by donkey 11 Replies latest jw friends
Many xJWs and others I have encountered in my journey express disdain for religion but they instead refer to having found a spirituality.
What do you mean by this?
Do you mean that instead of seeking fulfillment from life that you have made an inward journey to self discovery? Or do you mean that you have found God by journeying outward?
Which direction did you choose?
How should we define spirtuality? A spiritual person obeys God's word, and lives by his word. A spiritual person will not go against God's spirit. Do you have to belong to one given religion to be spiritual? I don't think so. As long as you put God first in your life, you are spiritual.
A spiritual person would access god directly, if god were available. Yes, it is by going within. What is generally called 'god's word' is found to have very little spirituality within it.
SS
While I acknowledge no god I feel passion and freedom for living. Do I equate this zest with spirituality? Perhaps. In my mind I equate spirituality with freedom. Freedom is more important to me than anything. Freedom gives me the latitude to move. Movement gives me the space to feel and experience life.
For me, an important principle of freedom is detachment. To equate that for Christians: One of the things Jesus supposedly taught was that to find him you had to go through a process of disowning possesions and family. My god is Freedom. To find it I have realized that I need to keep the principle of detachment clear. Detachment is mandatory for us to be free. For as long as we have an attachment to anything, be it a circumstance, our past, a person, an attachment to needs of any type, then we are therefore subservient to that attachment. Does this mean I do not share my love and my life with people who are special to me? No. Would I be saddended if I was to awaken one day and find they were no longer there? Of course. But I would get up. I only have one shot at life, finding happiness and making my own life fulfilled. Others may enrich my life but they do not fulfill it. Fulfillment depends on me, my goals, my effort, my celebration, my reaction, my state and my values.
One can realize that you are attached to something or someone that one feel is in control of your life because one has a need for that. When I feel I need something or someone I have given my power away. Therefore, the only other thing one does know to do is to attempt to control or manipulate that situation or person to provide for one's safety. That requires a tremendous amount of energy. It robs me of the abundance of life because I am then so busy attempting to control the situation or person. It is for each of us to examine how we interact with situations and people.
The only reason one has attachments is because we perceive them to be needs for our safety. Many of our great attachments can be to the past. Many of our great attachments are to past lives that we do not even consciously remember (if you remember the 60's then you weren't there!!). Many of our attachments are also to whatever particular situation seems to providing what we feel gives us a rich and abundant life. If that remains our choice, then we will always be imprisoned by our needs.
Without the burden of attachment I am free to move. I am able to worship freedom!!
Edited by - donkey on 28 November 2002 12:41:11
Didn't Jesus sum up spirituality and happiness at Matt. chapters 5-7?
Guest 77
I had a spiritual experience when I went to the YES concert last tuesday. Seriously. This group has always done that for me.
TR
Donkey, I think there is a very subtle difference between detachment and letting go of attachment. Maybe I'm nit-picking. We humans, by our very nature, become attached to other people, material goods, geographical locations. To let go of the attachment would mean that we could still enjoy being in a particular place, owning certain items, and enjoying certain people. But we'd still recognize that everything is temporary, everything. Everything changes. We are in a state of decay to some degree or other.
From that point, it is possible to let go of an attachment, yet still enjoy whatever it is, and accept when it is gone.
It is hard not to form attachments, but I think at some point if a person is used to letting go of attachments, that it comes natural to not form unnatural attachments to things. By unnatural, I mean pretty much the way we usually do it. It isn't even rational to cling to money or even a tea cup as though our happiness depended on them. But we humans do that pretty consistently.
By becoming detached from things, it seems to me that detachment involves being neutral, which might not be the ideal.
H.S.
I believe spirituality is attractive because you don't have to suspend logic and believe in the supernatural. I would say that even atheists can be spiritual. With spirituality you are the most important key, in religion the religion is the important key. You can have a spiritual connection with nature that doesn't require sky or earth faeries. The most important part of it (my opinion) is that it cannot be argued from you because it only applies to you. So if your spirituality involves a worship of smurfs to bring out the best in yourself then have at it.
So you are saying that if I listen to some really good music. I feel all warm and excited listening to it..This is my spirituality?
Sounds like you are confusing..good feelings ..happy thoughts and nice feelings..with "Spirituality!..
Sounds misdirected to me...not MY idea of spirituality..
I'll have to look that up in the dictionary..Hummmm......
Snoozy....
At the end of the matter inward is outward.
