What is Spirit?

This was a big question that many people addressed the first day of the Tikkun Spiritual Actvism Conference, which I attended last week.

Because spirit/spirituality can mean many different things to different people, I'm beginning the discussion here so that we can have a common understanding when talking about this in the future.

For me, spirit is caring. That's the simplest, least new agey way I can put it.

At the conference...
- Berkeley Prof. Michael Nagler said, "Spirituality is an attempt to grow in sensitivity to ourselves, other humans, non-human creatures, and to God beyond totality."

- Einstein said (quoted by Nagler), "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

- Thandeka, Unitarian-Universalist minister, theologian and author, said, "Spirit is not I, it is between I and thou."

But, I feel the Dalai Lama (not at the conference) says it best so far, in the book Ethics for a New Millinneum.

"Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit -- such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony -- which bring happiness to both self and others."

I like that he connects the "qualities of spirit" with the reason we care - happiness. What happiness is is a whole other can of worms. My working definition is a feeling of satisfaction. Different things may satisfy different people, but the basics we all mostly agree on - shelter, food, a feeling of being loved and loving, and generally not suffering.

It's also important, I feel, that he brings in "and others," which is what ties this to activism and politics. A desire to bring increase the likelihood of happiness for others (thereby improving our happiness, if we're particulariy empathetic to the woes of the world) is the often underlying reason for why activists are activists. I most often hear it communicated as wanting to "make the world a better place" or "save the world" (which is what I've always said). But what's "better" and "saved" can be as diverse as the people doing the "bettering" and "saving." So, I'm going to start talking in terms of happiness (if I can handle the new-agey quotient;-)

That's about all of this I can handle right now...

Next up, Religion!