Reflections |
Let yourself rest in the words and phrases of the "spiritual alphabet" offered above. Let them be lures for feeling, single-word poems, catalysts for your own imaginative wandering and wondering.
If you wish, click on a given word for a link to further explanation. The links take you to a website called Spirituality and Practice, which is the source of the alphabet. Each word or phrase represents a quality of heart and mind that can be embodied in daily life by individuals and communities. Or, to say that same thing, each represents a form of relatedness to other people, to the earth, to the heavens, and to the self. Each word or phrase is a form of embodied wisdom and emotional intelligence. This is what we mean by spirituality. It is not escape from the world but rather immersion in the world in kind, creative, honest, and wonder-filled ways. Qualities of heart and mind identified in the alphabet are among the existential and experiential building blocks of 'spirituality.' These qualities are universal possibilities. They are available to believers, non-believers, and the many who are somewhere in-between. To people who practice a particular religious path and to people who are secular by their self-definition. To people who are religiously affiliated and to people who are 'spiritual but not religious.' Many of these qualities are being studied today in the fields of positive psychology, sociology, and neuroscience. See the work of Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Science and spirituality can go together and science itself can be a form of spirituality: a form of questing and imagination, inwardly inspired by a sense of connection with the world. When applied in life-enhancing ways, the practice of science can also be a form of compassion. Science and religion can also go together. Religion can offer beliefs, stories, rituals, images, sounds, and forms of community life that help awaken people to their spiritual potential: to the qualities of heart and mind that make life rich. Different religions may emphasize different "letters" in the spiritual alphabet, which is one of many reasons that we need different religions. Each religion has its gifts. |
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