I've been doing a lot of reading and listening to talks about neuroscience myself, and it's lead to an interesting revelation. Basically, a truly staggering amount of our experience of the world is manufactured between our ears and within our own skin. Our capacity for self-deception is truly enormous, but the corollary to that is that our capacity to chart the course of our own mental lives is also enormous.
That's not to say it's easy... but understanding how our own minds work leads to some amazing revelations. For instance, the number of cognitive fallacies and traps that we all tend to buy into unless we know about them. Like assuming that winning the lottery would make us happier, and becoming paraplegic would make us less happy, when in fact science shows that neither of these things tend to shift a person's long-term mean happiness levels. Just the proven power of the placebo effect alone should be a big flashing light showing that our decisions about things has as much effect on our mental state as the thing itself
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As a side note to this discussion, I have since learned that the original, true definition of "spirit" literally means "breath"! Who would have thought! So yoga is technically spiritual, since it is greatly about the breath. And I guess my personal definition of the word isn't too far off - since most everything "breathes" in some manner or another, it all technically has a spirit!
I think that there is also joy and understanding in the exploration of our own spirituality. I was born and raised protestant and have been a member of the Southern Baptist Church. Through work and martial arts, I've been exposed to a fair amount of Islam and Buddhism and I am amazed by the similarities when you get past the superficial aspects or the fanatics of each faith
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I use the word "spiritual" in a unique way, but stay away from it in general discussion because most people think of the dictionary term, which is not at all what I think of when I hear the word. Also, when I explain what I think of it, most people give me strange looks. Haha. But basically, I think of a spiritual journey, or spirituality, as the direct connection between all things. Every living thing has a "spirit", or a life, you might say. I feel that everything is equal to everything else, with nothing being seen as greater or lesser. There is a heirarchy of course, if forced to choose between preserving one thing or another, but ideally that choice shouldn't have to be made. Everything has its place in our ecology and biology and exists to fill that spot in the web of all life. Nothing is useless or unnecessary. And having a finite life, all things should be considered as precious and irreplacable. If this mindset were adopted by a majority of people across the globe, I'm certain we have far, far fewer problems!! :P
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That's not to say it's easy... but understanding how our own minds work leads to some amazing revelations. For instance, the number of cognitive fallacies and traps that we all tend to buy into unless we know about them. Like assuming that winning the lottery would make us happier, and becoming paraplegic would make us less happy, when in fact science shows that neither of these things tend to shift a person's long-term mean happiness levels. Just the proven power of the placebo effect alone should be a big flashing light showing that our decisions about things has as much effect on our mental state as the thing itself ( ... )
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