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Jax
In preparing to write spirituality 102, I decided it might be useful to know what people think spirituality is so the preconceived ideas can be addressed whenever possible.
So, how do you define spirituality? There are no wrong answers here, just curious where everyone’s at.
Jedi_Phoenix
Spirituality for me is the ability to find a higher self with out being bound by religious doctrine. It is also something that can be more personal and more direct to your needs and doesn’t necessairly have to be wrong. Usually if someone is considered spiritual, they have a high moral/ethic code, and often can be detected by the sense of peace and serenity and wisdom about them.
I was just thinking of one way to explain the difference between spirituality and religion. Perhaps difference is even too strong a word, but…anyway.
If you were stranded somewhere with no books, no access to churches or religious leaders or whatever you consider a normal part of your religion, what would happen? For a religion lacking in spirituality, this would be a very serious issue. However, with a spiritual center you would be just fine because you would know and understand that divinity is all around you. That the experience of connecting to this divinity takes only a desire to do so. Everything else – the books, the ritual, the ceremonial tools – they are not necessary for a deeply spiritual life and can often times distract from it. That doesn’t mean religion cannot be spiritual, but it is not automatic. In many religions today there is very little spirituality included, rather there is a lot of complicated rules that seek more to control people and keep power in the right people’s hands rather than empower everyone through their own spirituality.
Does that make sense? In that, I actually include much of my own definition of spirituality, though not so explicitly. To me, spirituality is not only a connection to a divinity that you see outside yourself but the awareness that you too are divine. That we are all connected at a level that we rarely perceive without actively seeking it. It’s a reconnecting with an aspect of the self that is often ignored in western society, a self that works with the rest of our aspects of self to make us better. Just as intuition and logic, working together are a powerful pair, so to is body and spirit. The split is artificial and actually takes more energy to push apart than it does to allow them to remain together. When they are reunited we find we have wisdom beyond what we could imagine, true power and freedom that comes from knowing we are in control of our self and choosing our reality.
I believe the spiritual path is absolutely crucial to the Jedi path, as it addresses a vital part of our self that cannot be ignored. If we do, we are crippling our growth which eventually plateaus and stagnates because we have grown in an unbalanced way.
Hmm, if you want a difference between the two…
My mom and I always distinguish the two this way:
Spirituality: Something somone does on their own, and develop their own personal connection with a higher power; something individual
Religion: Something collective done with a group of people to heighten their own spirituality.
As you can see its all spirtual, the only thing religion does is through it in a community/ group setting.
Well, at least thats how I veiw it
I would argue there is a distinct lack of spirituality in many religions, which is why you can find such heinous religious people. There are also some very spiritual people who are also religious. But religion does not in any way guarantee spirituality. I guess in my mind I was answering the question, why do I need spirituality, I’m already religious? It just took me a bit to see that. lol
So I would actually disagree with your definition of religion because you would find many churches who aren’t heightening their spirituality but actually their own sense of power and superiority. Hopefully those numbers are declining and there is more spirituality present in churches.
LOL, that is the way I define religion, what I view it as…that doesn’t mean I have based it off of what people actually do…
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