IMPORTANT UPDATE: The following article is inaccurate about spirituality. The description of spirituality below is at best of my personalized version of spirituality. I no more subscribe to any type/version of spirituality. Philosophy, pursued in a right way, is the only way to attain wisdom. For my refined views on spirituality, read this and this.
Spirituality is, because of the fact that there is suffering. Minimizing the suffering is the aim of spirituality. The process, or the journey, is called spiritual development.
In order to come to terms with suffering arising out of something one has to perfectly understand it. Perfect understanding of the problem is the best way to be able to deal with the suffering arising from it.
Therefore –
Spirituality = Truth-seeking
Life is by default suffering. Spirituality is seeking the truth of life and existence in order to understand it perfectly and thereby, come to terms with its nature.
The end point in spiritual development is enlightenment. This enlightenment does not mean knowing everything. It means knowing enough to be able to embrace the unavoidable suffering of life without losing equanimity.
Spirituality is called so, because the spiritual journey starts with a scrutiny of one’s own thoughts and actions. Perfect understanding of life and existence is only possible by first perfectly understanding one’s own mind. Once the mind is understood, one should realize that it was all there was to understand, as far as dealing with suffering is concerned. Every other knowledge on earth is insignificant.
Spirituality is essentially a journey inward. Spiritual development, thus, consists of spiritual – that is, “inner” – knowledge. There again, it has nothing to do with “soul”, a part of oneself that goes on living after one dies, or takes birth in the form of another creature, and the like. Spirit only signifies “inner”, that is, of the mind.
Despite its existing different interpretations, spirituality that I am talking about should not be confused with anything related to God, religion or mysticism – or anything supernatural, so to speak.
Spirituality is not at odds with science, or rational thinking. It is in fact the best use of those approaches of knowledge acquisition into developing the most sublime understanding of the existence and our place in it.
In short, spirituality is pure truth-seeking about and understanding of our existence, nothing else.
Spirituality is, because of the fact that there is suffering. Minimizing the suffering is the aim of spirituality. The process, or the journey, is called spiritual development.
In order to come to terms with suffering arising out of something one has to perfectly understand it. Perfect understanding of the problem is the best way to be able to deal with the suffering arising from it.
Therefore –
Spirituality = Truth-seeking
Life is by default suffering. Spirituality is seeking the truth of life and existence in order to understand it perfectly and thereby, come to terms with its nature.
The end point in spiritual development is enlightenment. This enlightenment does not mean knowing everything. It means knowing enough to be able to embrace the unavoidable suffering of life without losing equanimity.
Spirituality is called so, because the spiritual journey starts with a scrutiny of one’s own thoughts and actions. Perfect understanding of life and existence is only possible by first perfectly understanding one’s own mind. Once the mind is understood, one should realize that it was all there was to understand, as far as dealing with suffering is concerned. Every other knowledge on earth is insignificant.
Spirituality is essentially a journey inward. Spiritual development, thus, consists of spiritual – that is, “inner” – knowledge. There again, it has nothing to do with “soul”, a part of oneself that goes on living after one dies, or takes birth in the form of another creature, and the like. Spirit only signifies “inner”, that is, of the mind.
Despite its existing different interpretations, spirituality that I am talking about should not be confused with anything related to God, religion or mysticism – or anything supernatural, so to speak.
Spirituality is not at odds with science, or rational thinking. It is in fact the best use of those approaches of knowledge acquisition into developing the most sublime understanding of the existence and our place in it.
In short, spirituality is pure truth-seeking about and understanding of our existence, nothing else.
Hi Darshan!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant post. I couldn't agree more with this definition of spirituality, and that it is not in conflict with science. I have found, though, that because most people do not see spirituality in this way--especially atheists, most of whom equate the word spirituality with Jesus, church, etc.--it is important to define the term every time you write about it. Otherwise, you are at risk of being misunderstood.
I would also be curious to hear you elaborate on your statement that "It is in fact the best use of those approaches of knowledge acquisition into developing the most sublime understanding of the existence." I believe this is so as well, but often find it hard to define just how the two fit together...Ken Wilber wrote a book called "The Marriage of Sense and Soul" about this very topic, which I haven't read yet. Maybe there are some answers there.
Once again, great post! Glad to see you at it again!
Take care,
Kitty
Thank you, Kitty!
ReplyDeleteThat statement you want me to elaborate on...
I said that because in my truth-seeking journey I have never abandoned rationality and science. It's TRUTH-seeking, right? How can truth be sought without rationality! Reason/logic is integral to intelligence; if it is abandoned then intelligence starts producing bad results. Look at religions, for example!
And there's no denying to what science finds, as it's based on evidence. That's what science means. Science and rationality, thus, go hand-in-hand with spirituality or truth-seeking. That's the reason spirituality as WE mean it disapproves anything supernatural.
I think we have already seen that spirituality without science is misleading, and science without spirituality is lame.
You need not call this spiritualism.. you can simply call it philosophy..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/philosophy