If I had known spirituality for kids when I was a kid I would have gotten more out of life than what I now have. I would have been more happy, more alive, more creative in the first 55 years of my life. As it turned out it is only in the last 10 years of my life that I have more fully enjoyed the things of the Spirit.
If you are still a kid, you are fortunate in being offered here ideas which can certainly make your life more happy, more alive and more creative. If you are no longer a kid you can use the ideas here to help your own children or those of others to learn and enjoy the wonderful spiritual realities.
Spirituality for Kids
Spirituality is that quality of life wherein a person has a direct and beneficial relationship with unseen realities. These unseen realities range from the electrons flowing through our electric wires to the winds in our environment, from the electromagnetic waves passing through our radios, television sets, mobile phones, to the movements of stars beyond our galaxies, from the ideas in our brain to the ideas stored in libraries, magnetic devices and in the cyber world, from the spirits of our ancestors to the all pervading Spirit who fills the universes with his power, wisdom and goodness.
The child, from infancy to the age of eighteen, can have a meaningful and beneficial relationship with these spiritual realities. How to lead a child to this relationship is what I want to share with you in this article. These are only general guidelines.
The Beginning and End of Genuine Spirituality Is Love
The Spirit loves us. That is why he brought us into this world with the life that we have. Some have the life of heavenly bodies, others have the life of stones and minerals, others the life of vegetables, still others the life of animals. We were given the life of human beings. It was love which brought us human life. And love is our end, our final destination, the union of love with this Spirit who brought us into existence.
The child needs to feel that indeed it is love which brought him into this world.
So begin cultivating spirituality for your kid by loving him. Loving a child begins with talking to him from the time he is conceived. Direct thoughts of love to the child in your womb or in the womb of your wife. Say words, even just in your mind, like 'I love you. I will take care of you. I will make sure that you come out of the womb safely'.
Do not think that because the child is only a fetus that it cannot feel the love in your words. The child is already part of the spiritual realities from the time of his conception and is affected by what we think, say or do. Spiritual vibrations are already emanating from us to the child in the womb. And if we listen carefully we can also understand the vibrations from the child to us.
When the child is born you can immediately commend him to the Spirit who permeates this universe. There are churches which dedicate their children to God. Some do this instead of infant baptism. You do not have to wait for the rite of dedication or baptism to commend your child to the all wise, all good and all powerful Spirit. Say something like, 'Eternal Spirit who brought this child into existence, I offer you this child. Let him grow knowing you, learning more and more of your ways, loving you.'
Refer the Needs of Your Child to the Spirit
Provide for the needs of your child the best way you can, always asking the Spirit what is best for him. This applies to the food, clothing, shelter, health and education of the child. If you want to impart a life of spirituality to your child you yourself needs to have a meaningful, constant, and beneficial relationship with the Spirit. Talk with the Spirit about this child. He alone knows what is best for your child.
Teach Your Child to Read and to Love Reading
If there is one thing I owe that is unique to my parents it was their teaching me to read and to lead me to love reading. They were the ones who taught me how to read, so that even before I finished Grade One I already knew how to read and in fact was teaching my classmates how to read.
Reading puts the child in contact with the ideas of other men and women. These ideas come from the Spirit who inspires these ideas in the writers.
Do not rely on the teachers in school to teach your child how to read. If you do this they may grow hating to read because my observation is that most teachers do not know how to teach their pupils to read. Most students grow up reading only what is assigned to them in class. And they do this with unwilling hearts. They prefer to do other things than reading. A spiritual child loves to read and read because through reading he interacts with spiritual realities.
A New Start
I am very fortunate in that last year, 2011, I was given a new child, actually a grandchild, but the mother gave the child to me from the time of birth. And even before birth I accompanied and supported the mother morally and financially in the pre-natal checkups. So I consider him my own direct child.
Now that I know more of spirituality I am able to practice nurturing spirituality in this child. What I wrote here is something that I practice with this child and it is working wonderfully. The child is growing physically and spiritually, that is, in love.
These are some of my general guidelines I am sharing with you so that you too can nurture spirituality for kids. Love them from the beginning of their life in the womb, refer their needs to the Spirit, and teach them to read. They will surely grow as loving children.
Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:
http://bit.ly/devspirit
for your spiritual growth
http://bit.ly/alternativehealth
for your health
http://bit.ly/novotrends
for learning about the new trends around us
http://bit.ly/bepaidonline
for earning some income from the Internet
Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.
Showing posts with label genuine spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genuine spirituality. Show all posts
Leading a Spiritual Life
In an age of spiritual awakening such as we are going through, there are more and more people who are spiritually awakened and they would like to lead a spiritual life. Somehow they are dissatisfied with their present state of life in religion and want something more relevant in their lives. There is a sense of uneasiness and spiritual hunger in their hearts. This is just one of the signs of a spiritual awakening happening right before our very eyes.
People Turn to Spirituality From Religion
The traditional churches are mostly empty in North America and in Europe, places where once religion mightily flourished even to the shedding of blood. Why? Because people are looking for something substantial, something they can truly make use of in these times of exploding information overload.
And rightly they turn to spirituality. And they seek spiritual leaders, men and women who are leading a spiritual life.
This article describes what leading a spiritual life is. Hopefully the reader will realize that this is the kind of life she is searching for. And she will have some ideas how to lead it herself.
By showing what a thing is not, we may be able to easily grasp what it really is.
What Leading a Spiritual Life Is Not
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a religious life. There are many religious people who are not manifestly leading a spiritual life. If you are a Catholic, just observe the many daily church goers, attending Mass every day, whose lives do not show any improvement in the way they deal with people, even with their household help.
If you are a Protestant, observe how many of those who go to a preaching service also go to the midweek prayer sessions. Very few indeed. And still observe those who go to the midweek prayer sessions. Listen carefully to what they speak and how they speak. They do not talk about their Lord but about this and that thing which needs to be done, to be improved, to be changed.
These people are religious indeed, but manifestly not spiritual.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a moral life. A person may be totally morally upright according to human standards and yet not be spiritual. He may observe all the commandments he knows but fail to be spiritual.
The best example I can think of right now of a person who was moral but not spiritual is Immanuel Kant. He was a totally upright man as far as human standards are concerned. He put forth a moral maxim which he faithfully followed and I render it here as: So behave that your action becomes a norm of universal law. This means that if you follow this maxim you are always following moral laws, the best of moral laws, because they are part of the universal law. And Kant just did that. He never hurt anyone, did not bother anyone, and most probably did not also love anyone. He died a bachelor.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a theological life. There are many theologians who day and night ponder over the Bible and their volume upon volume of books. But many of them are not necessarily spiritual. How do I know? You approach them and they begin to talk to you and spin out so many theories related to theology. But they leave your heart empty.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a philanthropic life. You may be giving millions of dollars to the poor or not so poor, but you may not be able to give them your heart.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a healthy life. There are many saints of God who were poor in health but spiritually they were rich.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading an intellectual life. There are many scientists and philosophers who devote their lives to intellectual pursuits, to research work both speculative and practical, but their lives are not necessarily spiritual by this. Some of them do not even respect life. They want to change our life processes by the so-called genetic engineering.
So, if leading a spiritual life is not all this, what is it? In a sense the answer is very simple, and yet it cannot be understood by someone whose mind is not attuned to spiritual reality.
What Leading a Spiritual Life Is
Leading a spiritual life is being concerned with the things of the spirit.
The religious person is concerned with the doctrines, practices and rites of her religion, the moral person is concerned with morality, with living uprightly, the theologian is concerned with the fine points of theology, the philanthropist is concerned with how to distribute his wealth, the health fanatic is concerned with keeping herself young and active, the intellectual elite is concerned with discovering more and more knowledge.
They are all concerned with something that is not necessarily spiritual. But the spiritual person is concerned with the things of the spirit and she leads her life accordingly.
And what are the things of the spirit? Basically it is loving the self and others as they ought to be loved, to care for them, to have compassion for them. This is easily said than done.
So simple and yet so impossible to do, because we have a fallen nature. Fallen nature simply means that we are naturally concerned about ourselves than others. Perhaps too overly concerned about ourselves. We are pre-occupied with our Ego in capital letters.
That is why we need a guide to lead us out of ourselves to the needs of others. Because even the most fundamental needs of others we cannot know unless the eyes of the spirit are opened: the need to love and be loved. But those who are willing to lead a spiritual life are now ready to wake up spiritually.
People Turn to Spirituality From Religion
The traditional churches are mostly empty in North America and in Europe, places where once religion mightily flourished even to the shedding of blood. Why? Because people are looking for something substantial, something they can truly make use of in these times of exploding information overload.
And rightly they turn to spirituality. And they seek spiritual leaders, men and women who are leading a spiritual life.
This article describes what leading a spiritual life is. Hopefully the reader will realize that this is the kind of life she is searching for. And she will have some ideas how to lead it herself.
By showing what a thing is not, we may be able to easily grasp what it really is.
What Leading a Spiritual Life Is Not
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a religious life. There are many religious people who are not manifestly leading a spiritual life. If you are a Catholic, just observe the many daily church goers, attending Mass every day, whose lives do not show any improvement in the way they deal with people, even with their household help.
If you are a Protestant, observe how many of those who go to a preaching service also go to the midweek prayer sessions. Very few indeed. And still observe those who go to the midweek prayer sessions. Listen carefully to what they speak and how they speak. They do not talk about their Lord but about this and that thing which needs to be done, to be improved, to be changed.
These people are religious indeed, but manifestly not spiritual.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a moral life. A person may be totally morally upright according to human standards and yet not be spiritual. He may observe all the commandments he knows but fail to be spiritual.
The best example I can think of right now of a person who was moral but not spiritual is Immanuel Kant. He was a totally upright man as far as human standards are concerned. He put forth a moral maxim which he faithfully followed and I render it here as: So behave that your action becomes a norm of universal law. This means that if you follow this maxim you are always following moral laws, the best of moral laws, because they are part of the universal law. And Kant just did that. He never hurt anyone, did not bother anyone, and most probably did not also love anyone. He died a bachelor.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a theological life. There are many theologians who day and night ponder over the Bible and their volume upon volume of books. But many of them are not necessarily spiritual. How do I know? You approach them and they begin to talk to you and spin out so many theories related to theology. But they leave your heart empty.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a philanthropic life. You may be giving millions of dollars to the poor or not so poor, but you may not be able to give them your heart.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading a healthy life. There are many saints of God who were poor in health but spiritually they were rich.
Leading a spiritual life is not the same as leading an intellectual life. There are many scientists and philosophers who devote their lives to intellectual pursuits, to research work both speculative and practical, but their lives are not necessarily spiritual by this. Some of them do not even respect life. They want to change our life processes by the so-called genetic engineering.
So, if leading a spiritual life is not all this, what is it? In a sense the answer is very simple, and yet it cannot be understood by someone whose mind is not attuned to spiritual reality.
What Leading a Spiritual Life Is
Leading a spiritual life is being concerned with the things of the spirit.
The religious person is concerned with the doctrines, practices and rites of her religion, the moral person is concerned with morality, with living uprightly, the theologian is concerned with the fine points of theology, the philanthropist is concerned with how to distribute his wealth, the health fanatic is concerned with keeping herself young and active, the intellectual elite is concerned with discovering more and more knowledge.
They are all concerned with something that is not necessarily spiritual. But the spiritual person is concerned with the things of the spirit and she leads her life accordingly.
And what are the things of the spirit? Basically it is loving the self and others as they ought to be loved, to care for them, to have compassion for them. This is easily said than done.
So simple and yet so impossible to do, because we have a fallen nature. Fallen nature simply means that we are naturally concerned about ourselves than others. Perhaps too overly concerned about ourselves. We are pre-occupied with our Ego in capital letters.
That is why we need a guide to lead us out of ourselves to the needs of others. Because even the most fundamental needs of others we cannot know unless the eyes of the spirit are opened: the need to love and be loved. But those who are willing to lead a spiritual life are now ready to wake up spiritually.
Click Here!
Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:
http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth
http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health
http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us
http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet
Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.
How to Enjoy God
Genuine spirituality enables us to enjoy God and enjoy things as they are in God.
We enjoy things. We enjoy doing things. We enjoy a cup of ice cream. We enjoy eating it. We enjoy seeing a beautiful sunset. We enjoy listening to good music. We enjoy the presence of a dear friend.
If these things, persons, activities are so enjoyable, their source must also be enjoyable, most probably in a greater degree.
If the ultimate source of all these things, persons, activities is God as Creator and Father, then God must also be enjoyable.
And if God willed that we enjoy these things, persons, and activities, He also wanted that we enjoy Him.
How then can we enjoy God? I have outlined 4 simple steps which we can take in order that we can enjoy God.
Definite Place, Definite Time
First is: Assign a definite, regular time and place for this activity, enjoying God, in your daily routine. It may be in the morning, noon, afternoon, or evening, whichever is most convenient for you. For the place, it may be in your bedroom, your office, or the transportation as you go to your work or in a garden outside your house. The duration of the time need not be long. Ten minutes will do as a starting duration. What is important is that during this time you are not disturbed.
And it is a regular time, not done sometimes in the morning, at other times in the afternoon, or evening. Of course, there may be emergencies when the regularity cannot be observed. But excepting these emergencies the time for this is fixed and regular, every day.
Awareness of God's Presence in and Around You
Second. Begin your time by being aware of God's presence in you and everything around you. Do not say, as some would begin their prayer, that now you put yourself in the presence of God. You do not need to put yourself in the presence of God. You are already there.
Be aware of God's presence in your body, in every part of your body, in your thoughts, in the words you may speak or read, in your activities, your breathing, your seeing, etc.
Then be aware of God's presence in the persons and/or things around you: the furniture, the trees, the grass, the part of the car, the persons around in the house, etc.
At this point you may ask, How do you think of God, as an old man with a beard, or as a young child with a staff, as a being surrounded by clouds, or as Pure Energy?
I suggest that you think of God simply as a Presence, not as a man whether old or young, not as an object, not as a force, but simply as Presence, He who is present in you and in everything around you. He is the Presence in every cell of your body, in every idea of your mind, in every desire of your heart.
It may also help you to recall His names in the religion to which you belong.
In the Christian Bible He is called the God of Abraham, the "I am" of Moses, the Lord God of Hosts of Elijah. There are other names.
If you are a Muslim you may dwell on one or two of the 99 names of God, Allah, like the Most Compassionate One, etc.
If you are a Hindu you may want to think of the names of God in the Hindu Scriptures, Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva.
If you are a Buddhist you may want to recall the Light that enlightens the Buddha, the Enlightened One.
Genuine spirituality does not discriminate among the different concepts and names of God. It knows that the reality of God cannot be grasped by concepts, ideas or names.
Whatever concept you have of God think of Him as the ever present Presence in you and all around you.
Converse With God About Anything That Comes to Your Mind
Third. Talk with this Presence, converse with Him. What do you talk about? Just about anything that comes to your mind. Thank Him for being there, for creating you and sustaining you. Praise Him for His goodness. Then tell Him about your needs and the needs of others. Thank Him for the opportunity to enjoy Him, His company.
If a tragedy has stricken your life ask Him why He has permitted such a tragedy when He is so good, so wise and so powerful. You may also ask Him what to do when tragedy strikes. Be aware that He is still there, even in the tragedy.
Do not expect an immediate answer from a voice whose sound you cannot see which direction it comes from. If you keep your mind open He will speak to your mind in a language only He and you can understand.
If you are sick, be aware that there too He is present, in your sickness, in the medicines prescribed for you, in the activities suggested to you by your therapist, whether it is stretching your hand or taking a walk, in the health care staff, the doctors, the nurses, the attendants. Talk to this Presence about your sickness. Ask for healing if it is His will.
You may also tell this Presence about your faults, failures and shortcomings, even your sins. And hope for His pardon for He is a Most Compassionate and Most Forgiving Presence.
Just talk to Him about anything that comes to your mind. Even of your desires, your ambition in life, etc. As you talk with Him you will enjoy Him as a dear friend. Your burdens will become lighter and your joys will become more intense.
And during the day when you have some free time, like taking a cup of coffee by yourself, return to this activity even if just for a minute or two. Think of God's presence in the coffee, in your sipping of it, in the cup, etc.
Let This Activity Inspire All Your Other Activities
Fourth. Do not put parentheses around this activity. What I mean is that do not do it and after the time you assigned to this, you forget it and you go to your work. Putting parentheses around this activity would separate it from the normal flow of your daily routine. As you leave the time and place, continue to think about these things as much as possible. Like, say to yourself, I am now going to my work and this Presence is still there in my work, in the pen and paper before me, in the computer in front of me, etc.
In this way the Presence permeates your whole day and this activity of being aware of the Presence becomes habitual. Gradually it becomes part of your system. You begin to enjoy the activity itself of devoting a definite time and place for this.
As you continue this activity you will find life more enjoyable, or more bearable if you are in the midst of great problems.
What To Do When This Activity Seems Meaningless
A caution is in order. Sometime in the course of such an activity, if you are faithful to it, there will come a time when you do not feel God's presence. In fact you may even feel that He is totally absent. The whole activity may seem meaningless to you. You may feel that you simply drag yourself, as it were, to this activity.
Do not despair. Do not force yourself to do this activity. Just keep rested. Do not even force yourself to think about it. Do not force your mind to think about this Presence. He is still there, despite your feelings to the contrary, because He is the Ever Present One. You may not feel His presence because He is going into your deepest center to transform you into Himself, just as you do not feel the activities, the heavings and convulsions, of the lava in the depths of the earth.
You Can See God Face to Face Now
If you are faithful to this activity the Presence will make Himself more and more enjoyed by you. It is even possible that He makes you see Him face to face while you are still on earth, of course not with your physical eyes, but with the eyes of your spirit. There is nothing more enjoyable on earth than to see God face to face with the eyes of your spirit. This is the goal of genuine spirituality.
We enjoy things. We enjoy doing things. We enjoy a cup of ice cream. We enjoy eating it. We enjoy seeing a beautiful sunset. We enjoy listening to good music. We enjoy the presence of a dear friend.
If these things, persons, activities are so enjoyable, their source must also be enjoyable, most probably in a greater degree.
If the ultimate source of all these things, persons, activities is God as Creator and Father, then God must also be enjoyable.
And if God willed that we enjoy these things, persons, and activities, He also wanted that we enjoy Him.
How then can we enjoy God? I have outlined 4 simple steps which we can take in order that we can enjoy God.
Definite Place, Definite Time
First is: Assign a definite, regular time and place for this activity, enjoying God, in your daily routine. It may be in the morning, noon, afternoon, or evening, whichever is most convenient for you. For the place, it may be in your bedroom, your office, or the transportation as you go to your work or in a garden outside your house. The duration of the time need not be long. Ten minutes will do as a starting duration. What is important is that during this time you are not disturbed.
And it is a regular time, not done sometimes in the morning, at other times in the afternoon, or evening. Of course, there may be emergencies when the regularity cannot be observed. But excepting these emergencies the time for this is fixed and regular, every day.
Awareness of God's Presence in and Around You
Second. Begin your time by being aware of God's presence in you and everything around you. Do not say, as some would begin their prayer, that now you put yourself in the presence of God. You do not need to put yourself in the presence of God. You are already there.
Be aware of God's presence in your body, in every part of your body, in your thoughts, in the words you may speak or read, in your activities, your breathing, your seeing, etc.
Then be aware of God's presence in the persons and/or things around you: the furniture, the trees, the grass, the part of the car, the persons around in the house, etc.
At this point you may ask, How do you think of God, as an old man with a beard, or as a young child with a staff, as a being surrounded by clouds, or as Pure Energy?
I suggest that you think of God simply as a Presence, not as a man whether old or young, not as an object, not as a force, but simply as Presence, He who is present in you and in everything around you. He is the Presence in every cell of your body, in every idea of your mind, in every desire of your heart.
It may also help you to recall His names in the religion to which you belong.
In the Christian Bible He is called the God of Abraham, the "I am" of Moses, the Lord God of Hosts of Elijah. There are other names.
If you are a Muslim you may dwell on one or two of the 99 names of God, Allah, like the Most Compassionate One, etc.
If you are a Hindu you may want to think of the names of God in the Hindu Scriptures, Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva.
If you are a Buddhist you may want to recall the Light that enlightens the Buddha, the Enlightened One.
Genuine spirituality does not discriminate among the different concepts and names of God. It knows that the reality of God cannot be grasped by concepts, ideas or names.
Whatever concept you have of God think of Him as the ever present Presence in you and all around you.
Converse With God About Anything That Comes to Your Mind
Third. Talk with this Presence, converse with Him. What do you talk about? Just about anything that comes to your mind. Thank Him for being there, for creating you and sustaining you. Praise Him for His goodness. Then tell Him about your needs and the needs of others. Thank Him for the opportunity to enjoy Him, His company.
If a tragedy has stricken your life ask Him why He has permitted such a tragedy when He is so good, so wise and so powerful. You may also ask Him what to do when tragedy strikes. Be aware that He is still there, even in the tragedy.
Do not expect an immediate answer from a voice whose sound you cannot see which direction it comes from. If you keep your mind open He will speak to your mind in a language only He and you can understand.
If you are sick, be aware that there too He is present, in your sickness, in the medicines prescribed for you, in the activities suggested to you by your therapist, whether it is stretching your hand or taking a walk, in the health care staff, the doctors, the nurses, the attendants. Talk to this Presence about your sickness. Ask for healing if it is His will.
You may also tell this Presence about your faults, failures and shortcomings, even your sins. And hope for His pardon for He is a Most Compassionate and Most Forgiving Presence.
Just talk to Him about anything that comes to your mind. Even of your desires, your ambition in life, etc. As you talk with Him you will enjoy Him as a dear friend. Your burdens will become lighter and your joys will become more intense.
And during the day when you have some free time, like taking a cup of coffee by yourself, return to this activity even if just for a minute or two. Think of God's presence in the coffee, in your sipping of it, in the cup, etc.
Let This Activity Inspire All Your Other Activities
Fourth. Do not put parentheses around this activity. What I mean is that do not do it and after the time you assigned to this, you forget it and you go to your work. Putting parentheses around this activity would separate it from the normal flow of your daily routine. As you leave the time and place, continue to think about these things as much as possible. Like, say to yourself, I am now going to my work and this Presence is still there in my work, in the pen and paper before me, in the computer in front of me, etc.
In this way the Presence permeates your whole day and this activity of being aware of the Presence becomes habitual. Gradually it becomes part of your system. You begin to enjoy the activity itself of devoting a definite time and place for this.
As you continue this activity you will find life more enjoyable, or more bearable if you are in the midst of great problems.
What To Do When This Activity Seems Meaningless
A caution is in order. Sometime in the course of such an activity, if you are faithful to it, there will come a time when you do not feel God's presence. In fact you may even feel that He is totally absent. The whole activity may seem meaningless to you. You may feel that you simply drag yourself, as it were, to this activity.
Do not despair. Do not force yourself to do this activity. Just keep rested. Do not even force yourself to think about it. Do not force your mind to think about this Presence. He is still there, despite your feelings to the contrary, because He is the Ever Present One. You may not feel His presence because He is going into your deepest center to transform you into Himself, just as you do not feel the activities, the heavings and convulsions, of the lava in the depths of the earth.
You Can See God Face to Face Now
If you are faithful to this activity the Presence will make Himself more and more enjoyed by you. It is even possible that He makes you see Him face to face while you are still on earth, of course not with your physical eyes, but with the eyes of your spirit. There is nothing more enjoyable on earth than to see God face to face with the eyes of your spirit. This is the goal of genuine spirituality.
Click Here!
Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:
http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth
http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health
http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us
http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet
Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.
The Meaning of Genuine Spirituality in Life
This is now the second post on the article of Dr. Gianni Zappalà. Again the title of this article is “Spirituality is the new black …and it has social impact!” Its source URL is http://www.csi.edu.au/uploads/31642/ufiles/CSI%20Background%20Paper%20No%201%20-%20Spirituality%20is%20the%20new%20black%20-%20Part%20I.pdf
If you want to read the whole article, please click that URL.Again as in the previous post, the words written by Dr. Zappala are in italics. My reflection follows after the section in Dr. Zapalla’s article.
What is this thing called spirituality?
It may seem like a futile exercise to attempt to define something that is different and personal for everyone. The concept or definition of spirituality in part eludes many in the social sciences because of its ‘fuzzy’ nature and a lack of consensus on what it means. As with many such concepts, we often intuitively know what we mean by them even though we struggle with trying to logically define them. As David Hay observed of the experience he and his colleagues had on embarking on an empirical study of spirituality:
[T]he variety of opinions that emerged [among academics who were knowledgeable of the subject] simply increased our confusion, but something interesting did emerge from this apparent failure. Everybody agreed that whilst pinning spirituality down to an agreed definition seemed impossible, they were able to recognize it when they came face to face with it. 13
The following small selection of definitions of spirituality gives a flavor of how social scientists, many of whom are writing about spirituality and business and/or organizations and/or workplace understand the concept:
• Spirituality is ‘the careful and reflective art of developing a relationship with the sacred’. 14
• Spirituality is the ‘basic desire to find ultimate meaning and purpose in one’s life and to live an integrated life.’ 15
• Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things…an idea or practice is “spiritual” when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life..16
• Spirituality is a concern ‘with our deepest sense of meaning, purpose and interconnectedness with one another and the earth we live on.’17
• The spiritual in human beings makes us ask why we are doing what we are doing and makes us seek some fundamentally better way of doing it. It makes us want our lives and enterprises to make a difference. [emphasis in original]. 18
• ‘Spirituality has to do with the paths people take in their efforts to find, conserve, and transform the sacred in their lives.’ 19
13 Hay, op.cit. p.130
14 David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution,Sydney: Harper Collins, 2003, p.28
15 II Mitroff & EA Denton, A spiritual audit of corporate America: A hard look at spirituality, religion and values in the workplace, San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999, p.xiv
16 Robert C Fuller, Spiritual, but not Religious, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
17 Tim Costello, „Spirituality and love at work. in C. Barker and A Payne (eds) love @ work, Qld: John Wiley & Sons/Australian
Institute of Management. 2006, p.212
18 Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital – Wealth we can live by, London: Bloomsbury, 2004, p.29
19 Brian J Zinnbauer, Kenneth Pargament & Allie B Scott, „The emerging meanings of Religiousness and Spirituality: Problems
and prospects., Journal of Personality, 67(6), p.909
Here now is my own reflection on this section:
My first comment on this section of Dr. Zappala’s article is that I am happy that now social scientists are embarking on an “empirical study of spirituality.” This implies that social scientists now acknowledge that spirituality can be studied empirically, just like any other social phenomena. Because of this spirituality has a new meaning for all of us. Where before it was the area of theologians and mystics, now it is an area of sociologists. It has more than a theological meaning, spirituality now has a sociological meaning.
That is why “pinning spirituality down to an agreed definition seemed impossible”, as we read in the article. This is because it has become a very rich concept with its entrance into the social sciences. It has become like the elephant to the perception of 7 blind men: one thought it was a tree branch, another thought it was a hand fan, etc.
But despite their disagreement on its definition, the social scientists agree that they recognize what it is when they come face to face with it. In other words, the meaning of spirituality can be grasped intuitively, if not logically.
The elements in their definition are: art, relationship, sacred, ultimate meaning, integrated life, beyond our selves.
First, genuine spirituality is an art. It is not a science. It is something that we practice, not something that we read about and forget, like the characters in a book. It is something that cuts into our personality. It is something that we are supposed to foster every day, otherwise we lose it, like the skill of painting.
Secondly, genuine spirituality has to do with a relationship with others, beyond ourselves. It is not delving into ourselves and losing track of the time and place we are in. It is not thinking of the I, me and mine. Spirituality is a relating with others.
Thirdly, this relating is open to the sacred, that dimension of our life which is beyond our mundane world. Here we acknowledge that there is a reality other than that which is seen by our eyes and perceived by other senses and deduced to by our reason.
Fourthly, genuine spirituality has to do with the ultimate meaning of our life, not just with our present needs and desires. There is something more to than just eating, drinking, and enjoying the present turn of events. Life has a grander purpose than just the enjoyment of pleasure.
Fifthly, genuine spirituality integrates our life. It makes us whole. In other words, spirituality is a unifying factor in our life. It unifies the many elements of our life: the physical, the material, the mental, the psychic, the financial, the ups and downs of our life.
These are the elements of a genuine spirituality and this is from the viewpoint, not of priests, pastors, religious people and theologians, but from the viewpoint of social scientists.
My last comment is that now social scientists can spot spirituality when it appears and they can distinguish the genuine one from the fake. Hopefully the social scientist can spot the genuinely spiritual person from the fake one.
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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:
http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth
http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health
http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us
http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet
Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.
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