What Does It Mean to Be Spiritual?

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I have never been able to figure out what people mean when they say they are "spiritual," especially if they say they also do not adhere to a religion. Everything that is ever used to describe spirituality is incredibly vague. Take the first sentence in the wikipedia article for spirtuality:

"Spirituality is the concept of an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality;[1] an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the 'deepest values and meanings by which people live.'"

This single sentence raises more questions than it answers. What exactly does this immaterial reality consist of? The thoughts in my head are immaterial and real; do they fall under the category of spirituality? Also, spirituality is almost always described by a superlative with no antecedent: "higher," "deeper," or "ultimate," as in this definition. Higher and deeper than what, and in what sense?

Can anyone provide an unambiguous definition of spirituality? Maybe it means different things to different people, but there must be some common denominator, some core aspect that applies to all.

There's no hard set rule for what it means to be spiritual. There usually is no reliance on divine texts or dogmatic rituals.
But I guess, for me, it's an attempt to find answers beyond those found in materialism, to look for the supernatural and allow it to envelop me.

On a generic level I would say it is perhaps a high level of consciousness..or maybe even our own subconscious mind at work. From a Bible Believing Christian perspective the term Spirit refers to God the Holy Spirit who is a member of the Trinity of course. When we are born we arrive with a dead spirit. When we get saved God the Holy Spirit moves into our spirit and brings it to life. He takes up residence inside of us. This makes it possible for us to commune with God directly. Its the born again narrative as Jesus explained to Nicodemus. Now not to get complicated but the Bible tells us there are other spirits out in the world. If you want to talk to a Spirit make them pass this test.

1 John 4:1-3

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

This is hard.

spirituality: the sum of methods (based in reality or not) to reduce mental stress and anxiety (peace of mind.)

could be reworded as

spirituality: the process of seeking and attaining peace of mind.

Answers to which questions?



That would mean that going to spas, stimming, doing drugs, having sex, playing video games, taking walks, and a million other things count as spiritual pursuits.

They're about as close to spirituality as I will likely ever get.

That's the thing, I'm not sure. It's comparable to how physicists are trying to discover what dark matter is. I haven't delved to deeply into it, though. It's a journey that one takes, one step at a time, in my opinion.

How is it comparable? As I understand it, physicists are looking for answers about dark matter because of some gravitational effects that are not adequately explained by traditional matter. That's a fairly concrete question.

Being spiritual is when you can get positively euphoric when at a buffet sharing the food with a packed restaurant without ever feeling icky or invaded. Just happy.

Having concerns about issues removed from the petty matters that occupy most of our time. Spiritual folks ponder the "big questions". Life and Death. Why are we here. What is the world. What are our ethical obligations. And stuff like that.

ruveyn

So it's the same thing as philosophy?

It it is based on reason, yes. If it is based on wishful thinking, then it is religion.

ruveyn

Being spiritually dead is similar to a person who owns a TV set but dont have any way to hook it up to cable..satellite or antenna to receive the signals which constantly fill the air. When the Holy Spirit moves inside and brings our spirit to life a person can finally start picking up the signals. Its akin to a person who has been blind all their life and suddenly gets their vision restored. It is an astoundingly wonderful and earth shattering event.

They also seem driven to rise above the rigid judgmental-ism of religious dogma and form their own understanding of "metaphysical reality".

Unfortunately, I think there are different ways to use this word. In some contexts it might be used vaguely by New Age websites trying to sell books. Like Deepak Chopra.

I think it's easier to consider what a spiritual feeling is. Some people might feel very moved by certain kinds of Art and Music. Others might feel a deep sense of awe at deep space photos, or the Grand Canyon, or even storm watching. Or some might get this feeling from the communal experience in a religious mass. Others will look for it more directly in the material world including the use psychodelic drugs.

So spiritually is the contemplation of what things make us feel this way or even actively pursuing this feeling. I think it relates to a hunger humans can have for new experiences.