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Originally posted by Angle
reply to post by STARTRUTH49
There is no mass consciousness, or you must mean the mass outside of the mass. Mass consciousness, there do exist people who think for their own in this world.
Why must we go beyond that in our search? Why must we look further forward or backwards, beyond the scope of our lives to find reasons for them?
spirit derives from ancient words that can mean either wind, breath, AND spirit.
Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
reply to post by BlueMule
No it isn't. The foundation of spirituality is the mystical experiences of people like Jesus, Lau Tzu, The Prophet Muhammad, Moses, etc.
The laws of logic are the laws of our everyday consciousness and experience... they have no application to mystical experiences which are beyond everyday consciousness and experience, beyond ideas, beyond words, beyond logic, beyond definitions.
But not beyond experiencing.
That One which is beyond all thought is inconceivable by all thought -Dionysius the Areopagite
That Oneness is on the other side of descriptions and states. Nothing but duality enters speech's playing-field -Rumi
Nonsense. That is the foundation of religion—the repudiation of spirituality, the antithesis of spirituality, denial of spirituality. I mentioned the etymology of the words "spirit" and "spirituality" mean "to breathe". Life is the roots from which the tree of spirituality grows. If you can refute the etymology of spirit, you could refute my arguments.
To be spiritual, one must be alive. How does "to breathe" translate to mystical experiences? Correct; it doesn't—at least not until religion has had its perverse way with the concept, having convinced the religiously motivated and credulous otherwise. One must first be breathing and living and animated before he can have a mystical experience.
In modern times "spirituality" has acquired a new meaning. It still denotes a process of transformation, but is often seen as separate from religious institutions, as "spiritual but not religious." [5] Spirituality has come to mean the internal experience of theindividual. According to Yuk-Lin Renita Wong and Jana Vinsky, religion represents the organized aspect, the institutions which press people into a mold.[5] Dick Houtman and Stef Aupers write that modern spirituality blends humanistic psychology with mystical and esoteric traditions and eastern religions.[6]
Social scientists have defined spirituality as the search for "the sacred," where "the sacred" is broadly defined as that which is set apart from the ordinary and worthy of veneration, for example "a transcendent dimension":
[...] a transcendent dimension within human experience [...] discovered in moments in which the individual questions the meaning of personal existence and attempts to place the self within a broader ontological context.[10]
Spirituality can be sought not only through traditional organized religions, but also through movements such as the feminist theology and green politics. Spirituality is also now associated with mental health, managing substance abuse, maritalfunctioning, parenting, and coping. It has been suggested that spirituality also leads to finding purpose and meaning in life.[3]
When we assert, dear reader, that this life is merely temporary, our bodies are prisons, the flesh is without value, this existence isn't real and we should instead focus on the salvation of some inner and immortal idea, we are not in the least bit being spiritual, but anti-life, and anti-spiritual.
To me antispiritual would be being convinced there is nothing beyond this physical world, to go out and seek those who are convinced there is and trying to change them into believing there is nothing else.