What's a good, concise definition of Spirituality?

[DocWatts]

I've found that most of the definitions you'll come across for this topic are either terse and broad to the point of not being helpful, or overly long winded and specific.

Personal weakness on my part, but I sometimes have trouble taking extremely broad subjects and squeezing them down in to a working definition that's both concise and informative.

Pondering this for a bit, I've come up with two definitions that seem workable, even if I'm not completely happy with either one (also just to lay my biases on the table, I'm approaching this topic from more a secular perspective. A definition that applies to both theists and non theists would be useful). 

(1) Transpersonal development work that aims to develop meaningful ways to integrate our subjective Inner experience within a wider, shared reality.

(2) An intuition that we can develop a more meaningful connection to reality by deconstructing how our mind interfaces with reality, and that this knowledge will help us to live happier, kinder, and more fulfilling lives

[Osaid]

To me, spirituality is the study/realization of metaphysics. Any sort of personal development that comes from it is just a consequence of learning about how reality works.

[John Paul]

Leo has a what is spirituality video if you just want quick insights from a trusted source

[Gili Trawangan]

It's an investigation into Truth.

I have a video about that in my YouTube channel if you want to have a look.

[DocWatts]

17 hours ago, Osaid said:

To me, spirituality is the study/realization of metaphysics. 

Interesting way of framing it. I assume that the realization part is what makes Spirituality distinct from Philosophy, which also deals in metaphysics.

7 hours ago, Gili Trawangan said:

It's an investigation into Truth.

I have a video about that in my YouTube channel if you want to have a look.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Though I never found an 'Investigation in to Truth' to be a useful definition, since there are many ways of Investigating Truth.

Science, philosophy, and the various religious traditions would all make that same claim. Tossing Spirituality in to the mix doesn't specify what makes it distinct; though I recognize it can certainly inform all three.

Edited June 21, 2021 by DocWatts

[Leo Gura]

Consciousness

[Danioover9000]

@DocWatts

22 hours ago, DocWatts said:

I've found that most of the definitions you'll come across for this topic are either terse and broad to the point of not being helpful, or overly long winded and specific.

Personal weakness on my part, but I sometimes have trouble taking extremely broad subjects and squeezing them down in to a working definition that's both concise and informative.

Pondering this for a bit, I've come up with two definitions that seem workable, even if I'm not completely happy with either one (also just to lay my biases on the table, I'm approaching this topic from more a secular perspective. A definition that applies to both theists and non theists would be useful). 

(1) Transpersonal development work that aims to develop meaningful ways to integrate our subjective Inner experience within a wider, shared reality.

(2) An intuition that we can develop a more meaningful connection to reality by deconstructing how our mind interfaces with reality, and that this knowledge will help us to live happier, kinder, and more fulfilling lives

   When one takes extreme ownership of their life, and desire to understanding life and reality deeply. Another is to be willing to sacrifice as much as possible to attain deep knowledge of reality.

    Ultimately though, while it's good to have some explicit start up to understanding spirituality, I feel that the deeper and broader you go, the more implicit and personal the insights get, that at that point definitions are not enough to understand spirit, let alone to communicate to other people. It eventually breaks down into very intimate journeys and ways for each person to explore spirit, such that one person would have a lot of different ways than another person.

[DocWatts]

30 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

@DocWatts

   When one takes extreme ownership of their life, and desire to understanding life and reality deeply. Another is to be willing to sacrifice as much as possible to attain deep knowledge of reality.

    Ultimately though, while it's good to have some explicit start up to understanding spirituality, I feel that the deeper and broader you go, the more implicit and personal the insights get...

For sure. Was thinking about this as not only a way to step back and gain a bit of meta-perspective, but I was also considering how I'd approach the subject in a casual conversation with someone who's not necessarily versed in topics such as epistemology or ontology.

Edited June 21, 2021 by DocWatts

[cigologic]

Practice, work and study that aims to increase ones honesty with ones self about what you actually are and are not.

[diamondpenguin]

Honestly I love Leo's practical videos to death. But these new videos are way too religious. Spirituality is supposed to be like therapeutic. Like this has become religious, like what's up with that? 

[Osaid]

16 hours ago, DocWatts said:

I assume that the realization part is what makes Spirituality distinct from Philosophy, which also deals in metaphysics.

Yes, true, although I wouldn't say philosophy is not spirituality, it's more like a subset of spirituality. It's a part of spirituality, but not the whole thing.

[Willie]

On 6/21/2021 at 2:23 PM, diamondpenguin said:

Honestly I love Leo's practical videos to death. But these new videos are way too religious. Spirituality is supposed to be like therapeutic. Like this has become religious, like what's up with that? 

Is it the fact that he talks about God, or something else?

[Moksha]

Spirituality is the inner journey to directly realize one's ultimate nature.

[Danioover9000]

@diamondpenguin

On 6/21/2021 at 7:23 PM, diamondpenguin said:

Honestly I love Leo's practical videos to death. But these new videos are way too religious. Spirituality is supposed to be like therapeutic. Like this has become religious, like what's up with that? 

   It's only religious if nobody takes any more actions to discover what he's talking about, and not only contemplate spirituality, but do the practices. It's extremely hard for most people to have access to what Leo's using, so the next thing is to contemplate and do practices, along with learning from a lot of sources.

   The bigger danger is not turning this into some ideology, although that can get dangerous, but more so is getting boredom from repeat videos about metaphysical and spiritual topics, including god.   

[diamondpenguin]

2 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

@diamondpenguin

   It's only religious if nobody takes any more actions to discover what he's talking about, and not only contemplate spirituality, but do the practices. It's extremely hard for most people to have access to what Leo's using, so the next thing is to contemplate and do practices, along with learning from a lot of sources.

   The bigger danger is not turning this into some ideology, although that can get dangerous, but more so is getting boredom from repeat videos about metaphysical and spiritual topics, including god.   

Yeah, because he used lots of psychedelics to get there. 

[DocWatts]

2 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

 

...but more so is getting boredom from repeat videos about metaphysical and spiritual topics, including god.  

This. I appreciate (and have enjoyed listening to) his perspective on metaphysical topics, but it's a bit like opening a Ken Wilber book and having to read through yet another lengthy explanation on the Four Quadrants, something that you've read through five times already...

(Though I guess getting compared to Ken Wilber isn't the worst thing in the world )

[DocWatts]

If you'll excuse me for necroing this thread a few weeks later, I thought I might share my thoughts after spending some time contemplating the issue, including the answer I eventually arrived at, which is:

Spirituality is an exploration of the metaphysics of depth.

That's it. The way I'm using Depth here is in the WIlber-ian sense, in that it refers to Interiors (as opposed to Surfaces), or more broadly to differing levels of being or existing (in a Holonic sense).

Edited July 10, 2021 by DocWatts

[Hulk]

Sprituality a way of living from sprit animated by sprit not by matter. 

[ZzzleepingBear]

An inward investigation of will.

While your body holds an certain potential for action. Your mind and spirit holds the means and direction for action to spring to life.

[gettoefl]

On 21/06/2021 at 3:28 PM, Leo Gura said:

Consciousness

yes namely the ins and outs - pun intended - of this whole dream scenario