing a word and using it to enter into the life of the spirit. The spirit is in the word as it were. 

In some centers of spirituality people are trained to utter a word again and again slowly until this word sinks into their subconscious mind. This is what they call a mantra, a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that a person repeats again and again, producing spiritual effects in his being. What the mantra does is to awaken the spirit within us, just as a word would awaken physically a sleeping person.

And this is where the guide or teacher is handy. He would help the student find a mantra that is suitable for him. 

This is the start of leading a spiritual life. 

• The Continuation of Our Spiritual Life

The continuation of leading the spiritual life is simply understanding more of the mantra that has been given to him. In some societies only the teacher and the student know the mantra. It is a secret word. But it is this secret word that gives spiritual power to the student. 

The student or spiritual person meditates on the meaning of this word. He reads more about it, reflects on the meaning he finds in his readings. He does this until the time comes when he stops reflecting on its meaning. He stops reflecting because it has entered already into his very being. It is like eating. When we eat we chew. But when the food is absorbed already by our stomach we stop to chew that portion of food we were chewing before. 

So, also in the spiritual life which begins from the word we reflect upon. Time will come when we can no longer reflect on the meaning of the word we had reflected before. This is because the reality of the word has already entered the depths of our being. 

The ideal would be for a student to receive this word from his teacher. But this word can be any that you think is conducive to your temperament and religious upbringing. If you are a Christian, you may choose the word "God" or "Jesus". One Benedictine suggested the word "Maranatha" which means "Come Lord". If you are a Muslim you may choose the word "Allah" or "Rahman" which means "the God" or "the Most Merciful". If you are a Hindu, you may choose "Brahman" or "Atman". And so forth.

To summarize then, to lead the spiritual life, enter it first by meditating upon a word. Then continue leading this life by meditating more upon this word until you can no longer meditate on it, because this word has entered into your very being.

The Benefits of Spirituality

More and more people now are getting more and more interested in spirituality. The reason for this is because spirituality is offering them benefits which they cannot find in religion or in their own churches. This article discusses the benefits which people have discovered in spirituality. This also tells those who are just beginning to learn about spirituality what benefits they can get from this subject matter which has been dubbed as the new black art, a way of conjuring the good things in life.

We can go through the alphabet and for each letter identify a benefit people have gotten from spirituality. That would give us 26 benefits, using the English alphabet. But that would be artificial. Somebody has already done this.

• Major Benefits of Spirituality

I want to point out three main benefits which people have enjoyed in learning and being engaged in spirituality. Then I will also point out three minor benefits. But since this is a spiritual topic and there is really no end to a discussion on the things of the spirit, we can also say that there is no end to the benefits which we can enjoy in spirituality.

The first main benefit is a sense of freedom or greater freedom. Religion has often been looked at as a repressing element in one's life: Do not do this, do not do that. Now with spirituality people have found a new sense of freedom: You can do this, you can do that. 

Let us give an example. In churches people are reminded by their leaders to behave properly, to come to the church services regularly and to support the needs of the church. But these injunctions are received by the church members as obligations, as things they have to do, otherwise they will lose their good standing in the church. These obligations bind them, so they feel.

On the other hand people who have left or are transcending this kind of church life find that spirituality is a life that buoys them up, that does not press them down as in the churches. Spirituality enables them to come out of themselves so that they can be themselves. A fifteen minutes sincere prayer and meditation in the secret of their room is more likely to uplift their spirit than the one hour sermon by the pastor or the fifteen minutes homily by the priest.

The second main benefit is a sense of real direction. In religion people have been trained to be directed to heaven: Do good here on earth so that when you die you go to heaven. This is the rather simplistic teaching of all religions. In spirituality, heaven is no longer a place in the distant future where we are going to after we die. Heaven happens to be just around the corner in the company of other spirits and spiritually minded people. Heaven is where we enjoy the company of like-minded spirits.

The third benefit is a sense of wholeness. Life is no longer a stream of splintered units: This is for my family, this is for my business, this is for my church, this is for my friends, this is for the charitable organizations I belong to. Life has become a whole. All the concerns and activities in life revolve around one center, the integration of the self with others.

• Minor Benefits of Spirituality

Those are the main benefits. Now we go to the minor benefits which you can consider as the consequences of the main benefits.

The first minor benefit people have found in the practice of spirituality is a new sense of self-confidence. Having found their real selves as spirit beings, no longer as blind products of evolution, they now realize they have self worth more valuable than all the material treasures of this earth. This sense of self worth gives them self-confidence.

The second is a new sense of creativity. This follows from the sense of self-confidence. Now they are no longer tied by the tradition of their society. This is not surprising because the spirit is a creative force. It is the Spirit who created our world or caused it to be created. Spiritual persons think along new lines. Instead of thinking that such a thing cannot be done because it has not been done before, they think "Why not?". All the inventions we now benefit from are products of people who have been deeply spiritual, who dreamed of things to come and saw visions of sights never seen before. 

The third is a new sense of healthy living, both physical health and mental health. Having a new sense of freedom, of new direction in the here and now, not in the by and by, and having a new sense of wholeness, having a new sense of confidence and creativity cannot but produce a new sense of healthy living. The spiritual person affirms: I can now stay healthy with the aid of the spirit telling me what to do to my mind and body. After all the spirit knows what is best for our mind and body. It is for the spirit's interest that we remain healthy because he lives in our mind and body.