Too bad there doesn't seem to be a spirituality stand alone forum as the intention in this new topic is to not entertain, indulge nor humor the religious who have chanted "Our way or to hell you go", blah blah... Been there done that myself and i now see them about like the Watch Tower ppl... actually the latter not so annoying even though they are found on lot's of street corners and come knocking on the door periodically attempting to recruit and "save souls"... but i digress... So kicking off the topic with a little definition from Wikipedia. "Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) also known as " Spiritual but not affiliated " (SBNA) is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words religious and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion, but in contemporary usage spirituality has often been associated with the interior life of the individual, placing an emphasis upon the well-being of the "mind-body-spirit",while religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions. (a lot more at the link but you should know if you are one or leaning in that direction) Spiritual but not religious - Wikipedia Last week i discovered Burt Harding, an older fellow in his 80's likely, on youtube and have enjoyed several of his many talks since. Both of us have backgrounds in ACIM "A Course in Miracles" and Eastern thought. He had a vision of a very famous and respected spiritual master from India without knowing who this teacher was at the time... some time later he happened to be in a book store and was amazed to find a photo of the same face in his vision... he bought the book and read several others... Ramana Maharishi (not to be confused with the TM guru Maharishi Mahesh yogi). So this was somewhat of an awakening to the world of "Non-Duality" (there is only The One) which although it may appear to be rooted in Hinduism or Buddhism it really is beyond both and stand alone imo... i had dabbled in it before but found it too vague and sort of depressing, at least the way it was taught. That all changed last week after listening to Burt, his experiences and teachings... So i thought why not kick of the topic with a short video he made last year... Those who have experience in meditation, non-duality, Eastern thought, ACIM,etc. should be able to follow it easily.
Another short one i like... less than 10 min. but contains a lot if wisdom imo. Saddens me to see 99.99% of the population (it seems) going through life and never asking "who am I, really?" they just repeat what their parents, grandparents, etc. did adjusting to the particular age they are living in. Boring to those of us who sense there is more, MUCH MUCH MORE... What do I do to awaken?
define spirituality, what is it? what is it related to, to the human body? (if soul, what is a soul, if spirit, what is a spirit, how is it observed, where is it located, is it tangible?) this seems to be just another word people throw around that doesn't have a real meaning, it just means what you want it to mean at any given time...
Define philosophy for that matter... talk about a never ending word game. lol If you don't already know the things you asked about then i doubt you would be interested in the topic. Words are merely symbols or sign posts for communication... otherwise what comes out of the mouth would still be a lot of grunts like the guy on whatever TV show it was Tool Time.. Words usually fail to paint a picture of that which cannot be seen and rarely felt by most... especially today with nose stuck to the smartphone, WWW & too much information pouring into the already overly stimulated nervous system... The mind isn't all that... it can only process on average 40 bits of communication data per second whereas the body some 4000 bits per second so the so called experts claim... but most all agree that "body language" tells more about a person in seconds than talking to the person for an hour... suffice to say most of this is unconscious and being bounced off the mass of other unconscious programming we all carry... but i digress... Suffice to say the materialist upbringing humans have had for thousands if not millions of years don't teach the subtle energies, astral, causal and other bodies... it's all only physical matter that matters... lol "Don't probe darkness to understand light." Lester Levenson
Lester Levenson was born in the early 1900's. At age 42 after having a heart attack a doctor told him he wouldn't live long, weeks, months if that... he went home and thought about it... what occurred to him as he researched was that loving feelings were healing to the body... emotions are the body's reaction to thoughts... he then set out to change his entire way of perception which expanded and or elevated his consciousness to that of what many say is enlightenment, Self Realized or Awake from the dream of ego-mind-body identification... He lived to around age 84... not bad for a guy who was supposed to die at 42. Some may enjoy a few of the very rare videos of his talks... there are also some free pdf downloads on the net you can find if you google...Here are a couple of videos i enjoyed and am also reading from one of the pdf's... Good Stuff is my humble opinion...