Chapter 15: Spirituality
Spirituality can mean many things from seeking connectedness to believing in a variety of spirits. Whatever it is, seeking something beyond physical reality provides the core.
Being connected and feeling connected challenge measurement but they are real to the person feeling connected. The connection seeking includes with self, with others, with certain items like works of art or a car or canoe, with elements in the natural world or places, and with the mystery underlying or within physical reality.
Ken Wilbur and others speak of the Spirit driving the evolving of the physical world and us and evolving along with us. I have this Spirit in mind at times when I mention the Holy Mystery.
For many artists, the spirit may be connected to an object from which they are going to release a sculpture such as a piece of wood, stone, clay, or other material. It may be the song or poem or instrumental music or novel or play that lurks within an event, place, object, person, or within themselves.
Some people look for a spirit that is part or within objects or plants or animals or people and so on. Many associate spirits with great trees, the ocean, a river, a mountain, or planet and such things.
This is the belief system behind the community of Findhorn in Scotland. They believe there is a kind of template for each living plant, the best it can be, and their gardeners are able to get a sense of what each plant needs to reach for that template. They succeed in growing plants that other people would consider impossible to grow in their location with their climate, surprising experts and others. I first learned of this place in a book titled, “Magic of Findhorn” that I found in the gardening section of Coles more than 40 years ago. They did not know where to put a New Age book. The founder chose this location because he believed it was at a thin place between our physical reality and a spiritual reality. The community is based in part on a kind of spiritualism.
There are many communities created for spiritual reasons such as Iona in Scotland and many that have become retreat centres around the world.
Some are connected to churches such as the Roman Catholic Church and some are private communities. Naramata Centre in the Okanogan in BC started as a learning centre for the United Church of Canada and became focused a great deal on spirituality.
Spiritual but not religious (SBNR) people generally seek spirituality for their faith development.
Spirituality can mean many things from seeking connectedness to believing in a variety of spirits. Whatever it is, seeking something beyond physical reality provides the core.
Being connected and feeling connected challenge measurement but they are real to the person feeling connected. The connection seeking includes with self, with others, with certain items like works of art or a car or canoe, with elements in the natural world or places, and with the mystery underlying or within physical reality.
Ken Wilbur and others speak of the Spirit driving the evolving of the physical world and us and evolving along with us. I have this Spirit in mind at times when I mention the Holy Mystery.
For many artists, the spirit may be connected to an object from which they are going to release a sculpture such as a piece of wood, stone, clay, or other material. It may be the song or poem or instrumental music or novel or play that lurks within an event, place, object, person, or within themselves.
Some people look for a spirit that is part or within objects or plants or animals or people and so on. Many associate spirits with great trees, the ocean, a river, a mountain, or planet and such things.
This is the belief system behind the community of Findhorn in Scotland. They believe there is a kind of template for each living plant, the best it can be, and their gardeners are able to get a sense of what each plant needs to reach for that template. They succeed in growing plants that other people would consider impossible to grow in their location with their climate, surprising experts and others. I first learned of this place in a book titled, “Magic of Findhorn” that I found in the gardening section of Coles more than 40 years ago. They did not know where to put a New Age book. The founder chose this location because he believed it was at a thin place between our physical reality and a spiritual reality. The community is based in part on a kind of spiritualism.
There are many communities created for spiritual reasons such as Iona in Scotland and many that have become retreat centres around the world.
Some are connected to churches such as the Roman Catholic Church and some are private communities. Naramata Centre in the Okanogan in BC started as a learning centre for the United Church of Canada and became focused a great deal on spirituality.
Spiritual but not religious (SBNR) people generally seek spirituality for their faith development.
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