What is Spirituality?

Most people use the word Spirituality…

but what does it actually mean?

Is it a Belief? Practice? Religion? Or something much subtler?

If you can observe your experience right now, it can be classified into:

• What you perceive through your senses, such as the touch, sensations, sight etc.

• What you perceive through your mind, such as thoughts, emotions etc.
  

So broadly, life seems to move between the physical and mental domains of attention.

This is how most of us live, our attention moves between what is happening outside, and what is happening in the mind

But when one pauses, or when the compulsive occupation with objects and thoughts quietens, one begins to notice what was previously overlooked.

This gradual loosening of attention from the content of experience, allowing one to witness the reality of experience itself, is what we can term "Spirituality"

In simple terms, "Spirituality" can be spoken of as:

• An inward observation,

• A gradual deepening of self-awareness*

• or the release of attention from objects and thoughts

  
  

What we call spiritual practices, lifestyle or teachings are simply tools that assist inward observation, but spirituality itself is neither of this — only what these points toward.

Take a few moments to reflect on the above. Do not merely collect these as definitions or concepts, but observe and verify them through yourself.

Regards,

Sandeep Ganesh

Note: (*) While the term self-awareness is used here for reference to what readers are already familiar with, Sandeep prefers to use the term “self-attention” instead of “self-awareness”