Intro
This piece is an attempt to clarify my thinking around observing the increasingly common category of people (of which I include myself) who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” It's not surprising given Western cultural history and the transition away from religion towards a scientific secular worldview. This in turn has brought its own host of problems.
Why is spirituality problematic? There's a lot of confusion surrounding the word. It is inexhaustible, elusive, inarticulable and incomplete, like attempting to wrestle a cloud of smoke. The issue of semantics and interpretability feature prominently. What does it even mean to be “spiritual”?
History
I propose beginning with etymology: the history and story of the word itself. Spiritus is Latin for breath or wind, hence the English cognates inspiration, respiration and expiration. What does this signify? Matters of life, death and ultimate concern, that which is most important. Indeed, wind could be understood as an unseen force made visible only through its effects but not directly. Similarly, spirituality could be construed as the study, practice and pursuit of the animating principle of life both unknown and unknowable. As I addressed in my piece on breathwork, the linguistic connections between breath and spirit are found all over the world – pneuma (Greece), prana (India), qi (China), ki (Japan), mana (Hawaii).
In this regard, this entire project is doomed from the start though it is not without precedent. I invoke Aldous Huxley's attempt at cross-cultural synthesis with The Perennial Philosophy, though I claim neither his brilliance nor ambition of scope, merely the kernel of the idea that explores the convergence of various wisdom traditions across the time and space of history and culture.
Via Negativa
There's also the via negativa approach, the attempt to define something by what it is not. After some consideration, this proves more difficult than imagined. From an absolute point of view (which is itself not a point of view at all), there is nothing that isn’t spiritual. Call me a spiritual absolutist, if you will. The closest approximation I can muster is Socrates’ “unexamined life”, where one sleepwalks through life identified with mere appearances, never daring or refusing to inquire deeper into their first impressions of body, thought and suffering.
What is it, then?
On the affirmative side, I offer these observations, like a constellation of qualities. Spirituality often addresses ethics, morality and virtue, prescribing how one ought to conduct themselves in order to live a good life. In this regard, it overlaps much with philosophy.
The metaphor of a road, path or way is common across various spiritual traditions. Indeed, the Tao of Taoism means precisely that. It is found in Christianity, too. From John 14:6 Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life” or Matthew 7:14 “For small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Or Buddhism’s Noble Eightfold Path.
This prescriptive element of spirituality has historically been conspicuously absent from science which is traceable to Hume’s insight into the is-ought problem that no set of facts by themselves can prescribe a course of action. Further, another consequence of a predominantly secular, scientific postmodern worldview is drowning in relativism and apathy. As I’ve mentioned his work before, this is superlatively introduced in John Vervaeke’s “Awakening From The Meaning Crisis.”
The theme of surrender to a higher power is prevalent among spiritual systems whether polytheistic, monotheistic or even non-theistic. An adjacent term is transcendence, going “beyond” the mundane world of the flesh, the senses, the mind and so forth. This leads naturally to metacognitive introspection, awareness turned upon itself. This is the faculty that meditation both requires and cultivates. Meditation is preeminent among spiritual practices that facilitate transcendence, though it is certainly not the only one. Others include prayer, contemplation, ritual, chanting, fasting, and sacred substances that alter consciousness. What is the aim of these practices? There are many terms, depending on the tradition of origin – awakening, liberation, Self-realization, illumination, revelation, gnosis.
A discussion on spirituality would be remiss without touching on meaning and meaningfulness. As foreshadowed in the introduction, spirituality orients us to what is most important in life. From the Neoplatonic Transcendentals of the True, the Good and the Beautiful, to Buddhism’s vipassana, “to see things as they really are”, spirituality attempts to apprehend reality, not unlike the scientific enterprise, except directly from the first person perspective.
Spirituality goes further than science with emphasis on prosocial behavior – charity, love, generosity, kindness, selflessness, compassion, forgiveness, etc. These qualities lend naturally to social bonding and community, a hallmark of humanity. I often marvel at the similarities between Stoicism’s sympatheia, the mutual interconnectedness and interdependence of all things, with Buddhism’s doctrine on dependent origination, or the Christian pronouncement to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Outro
What are we to make of this discussion? Not much, frankly.
As Morpheus says to Neo, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”
Likewise with the opening verse of the Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell:
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
Wherever you are on your spiritual path, whether this is your first taste or you are a seasoned adept, I wish you well.
To paraphrase Kierkegaard, life is lived forwards, but understood backwards. If you are lost and seeking, I invite you to retrace those moments of maximal meaning in your life, connect those dots, and follow wherever they lead. Keep going. Don’t stop.
Like a caduceus’ intertwining serpents that never quite touch, a spiritual path is an endless dance with the ineffable mystery only you can undertake.
Thank you Silvio for your steadfast encouragement and creative fellowship. A little goes a long way.
So insightful and well-written, Tai. These are precious thoughts, thank you for always finding the words to express them. Not an easy feat. Proud to have a human with such a beautiful mind as a friend. :)