I just read the current resurrected thread on spirituality and thought I would throw this out for those who are interested, and w/out hi-jacking the other thread! I attended a class yesterday and received this handout on the subject:
SPIRITUALITY.......
"The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everybody should follow one path. Listen to your own truth." .....Ram Dass
"The longest journey of any person is the journey inward."...Unknown
"Spirituality is coming alive with joy and the final value of all spirituality, however sourced or named, is what we are and what we do."....Unknown
"Spirituality is the opening of the self at its deepest level to God, a centering of the self in the God in whom we live and move and have our being."...Marcus Borg
"Spirituality is the way we orient ourselves toward the Divine. It is the way we make meaning out of our lives. It is the recognition of the presence of Spirit within us and the cultivation of a style of life consistent with that presence. Spirituality provides a perspective to foster purpose, meaning, and direction to life. It may find expressions through religion but is not religion."...12 Step Recovery
"Having to do with deep, often religious, feeling and beliefs, including a person's sense of peace, purpose, connection to others, and beliefs about the meaning of life."...Nat'l Cancer Institute
"....perhaps spiritual is that which opens our hearts, minds, being, and communities to take the chance of being ourselves for the sake of all the world."...Robert Whalley
"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or of acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both."....Carl Sagan
One of the presenters in the class made the comment of how spirituality is NOT morality, psycology nor religion. In fact, she said, religion can often detract from ones spirituality! I wanted to stand up and cheer in agreement!! Its so nice to be finding my own spirituality once again after so many years of just being religious!!
bythesea
