Are You Spiritual?

[jumnien]

The Dalai Lama said:

I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality. Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of meta-physical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hel_l. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on. Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit--such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.

I'm not really sure that mindfulness concerns itself with anything other than spirituality as defined by the Dalai Lama.

[sabaijai]

The Dalai Lama said:

I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality. Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of meta-physical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hel_l. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on. Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit--such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.

I'm not really sure that mindfulness concerns itself with anything other than spirituality as defined by the Dalai Lama.

Not to slight the Dalai Lama, but one could argue that the same shopping list (patience, tolerance, etc) is also evoked by religions and their holy books.

Likewise metaphysical belief and philosophical reality can apply to ontologies that have nothing directly specific to do with religion (eg, Platonian philosophy). So to make a distinction between religion and spirituality based on attributes claimed by a wide variety of human conceptualisations, including secular humanism, doesn't really lead us to any particular conclusion about spirituality, does it?

In the end 'spiritual' just seems like another term for 'religious', or at least there is substantial overlap between the two concepts. I find both terms to be of little use in applying to one's own condition, though they may be useful in describing cultures or judging another person's outward behaviour.

With regard to Buddhism, the concept may have more relevance to Vajrayana Buddhism, which posits transmigration of soul or spirit. In Theravada and Zen Buddhism, to speak of spirituality begs the question, 'What is spirit?' (or 'Who are you?' in more Zennist terms ).