Spirituality encompasses all ideas and beliefs which involve a transcendence of the individual person (body and mind). This transcendence is of two types, restricted to humanity or that which goes beyond the purely human. The term includes traditional religious beliefs and the beliefs of NRMs, as well as less formalized notions which do not include much in the way of dogmas, institutions, and rituals. All people can experience spirituality and most claim to, although the experience is not usually constant. The term is widely used and analysis of what it needs to entail suggests that a religious belief is not essential, what is essential is a continuous reverential or equivalent experience, maintained effort or practice, and the experience of love (see Love, Spiritual).
Each person has a physical body and a mind; the mind does not exist apart from the body, although at times it may seem to. There exists the idea that the person also has a spirit which extends in different dimensions from those of the body and mind in that it transcends or goes beyond and exists apart from them. Without the belief in the transcendence of the individual body and mind, the concept of a spirit cannot be held.
There is a minority of people who believe that the spiritual in humankind does not exist, that it is a mental illusion. In this regard, therapies of the Human Potential Movement seek to find the highest that an individual can achieve with the mind. However, opinion polls regularly show that the large majority of people have some belief in a transcendent God or some sort of spirit or life-force, although there is no factual evidence which can be verified to support the existence of spirit.
Some humanistic ideas suggest that spirituality does exist and can be experienced in terms of the sum of humanity being greater than its parts—that is, more than the individual but extending no further than humanity as a whole. The Religion of Humanity or Cult of Man and civil religions are examples of this. Most often, spirituality is based on ideas which transcend humanity, for example in terms of a personal or impersonal God or Goddess, the transcendence of the individual self to higher levels of consciousness, or the notion that all is one non-dual Reality. This vast range of disparate ideas encompasses varieties of traditional and new religions together with, for example, Shamanism and aspects of the paranormal, the New Age Movement, psychospiritual therapeutic ideas (e.g. Psychosynthesis) and transpersonal psychology, deep ecology, and matters which relate to a person’s ultimate concern.
Spirituality indicates a similar meaning to the term religious, although it is more expansive and incorporates ideas falling beyond the notion of what a religion might comprise. Additionally, it gives voice to unstructured beliefs, for example, where a direct relationship is developed with what is considered divine or particularly meaningful (see Self-religion, the Self, and Self). The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, in Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for the New Millennium (1999: London), believes there is an important distinction between the two. Religion he sees is to do with matters of salvation, while spirituality is more to do with qualities of the human spirit such as love and compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, etc. He says we can do without religion but not without the qualities of spirit. In this description, while not excluding religious qualities, spirituality adds the highest personal qualities thereby suggesting a more comprehensive individual experience than that which the term religious implies.
There is significant interrelation between some humanistic and the transcendent notions of spirituality. The dividing line between the two is a grey area and there is no universal agreement as to what spirituality entails. This situation raises the question: Is the experience of spirituality the same regardless of the ideas each person may hold? In answer, what can be said is that while each person’s experiences are unique, there is wide acknowledgement that in absolute terms there can be just one spirit to experience, although this is described in different ways—the God of Judaism is no different from the God of the Jesus Movement, ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Conciousness), or the unity consciousness of transpersonal psychology. We can conclude, therefore, that most, if not all, varieties of spirituality which might be experienced are based on individual interpretation of this one spirit.
Spirituality is usually experienced discontinuously, although its existence may be continuous. The busy mind and life distract attention; it is only by individual effort— discipline, endeavour, aspiration, and desire—that contact with what is deemed spiritual can be maintained. The triggers for spiritual experience are many and varied; they are unique to each person and to particular circumstances. Some events trigger the experience more than others and these are likely to be exceptional life occurrences, for example, birth, illness, death—moments of intense joy or sadness. Ordinary events also act as triggers, for example, walking in nature, witnessing a sunrise, a poem, painting, or piece of music, the list is endless. What shrouds the experience is primarily forgetfulness and this is caused through life’s vicissitudes and distractions.
A number of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim professionals (priests etc.), together with non-traditional professionals, were asked what spirituality entailed (reported in Journal of Contemporary Religion 16(2)). While there was little agreement between the different groups there was an underlying accord in their answers. First, affiliation to a particular religion was not found to be prerequisite for the experience. What was found prerequisite was some form of continued reverential experience, maintained effort with regard to a related practice, for example living in accord with the Ten Commandments or the Noble Eightfold Path, and living a life imbued with love— that is, altruistic activities and loving kindness.
