What is it that makes a spiritual person 'spiritual' to you?

Originally Posted by Greenslade

This is really nothing more than judgement as set against one's own personal definitions as criteria. If you're judging who is Spiritual and who isn't, you need to look to your own introspection.

I have my own ideas of what is 'spiritual', and thoughts on the various responses, of course, and I am conversant with the dictionary definition as well - but quite honestly my question was sincere: What do others think?

I find it refreshing to reflect on others outlooks - I am often quite surprised, finding insightful alternative views which a person's ordinarily self-reinforcing perspective would never reveal.

Thank you for your reply.

Originally Posted by Kioma

I have my own ideas of what is 'spiritual', and thoughts on the various responses, of course, and I am conversant with the dictionary definition as well - but quite honestly my question was sincere: What do others think?

I find it refreshing to reflect on others outlooks - I am often quite surprised, finding insightful alternative views which a person's ordinarily self-reinforcing perspective would never reveal.

Thank you for your reply.

When you say to yourself "That person is Spiritual," what have you done? You have your own ideas and know the dictionary definition and those become the criteria against which you decide if a person is Spiritual or not, and when you define what/who is Spiritual then by extension you define what is not. My answer was quite sincere and I stand by it, but Spirituality is within and not without and when you realise how a person becomes a Spiritual person in your eyes you understand so much more of your own reality and how it was created. Isn't that sincerely Spiritual and insightful? God or bad, right or wrong, Spiritual or not spiritual.... who decides and by what process was that decided? Because if you're labelling someone as Spiritual, you're the one that's labelling them as Spiritual and the Spiritual thing to do for you is understand how that came about.


A Spiritual person is someone who takes an introspective perspective and understands themselves before anything else.

[Native spirit]

I would have to agree with Greenslade here


Namaste

Originally Posted by Greenslade

When you say to yourself "That person is Spiritual," what have you done? You have your own ideas and know the dictionary definition and those become the criteria against which you decide if a person is Spiritual or not, and when you define what/who is Spiritual then by extension you define what is not. My answer was quite sincere and I stand by it, but Spirituality is within and not without and when you realise how a person becomes a Spiritual person in your eyes you understand so much more of your own reality and how it was created. Isn't that sincerely Spiritual and insightful? God or bad, right or wrong, Spiritual or not spiritual.... who decides and by what process was that decided? Because if you're labelling someone as Spiritual, you're the one that's labelling them as Spiritual and the Spiritual thing to do for you is understand how that came about.


A Spiritual person is someone who takes an introspective perspective and understands themselves before anything else.

You're a hard person to not argue with Greenslade.

Please point to any of my responses in this thread and explain how they are 'judgmental' - or, perhaps you do not know what non-judgmental looks like?

I accepted even your first post, even though it was about me and not you. Of course, if you still stand by that, I understand.

Thank you for giving your definition of a spiritual person.

[lancing]

Their spirit...

[HITESH SHAH]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

God or bad, right or wrong, Spiritual or not spiritual.... who decides and by what process was that decided? Because if you're labelling someone as Spiritual, you're the one that's labelling them as Spiritual and the Spiritual thing to do for you is understand how that came about.

I understand if some spiritual person demeans/deride/ridicule somebody or arbitrarily gains materially at the cost of others , it is certainly deplorable and it must be protested at all cost.

However in view of this to stop understanding and learning about spirituality is not at all advisable. And judging is inseparable part of learning .

If you see politics /economic /psychology everywhere there is judging and labelling . If you are on right side of labelling you take pride and if you are on wrong side of labelling you may feel inferior . We can not ask these scientists to stop judging and labelling to satisfy any individual because that precludes and hinders the learning process.

So spiritual people also must be allowed to learn / propose /identify /demarcate / associate etc its subject matter that is soul/ spirit. And if you see Kioma or mine post , it is in no way targeted at anybody . It's mere learning .

Originally Posted by HITESH SHAH

I understand if some spiritual person demeans/deride/ridicule somebody or arbitrarily gains materially at the cost of others , it is certainly deplorable and it must be protested at all cost.

However in view of this to stop understanding and learning about spirituality is not at all advisable. And judging is inseparable part of learning .

If you see politics /economic /psychology everywhere there is judging and labelling . If you are on right side of labelling you take pride and if you are on wrong side of labelling you may feel inferior . We can not ask these scientists to stop judging and labelling to satisfy any individual because that precludes and hinders the learning process.

So spiritual people also must be allowed to learn / propose /identify /demarcate / associate etc its subject matter that is soul/ spirit. And if you see Kioma or mine post , it is in no way targeted at anybody . It's mere learning .

Well said. I am not afraid of labels - I appreciate labels, as very useful tools. Words are not the things they represent - they are just representations.

Originally Posted by Kioma

You're a hard person to not argue with Greenslade.

Please point to any of my responses in this thread and explain how they are 'judgmental' - or, perhaps you do not know what non-judgmental looks like?

I accepted even your first post, even though it was about me and not you. Of course, if you still stand by that, I understand.

Thank you for giving your definition of a spiritual person.

Put those dooks up, baby.

The next question I suppose is what is judgement to you, personally? If that person is Spiritual that's as much of a judgement as saying they're bad, the only difference is the 'results' of the judgement. You - and everybody else - has an image of what a Spiritual person should say/do/act like and if I say/do/act like according to your image then you've judged me as Spiritual. If you yourself are as Spiritual as you'd like to think you are then you'd be self-ware enough to realise that this is what you're doing. If you don't realise that you're doing it, then how Spiritual does that makes you and how does that give you leave to decide if someone else is Spiritual or not?

You see the irony is that Spirituality will tell you that everyone and everything IS Spiritual, so if you can't tell if a person is Spiritual, that says everything about you and nothing about them. Judging/deciding if a person is Spiritual or not is not Spiritual.

I know what non-judgemental looks like but then in order to understand non-judgement you have to understand judgement, and the difference between that and action/discrimination based on that judgement. If you're going to understand what is Spiritual or not you have to understand the underlying process - yourself. And by the way, I was asking questions not making statements so if you took it so personally I guess that says something about you as well. The questions in my reply were asked in order to stimulate, not accuse.

In Africa they have a saying - "Ubuntu." Literally, it means "I am because we are." You see, a person being Spiritual or not has nothing to do with them, it's a reflection of one's own self.

Originally Posted by HITESH SHAH

I understand if some spiritual person demeans/deride/ridicule somebody or arbitrarily gains materially at the cost of others , it is certainly deplorable and it must be protested at all cost.

However in view of this to stop understanding and learning about spirituality is not at all advisable. And judging is inseparable part of learning .

If you see politics /economic /psychology everywhere there is judging and labelling . If you are on right side of labelling you take pride and if you are on wrong side of labelling you may feel inferior . We can not ask these scientists to stop judging and labelling to satisfy any individual because that precludes and hinders the learning process.

So spiritual people also must be allowed to learn / propose /identify /demarcate / associate etc its subject matter that is soul/ spirit. And if you see Kioma or mine post , it is in no way targeted at anybody . It's mere learning .

I'm a trainer#/assessor by trade so yes, I do know all about the learning process. And in part judging is a part of that process so no arguments there. In terms of Spiritual understanding though, as far as I'm concerned it's also about the introspection and understanding the processes that lead to the judgement and any subsequent thoughts or actions. If a Spiritual person chooses not to understand how their judgements are formed, can they label themselves as Spiritual while ignoring self-awareness? Isn't that also part of the learning process?

There are a lot of understandings and realisations that come before deciding if a person is Spiritual or not.

[BigJohn]

Spirituality has really no value except to mark or not mark a person. Spirituality is relative. What one considers spirituality, you probably can find a person who will say the exact opposite.

Spirituality is used very much like words such as 'good' or 'bad'. Same goes for 'high vibration' and 'low vibration'.