Spirituality, trying to understand a little more about it....

JC 2K3

What is it exactly? I never can really understand. If you are "spiritual" does it mean you believe in spirits? What are "spirits" exactly?

I often hear people say, "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual", what's the difference?(you can be religious without belonging to an organised religion right?) Or is it a belief that doesn't focus on a deity or something?

Nevyn

I think you are confusing spirituality and spiritualism.

spirituality
1. the quality or fact of being spiritual.
2. incorporeal or immaterial nature.
3. predominantly spiritual character as shown in thought, life, etc.; spiritual tendency or tone.
4. Often, spiritualities. property or revenue of the church or of an ecclesiastic in his or her official capacity.

spiritual

. of, pertaining to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal.
2. of or pertaining to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature: a spiritual approach to life.
3. closely akin in interests, attitude, outlook, etc.: the professor's spiritual heir in linguistics.
4. of or pertaining to spirits or to spiritualists; supernatural or spiritualistic.
5. characterized by or suggesting predominance of the spirit; ethereal or delicately refined: She is more of a spiritual type than her rowdy brother.
6. of or pertaining to the spirit as the seat of the moral or religious nature.
7. of or pertaining to sacred things or matters; religious; devotional; sacred.
8. of or belonging to the church; ecclesiastical: lords spiritual and temporal.
9. of or relating to the mind or intellect.
–noun
10. a spiritual or religious song: authentic folk spirituals.

and

spir·it·u·al·ism

1. the belief or doctrine that the spirits of the dead, surviving after the mortal life, can and do communicate with the living, esp. through a person (a medium) particularly susceptible to their influence.
2. the practices or phenomena associated with this belief.
3. the belief that all reality is spiritual.
4. Metaphysics. any of various doctrines maintaining that the ultimate reality is spirit or mind.


The Spirituality forum is for the discussion of spiritual beilef those that are of main stream relgions and those that are not so main stream.
They would include spiritualism if someone wanted to talk about those beliefs here.

Agent J

JC 2K3 wrote:

What is it exactly? I never can really understand. If you are "spiritual" does it mean you believe in spirits? What are "spirits" exactly?

I often hear people say, "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual", what's the difference?(you can be religious without belonging to an organised religion right?) Or is it a belief that doesn't focus on a deity or something?

Long story short.

Religious usually means belonging to a religion.
Spirtual can be another way of saying agnostic

JC 2K3

Hmm....

Is one's "spirit" much different, in essence, to their "soul"? Or are they the same thing?

Nevyn

Some people would say they are the same.

JC 2K3

And belief in a soul/spirit is a belief that feelings/emotions are beyond simply chemicals in our brains?

jessop1

there is a school of thought that the soul, which is composed of chakras (centres of consciousness) is a vehicle or housing for the spirit, much like the physical body is a vehicle for the soul/spirit.

hairyheretic

I would define spirituality as your connection with whatever you believe in, and religion as all the man made stuff that grows up around that, like churches, priests, dogma and so forth.

I believe its quite possible to be spiritual without being religious.

hiorta

As I understand things, a spiritual person is aware of and tries to live by the Highest standard that they know / feel to be 'right'.

A religious person may or may not decide to obey the teaching of others.

Asiaprod

hairyheretic wrote:

I believe its quite possible to be spiritual without being religious.

I would agree most definitely.

Talliesin

The spiritual is a hypothetical part of the psyche and of our experiences.

I say hypothetical because some people refute it or are sceptical of it (most Atheists and Agnostics respectively, though some people hold an Atheist or Agnostic view with regards to divinity while still maintaining that the spiritual exists and is important).

Religion is a way of dealing with the spiritual.

Being religious means that your religion is important to you. This has positive connotaions to those who derive their ethics directly from their religion (and hence would say "so-and-so is a very religious person" and mean it as a compliment) and negative connotations to those who experience the ethics of other peoples religions as leading to bad things (e.g. blaming the Roman Catholic view of homosexuality for homophobia). At its core though being religious means nothing beyond how important your religion is to you personally. I would describe myself as religious for this reason, but I wouldn't assume it makes me a better or worse person that I might be otherwise.

JC 2K3

hiorta wrote:

As I understand things, a spiritual person is aware of and tries to live by the Highest standard that they know / feel to be 'right'.

But isn't that basically everyone regardless if they

Talliesin wrote:

The spiritual is a hypothetical part of the psyche and of our experiences.

I say hypothetical because some people refute it or are sceptical of it (most Atheists and Agnostics respectively, though some people hold an Atheist or Agnostic view with regards to divinity while still maintaining that the spiritual exists and is important).

I have difficulty understanding what this "spiritual" is. Can you expand on that?

I'm an Agnostic verging on Atheist, but I can't and don't refute it because I don't know what it is, hence the thread.