What is Spirituality

Maybe you’re having a spiritual awakening. Or you’re actively on your spiritual journey. Maybe neither of those are true for you, but you wonder -just the same… what does it mean to be spiritual? If you’ve had that though, you’re not alone.  In this episode I look at all the ways we define spirituality. 

Watch Videos:

The SoulPod on Rumble

The SoulPod on YouTube 

Take the listener survey here

SHOW NOTES

Reading:

Some of the information used in today’s sow are from a Paper by Dr. Maya Spencer, Royal College of Psychiatrics 

Ways to Embrace a Spirtual Awakening are borrowed from Chopra.com:  https://chopra.com/articles/10-signs-of-spiritual-enlightenment-awakening

Quotes:

“Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who've already been there.” – Vine Deloria Jr.

“The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth.” - Marianne Williamson

"Religion, science, and spirituality help us make sense of the world. Life without at least one of them is a lonely and confusing place." - Naval Ravikant 

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."  - Einstein 

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." – Carl Sagan

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” Carl Jung

Transcript

The Native American Theologian and Writer, Vine Deloria Jr. said, 

“Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who've already been there.” 

Welcome to the Soul Podcast, I’m Stacey Wheeler

Maybe you’re having a spiritual awakening. Or you’re actively on your spiritual journey. Maybe neither of those are true for you, but you wonder -just the same… what does it mean to be spiritual? If you’ve had that though, you’re not alone. Eventually we all must consider what the word means to us.

Early in my spiritual awakening and the years that followed, I struggled with the words ‘spiritual’ and ‘spirituality,’ Afterall, what exactly do those words mean? 

And you might be surprised to find, there’s not a lot a lot of agreement on the answer to that question. Even from those who profess to know.

The Oxford dictionary defines Spirituality like this,

“The quality of being concerned with the human spirit or Soul as opposed to material or physical things."

Another definition I found goes a bit further. It says,

“Spirituality involves the recognition of a feeling or sense or belief that there is something greater than ourself, something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are is cosmic or divine in nature.”

The Meriam Webster dictionary makes several grasps at defining the word spiritual. It says spiritual is,

“…of or relating to supernatural beings or phenomena”

“…concerned with religious values”

or

“…of or relating to sacred matters”

So clearly, it’s a slippery word to try and define.

Ask any person what the words spiritual or spirituality means, and you may get different answers. 

Even among people who consider themselves spiritual, the definitions will vary widely

I’ll illustrate that in a moment. 

What I won’t do is attempt to define spirituality for you.  

Instead, I’ll share some things others have said about it and let you decide.

Let’s start with a quote from the Author Marianne Williamson…

“The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on Earth.”

I’ll agree, for me… that’s been a part of my spiritual journey. Let me pause and say, for many (including me) the spiritual journey isn’t something we went looking for. Instead, it was something that evolved as we were trying to make sense of this life. And sometimes, in our search for meaning and truth, or as we’re shedding old fears, projections and (even) prejudices, we can ultimately find our own definition. Or maybe I should say it finds us. There are many ways to find our definition. 

Many philosophers and psychologists have concluded that searching for meaning is what makes life fuller. The podcaster and entrepreneur (Nah-vall) Naval Ravikant said,

"Religion, science, and spirituality help us make sense of the world. Life without at least one of them is a lonely and confusing place." 

And it’s true. We all look for ways to make sense of our place in the world. Throughout history we’ve consistently seen people seeking answers to life through science, religious pursuits and philosophy. Even when one is not of a religious faith, philosophically looking at big questions (like whether there is a god, or gods) helps us develop a personal philosophy on life – even if our conclusion is ‘there is no god,’ pondering the question still has led us to a belief system. So, pondering science, religion and philosophy provides a sense of balance. These categories of thought are legs of a three-legged stool. With less than all three, we can struggle to find balance. 

And frequently, the exploration of these categories leads us to a spiritual state of mind. A quote from Albert Einstein illustrates how this happens. He was a man of scientific mind and by the second half of his life, his scientific exploration led him to see the world with more of a spiritual context. 

He said,

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." 

Is this a veiled way of saying we see the hand of God in the nuances of the world. Perhaps he meant a flower, a moment of human connection… looking into the eyes of a baby. I especially appreciate his choice of the phrase “the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details…” Beauty is all around us when we slow down and open ourselves to it. 

And Einstein is not alone. Many of a scientific mind find a way towards a spiritual mindset. Carl Sagan said,

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." 

And the quote I opened with from Vine Deloria Jr. is one of my favorites on the subject,

“Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who've already been there.” 

This resonates with me because I’ve seen many people start a spiritual journey to recover from something painful in their past. Frequently that’s where the journey begins; when things fall apart. When we can no longer continue down the road we’re on. 

For me it began at a time when I lost my job, my marriage ended, and my uncle died -all withing a handful of weeks. This created the perfect starting place for me to re-evaluate the meaning of my life and to question what I wanted from it. When the pieces of your life fall around you, you’re invited to gather those pieces and reassemble them in a form that makes sense to you. And so, the spiritual journey begins. 

It seems anguish is an ideal launchpad for spiritual growth and self-awareness. The famous therapist Carl Jung bluntly put it this way,

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” 

For me, there was pain at the start, which ignited the desire for change. And there has been pain in the process, as I tore back the layers and asked myself difficult questions of who I was and who I desired to be.  

Self-examination seems to be the place spiritual growth starts. Many have said this in the past 100 years. And Yogi Ramdas, born in 1884 said,

"Study yourself sincerely, it’s a spiritual exploration." 

In the first half of life we accumulate labels. We’re a nationality, we’re a gender, we’re a child an adult, we’re a certain religion, we’re rich, poor, divorced… whatever the label. We must examine it and see how the way we perceive it has affected the way we live our life. By the end of the first half of life, we’ve become the things that happened to us. But there’s beautiful work to be done. When we’re aware of the stories we carry and the stories we tell ourselves, we can challenge those perceived truths and begin to make changes in our lives. 

And maybe it’s at that point some of us realize we’re on a spiritual journey. 

The word spiritual can be slippery to many of us. The word can feel loaded with all sorts of meanings, ideas, images, practices and even emotion. 

In the end, it’s not so complicated. So, today I’d like to try to get to the root of what spirituality is. 

In taking on this topic, I was surprised how much work it took to find a consensus. And I will say now, I didn’t. Spirituality is too personal a thing to easily find one definition that fits for everyone. What I did find is some common agreements to what the elements of a spiritual awakening are. To do this I asked a few dozen people while I was attending the Consciousness Conference in San Diego. The audio is a little rough because I recorded it in open spaces during breaks. 

Here’s what they had to say…

Audio Tracks Play

So, what does spirituality mean for you? How’s it presenting itself in your life? 

There are many signs the world is in a spiritual shift. In my lifetime I’ve seen the word spiritual change in the eyes of the average person. It’s not the punchline it once was for some people. In the 60s and 70s, the idea of seeking your spiritual self was not well-embraced in western societies. Sometimes it was even laughed at. But things have evolved. Here’s a sign. One of the key tools in many psychotherapists toolbox is helping the patient find a level of spirituality. When a patient finds internal balance, external balance becomes easier. (I give Carl Jung the credit for starting that ball rolling). 

Jung understood that finding our spiritual core inside, was incredibly helpful in treating what we’re struggling with on the outside. 

There’s plenty going wrong in the world, but there is also room for hope. Things are changing.

To learn more about the spiritual shift happening in the world today, check out the episodes, Spirituality is Growing and What is the Great Emergence, from January and February, 2024.