What is Spirituality? Spirituality | Religion PART- 1/2

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This post is about understanding spirituality in a little-detailed manner and at the end will discuss Religion vs Spirituality. This post may have more than 1 part upcoming.

Introduction:

To adopt a spiritual life, it is important to understand the concept of spirituality for anyone because if your basic concepts are not clear, you may with a great chance astray from the right path. Spirituality in the simplest term focuses on the well being of the human spirit/soul/mind/essence/consciousness (say whatever). It is a process to know yourself beyond body and mind and to build and grow yourself inwardly. Most of the people are very focused on developing their materialistic assets and achievements like career, academic success, relationships, items, physical body care and concerns etc. but, we forget to be concerned about the development and growth of our spirit/soul/essence/mind/consciousness say whatever. Now, what does that mean?

There are two major concerns of human existence which are:

1.  Materialistic Concerns
2. Spiritual Concerns

To understand Spirituality, We must dig deeper to understand the materialistic side of the life so let us begin.

Materialistic Concerns of Human Existence:

                                                        Image source: Google; NJlifehacks

The term in itself gives a hint about what is the meaning of materialistic concerns so we will discuss a few things in this category but first, let us know what does being materialistic means.

• Materialism means that the focus and concern of an individual as a priority is based upon material possessions and physical comforts gained through any material possessions and do not concern much about the spiritual assets and values.
• Material refers to anything that is physical and is temporary, subject to cease one day and not permanent in possession for example Money, People, Cars, Objects etc. are all material items. Anything that is made up of the dense matter is material while the vibrations of the spiritual matter is very light and subtle in nature in comparison to the material matter.
• Any being having material attachments and desires is known as a materialistic being. Having too much of materialistic nature of a being is near to the dead end of the spiritual growth.
• It is not a bad thing to be a material person as after all it also includes our basic need. As long as a healthy balance is made between the spiritual and material self, everything should be good.

We must understand spirituality is the inner growth and knowing your inner system so, people don't have to be religious to practice spirituality as Buddha once said 'Be your own lamp.' Spirituality is just a tag, you also don't necessarily need to label yourself if you don't wish to as long as you are growing, enhancing and knowing yourself inwardly, your qualities, strengths, weaknesses, traits, mental capabilities etc. 

Materialism leads to sufferings of life on the surface but, in reality, materialism is a way for suffering to manifest and arise because we have no spiritual development that allows us to effectively deal with the sufferings arising based on the material conditions thus, our resilience is low. Let us understand it through an example:

A person's lover dies or someone's huge business is ruined and closed, perhaps someone is poor or maybe someone had a recent breakup, someone failed in exams or someone is jobless...

conditions can be very diverse and endless.

These conditions are definitely going to put a heavy negative impact on our mind and life. Now depending on the concerns of materialism or spirituality, I'll try to explain the reactions of people in these situations as:

1. A very dedicated spiritual person is more likely to have no effect on it of any sufferings arising due to material conditions because the person acknowledges the impermanent nature of materialism. The spiritual person also focuses on how to deal with the situation and what action should be taken without being much upset. Such people calmly handle the situation because of the understanding that being upset is going to solve nothing but will raise more obstacles. They have extremely high resilience and acceptance.
2. Someone of a progressive spiritual growth is going to be upset for a short span of time, however, the person will definitely try to handle itself by its acceptance, understanding of life and better resilience skills.
3. Someone belonging to a category of a normal spiritual nature infused with materialistic concerns and responsibilities will have a high negative impact on their lives and will be upset for a little longer time but, will eventually accept the situation and will move on.
4. Someone with a high materialistic approach and a near no or very limited and small touch of spirituality in life-based on their religious values and morals are going to have a longer negative effect of material sufferings and loss.
5. Someone with the extremely high material approach is going to ruin itself if such material loss and suffering occurs, people are unable to grasp the fact that they have lost something and couldn't bear the effects of suffering leading to various mental problems and even death in some cases.

Of course, it's not the perfect explanation but it is my better try to explain the concept and importance of spirituality. I have not explained Spirituality in this post yet as I am covering the basic concept of materialism.

People too concerned about their beauty shall strive and put efforts to hold it but one day it will fade. People try to build this body heavy, no doubt will be healthy physically which is good but without mental health and strength, physical strength is useless and health won't last for long. 

One of the questions I am asked is that if it's alright to go to the Gym? work on this body?

I say it's fine, as my friend once told me that at least he will die strong.. even though life is unpredictable, giving your best is something worth doing, however, If this physical body could alone win the world, I believe the elephants and bulls should be ruling the world by now.

One must understand that working on the body is alright but more important is to work on the mind to have a good quality of life because happiness comes from within. You can choose to be temporarily happy by depending on material assets for your happiness or you can create happiness regardless of what you do.

Point is simple, no one is telling you to not be material until it's your own choice. Go to the gym, look beautiful, earn money, build a career do whatever good you want to do but as you are putting efforts to grow your material self, you should put equal efforts in developing your spiritual self and only then you'll know about which is a better concern for a human, Materialistic or Spiritual.

We regularly hear news about how dissatisfied some rich people are with their lives and how some rich people leave their everything to be spiritual and find permanent happiness and good life. Well, until you have experienced too much the bitter reality of this material world in relation to the defilements of your mind, such spiritual tenancy is hard to attain as there are only 2 major ways in my eyes by which you can wish to be a spiritual person.

1. Life has taught you so much by experiences that you are now willing to find a relief from the Material world.
2. You are naturally interested or are conditioned by early childhood by elders and have capacity and tendency to learn by seeing the reality and conditions of other people by your insight and understanding due to the virtues and good merits of the past.

People believe that only after the person has suffered the consequence of their previous bad actions/karma, the good merits allow a person to be more spiritual and understand the deeper truths of life in order to be free from the cycles of life, death, sufferings, and impermanent existence. 

No matter what the philosophies say, This is vital to understand that everyone is spiritual by nature but suppress their spiritual nature due to their materialistic desires, conditioning and social and environmental factors.

I will be explaining more about it in the 2nd part of my next Blog. CLICK HERE for PART 2

If you have any questions, you can ask me and I will answer your queries.
CLICK HERE to also Read: Who is a Spiritual Person and How to be one.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your time to read my blog post.

Have a Good Day!

Anup Thakur 

Disclaimer: Post does not mean to hurt or harm any group, person, culture etc. All the content that is written above is a direct knowledge I have obtained through years of Spiritual experience through meditation and other practices including my academic study. All personal development advice and information is provided as-is and may not suit your specific circumstances. It may also contain errors or omissions. Neither I Anup Thakur nor this blog website is liable in any way for any potential damages that may be incurred from this information. By reading these pieces of advice you agree to take 100% responsibility for your life! Content is subject to Copyright. © 

I do not own the images used in this post, contact if have any copyright issue.