Religions, Spirituality

Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived eternal verities regarding humankind's ultimate nature, often contrasts with the temporal, with the material, or with the worldly. more...

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A sense of connection forms a central defining characteristic of spirituality — connection to something greater than oneself, which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. Equally importantly, spirituality relates to matters of sanity and of psychological health. Like some forms of religion, spirituality often focuses on personal experience.

Spirituality may involve perceiving life as higher, more complex or more integrated with one's worldview; as contrasted with the merely sensual.

Scoping the idea of spirituality

Some Indian traditions define spirituality (Sanskrit: adhyatma) as that which pertains to the self (Sanskrit: atma).

Certain forms of spirituality can appear more like philosophy: note in particular the scope of metaphysics.

Due to the broad scope and personal nature of spirituality, however, one can perhaps gain an overview of the field by focussing on key concepts that arise when people describe what spirituality means to them. Research by Martsolf and Mickley (1998) highlighted the following areas as worthy of consideration:

Meaning – significance of life; making sense of situations; deriving purpose.;

Values – beliefs, standards and ethics that one cherishes.;

Transcendence – experience, awareness, and appreciation of a "transcendent dimension" to life beyond self.;

Connecting – increased awareness of a connection with self, others, God/Spirit/Divine, and nature/Nature.;

Becoming – an unfolding of life that demands reflection and experience; including a sense of who one is and how one knows.;

The spiritual and the religious

An important distinction exists between spirituality in religion and spirituality as opposed to religion.

In recent years, spirituality in religion often carries connotations of a believer having a faith more personal, less dogmatic, more open to new ideas and myriad influences, and more pluralistic than the doctrinal faiths of established religions. It also can connote the nature of believers' personal relationship or "connection" with their god(s) or belief system(s), as opposed to the general relationship with a Deity as shared by all members of a given faith.

Those who speak of spirituality as opposed to religion generally meta-religiously believe in the existence of many "spiritual paths" and deny any objective truth about the best path to follow. Rather, adherents of this definition of the term emphasize the importance of finding one's own path to whatever-god-there-is, rather than following what others say works. In summary: the path which makes the most coherent sense becomes the correct one (for oneself). Many adherents of orthodox religions who regard spirituality as an aspect of their religious experience tend to contrast spirituality with secular "worldliness" rather than with the ritual expression of their religion.

Read more at Wikipedia.org