The Essence of Spirituality

As a word, it has more baggage than American Airlines. People sometimes ask if I am “spiritual”, and am I tongue tied. I want to say no, because I think that what it means to them is different from what it means to me, and if say yes it will mislead them. My true answer is complicated and difficult to explain. Yet some think me a spiritual person. So here is what I think spirituality is really about; the essence of spirituality.

First, let me say that I do not believe in god, the soul, afterlife, or any sort of mysterious life force, cosmic consciousness, reincarnation, karma, etc. There is simply no convincing (to me) evidence for these things, no plausible theory to explain their existence, and nothing to be gained by belief in them. That’s not to say I am certain that they do not exist, for that is impossible to prove. But I can see no reason to believe in them, because in my view and experience, all observable phenomena can be explained more simply and clearly without them. These ideas were formed as an early attempt at science, to explain the world around us, to comfort us, to guide us, and (in the case of many religions) to manipulate and control us. But in the thousands of years since, we have come up with better theories, just as we have come up with better theories to explain the workings of the solar system (Galileo) or the diversity of life forms (Darwin). The primary purpose of theories is to make predictions, and in my view these old theories are no longer useful, and can be replaced by simpler, more elegant theories which make better predictions and correlate more closely with observed reality.

Furthermore, I do not think these beliefs equate with spirituality. There are plenty of people who believe in god, afterlife, and all that, but who are anything but what I would consider spiritual.

The essence of my idea of spirituality is understanding one’s self at a deep level – what makes one happy or unhappy, what are one’s goals and values and why one has them, and what sort of actions and interactions with others will lead one toward those goals and values. The better one understands these things, at a detailed, deep, and intuitive level, the more successful one is likely to be at life.

This sort of wisdom and understanding comes from introspection and, to a lesser extent, the study of philosophy. Self reflection also leads to identification and resolution of internal conflicts, which we are all full of, as well as a deeper understanding of the true sources of happiness and unhappiness. The study of philosophy can also help us clarify our goals and values, and put ideas into practice.

Understanding one’s self is necessary in order to make accurate predictions about the effect of different actions we might take. Will eating this ice cream make me happy? Or will not getting fat make me happier? Will taking this high paying job make me happy? Or would I be happier with the lower paying job that gives me more free time? Will I be happier if I beat the crap out of the guy who scratched my car, or will I be happier if I let it slide?

People tend to be bad at making these kinds of decisions because we suffer from “cognitive biases” – our brains tell us we want option A, but in fact option B will make us happier. Our brains are riddled with these systematic errors; many books have been written about them. People are often unaware of them because our brains are like a black box to us. In order to overcome them, we must become aware of them and learn how to think our way around them. We need a deeper level of understanding of ourselves, how our minds works, and what really makes us happy. This sort of understanding can only come from introspection, often aided by study of philosophy.

So, to recap, I think that what most people really mean when they talk about spirituality is a sophisticated understanding of one’s own mind, a high level of self awareness, coupled with the ability to use that knowledge in order to achieve what we all want, which is happiness. And this has little to do with the nature or existence of a soul, or afterlife, or god; those are merely outdated models for understanding the nature of life.