Well, that's one way to live your life...

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: Everyone has something that they want to pursue in life. Spirituality is just one of those things. My own view of spirituality is that it's a mental fabrication. I don't feel an interconnectedness with everything and I never have. By your definition this would make me a flawed individual but I don't really feel that way. My own pursuits are primarily the pursuit of reason and secondarily the pursuit of love. Both of these pursuits are enough to keep me happy and occupied. : Ryan : : Explain it better than anyone else has? That's a bit of a tall order, but I'll do my : : best. : : The Spiritual reality which exists in the universe is not the same as soul or mind, : : but it is part of us. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we are part : : of it. : : We have bodies and personalities, and behind both of those lies spirit. This spirit : : is eternal and exists everywhere in all people. It also exists in other living : : creatures and in matter even at a cellular level, but in these it exists in an : : unconscious way. They are created things which act unconsciously. Man : : however has the capacity to be conscious of this spiritual part of him/herself and : : generally has been until the modern age where we have little recourse to ideas of : : the transcendent or the sacred. : : Religions of course are evolutionary, yet they all and always stress this : : transcendent aspect of man, and provide ways in which s/he can come to know : : that part of themselves, the still centre, which is spirit. All religions identify and : : attest to the existence in man of such a spirit which is also identified with God or : : the Divine Essence. It is stressed in religious philosopy that this spirit is Real, ie. : : that it has Being and autonomous existence, in a way that man living solely by his : : own personality cannot have being. This is not to say that our personalities are : : bad things, they can aid us in coming to the spirit, but we need to be centred in : : the spirit in order for our personalities to be harmonious and for us to be happy : : and have 'the peace that passes understanding'. Cut off from spirit, our : : personalities are full of strife and discontent, but centred in spirit, they become : : redeemed or transformed and become as they should be, part of an undivided : : whole. They are reunited with the source of their existence and made real. : : Religious thinkers have found and suggested a variety of ways that we can work : : towards this uniting with spirit, but have also stressed that it is the work of grace, : : ie. that spirit is all the time trying to fill us with its presence, but that we can : : co-operate more or less with that as we feel inclined. No religion has clarified the : : ways to unite with spirit more than Hinduism which has posited an number of : : different ways or forms of yoga. These are, the way of meditation, the way of : : action, and the way of love. Hindu writers have also made very clear the : : identification of our individual spirit (Atman) and the transcendent, omnipresent : : spirit, (Brahman). You may be wondering if this Spirit is personal or impersonal, : : but the spirit transcends such categories. It contains all things and all things come : : from it, so that of course the personal as we understand it is contained in it, yet it : : also totally transcends the personal as we understand it. In the same way it is : : Good and Loving, yet transcends goodness and love as we are able to : : understand it. We can never fully comprehend that Spirit, yet we can know it, : : not by seeing it as an object would be seen and known about, but by realising it : : in ourselves - a knowing through experience. We all recognise spirit in things that : : are beautiful and good and true and have the capacity to respond to those things : : and focus on them and this can help us to get a sense of that spirit which in itself : : is much harder to convey than to experience.

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