Spirituality, Definition
It is interesting that a few of the definitions of spirituality the students suggested in our class are very similar to some of the definitions given by the professionals whose thoughts comprise these selections.
A sort of synthesis from the following definitions and descriptions:
This spiritual core is the deepest center of the person, involved with ultimate questions about life’s meaning and purpose. It refers to the ultimate values and meanings in terms of which we live. It includes a sense of identity that goes beyond the individual to be centered in the Whole, or the Absolute.
three characteristics of spirituality: inner strength, meaning in life, and harmonious interconnectedness. Inner strength involves finding an animated sense of joy and peace within one’s inner wellspring of awareness. Finding a meaning or a purpose in life points to a sense of hope in the unfolding mystery, uncertainty, and ambiguity of life, and an ability to see beyond present realities. The last characteristic, interconnectedness, involves finding harmony with the self, others, and the universe.”
Preface to the Series World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, by the General Editor, Ewert Cousins (In Weiming, Tu, and Tucker, Mary Evelyn, eds. 2004. Confucian Spirituality, Vol. 2. New York: Crossroad, xi-xii)
“The present volume is part of a series entitled World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, which seeks to present the spiritual wisdom of the human race in its historical unfolding. . . . \
In the planning of the project, no attempt was made to arrive at a common definition of spirituality that would be accepted by all in precisely the same way. The term ‘spirituality,’ or an equivalent, is not found in a number of the traditions. Yet from the outset, there was a consensus among the editors about what was in general intended by the term. It was left to each tradition to clarify its own understanding of this meaning and to the editors to express this in the introduction to their volumes; As a working hypothesis, the following description was used to launch the project:
The series focuses on that inner dimension of the person called by certain traditions ‘the spirit.’ This spiritual core is the deepest center of the person. It is here that the person is open to the transcendent dimension; it is here that the person experiences ultimate reality. The series explores the discover of this core, the dynamics of its development, and its journey to the ultimate goal. It deals with prayer, spiritual direction, the various maps of the spiritual journey, and the methods of advancement in the spiritual ascent.
By presenting the ancient spiritual wisdom in an academic perspective, the series can fulfill a number of needs. it can provide readers with a spiritual inventory of the richness of their own traditions, informing them at the same time of the richness of other traditions. It can give structure and order, meaning and direction to the vast amount of information with which we are often overwhelmed in the computer age. By drawing the material into the focus of world spirituality, it can provide a perspective for understanding one’s place in the larger process. For it may well be that the meeting of spiritual paths—the assimilation not only of one’s own spiritual heritage but of that of the human community as a whole—is the distinctive spiritual journey of our time.
“In perhaps one of its briefest definitions spirituality is about the relationships that we have with our self, with others and with the universe.” 127
Charles L. Whitfield, Healing the Child Within, Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1987
“Religion involves creeds and catechisms. Spirituality involves feelings and experiences that transcend mere words. Religion is imitative and comes from without; religion is ‘so I’ve been taught.’ Spirituality comes from within; spirituality comes from ‘my strength, hope and experience.’ Religion is ‘left-brain—it is rooted in words, sacred texts, and culture. Spirituality is ‘right-brain’; it transcends the boundaries of body, language, reason, and culture. However, just as both sides of the brain are inseparable, just so for most people religion and spirituality are inseparable.” Vaillant, 2002:260
M. A. Burkhardt (Spirituality: An analysis of the concept. Holistic Nursing Practice, 3(3), 1989, 69-77, identified three characteristics of spirituality: inner strength, meaning in life, and harmonious interconnectedness. Inner strength involves finding an animated sense of joy and peace within one’s inner wellspring of awareness. Finding a meaning or a purpose in life points to a sense of hope in the unfolding mystery, uncertainty, and ambiguity of life, and an ability to see beyond present realities. The last characteristic, interconnectedness, involves finding harmony with the self, others, and the universe.” Jason et al. 2001:588.
“‘Spirituality’ is a term used in traditional religious writings to designate the search for self-fulfillment and perfection.,” Tissa Balasuriya, Planetary Theology, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984, 252.
The word ‘spirit’ is from the Latin word spirare meaning ‘to breathe.’ The noun, spiritus signifies the action of breathing, a single breath, and also life itself. E.g., nulli naturae in aeternum spiritum dedit. Seneca, Suas. 2.2; and the non-corporeal part of a person (separable from the body at death, spirit, soul—or, according to some philosophical systems, the vital principle animating the world as a whole: si morte carens vacua volat altus in aura spiritus, et Samii sunt rata dicta senis. Ovid, Tristia, 3.3.62; or Vergil, Aeneid 6.726: caelum ac terram camposque liquentis lucentemque globum lunae Titaniaque astra spiritus intus alit. It also refers to divine inspiration: poetam. . . quasi divino spiritu inflari Cicero, Pro Archias 18; and the essential, pervading nature; a disposition, spirit or mettle: adeo fracti simul cum corpore sunt spiritus illi feroces. Livy 1.31.6; and finally, air in motion or as an element.
A Fetzer Institute request for proposals, “End of Life and the Dying Process,” 2002, states that “Spirituality can be conceptualized as concerned with the transcendent, addressing ultimate questions about life’s meaning and purpose with the assumption that there is more to life than that which we can see or fully understand.”
Spirituality refers to the experience of the highest values of goodness, love, truth and beauty. It is experience rather than external forms or beliefs. Robert Zaehner’s distinction of 4 types of spirituality applicable to all religions is useful. According to the Larousse Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions, he claims that
There are four types of spirituality within and between religions: loving union with a personal God; a sense of oneness with the Absolute and the world; a sense of merging with the world, and a sense of being separate from the world and becoming one with one’s real self.
Spirituality indicates a person’s awareness of and attunement to that force. It refers to the quality of our relationship to all things. It is characterized by love and by understanding the other as he, she, or it is. And it’s a recognition of the value of all things. Other characteristics are serenity and surrender of our selfish interests in the service of something greater than we are. The signs of spirituality may be identified as love, caring, recognition of a meaning to existence—that there is a state of greater wholeness towards which all things strive. Your understanding of spirituality may be different, and it is your own experience that matters. In any case, clarity regarding the spiritual aspect of life is valuable as a step towards fulfillment.
A person’s spirituality shows in every situation, in every encounter. Spirituality has to do with our perspective, our attitude. It is a capability that we can focus on and cultivate, or ignore.
It is better to practice spirituality in daily life situations than in formal ways that are separated from daily life. We can say that any act that is loving, understanding, kind and unselfish is spiritual.
“spiritual life, the: Life that is either (humanly) controlled by spirit, or (divinely) directed by and toward the Holy Spirit, or both. . . .
Among more thoughtful believers, however, spirit has meant that in man which is most akin to God, man’s experience of the highest values of goodness, truth, beauty, and holiness. Thus every person is to some extent potential spirit. In particular, the spiritual life is the development of a conscious relation to the divine Spirit (the Holy Spirit), in prayer, fellowship, service, and growth.
That the spiritual life is supersensuous is emphasized by Platonists; that it is a transforming power, a work of divine grace, is St. Paul’s contribution; that it leads to union with God is the insight of mysticism of the East and the West; that it is a rational and social power building institutions is shown by Hegel; that it is nobly superior to the ‘pettily human’ is Eucken’s thought. In the Orient the spiritual life has for centuries been cultivated as Yoga (union with God).
One of the chief traits of the spiritual life is its relative freedom from determination by economic, racial, and physical conditions, combined with devotion to the task of changing those conditions when they can be changed, and of rising above them when they cannot. This freedom is not absolute, and Marx is partially justified in holding that the ‘realm of freedom’ cannot be realized in an unjust social order. Religious faith brings spiritual life to its highest fruition when human spirituality is regarded as conscious co-operation with the eternal Spirit of God, and therefore as grounded in an eternal power that cannot be defeated.”
—Ferm, Vergilius, ed. An Encyclopedia of Religion, New York: Philosophical Library, 1945 p. 732.
“spirituality The experiential side of religion, as opposed to outward beliefs, practices and institutions, which deals with the inner spiritual depths of a person. Spirituality has been present in all religious traditions, including Kabbalah Judaism, Sufi Islam, the yoga traditions within Hinduism, the meditational disciplines within Buddhism, and some strands of Christianity. It has been revived in recent years after a period of seeming decline in the West, and the 70 volumes of the Classics of Western Spirituality is an example of its present vitality. Some scholars have suggested that spirituality does not differ greatly between religions; others, such as Scholem, have argued that each religion has a very different spirituality. [Robert Charles] Zaehner has claimed that there are four types of spirituality within and between religions: loving union with a personal God; a sense of oneness with the Absolute and the world; a sense of merging with the world, and a sense of being separate from the world and becoming one with one’s real self. Cousins has offered a historical interpretation of global spirituality. He suggests that the spirituality of early humans was mythic, cosmic and ritualistic, and that they felt at one with nature and the tribe. But in the Axial Age of the 6th century BCE there arose the possibility of an individual spirituality that was self-reflective, speculative, analytical and separate from nature and the tribe. He suggests that we are now living in the second Axial age, in which a new spirituality is emerging that is recovering a spiritual consciousness of nature. Whether this is the case or not, it appears that a new spirituality which integrates the material, the humane and the translucent—nature, humans and God—is beginning to emerge in the conditions of our time.”
—Goring, Rosemary, Larousse Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions, New York: Larousse, 1994 [1992], p. 499.
“Spirituality Frequently used, but ill-defined, term in the social sciences of religion; most generally understood as a quality of an individual whose inner life is oriented toward God, the supernatural, or the sacred. Recalling William James’s distinction between personal experience and inherited tradition, it is increasingly common to contrast ‘spirituality’ with ‘religion.’
Spirituality is considered primary, more pure, more directly related to the soul in its relation to the divine, while religion is secondary, dogmatic and stifling, often distorted by oppressive sociopolitical and socio-economic forces.”
—Swatos, Jr., William H., ed., Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, 1998, p 492. (Article by David Yamane)
Spirituality: In the Introduction to Spirituality and Society, David Ray Griffin writes that the term spirituality “is used here in a broad sense, however, to refer to the ultimate values and meanings in terms of which we live, whether they be otherworldly or very worldly ones, and whether or not we consciously try to increase our commitment to those values and meanings. The term does have religious connotations, in that one’s ultimate values and meanings reflect some presupposition as to what is holy, that is, of ultimate importance.” Griffin, David Ray, Spirituality and Society, Albany: SUNY Press, 1988.
The higher power is constantly available. If you open to it, it will rush in like a mighty tide. It is there for anybody under any circumstances or in any condition. This tremendous inflow of power is of such force that in its inrush it drives everything before it, casting out fear, hate, sickness, weakness, moral defeat, scattering them as though they had never touched you, refreshing and restrengthening your life with health, happiness, and goodness.
Contact with God establishes within us a flow of the same type of energy that re-creates the world and that renews springtime every year. From spirituality we learn how to avoid drainage of power. It is not hard work that drains off energy but emotional upheaval. Our energies are also destroyed because of the high tempo, the abnormal pace at which we go. The conservation of energy depends upon getting your personality speed synchronized with the rate of God’s movement.
One way of doing this is by going out some warm day and lying down on the earth. Get your ear close down to the ground and listen. You will hear all manner of sounds. You will hear the sound of the wind in the trees and the murmur of insects, and you will discover presently that there is in all these sounds a well-regulated tempo.
Relax physically. Then conceive of your mind as likewise relaxing. Follow this mentally by visualizing the soul as becoming quiescent, then pray as follows: “Dear God, You are the source of all energy. You are the source of the energy in the sun, in the atom, in all flesh, in the bloodstream, in the mind. I hereby draw energy from You as from an illimitable source.” Then practice believing that you receive energy. Keep in tune with the Infinite.
Of course many people are tired simply because they are not interested in anything. Nothing ever moves them deeply. To some people it makes no difference what’s going on or how things go. Their personal concerns are superior even to all crises in human history. Nothing makes any real difference to them except their own little worries, their desires, and their hates. They wear themselves out stewing around about a lot of inconsequential things that amount to nothing. So they become tired. They even become sick. The surest way not to become tired is to lose yourself in something in which you have a profound conviction.
To live with constant energy it is important to get your emotional faults corrected. You will never have full energy until you do.
If you discover your purpose, the meaning of your life, your priorities, you will access the tremendous energy that is stored in your being.
I have misplaced the source of this statement. Sounds a bit like Ernest Holmes.
Connie Kaplan, author of Dreams Are Letters From the Soul, says, “What I mean by more spiritual is more authentic.” Interview with David Kahn, June 23, 2002.
Florence Matusky cites Mitsoui Aoki as proposing “spirituality to be that aspect of ourselves that forever connects us to the whole, that part of us that is open to the energies that surround us all the time.” Healing the Terrorist Within! Scottsdale, AZ: Cloudbank Creations, p. 159
“The term "spirituality" has been used in different ways by different authors (Burkhardt 1989). A broad, inclusive definition is: spirituality is that which gives meaning to one's life and draws one to transcend oneself. Spirituality is a broader concept than religion, although that is one expression of spirituality.” Center to Improve Care of the Dying, “Spirituality.” http://www.gwu.edu/~cicd/toolkit/spiritual.htm accessed 11/5/2004
See Burkhardt, M. "Spirituality: An Analysis of The Concept," Holistic Nursing Practice, May 1989 :60-77
Karl Jaspers refers to Martin Luther’s statement that that which you hold to, upon which you stake your existence, that is truly your God. Jaspers, Karl (1951). Way to wisdom: An introduction to philosophy. Translated by Ralph Manheim. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954 [1951], 80
Stan posted a framework for thinking about a definition of spirituality: cognitive, metaphysical, and relational aspects.
Five characteristics:
Sense of oneness with all things
Love
Sense of meaning
Sense of an ultimate, fundamental Goodness in the universe
Sense of the miracle of existence and gratitude
Spirituality, def: the belief that there is a reality that transcends the physical, the world of appearances. Usually there is also a belief that this veiled Reality has its purposes. There is a sense of the oneness of all, and reverence for existence.
Spirituality is experienced in love, authenticity, beauty, goodness, the sense of the sacred, the holy, the mysterium tremendum.
Spirituality and the divine is sensed, felt, experienced in subtle ways.
A problem comes from the fact that the major traditions incorporate many elements that are at a low stage of faith.
Belief in survival of the personality after death in a plane where pleasures of the body are enjoyed. Along with this is an appeal to fear.
Belief that God revealed ultimate truth to a particular person in so many words that may be considered “the word of God.”
Belief that people who have different ideas regarding the divine are wrong, while we are right. They need to agree with our way.
It is important to renounce the beliefs that reflect such a childish view of reality.
At the same time the major spiritual traditions can be interpreted to portray the highest level of spirituality that people have experienced. However, there is an almost cynical emphasis on expressions that encourage belief so that selfish material goods can be gained and corresponding ills avoided (resulting in disillusioned puzzlement: How could God let the innocent suffer?)
I don’t want to get sidetracked into this debate, only to mention that these beliefs are expressions of the mind at a certain stage of maturity, one that sees reality as concrete and finds abstract thinking difficult; and that sees the world form a self-centered perspective. That is, it assumes that its beliefs are absolute and right for all. It is unable to recognize cultural conditioning. And it assumes that the body-identity is the basic reality on which to build its picture of reality.
(When criticized for this simple-minded understanding, believers often defend by appealing to the more abstract and sophisticated aspect of the faith.)
The first step in formulating a concept of the Divine that is able to stand alongside science is to make clear that these more concrete and self-centered ideas are not what are being maintained, but a more symbolic and abstract concept. The challenge is to provide a conceptualization of the divine and of spirituality that is robust, not vague but clear.
At this historical moment, it seems best to have a minimal definition, but one that is strong and clear.
We are so used to looking for a God who is going to take care of us that to reform the image to a Divinity that is a tendency, an energy that has built death and unmerited suffering into the Cosmic Plan is hard to picture.
It is as if the creative force is playful in one of its aspects. And if humans succeed in devitalizing and mechanizing all of creation, at some point life will still pop up, as if playing a game with us. It says, “I loved the dinosaurs and played with them for a million years and delighted in doing so. . .”
Spirituality is usually associated with religion, but there are good reasons for distinguishing them. Confusion of the two leads to mistaking a particular form of belief in the transcendent as the key obligation for a sort of ultimate goal. This causes at least two further confusions:
1. An experience or insight into what may be provisionally referred to as an ultimate reality behind surface appearances is ignored, and
2. Criticism of religious forms leads to neglect of and apparent unconcern with spiritual experience. This is a common occurrence in our day, when religions formed when standards for truth or reality claims were inadequate by current standards. Accretions of superstition, wishful thinking, and manipulation are easily attacked (especially by a scientistic orthodoxy which rules out religious reality claims by definition). When religion and spirituality are not distinguished, this leads to unnecessary neglect of the latter.
A minimal definition of spirituality includes the experience of a reality behind the visible forms of the world—a reality which is working out its purposes through the visible forms. This invisible reality is prior to, and superior to, the visible reality (the ‘secular world’). To experience the invisible reality more fully and clearly requires disengagement from (i. e., non-attachment to) the secular world. This is not an utter disengagement, however, because the invisible reality is attempting to express itself through visible reality, and the main task for one who has perceived the invisible reality is to harmonize hir own life, and all of the visible world, with it.
In this regard, it seems as if an error appears that is very easy to make. Desire for power is confused with helping others perceive the invisible reality. Or one applies to one’s individual, personal self the grandeur that belongs to the unus mundus. In fact, this ‘psychagogy’ is a skill that seems to be at the frontier of human abilities. It is an art little recognized, little practiced, and little known.
Note: the word ‘unselfish’ has an ambiguous meaning. ‘Selfish’ can refer to either individual, ego, personal gratification, or to our deeper authentic being. The two are in endless conflict, the struggle between lower and higher nature. When I say ‘unselfish,’ I mean ‘going beyond individual, ego, personal gratifications.’
It is essential to care for our authentic, or higher self, to be selfish in that sense. All activities that exercise this care are spiritual. Caring for our own authentic, full self, is in any case spiritual.
What are some ways you can nurture the spiritual?
At work, in dealing with others who may make mistakes or who are unloving, un-understanding, unkind.
At home, with family members. When doing homemaking chores. A great and time-tested spiritual practice.
At the store, with salespeople or other customers.
In the car, when the driving of others provokes us.
In any encounter, with ‘the least of our brothers and sisters.’
In the garden, caring for growing things.
In our associations, with causes that join people together for caring, life-affirming purposes.
By taking time. By opening ourselves up to the world.
In our regard for all that lives. Albert Schweitzer called his philosophy ‘reverence for life.’ He had been asked, after his release from imprisonment as a pacifist in World War I, to write about his beliefs. After struggling with this task for months, his ideas suddenly came together when he was traveling on a river in Africa and saw a hippopotamus grazing—and the powerful feeling, and phrase, ‘reverence for life’ occurred to him.
We can aid the less fortunate, smile at a stranger, look for the good in others—especially if the relationship is difficult. We can give our time and full attention to others. We can give thanks for what we have—for waking up with our minds and bodies still intact.
God is not a being, God is a state.
Except where noted, the content is from Richard Hawley Trowbridge, although the thoughts certainly aren’t.
Page last updated 2/25/2009.
Goring, Rosemary, Larousse Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions, New York: Larousse, 1994 [1992], p. 499.