SharePeople often say they are spiritual, but what do they mean when they say it? I’m sure the definition varies from person to person (and even within a person; we’re so full of contradictions). Leigh Schmidt has written an essay describing some of the general attributes Americans give to spirituality. The essay says the main attributes are:
- a yearning for mystical experience or epiphanic awareness
- a valuing of silence, solitude, and sustained meditation
- a yearning for mystical experience or epiphanic awarenessa valuing of silence, solitude, and sustained meditation
- a belief in the immanence of the divine in nature and attunement to that presence
- a cosmopolitan appreciation of religious variety, along with a search for unity in diversity
- an ethical earnestness in pursuit of justice-producing, progressive reforms
- an emphasis on self-cultivation, artistic creativity, and adventuresome seeking
Personally, I’d say I tend to approach the world with:
- a yearning for wondrous experiences and truer awareness of the world about me
- a valuing of silence and solitude, and my curiosity
- a yearning to delve the complexity and simplicity of nature and attunement to that
- an appreciation of other’s beliefs, along with an appreciation of how similar and dissimilar such beliefs are
- a desire to not cause harm, and to help
- an emphasis on self-cultivation, artistic creativity, and adventuresome seeking
So, am I spiritual?
