What does it mean to be spiritual?

[Barnabas]

"I'm not religious, but I am spiritual" I've heard it said more time then I can count and have yet to see anything that defines a spiritual person. So maybe y'all can help me out here.

What does it mean to be spiritual?

 

[randomsomeone]

I think many have been legitimately off-put by their experiences with formal religion and feel compelled to distance themselves from the systems they view as somehow inauthentic, or ineffective, or even downright harmful. This can happen in lots of ways and for lots of reasons.

At the same time, the spiritual resonances within each of us, within our deepest self, continue on. This leads one into a search for spiritual nourishment and growth outside the confines of formal religious systems. Prayer, faith, justice and acts of love still provide a center for these folks (in my experience anyway), and they may even seek community through a less formal means. I tend to think that people who are "spiritual" may borrow from a variety of religious systems and integrate these in a manner that makes holistic sense to them.

I personally have chosen to stay within the world of religion, but my own process in many ways mirror this "spiritual" path. For me, I found that the bounds I may have perceived at one point in my life regarding religion were merely doorways into a vast array of options and choices, ways to grow and thrive that far exceeded what I would have imagined on my own. I do believe that, nested in religion, is some extremely valuable and essential stuff, but here I probably speak only for the community I have life-experience with.

I relate to the "spiritual but not religious" a great deal. I admire their instincts away from what they obsrve to be authentic and towards what their heart tells them is true and essential. I do the same thing, and were in I in other shoes or with other life-experiences I'd be making the same choices as they. My path was different though.

 

[Quest]

I hear spiritual but not religious often and I think it means different things to different people. In general though, I think it means they believe in a higher being or power; that something greater than them does exist out there, but they don't associate with any religion/follow any fixed beliefs.

 

[randomsomeone]

I think everyone at some point in their spiritual life has to look at their religious associations (if they have these) and question, seek, and grow in order to form personal connections beyond the strictly group/community experience. In most cases, there are legitimate choices to be made, largely due to our own personal gifts and interests.

As much as I encourage this process, I think there is a dark side that can potentially hold us back. That is our desire for control. This is something the "spiritual but not religious" have to sort out. Where is my ego, in it's survival/protection mode, retracting me back from complete trust and inner transformation and launching me into a protective experience in which everything has to agree with me and my world view? Here, I may select a lovely assortment of beliefs and avoid those that may cause me some inconvenience. Now the reality is that many of these "inconvenient beliefs", taken at face value, do trip us up a bit and maybe even trouble us. However, the longer we work with these we find that many of them really speak to much deeper, over-arching attitudes that we must move past or grow through lest they limit us and keep us from the real freedom that is our destiny. It's a bit of a paradox.

I suggest that many of us who value the spiritual, consider a model of integration rather than one of outright rejection of religious ideas that may actually help us along the way. When we move from childhood to adolescence we do not need to give up our sense of wonder, simplicity, or sense of enchantment, only the temper tantrums and the ignorance. When we move from adolescence to adulthood, there is no need to give up our sense of adventure and search for personal identity and relationships, it is only the emotional turmoil and/or anxiety that are to be left behind. We integrate that which is a rightful gift for our completeness into the next steps in life...not reject the whole thing outright. Integration focusses on unification of experience, so careful consideration of the values of religion, especially the holistic principles that undergird it's most deep and profound truths, is worthwhile. To not do so would be to risk an unnecessary impoverishment that is not our true destiny. "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good."

 

[invisible]

it means you believe in forces that can't be explained through traditionally rational means?

 

[acd]

I think it means you don't adhere to dogma because you find it constraining to personal growth as it requires going against one's instincts.
I think all it takes to be spiritual is a sincere desire to be close to divinity and experience it in your life..
I think when someone finds themselves at that point, God finds them and reveals itself to the person.

 

[just me]

I think you have quite a good question there. I wouldn't want to experience the opposite, but your question made me wonder what it means to not be spiritual. I wonder if it is possible for a person to not be spiritual at all.

 

[David54]

hmm. . .interesting quandry. . .
to me spiritual is about a recognition that there is more to life than meets the eye.
. that there are concepts, meanings, ideas that are universal and surround us all. .
that life is not about me. . it is about us. .
that there is some force in the universe that permeates everything and everyone. .
is it love. . the "force". . is it the wisdom heald in Akashic records? who knows. . certainly not I. .
is it God? or at least my understanding of God?. .
does it matter?
I think it's about being in touch with the notion that we are all in this life together. . bound together by forces we do not understand, and yet try to reach out to. . seeking the wisdom contained therein. .

 

[the]

"I'm not religious, but I am spiritual" I've heard it said more time then I can count and have yet to see anything that defines a spiritual person. So maybe y'all can help me out here.

What does it mean to be spiritual?

It means you are superior to simple church folk in that they dont demonstrate spirituality the way you think they should. Then you come to the conclusion that meeting up with people of that sort is not useful to you so you make up your own religion based on what you like.

 

[Barnabas]

I think it means you don't adhere to dogma because you find it constraining to personal growth as it requires going against one's instincts.
I think all it takes to be spiritual is a sincere desire to be close to divinity and experience it in your life..
I think when someone finds themselves at that point, God finds them and reveals itself to the person.

I don't know about that, being spiritual is a key part of any of the major world religions.

 

[acd]

I don't know about that, being spiritual is a key part of any of the major world religions.

In lip service.

 

[Soulful]

I reckon there are different definitions depending on whom(?) you ask. Generally, I understand it to mean that someone believes in or is open to the idea of divinity or cosmic meaning existing beyond what most of us are able to discern and beyond what science has validated.

The difference, I suppose, is that in not following a religion, someone who's spiritual but not religious does not use religion to explain or define their experience. This aside, their experiences might be very similar to yours.

 

[Barnabas]

In lip service.

your basing that off of what, attending services for every major religion, then becoming involved in the day to day affairs of the average followers?

 

[randomsomeone]

their experiences might be very similar to yours.

Yes, this may well be true. I think in our day there is a certain value in deconstructing religion a bit, mainly to clear away the chatter and debris that has accumulated over the past several hundred years. Within some religions, this "clearing away" is a major thrust and has been underway for many years...an attempt to realign with the core, the basics, the root, the sources. In a sense, the same kind of thing even goes on within individuals...what have I received that is valid, what have I received that is not, how does that impact my personal perspective with it's own gifts and limitations? It is a very similar line of questioning.

Believe it or not, some of the most forward looking, truly human and visionary people I have known have been in leadership positions in religious groups where the fruit of this rather candid questioning between the spiritual and the religious is most central. In this case....and here's a paradox....those making a spiritual search on a personal level would have a great deal in common and the most to discuss with certain leaders within religion!! Weird, huh?

In any case, I love the process of pushing back the less-essential and grasping more fully onto the core. Here things really come to life far more vividly than the cartoon version of things I may have made my initial assumptions about. It is a form of conversion, I think, and in this case I think everybody would do well to become more "spiritual"....religious or not.

 

[acd]

your basing that off of what, attending services for every major religion, then becoming involved in the day to day affairs of the average followers?

Basically, it's about having your heart in it.
I don't see what there is to debate about.

I didn't necessarily say that anyone in a major religion can't be spiritual according to what I think spirituality is.

 

[Barnabas]

Basically, it's about having your heart in it.
I don't see what there is to debate about.

I didn't necessarily say that anyone in a major religion can't be spiritual according to what I think spirituality is.

There isn't much to debate about, really I just found it odd that you would think the most of the planet only play lip service to spirituality. Though I'd almost call what your talking about passion, a strong and sincere desire for something in this case the divine.

I do Like the way [MENTION=407]Soulful[/MENTION] defined it. Funny thing, I think I may be taking the wrong approach here I need to define the root word before I can defines it's applications. So new question, What does spirit mean?

 

[randomsomeone]

What does spirit mean?

I have never seen a single, all-inclusive definition. In any case, "spiritual but not religious" is something of a colloquialism....the concept might mean more than the sum of it's words. For "spirit" I'd check a textbook if you are looking for a solid definition.

 

[Nixie]

Why not define religious instead? I use the term spiritual to differentiate my belief system from organized religion (which I do not follow nor consider myself a Christian in any way, shape or form). There is a tendency to limit the term religion to only refer to dogmatic systems. I agree with [MENTION=564]acd[/MENTION] first post as a good starting point. I think of religion in terms of organization entrenched in dogma while spirituality is more individual based and not strictly based upon religion.

 

[This]

Religion has a bunch of rules, spirituality does not.

 

[acd]

There isn't much to debate about, really I just found it odd that you would think the most of the planet only play lip service to spirituality. Though I'd almost call what your talking about passion, a strong and sincere desire for something in this case the divine.

I do Like the way @Soulful defined it. Funny thing, I think I may be taking the wrong approach here I need to define the root word before I can defines it's applications. So new question, What does spirit mean?

@Barnabas
Why is that odd? How is that more odd than saying they don't?

Anyway, your first comment to me was confusing. I'm still not sure what you are getting at. So, you are trying to disagree with me that spirituality is more individualistic and personal by saying that spirituality is a key aspect of most religions?
Yes, spirituality is something most religions aspire to.
Attending church and reading the bible (or whichever services etc. one takes part in) does not automatically guarantee a spiritual experience.
I'd argue that going through the motions and taking an authority's word for it all kind of kills the inspiration to seek a spiritual connection. But that's just my experience.