Spiritual Forums

Home


Donate!


Articles


CHAT!


Shop


 
Welcome to Spiritual Forums!.

We created this community for people from all backgrounds to discuss Spiritual, Paranormal, Metaphysical, Philosophical, Supernatural, and Esoteric subjects. From Astral Projection to Zen, all topics are welcome. We hope you enjoy your visits.

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest, which gives you limited access to most discussions and articles. By joining our free community you will be able to post messages, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload your own photos, and gain access to our Chat Rooms, Registration is fast, simple, and free, so please, join our community today! !

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, check our FAQs before contacting support. Please read our forum rules, since they are enforced by our volunteer staff. This will help you avoid any infractions and issues.

Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Spirituality & Beliefs > Spirituality

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21  
Old 25-09-2019, 03:54 AM
JustBe JustBe is offline
Master
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 3,243
  JustBe's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJohn
Why is it difficult to define Spirituality?
You would think there would be much commonality between belief systems
but it appears there is is a lot of polarization. How can this be?


Good point.

People hold belief systems that all differ in the definition of their spirituality mainly because beliefs ‘🌷box’ in the belief as the Definition. To an open minddd explorer who sees spirituality as a playground to explore, it’s never something fixed. It’s the awareness of identifying through the self understanding more directly what one is experiencing. In my view in this way, it’s not something one can define as ‘somethjng’ But more what you become as that experience. In the end the true state simply understands the bigger picture of itself that is often polarised by the age of reasoning. If all adults were to reconnect with their inner child, be in wonder and awe, like a child open in this way of their early years, thenspirituality wouldn’t even need defining. It wouldn’t need to be seperate as something one seeks out to reclaim.
__________________
Your trials did not come to punish you, but to awaken you - to make you realise that you are a part of Spirit and that just behind the sparks of your life is
the Flame of Infinity.
Paramahansa Yogananda
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 26-09-2019, 04:10 PM
Azurr0 Azurr0 is offline
Seeker
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 41
 
Jesus Christ people, before you open a thread, try searching if the same question has been asked before, this is the third thread with the same name in a period of a couple of months. It is literally on the second page of this subforum. And like I said there:
Spirituality simply means the capacity to contact and get help from cosmic spiritual energies. It is pretty self explanatory, the spiritual realm is the realm of energies - spirituality becomes the ability to cooperate with them.
Researching different states of consciousness, going on what people call the spiritual journey, if it does not involve contact with energies, this is called mysticism. Therefore, most people here are aspirants or aspiring mystics, they are not spiritual.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 26-09-2019, 07:40 PM
guthrio guthrio is offline
Master
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 4,094
  guthrio's Avatar
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO DEFINE SPIRITUALITY?

Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio
Brother Greenslade,

I can think of no better example to answer your question than your own excellent signature message: "Take your legacy and understand what has gone before. Make a new tomorrow in Love, Light and Faith."

So what has gone before? As indicated in the 1st reference, The Game of Life : Creating Your Own Reality,

"Imagine that you are about to participate in an interactive role-playing game. There are rules in this game that everyone agrees to: what goes up must come down, day is followed by night, if you touch a flame it will burn you, etc. etc. You get to choose the character you play beforehand; shall I be black or white, Australian or American, male or female? You might even choose to meet up with others in the game, which is tricky because you won’t necessarily remember them when you see them. To enter the game, you must be “born” and become completely helpless. You must forget everything you know and start all over again. You are given sets of rules by the “older” players which you learn as you go along. After a given time, you are declared an “adult” by the other players and are sent out on your own. The thing is, after a while, you become so involved, so completely immersed in the personality of the character that you are playing in this game, that you forget who you really are. You forget that you’re even in a game, and you begin to believe that the game is all there is. Now, you still get to decide everything that happens to your character, which you do constantly, but as a player who has now totally identified with the character you have chosen to portray, you begin to believe that everything that transpires is happening by “chance” or “fate”. When the character you play goes to sleep, you return to your real self. This is also your opportunity to plan ahead and manifest the character's desires and wishes. When the character later awakens, it is with the belief that he/she was simply “dreaming”.

How? I am also reminded that the signature of my Friend, Miss Hepburn, contains the following quote from Lahiri Mahasaya: "Meditate unceasingly that you quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence". Does that mean sitting around meditating? To my mind, it does not and cannot, because the Infinite Essence lives on this plane of existence AS US in action, in a continuation of the aforementioned "game". I believe that the Creator's own intent continues to be to participate as US, in this multi-dimensional, multi-incarnational, multi-"face"-eted game of discovering new ways to know Itself....from Alpha to Omega....ad infinitum.

It seems the part that is all-to-often overlooked in the "roles" we're playing is that the aforementioned "game" includes the ever-present opportunity for us to remember, but more importantly, to actualize our own awakening AT ANY TIME, in these very roles by remembering that:

We have always been Who we truly are, awaiting our own remembrance on Earth that I AM THAT I AM as in Heaven. Guthrio

....at which point, we will realize, as I've stated in another post to you, that we've never left Heaven, at all! per the 2nd reference, replying to your earlier statement: "You have always been here." Kosh.

Which brings me to this part of your superb signature, "Make a new tomorrow in Love, Light and Faith."

As the Infinite Essence, we have always been in Love and Light in which every moment remains an open invitation for ourselves to faithfully actualize the promise that this is so....now.

Hear from one who has actualized that promise in the following testimony describing the very experience OF HOW each of us WILL WAKE UP from the "forms" we occupy in "this" Earthly portion of the "game" to another equally real "form". It describes the reunion of a resurrected guru, Sri Yukteswar, (himself a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya), who returned to Earth, for a brief interlude with his own former disciple, Paramahansa Yogananda, from a higher vibratory sphere called Hiranyaloka. Here's an excerpt from the 3rd source below:

"O Master", Yogananda said, "I was grieving so deeply about your death!" "Ah, wherein did I die? Isn't there some contradiction?" said Sri Yukteswar, eyes twinkling with love and amusement. Sri Yukteswar goes on to say to his former disciple, "You were only dreaming on earth; on that earth you saw my dream-body. Later you buried that dream-image. Now my finer fleshly body--which you behold and are even now embracing rather closely!--is resurrected on another finer dream-planet of God. Someday that finer dream-body and finer dream-planet will pass away; they too are not forever. All dream-bubbles must eventually burst at a final wakeful touch. Differentiate, my son Yogananda, between dreams and Reality!"

See the words, in the last reference, that personally changed my life, describing the mastery with we are each endowed, by the Creator, "I wish to call your attention more fully to the fact that man in his right domain is limitless, knows no limit of time or space. Man, when he knows himself, is not obliged to toil wearily along for five days to accomplish ninety miles. Man in his right estate can accomplish any distance, it matters not the magnitude, instantly. A moment ago I was in the village from which you departed five days ago. What you saw as my body still reposes there. Your associate, whom you left in that village, will tell you that, until a few moments before four o'clock, I conversed with him, stating that I would go to greet you as you would arrive here about this hour..."

This "version of Earth" is a SCHOOL in which we practice BEING the Spiritual Progeny we truly are, and have always been, as the Masters you will read about in the last reference, have done. It is our birthright to.....

Awaken...

The Creator's dreams are what WE experience as Reality...

The Creator is ALL THERE IS to BE anyone or anything...

The Creator is Who we, and each other, are....

....as the "game" continues....

Reference: http://www.the-office.com/seth/

Reference:http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...2&postcount=60

Reference: https://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chapter-43/

Reference: http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...44&postcount=1 Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East by Baird T. Spaulding

Brother Greenslade,

I regret inadvertently maligning the practice of meditation in my earlier statement. it is never to be equated with "just sitting around". As correctly practiced by many in this world, those who have benefited from regular connection of their Spirits with the Creator's Infinite Essence....would certainly testify to its effectiveness.

.....and I highly doubt they would have any need to define, or to be told what Spirit is.
__________________
“Why, that’s true! I am a perfect, unlimited gull!” Jonathan opened his eyes asking, "Where are we?” The Elder Chiang said, “We’re on some planet with a green sky and a double star for a sun.” Jonathan made a scree of delight. “IT WORKS!" “Well, of course it works, Jon,” said Chiang. “It always works, when you know what you’re doing." (and even when you don't)
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 28-09-2019, 12:46 PM
r6r6 r6r6 is offline
Newbie ;)
Master
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 4,071
  r6r6's Avatar
Color ....Space( Time *) i (* Time )Space.....

Quote:
BigJohn--Why is it difficult to define Spirituality?


Spirit-1 is metaphysical-1, mind/intellect/concept and ego ergo spirit-of-intent.


------conceptual line-of-demarcation------------------

Spirit-2 is Observed Time { /\/\/\/ sine-wave } physical/energy via fermions, bosons and any collection thereof, ex biological/soul life, Earth, Solar System Galaxies, Universe,

Spirit-3, metaphysical-3, is positive shape geodesic ( ) curvature ( ) of Gravity ( ),

Spirit-4, metaphysical-4, Dark Energy is negative shaped geodesic curvature of Dark Energy )(.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Spirituality is those actions and thoughts that are in support of all of the above and the ecological systems that sustain them all.

Seems simple to me. Maybe I'm just a simpleton.

....Space( Time *) i (* Time )Space.....
__________________
"Dare to be naive"... R. B. Fuller

"My education has been of my biggest impediments to my learning"...A. Einstein

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."...R Feynman
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 29-09-2019, 05:22 AM
BigJohn BigJohn is offline
Master
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: अनुगृहितोऽस्म
Posts: 16,003
  BigJohn's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio
I can think of no better example to answer your question than your own excellent signature message: "Take your legacy and understand what has gone before. Make a new tomorrow in Love, Light and Faith."

and

Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio
As the Infinite Essence, we have always been in Love and Light in which every moment remains an open invitation for ourselves to faithfully actualize the promise that this is so....now.

guthrio, you have condensed down several enlightening points from Greenslade.
__________________


 
   ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜ ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜

        Happiness is the result of an enlightened mind whereas suffering is caused by a distorted mind.
   ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜ ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜


Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 29-09-2019, 05:25 AM
BigJohn BigJohn is offline
Master
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: अनुगृहितोऽस्म
Posts: 16,003
  BigJohn's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenslade
Spirituality doesn't define us, we define Spirituality and that's why it's so difficult to define Spirituality - we are looking for what defines ourselves. As humans we don't enjoy the human experience very much but that's really what makes us the embodiment of everything that is regarded as Spiritual. Forgiveness doesn't exist where there is nothing to forgive, empathy doesn't exist where nobody hurts inside and Unconditional Love is not unconditional where no conditions exist.

Perhaps Spirit Honours our Paths where we do not.
Thanks for your fine insight, as usual.
__________________


 
   ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜ ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜

        Happiness is the result of an enlightened mind whereas suffering is caused by a distorted mind.
   ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜ ⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜⁜


Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 29-09-2019, 01:27 PM
Greenslade
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustBe
People hold belief systems that all differ in the definition of their spirituality mainly because beliefs ‘��box’ in the belief as the Definition. To an open minddd explorer who sees spirituality as a playground to explore, it’s never something fixed. It’s the awareness of identifying through the self understanding more directly what one is experiencing. In my view in this way, it’s not something one can define as ‘somethjng’ But more what you become as that experience. In the end the true state simply understands the bigger picture of itself that is often polarised by the age of reasoning. If all adults were to reconnect with their inner child, be in wonder and awe, like a child open in this way of their early years, thenspirituality wouldn’t even need defining. It wouldn’t need to be seperate as something one seeks out to reclaim.
Exactly. I don't like defining Spirituality in the same way as I try to identify with being a Spiritual person, because it does become like the box I choose to jump into. Definitions and attachments belong to the egoic mind.

It's been said that religion was the pathway to Spirituality and that seems to be true. By going to church on Sunday or following other religious practices people can have a Spiritual experience that - for me anyway - seems to happen in the Soul rather than anywhere else. For me personally they happen in 'real Life' - as in what you're saying here.

Reading this is a Spiritual moment, so thank you.
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 29-09-2019, 01:36 PM
Greenslade
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azurr0
Jesus Christ people, before you open a thread, try searching if the same question has been asked before, this is the third thread with the same name in a period of a couple of months. It is literally on the second page of this subforum. And like I said there:
Spirituality simply means the capacity to contact and get help from cosmic spiritual energies. It is pretty self explanatory, the spiritual realm is the realm of energies - spirituality becomes the ability to cooperate with them.
Researching different states of consciousness, going on what people call the spiritual journey, if it does not involve contact with energies, this is called mysticism. Therefore, most people here are aspirants or aspiring mystics, they are not spiritual.
“The temple of the most high begins with the body which houses our life, the essence of our existence. Africans are in bondage today because they approach spirituality through religion provided by foreign invaders and conquerors. We must stop confusing religion and spirituality. Religion is a set of rules, regulations and rituals created by humans, which was suppose to help people grow spiritually. Due to human imperfection religion has become corrupt, political, divisive and a tool for power struggle. Spirituality is not theology or ideology. It is simply a way of life, pure and original as was given by the Most High of Creation. Spirituality is a network linking us to the Most High, the universe, and each other…”
― Haile Selassie I



While I agree with you, Haile Selassie says it best. Sorry and all that.
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 29-09-2019, 02:20 PM
Greenslade
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio
Brother Greenslade,

I can think of no better example to answer your question than your own excellent signature message: "Take your legacy and understand what has gone before. Make a new tomorrow in Love, Light and Faith."

So what has gone before? As indicated in the 1st reference, The Game of Life : Creating Your Own Reality,

"Imagine that you are about to participate in an interactive role-playing game. There are rules in this game that everyone agrees to: what goes up must come down, day is followed by night, if you touch a flame it will burn you, etc. etc. You get to choose the character you play beforehand; shall I be black or white, Australian or American, male or female? You might even choose to meet up with others in the game, which is tricky because you won’t necessarily remember them when you see them. To enter the game, you must be “born” and become completely helpless. You must forget everything you know and start all over again. You are given sets of rules by the “older” players which you learn as you go along. After a given time, you are declared an “adult” by the other players and are sent out on your own. The thing is, after a while, you become so involved, so completely immersed in the personality of the character that you are playing in this game, that you forget who you really are. You forget that you’re even in a game, and you begin to believe that the game is all there is. Now, you still get to decide everything that happens to your character, which you do constantly, but as a player who has now totally identified with the character you have chosen to portray, you begin to believe that everything that transpires is happening by “chance” or “fate”. When the character you play goes to sleep, you return to your real self. This is also your opportunity to plan ahead and manifest the character's desires and wishes. When the character later awakens, it is with the belief that he/she was simply “dreaming”.

Dear Guthrio

For the main part yes, it is all about creating your own reality but when you look at some of the threads you can understand why. It's been said that we are Spirit in amnesia and that gives me a very different perspective. What happens when the perspective is put in the context of Life Purpose/Karmic Obligations though? You find that everything happens BECAUSE of you and nothing happens TO you. When the character awakens not only does he/she realise they were asleep and now they are awake, but they are also awake to the reasons they were asleep.

Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio
How? I am also reminded that the signature of my Friend, Miss Hepburn, contains the following quote from Lahiri Mahasaya: "Meditate unceasingly that you quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence". Does that mean sitting around meditating? To my mind, it does not and cannot, because the Infinite Essence lives on this plane of existence AS US in action, in a continuation of the aforementioned "game". I believe that the Creator's own intent continues to be to participate as US, in this multi-dimensional, multi-incarnational, multi-"face"-eted game of discovering new ways to know Itself....from Alpha to Omega....ad infinitum.

It seems the part that is all-to-often overlooked in the "roles" we're playing is that the aforementioned "game" includes the ever-present opportunity for us to remember, but more importantly, to actualize our own awakening AT ANY TIME, in these very roles by remembering that:

We have always been Who we truly are, awaiting our own remembrance on Earth that I AM THAT I AM as in Heaven. Guthrio

....at which point, we will realize, as I've stated in another post to you, that we've never left Heaven, at all! per the 2nd reference, replying to your earlier statement: "You have always been here." Kosh.
In the more recent series of Battlestar Galactica the human-like Cylons have a tenet that they repeat time and again - "All this has happened before, and it will happen again." This is essentially what's happening and is often the basis of reincarnation, we adopt the role of the aspirant in one incarnation and the master in another, and in that way we experience a multi-facetted Universe. Which is better than being one-dimensional, isn't it?

Yes we have always been who we truly are but then we choose amnesia in order to re-member.

And you have always been here too Guthrio, and you know that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio
Which brings me to this part of your superb signature, "Make a new tomorrow in Love, Light and Faith."

As the Infinite Essence, we have always been in Love and Light in which every moment remains an open invitation for ourselves to faithfully actualize the promise that this is so....now.

Hear from one who has actualized that promise in the following testimony describing the very experience OF HOW each of us WILL WAKE UP from the "forms" we occupy in "this" Earthly portion of the "game" to another equally real "form". It describes the reunion of a resurrected guru, Sri Yukteswar, (himself a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya), who returned to Earth, for a brief interlude with his own former disciple, Paramahansa Yogananda, from a higher vibratory sphere called Hiranyaloka. Here's an excerpt from the 3rd source below:

"O Master", Yogananda said, "I was grieving so deeply about your death!" "Ah, wherein did I die? Isn't there some contradiction?" said Sri Yukteswar, eyes twinkling with love and amusement. Sri Yukteswar goes on to say to his former disciple, "You were only dreaming on earth; on that earth you saw my dream-body. Later you buried that dream-image. Now my finer fleshly body--which you behold and are even now embracing rather closely!--is resurrected on another finer dream-planet of God. Someday that finer dream-body and finer dream-planet will pass away; they too are not forever. All dream-bubbles must eventually burst at a final wakeful touch. Differentiate, my son Yogananda, between dreams and Reality!"

See the words, in the last reference, that personally changed my life, describing the mastery with we are each endowed, by the Creator, "I wish to call your attention more fully to the fact that man in his right domain is limitless, knows no limit of time or space. Man, when he knows himself, is not obliged to toil wearily along for five days to accomplish ninety miles. Man in his right estate can accomplish any distance, it matters not the magnitude, instantly. A moment ago I was in the village from which you departed five days ago. What you saw as my body still reposes there. Your associate, whom you left in that village, will tell you that, until a few moments before four o'clock, I conversed with him, stating that I would go to greet you as you would arrive here about this hour..."

This "version of Earth" is a SCHOOL in which we practice BEING the Spiritual Progeny we truly are, and have always been, as the Masters you will read about in the last reference, have done. It is our birthright to.....
This is where the excitement comes in, a Spirituality that defies definition. Somewhere deep inside perhaps we have already realised that's who we truly are yet we know we haven't completed our mission just yet. There are still some things to do that are not about our awakening but the awakening of others - and yet they are one and the same.

Sometimes our greatest fear is not that we are a nobody, but that we are greater than even our wildest dreams. Yet when you feel that somewhere in the distance, just out of reach? With great power comes great responsibility and we have to be mature enough to understand that. Sometimes we're simply not ready for ourselves.


Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio
Awaken...
Quote:
Originally Posted by guthrio

The Creator's dreams are what WE experience as Reality...

The Creator is ALL THERE IS to BE anyone or anything...

The Creator is Who we, and each other, are....

....as the "game" continues....

Reference: http://www.the-office.com/seth/

Reference:http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...2&postcount=60

Reference: https://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chapter-43/

Reference: http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...44&postcount=1 Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East by Baird T. Spaulding
There is a time and a place for everything, the Universe has to unfold in its own fashion and we along with it.

Or as Alan Watts said, "If you are Spiritual you are God playing at being not God."

It doesn't bother me too much about how awake or asleep I am, I've worked in mental health so I understand how different realities can be. What interests be is the reason I've chosen them and one of the reasons has come to pass very recently. It's when you meet someone from your Soul Group in this plane of existence, when you meet them again for the first time. Then you know the reasons you dreamt that dream for the creator.
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 29-09-2019, 03:39 PM
guthrio guthrio is offline
Master
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 4,094
  guthrio's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJohn
and



guthrio, you have condensed down several enlightening points from Greenslade.

BigJohn,

....I bask in the condensate of Greenslade's ever-enlightening points, which always help trigger my own....just as your original query "Why is it so hard to define spirituality?" has also done.

Thanks much
__________________
“Why, that’s true! I am a perfect, unlimited gull!” Jonathan opened his eyes asking, "Where are we?” The Elder Chiang said, “We’re on some planet with a green sky and a double star for a sun.” Jonathan made a scree of delight. “IT WORKS!" “Well, of course it works, Jon,” said Chiang. “It always works, when you know what you’re doing." (and even when you don't)
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 02:30 AM.


Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
(c) Spiritual Forums