What is Spirituality?
Spirituality in a broad sense is a concern with matters of the spirit. It is a wide term with many available readings. It may include belief in supernatural powers, as in religion, but the emphasis is on personal experience. Usually a persons own private beliefs in regard to nature or ethical matters. Spiritualities are often viewed as sensitivity or attachment to religious values or to things of the spirit as opposed to material or worldly interests.
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Activities associated with spirituality are those which renew, lift up, comfort, heal and inspire those with whom we interact as well as ourselves. Spirituality provide a sense of meaning and purpose, a sense of self and 'that which is greater than self'. It is also practices such as meditation and 'bonding rituals' which support such identity and relationship. Religion represents only a minor subset of the overall themes of spirituality and spiritual practices. However, religion may in some cases hinder rather than assist in spiritual development, especially in the workplace as expressed in organisations in issues such as 'belonging' (identification with).
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However, Spirituality is more of a way of living that emphasises a constant awareness of the spiritual dimension of nature, with acknowledgement of its contractual relationship between the material world and the spiritual. Spirituality gives one an inner sense of something greater than oneself. It is recognition of an existence that transcends one's immediate circumstances.
Spirituality in Education
Education should be esoteric in nature. It should provide a "drawing out" of the kind of knowledge that is inseparable from one's own being. Education should include inner education that answers the most simple yet fundamental questions that are asked by every child. In short it should satisfy the mystery of being alive. Education should bring us to the realisation that the spiritual governs and controls the material everywhere. We should come to realize that all of earthly existence is therefore impregnated with meaning, value and the possibility.
