How do you cope with lack of spirituality around you

[FallingStar21]

I am a spiritual person, not religious per se, but my beliefs are quite close to the Buddhist teachings. I also respect and believe there's truth and wisdom in every religion.
My "issue" is that I struggle with the lack of spirituality around me. I mean mostly at work or random every day places where you need to talk to people etc
I never start a conversation of that sort (in fact I shy away from disclosing anything about my personal faith). But as people love to discuss all kinds of things and share their opinions, I have realised that the majority are very much in the material so their interests and priorities are very different. They can often be very sceptical, if not dismissive, of anything that's not part of it and that's another reason I don't say much on such topics.
Of course everyone has a right to believe or not believe whatever they like, but ithe lack of spiritual awareness and mindfulness is really bringing me down. Anyone else feels that way?

I’ve answered iterations of your question several times over, you just don’t seem to be getting the answer you want. So I feel very bored with it now. You can keep trolling through my past posts as much as you like.

Now let’s move on, for everyone’s sake, including yours, I won’t be engaging any more with you.

I was thinking just now one of the most spiritual things is often just caring about people and showing it practically.

No high fallooting conversations or big words needed. 🙂

Like the lyrics in these songs:

Where? Where did you say whether there's a difference between "all black people are criminals" and "in my opinion, all black people are criminals?" And whether the latter is completely fine and anyone who gets offended is clinging to a state of feeling insulted?

It's okay If you can't answer, you'd probably tie yourself even further in knots if you tried.

"I guess “what is truth/real” is a very wide question. What do you think is reality? How do we decide what is real/truth at all?"

@OMG12

I get the feeling we're all only just at the very beginning of finding out.

I think it’s a really good question. I’ve seen lots of different definitions of spirituality over the years. Most of them involve a search for meaning, many include a belief in something outside or in addition to a person’s physical being. Some of the definitions do not exclude atheists and o know many spiritual atheists.

How do you see spirituality? Do you think you could be both spiritual and an atheist? How do you define atheism? What does it mean to you?

Do you think we will ever be able to find out in this life?

@OMG12, nope, not completely.

I think my atheism is rooted in the material world, no belief in a god looking over us, no organising hand, just an absence of belief. I haven’t got any beliefs in anything mystic. I guess I’m interested in how we got here but I’m not sure there is a reason for us being here.

I think spirituality to me means feeling connected to the everything else in existence on a emotional level rather than a cognitive level. I’ve only ever experienced it in meditation (I am not a meditator anymore, little time and wasn’t very good at it when I did try) I had one experience where I felt like I had melted into the world if that makes sense. Thats the closest to any spiritual feeling I’ve ever had.

I think people use “spiritual” in different ways, I knew someone who considered themselves to be spiritual who believed they had a psychic ability to affect energy which was interesting. I don’t ever have conversations about being spiritual (partly because I wouldn’t describe myself that way) and partly because I think it’s probably more a state of being. I imagine people who are extremely spiritual don’t say much about it, they just are.

I think spiritual conversations also are those that happen when you are often in your cups or it’s just before dawn and the world is quiet, it’s usually a moment of reflection isn’t it, it’s organic. Because I think it’s a feeling and a state of mind I think participants have to be in a similar state to share those feelings thoughts and reflections. So to Op’s point I don’t think people are solely focussed on material stuff it’s just getting them at the right time.

I’ve been thinking about your response today. It raises many interesting points/questions.

That feeling of connectedness is often felt by people who would consider themselves spiritual and it’s interesting to hear you describe the same thing and describe yourself as non- spiritual. What do you think connected to what? I believe in emanationationism , that we are all come from The One in reality there is no separation. But interested to hear your take on what you felt.

Do you think we are all energy and that is all connected? You mention the person you knew who claimed to be able to alter it in some way, presumably she was a magic practitioner of some kind. You say you found it interesting- in what way.

i think it’s an interesting point about when people feel spiritual, a time before the dawn when it’s quiet. There’s a lovely hymn “Be still for the presence of the Lord” and I think this rings true across all beliefs. The need for still and quiet to connect to an other.
which is often where meditation comes in. Over time and with practice it’s possible to create stillness everywhere (meditation can occur anywhere - no need to be sat cross legged - in fact I never meditate like that).

Just looking through the latest posts, I honestly did not intend for this thread to turn this way. Firstly, it was meant for other spiritual people (broadly speaking), not atheists as it was a question about living in a world that you find difficult to navigate (from a spiritual point).
@StBrides thank you for bringing back the issue, this was what I was asking but it got derailed big time and now people are preaching down to others or feeling offended - what a division!
Whether people believe in Divine Presence or not, it's probably mostly the lack of certain values that have worried me. So much of this world is about satisfying the ego - dominating over weaker species and humans, greed and power, "success" and appearances. Nothing has changed much in our spiritual evolution. We think we are so great and progressive, but actually a lot of it is still base instincts and animalistic nature prevailing, not the divine in us. If we as a civilization lived with more love, respect and compassion to everything around us, (including all of nature) we'd be far more advanced than ever.

Whether people believe in Divine Presence or not, it's probably mostly the lack of certain values that have worried me. So much of this world is about satisfying the ego - dominating over weaker species and humans, greed and power, "success" and appearances.

I wouldn’t link that to spirituality or the lack of it.

I think I would define myself as a humanist and a materialist - by which I mean I believe in material reality rather than I am
”materialistic” and want stuff.

I believe life has an intrinsic worth. That’s the lives of plants and animals and fungi and all the stuff we don’t yet know, as well as the lives of people. I don’t think the acquisition of power, wealth or dominance are worthy pursuits when there’s so much we could do to make the world better, healthier, safer, happier.

But I don’t have any belief in the divine or a higher being. This world is amazing. It’s enough.

By not believing in anything after this life, what we do with it is so much more important.

And I don't blame them, I never called them that either. As I said, the focus of the thread has shifted in a rather unpleasant direction.

Perhaps it was my fault partly but I was asking other believers, not expecting atheists to join in as the thread wasn't intended for them.

@GolgafrinchamB fair point you don't necessarily have to be spiritual to support such values, but the two often go hand in hand as that's the foundation of many faiths. It's what Buddha taught, as well as Christ, Muhammad, Lao Tzu etc.

Good to see this thread revived. Thanks for the link @AliShah34 .

This is an interesting post. I always felt like this esp in my 20s and have always been interested in theology too. I like learning about religions and equally anti-capitalistic and anti-materialistic. Sone of my conclusions 20 years later:

I find people who feel “spiritual” usually say things like “I align with buddhism” but don’t actually know anything about buddhism and never been to a Buddhist temple or met buddhists. I think a lot of it is because of the media and movies portraying buddhism as a “spiritual” religion. It’s not a religion though, it’s just a way of life for some people, not very different from other faiths. You’ll also find that a lot of buddhist majority countries have committed genocides including against the Rohinga and Uyghur people. Buddhism is also closely related to confuciusm. Have you been anywhere around people who follow these? I’ve found their lives , behind the pretty quotes and incense, to be very materialistic. Spirituality is not buddhism. Buddhism is spirituality.

i think spirituality is more to do with purpose.

Btw you won’t find people who think or feel like you at work because everyone has their work face on. No one really is their true self generally, not even those who claim to be “spiritual”. It’s an area studied by Psychologist Carl Jung and others and even he is not the “god” of this topic. No one is.

My feelings now about spirituality is that it is more about privilege. You assess your privileges in this materialistic world and you see what true materialism is. It’s not just “superficial” things like nice cars, big houses, fancy clothes etc. you see that the cost of materialism is actually murdering people for oil, land and materials. I can think of quite a few people now suffering at the hands of that kind of evil: the innocent people of Palestine, DR Congo etc.

i think true spirituality is knowing that the “spiritual” feeling is the beginning of everything. That in this temporary world we have to help others. Perhaps you need to find the purpose to your spirituality rather than “feel good” conversations with others. The latter is not spiritually btw - that’s more about “belonging”. It’s natural to want to feel belonging and have others accept you but that is not spirituality.

Explore your spirituality more, by yourself, and let it lead you somewhere, to your purpose. Right now you’re floundering around the early stages of your growth so you have to push through it and see the bigger picture. The bigger picture is usually being more aware of others suffering, and less of your own.

you start to realise that talking about spiritualism is really just a narcissistic, privileged trait. A bit like when some people love yo go to Church to act holier than thou, rather than actually worship. Acting on spiritualism is the only thing that will make us closer to understanding God.

Buddhism is NOT spirituality*

The spam zombie shambles pinkly across the boards…

So far as I can tell from this resurrected thread, "spiritual" might as well be a synonym for "disingenuous and arrogant". Well done, "spiritual" people, you really played a blinder here 🤣

Is that your website? Did you register just to advertise it?

@TipulophobiaIsReal

The spam zombie shambles pinkly across the boards…

Rather poetic that. Bit Jabberwockyesque. Funny how people can derive meaning even from stuff that on first glance appears to be nonsensical....🙂

And then deeply ironic you follow it with this:

So far as I can tell from this resurrected thread, "spiritual" might as well be a synonym for "disingenuous and arrogant". Well done, "spiritual" people, you really played a blinder here 🤣

Ah, the universality of ego and such wisdom and foolery in one single post...

Love a bit of foolery.

Read the thread again and tell me that the self-identified "spiritual people" come across well, @heyhohello. Go on. I dare you.

@TipulophobiaIsReal I did this morning when it popped up. The self identified 'spiritual people' struck me as coming across as no worse than the people who didn't identify as spiritual tbh. We are all learning new things everyday and these discussions often can help clarify things.

Define “well”.

It’s an interesting point you make about Buddhism seemingly equating to spirituality (to the point of being almost interchangeable in the West). I blame yoga (which for the most part it moves nicked off Scandinavian gymnastics- at least in the guise most people come across it).

it throws up some interesting results when mixed with a western mindset that’s for sure.

What do people who feel that there isn't enough spirituality around them want?