Why Spirituality?

In addition, I'd like to share a link.. http://tommyangelo.com/meditation-101/ it's Tommy Angelo's page. He is a poker player but also a Buddhist, he is one of my favorite writers and persons. It has links to a few articles and info on meditation and yoga, and a good list of books. I don't think I've read any of them except the one by Kapleau! So I'll have to get on them. I just downloaded the two articles.. here's an excerpt, the first three paragraphs, from the first one, by Sakyong Miphan Rinpoche. I hope anyone finds it useful.

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Originally Posted by How to Meditate

The practice of mindfulness/awareness meditation is common to all Buddhist traditions. Beyond that, it is common to, inherent in, all human beings.

In meditation we are continuously discovering who and what we are. That could be quite frightening or quite boring, but after a while, all that slips away. We get into some kind of natural rhythm and begin to discover our basic mind and heart.

Often we think about meditation as some kind of unusual, holy or spiritual activity. As we practice that is one of the basic beliefs we try to overcome. The point is that meditation is completely normal: it is the mindful quality present in everything we do. ...

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Hi all,

My first post in these forums !

I really like the question, why spirituality. But should we not define 'what spirituality is', before going into 'why spirituality'?

Spirituality is not a thing that can be contained in your sentences and you can have shelves of books on spirituality. But going after theories you never come to the acme of it. Seek it within. Though you can stuff yourself with bulky books on it but at the end of the day your own understanding or realization of it will matter though you cannot find worlds to fill it even in a page

Most people that I know say the same thing, I've heard this sentence over and over: "I'm not religious, but I am a spiritual person."

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Originally Posted by JuniperWoolf

Most people that I know say the same thing, I've heard this sentence over and over: "I'm not religious, but I am a spiritual person."

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It's such a cliche. I have to try not to roll my eyes every time I hear it.

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Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi

It's such a cliche. I have to try not to roll my eyes every time I hear it.

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I think it's a coy way of saying "I don't go to church... but I'm not going to rule out anything... just in case!"

:D

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Originally Posted by asterias

Hi all,

My first post in these forums !

I really like the question, why spirituality. But should we not define 'what spirituality is', before going into 'why spirituality'?

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I see spirituality as synonymous with human consciousness. Other species would have this also but their physical bodies would make them experience it differently.

So, if you are conscious you are spiritual. If you are human then you express that consciousness in various ways: science, art, religion, interactions with others.

That we can suffer and make mistakes implies that spirituality contains a component of freedom, at least enough freedom to mess things up.

Based on this definition the question of "why" does not make much sense. There is no alternative to consciousness or spirituality. Maybe the why should be "why choose this way of expressing spirituality over some other way" considering the empirical evidence that we are free to mess things up--or get them right.

Why spirituality after all? Spirituality is man’s elevation and man’s salvation. Man rises a little over and above everyday reality and tried to discover his real nature. Man is not just blood and bones and he is more than that, a material object that has a certain amount of weight and is measurable.

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Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi

It's such a cliche. I have to try not to roll my eyes every time I hear it.

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The original intention was to ask those who chose a spiritual worldview why they chose that rather than a political or scientific worldview. It could also be phrased as why people choose spirituality as well as another worldview. I see science and spirituality as complementary, for example.

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Originally Posted by asterias

Hi all,

My first post in these forums !

I really like the question, why spirituality. But should we not define 'what spirituality is', before going into 'why spirituality'?

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its just chit chat, no one answered ur question that how u define spirituality? except yes no who tried to explain his view about what is spirtuality..but everyone is trying to answer why spiritulaity :)

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Originally Posted by asterias

Hi all,

My first post in these forums !

I really like the question, why spirituality. But should we not define 'what spirituality is', before going into 'why spirituality'?

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Usman's right. Do you want to suggest something?

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Originally Posted by Charles Darnay

Such is why, PERSONALLY, I tend to shy away from the doctrines that tell rather than ask you to ask.

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Which doctrines would you place in either of these two categories? I'm especially interested in the "ask you to ask" ones.

So many ideas surrounding spirituality and of course the real meaning of it got distorted and people liken it to an eclectic idea , a kind of exotic domain to land on for all of us. The world has so many spiritual masters ritualizing spiritual professions. Everybody wants to be a guru, but in fact spirituality if do not go by words is to be nothing. This has been a kind of luxury or pastime and it gets nowhere. They have their gods, gurus, rituals and a borderline since out of it you are a materialist. Exoticism is spirituality and it is close to religiosity. People bask in the idea of spirituality. It indeed widens our perception, mental domain and it is kind of fantasy. It is an asylum where people can arrive to secure their existential angst

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Originally Posted by osho

So many ideas surrounding spirituality and of course the real meaning of it got distorted and people liken it to an eclectic idea , a kind of exotic domain to land on for all of us. The world has so many spiritual masters ritualizing spiritual professions. Everybody wants to be a guru, but in fact spirituality if do not go by words is to be nothing. This has been a kind of luxury or pastime and it gets nowhere. They have their gods, gurus, rituals and a borderline since out of it you are a materialist. Exoticism is spirituality and it is close to religiosity. People bask in the idea of spirituality. It indeed widens our perception, mental domain and it is kind of fantasy. It is an asylum where people can arrive to secure their existential angst

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In asking the question why spirituality, rather than "why you chose your religion?", I was asking what makes a person look for something beyong the worldy and scientific, the social and familial. Spirituality, which may or may not involve an organised religion, deals with those other aspects of life where worldly guidance may not be enough: death, life's purpose, improving yourself, how we should relate to each other.

People's personal stories are usually fascinating.

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Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandis

It's such a cliche. I have to try not to roll my eyes every time I hear it.

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Me too, but it's a telling trend, eh? Like, people might dislike the very idea of the "Big Three," but they still need something spiritual. I think spirituality will change over the next couple centuries, we're already starting to become more nature-based; there's all this modern hippy-ish "green" stuff in which people practically worship the earth without doing so directly, there's the explosion in neo-paganism, ect. That's what religion was like before the Big Three, it seems that's what it's returning to.

Also, nature-based religions doesn't automatically exist at-odds with science because there's no set-in-stone mythology (although some of the "green" movements don't actually have much to do with improving the environment, but it's really hard to convince hippies of that, so in that aspect they sometimes contradict science).