DEAR BENJAMIN, PLEASE DON'T REPEAT WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN AS YOUR OWN UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND IT AND BELIEVE IT TO BE TRUE. THEN REWRITE IT IN YOU OWN WORDS. IF YOU CAN'T EXPRESS IT IN YOUR OWN WORDS, QUOTE ME, AND TELL YOU TEACHER: I ASKED MY GRANDFATHER, AND THIS IS WHAT HE WROTE. YOYO ======================================== What is your definition of spirituality? ======================================== The definition of spirituality is contingent on the context. Etymologically, spirit derives from the Latin "spiritus", breath, which is a rendering of the Greek "pneuma", as a name for the intangible quality of human life - since a person's breath, pneuma, spiritus appeared, at least prior to modern physiology, to be without bounds, literally "undefined", that phase of existence in which biological life merges or flows into the infinite or unbounded - both in space and time. The context in which the term spirituality becomes meaningful is the social environment into which a person is born, which molds his personality as he matures, and which receives the products of his labor as an adult. The term "culture" designates the intersection of the spirituality of an individual and his society. As a term of approbation, culture is that quality of society which transforms it into a home for the (individual) spirit, and makes it unnecessary for the individual to flee into the wilderness and become a hermit to preserve his/her spirituality. Spirituality is a term that mirrors the paradoxical relationship between the individual and society. Not only the physical, but also the mental and emotional existence of the individual is the product of society. A person needs both to be a member of society and to be independent of society. Society makes the life of the individual possible, rewards him with honor and wealth. At the same time society threatens the individual with punishment, imprisonment and death. The Temple and the Church are institutions that invoke God to reconcile the individual to society. For some persons that reconciliation is successful, for others it is not. =========================================================== How have your life experiences shaped your spirituality and your perception of spirituality in general? =========================================================== The notable manifestation of spirituality in our family is music. When we play - or listen to a musical composition such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony the inward "spiritual" experience of the individual musician merges the the experience of other musicians and indeed with that of members of the audience. ==================================== Is spirituality freer than religion? ==================================== It's a matter of definition. For some persons, spirituality and religion are synonymous. The spiritual needs of others require strict formality, religious "orthodoxy". For yet others formal religion and spirituality are mutually exclusive. Shakespeare, whose plays demonstrate a spirituality more profound than is apparent in the work any other English writer, was notably indifferent to formal institutionalized religion. ============================================================================ How has witnessing religious persecution affected your opinion of the relationship between religion and spirituality? ============================================================================ Persecution in the name of religion suggests that religion is expressive of human nature, but does not alter it. Similarly spirituality may be interpreted as an essentially neutral facet of human nature. There's enough "evil" spirit rampant in the world to do much damage. Semantic distictions between "religion" and "spirituality" are of little help in determining what action an individual should or should not take under any given set of circumstances. ===================================================================== Does a sense of spirituality lend more control to ones life than does a sense of religion? ===================================================================== This question presumes (as does the preceding question) a fundamental distinction between religion and spirituality. If religion and spirituality are synonymous, i.e., if a truly religious person is by virtue of that religiosity a deeply spiritual person, and if conversely a deeply spiritual person is by virtue of that spirituality also a truly religious person, then the question vanishes. It is as invidious to assume that a person who values formal religion is necessarily "hypocritical" as it is unrealistic to assume that such formal religion is necessarily emblematic of profound spirituality. The term "control of ones life" points to questions which are not clarified by the distinction between spirituality and religion. "Control of ones life" should be assayed in terms of the Socratic imperative that "the unexamined life is not worth living", in terms of challenges to "free will" by such authors as Schopenhauer, and in terms of the existentialist identity of subjectivity, inwardness and divinity. Arguably there is little difference between the "control of ones life" of the kierkegaardian existentialist whose life is controlled by divine subjectivity, i.e. by an inward "God", or the pious orthodox Jew the control of whose life is Jehovah, or the pious Christian whose life is in control of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). =================================================================== Does your strong sense of self-sufficiency connect to spirituality? =================================================================== Yes. Spirituality, meaning "inwardness" or "subjectivity" by definition makes one feel independent of ones fellow human beings, i.e. makes one feel self-sufficient. Yet on closer inspection such "self-sufficiency" is based on "spiritual" experiences, e.g. music, poetry, philosophy, that are essentially social and therefore belie the apparent self-sufficiency". ======================================================= You often ask me, How's life: Good? Bad? Or in between? How can one's spirituality affect ones response? ======================================================= "One's spirituality", that is, sensitivity combined with intelligence will affect ones evaluation of the quality of life inasmuch as it enables one to recognize that "life" is inward, that "life" is deep beneath the surface of the vagaries of existence, of the haphazard accidental changes that befall us; that these "accidents" of existence will make us neither happy nor sad. Such was the teaching of the Stoics.