One of the biggest challenges I face with the drug addicted teens I work with is helping them to find a sense of their own worth and meaning as a person.Spirituality often helps to fill the void that their addiction leaves when they stop using. It can help people find meaning and give them some ways to cope with the trials of life as a recovering addict. The problem is that many people equate spirituality with religion and that is a huge turn-off to many of these kids. I don’t believe that religion and spirituality are mutually exclusive. I also don’t believe that they are synonymous. I believe that spirituality and religion can be complementary but that they exist in many forms independent of each other too. In a recent poll 1 out of 5 American classify them selves as “spiritual but not religious”.
If spirituality doesn’t mean being religious, what does it mean?
What’s your definition of spirituality? What are the qualities of a spiritual person?
mmm... what a great challenge. I also don't believe religious and spirituality are remotely even similar sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI'll think of my definition. It might take months.
Spirituality is an awerness of the world around you; that you are not alone and that everyone else has equal bearing in the universe. It is humility that creates a desrie to love and serve these others and to become selfless.
ReplyDeleteReligion gives us rules, guidelines, comandments and even tools to help us accomplish this.
Just my thoughts at the moment, for what they are worth.
Thanks for your thoughts Emily and Jessica. I hope I don't have to wait months Emily! I'm hoping to hear from some more of you. I know many of you are spiritual or religious or both. Your opinions will help me formulate the next step in my exploration of this topic. If you don't want to comment on here then send me an e-mail - I need your thoughts!
ReplyDeletePaul, I wish I had an amazing answer for you right now. I don't. In fact, my current answer to almost all things spiritual is "I don't know." This particular answer holds a lot more weight for me than many may realize. NOT knowing, and coming to grips with being OK not knowing.
ReplyDeleteReligion is organized community, centered around a belief guidelines. These guidelines may be as open as a Universalist Unitarian "Dignity and Worth of All," or extreme and cultishly dogmatic.
Spiritually relating to a community can be a fulfilling experience. It can also be awful when coming to a "spiritual" disagreement with your community.
Currently, I do not feel I have a "spiritual community" other than the very occasional conversation with you (you plurual, meaning your community of friends I've met through you) and others in my life like you. I am benefitting from a local religious community through play groups, "girl's nights," and twice-weekly aerobics, strenghth training, and yoga. I do not have a spiritual connection to this religious community, however.
I would venture that spirituality and love have a deep connection, though.
ok, I'll do my best to give my definition now.
ReplyDeleteTo me, spirituality is...
light. In all its forms. From a simple candle's glow, to an angel visitation, to praying as a family, to a raging rock show...
Religion is a lighter. It's the flint and steel to get a spark. It helps people who want it learn about light, talk about light, and experience light together.
“I would venture that spirituality and love have a deep connection, though.”
ReplyDeleteI agree Amber, love is a big part of spirituality to me too. The feelings of both phenomena can be difficult to distinguish at times. I agree that they are deeply interconnected.
I love your description Emily… when I read it I thought… spiritual experiences shed light on our vast capacity to act for good in the world.
They remind us of the goodness of life and our connection to something or someone outside of us. They expand our possibilities and illuminate the wonders of life.
I read this quote from physicist Richard Feynman in a book discussing the innate curiosity of science and I thought it related to the discovery of personal insight in the spiritual sense as well as scientific revelations of truth:
“I’ve been caught, so to speak – like someone who was given something wonderful when he was a child, and he’s always looking for it again. I’m always looking, like a child, for the wonders I know I’m going to find – maybe not every time, but every once in a while.”
This quote exemplifies my personal quest to understand “how things work”, but more accurately, how humans work. Spirituality is such a huge part of that.
Thanks for your insights. I would love to hear from some of you readers that I know have thoughts about this. Come on, take a minute and leave a comment; this is starting to get really interesting!
I've been thinking a lot about this lately (and that's why I didn't answer right away; I'm still deciding what it is), and as incomplete a thought this is, here goes:
ReplyDeleteSpirituality is the search for connection between one's soul and another's, whether that "other" soul is another human, animal, god, bug, or tree... or even light, as I believe light and soul are the same. They are both energies, and energies that no one fully understands.
Religion is the "map" that some use to help find a connection... but not all need it, or want it, or use it properly. It's optional.
I'd like to think that when we were each born into this world, and we were choosing parents (and I do think it was a choice), we were given the option, "want religion with that?" And some of us are still deciding that one.
This questions is so huge. So enormous that its difficult to look at it there in front of you without thinking, "how can I know the words..." But we do know. I don't believe there can be anything hidden from the soul, even if at times we can't quite get our heads wrapped around it. And yet, when it comes to the soul, knowing isn't enough. For me, to be truly spiritual isn't a thought or a belief...but an experience. I read a quote awhile back that has stuck with me. It said (and I paraphrase), "You can KNOW yourself to be generous, but unless you DO something which displays generousity, you have nothing but a concept."
ReplyDeleteIn the same vein, anyone can THINK themselves to be a spiritual person, but unless you act with love and compassion *(part of MY definition, feel free to insert yours here)* you have nothing but an idea about who you are.
I think thats why spirituality and love are so intertwined. Love can't help but touch a place in us that awakens our highest good. When our hearts are full of love...for each other, for life...everything is spiritual. Not because anything has changed in our environment, but because WE have. Our experience of love allows us to see the beauty, or light, or spirit, or anything we name it, thats all around us everyday.
So what is my personal definition of Spirituality? First, I go to the Highest Thought of who I am, and I imagine the me that I could be if I lived that thought everyday. What would I think, do or say? How would I respond to others around me? Am I taking, or am I giving of myself? Do I make choices out of fear, or out of love? Am I judging, or am I accepting of others (I always have to include "of myself" here as well, thats a tough one for me sometimes).
And then, I ask myself if I am moving toward my highest good. That, to me, is living spirituality...it is the unfolding of our own personal beauty. And the highest expression of that beauty is to share it with everyone that touches our lives.
I think of spirituality as a connection to a higher power, a sense of that connection and love, and a striving toward personal development in partnership with that higher power. People I think of as "spiritual" are often seeking light and knowledge from their God/s.
ReplyDeleteI think of religion as a construct of particular beliefs *about* the higher power. Sometimes many people share similar beliefs and organize meetings and support systems for each other -- thus, organized religion.
I don't personally subscribe to the idea that love and connection with other human beings constitutes any kind of spirituality. I think there are many many people who are good, wonderful, connected, loving people, who are not really spiritual. They are simply loving and good. I really think the word "spiritual" specifically implies a *higher* powers' involvement. Of course, most people who do have a relationship with that power, feel a great sense of love from him/her/them, and then want to share that with others.
Spirituality is the teachings of a spiritual being. It is not something that can be imitated though may be some peoples identity (for example the ego, desire to please others, or someone braging about how spiritual they are because they do yoga each morning). To me, spirituality may be an achievement or a sort of enlightenment. It is the achievement of neither desiring or resisting reality. When it is interpreted through the mind it is not being its true self, which is beingness, awareness, and appritiation. I don't think that one needs religion to be "connected", though some people may exist in a concept of spirituality through religion.
ReplyDelete