Thursday, April 12, 2007

What is Spirituality? - another discussion

I am continuing my effort to define Practical Spirituality. Today, I want to discuss the more general term of "Spirituality." Most of these comments are from my book, The Trust Factor: The Art of Doing Business in the 21st Century.

Spirituality is a belief in something greater than ourselves, a belief in a bigger picture. What we name this "greater than" is insignificant. What is important is that we each identify our beliefs, accept them, and use them as our standard for living. Whether those beliefs signify the highest good, right action, oneness with nature, oneness with others, or a combination of all of these, the similarities should be stressed. These similarities are the bond that allows us to tolerate and interact with one another.

There are some general principles that seem to be common in religious and spiritual paths worldwide. These include: compassion, unity, truthfulness, fairness, tolerance, responsibility, respect for life and service to all life. I wish we could learn to act on our common beliefs as opposed to dissecting and defending them. This would be a step toward an acceptable definition for Spirituality.



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