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The question isn't what IS spirituality? it's what ISN'T spirituality?
I like the way TJ's questions redress the question.
The Marxist notion of historical materialism, for example, is, for me,
what spirituality is not. Take the argument that God didn't create
"man" (humans) but man created God -- it served the interest of the
elite. A different, spiritual (I think) interpretation of the nature
of reality -- a different ontology -- might say, as I would, that
something deeper lies behind the behavior of the elite, viz., a force
like fear.
When I changed my metaphysics, when I changed my ontology -- my
perception of the nature of the world -- it was then that I got in
touch with my spirituality. It also changed my view of the
fundamental forces for social change. Forces like love, fear, the
will-to-live ... now appear to me as fundamental wellsprings of social
change (progressive and regressive) and *things* like changes in the
distribution of wealth and power, however important, became
instrumental. Not that this is in everyone's notion of spirituality,
but it is part of mine.
Women (currently :) seem to be more often attuned to their spiritual
side and I think that potential for greatest change around
environmental issues will have a spiritual base. So social change
under the rubric of "ecofeminism" holds much promise for me.
... don roper
