This term has been tossed around recently with rock-stacking Boulder bros, and Chakra toting yogis, and frankly, I've lost sleep over it. And like most people, the term “spirituality” leaves a sour taste in my mouth. If I may say, it’s almost like comparing it to a challenging cheese you’ve just tasted: there is no explanation for what you’re tasting- or whether you even enjoy the pungent discotek hitting your tastebuds or not- but you’re definitely tasting that certain something. Spirituality: it’s a word in the English vernacular that is slewed in personal meaning and doesn’t encompass a single unit of thought. There really is no unification in meaning, despite the English language’s extensive and exhausting string of words at its disposal. One can argue it’s a sense of spiritual connection with what is a higher deity, or some sort of feeling of “spirituality”. The latter part of the last statement brews in me a fit of Machiavellian anger, as there is nothing more disgusting than a definition of a concept that uses the word being defined in its definition. Truly, the work of English phonics and logic has failed spirituality in the context of meaning, but why? Is there a unification of the meaning of spirituality? Can it truly be defined? If it can, does it grant the permission of those who’ve had a “spiritual” experience to be stripped of it’s meaning once there is an established definition?
Very much like the feeling we experience when we feel something to be beautiful-what we consider spiritual-has proven to be just as hard to pinpoint and describe by those who’ve experienced it and those experiences vary drastically across individuals. Much like defining what makes us feel that something is indeed beautiful, spirituality has the same hurdle in the abstract.
Defining spirituality, in essence, requires a lot of input in existence, experience, and feeling. Spirituality and the way people who’ve experienced it, describe it in ways that they’ve personally experienced it; to some its a feeling, a divine intervention, influence of externalities, the presence of someone or something other than their own being, I mean, the list goes on and on. Regardless of how you interpret it or have personally experienced it, the subjectivity of perception lends itself to the mystery of spirituality itself. Is it a sensation? Catharsis? I mean, how do you feel/experience spirituality? Maybe I’m talking in circles here, but dealing with definitions of personal experiences is much more difficult than what we may imagine. Is it the integral devotion of your desired state of mind? Is it devotion at all? Based on how dynamic human cognition and behaviors are, we can even draw two distinctions in two types of examples in spirituality. Let’s take, for example, Gary Matthews, a 48-year-old male who is convinced he is a dog. You may remember this fella way back in 2014 when he made national news and people were kicking and screaming with laughter at this perceived absurdity. Then, let’s take a look at someone a little different, Sam Harris, who’s life is revolved around reconciling spirituality (through philosophical turbulence) and atheism. While there are many differences between these two people, the spiritual experience is the same. A sort of foundation of being, a perceived and palpable way to navigate our own perception and experience of the human (or I guess dog) condition. Devotion here is present, a devotion to thought, or a devotion to experience and being, both psychological and physiological.
Even besides these two, the way we feel spirituality is or can be incredibly different. What reconciles these two very different individuals? Is one less or more spiritual than the other? Who. defines the quality of a spiritual experience? And if I had an answer, spirituality is the plight and endurance of an individual in finding and deriving a significant meaning in their existence based on exclusively intrinsic means and desires. This is what makes it varied drastically from belief or religion. Spirituality can't be evaluated by anyone except yourself, and that's why it's such a personal, indescribable experience.
Although I try to avoid this term, I find spirituality in the philosophical school of Stoicism, and in intrinsic beauty and aesthetics (like that sexy piece of canvas[s] right above). To me, a spiritual experience coincides largely with my moral compass based on 4 key principles justice, courage, prudence, and self-discipline. Acting in accordance with these values brings me to a path of meaning in mastering my own existence. And a such, to me spirituality is this “thing” which you experience that enables you to incubate the best version of yourself, as to how you see fit based solely and exclusively on intrinsic beliefs and personal desires.
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