Is Meditation Spiritual?

Intro

The other day, while explaining my work to someone, I was asked whether meditation is a spiritual practice. I walked away feeling that there was a lot more to be said on the topic than I was able to put into words at the time, so I decided to make it the focus of this week's blog.

What Does Spiritual Mean?

The word spiritual originates from the Latin word spiritus, meaning “breath” or “spirit,” which itself is derived from spirare, meaning “to breathe.” In Latin, spiritus referred both to the literal breath and to a concept of a life-giving force or essence.

The word later evolved in Old French as spirituel, which described anything relating to the soul or immaterial essence of a person. By the time it entered English in the 14th century, spiritual came to signify matters related to the non-material aspects of life, especially the soul or spirit, as distinct from the physical world.

Over time, spiritual has broadened in meaning to encompass ideas related to an inner life, personal beliefs, and non-religious approaches to connecting with self, others, or the world on a deeper level. It’s why today we have both religious and non-religious uses of the term.

Here are some ways people commonly define it today:

• Connection to Self

  • Spirituality can mean a deep, authentic connection with oneself—a sense of understanding one's values, emotions, and purpose. This type of spirituality is often about self-discovery, introspection, and becoming aligned with one’s true self.

• Connection to Others or Nature

  • For many, spirituality involves a feeling of interconnectedness with others or the natural world. It can be a sense of shared humanity, compassion, or unity that transcends individual differences.

• A Sense of the Transcendent or Sacred

  • Some define spirituality as a relationship with something beyond themselves, like a higher power, universal energy, or life force. This sense of the “sacred” doesn’t have to be religious but often relates to the feeling that there’s a deeper layer of existence, mystery, or beauty in life.

• Meaning and Purpose

  • Spirituality can also mean searching for or recognizing purpose and meaning in life. For some, this involves philosophical or ethical reflection, while for others, it might include religious beliefs or practices.

In meditation, “spiritual” might mean allowing yourself to explore any or all of these forms of connection. It could be as simple as cultivating self-awareness or as complex as experiencing a sense of unity with the world around you.

Rounding Edges' Approach

It took me a long while and much choosiness to land on the motto for Rounding Edges: Realizing Well-Being. On first hearing, it may sound like any other cliche wellness slogan, but the purpose of Rounding Edges is contained within that phrase.

In Rounding Edges' approach, meditation encompasses tools and techniques to recognize and return to our deepest nature—what could be called pure awareness—and to experience our inherent well-being.

For those who have attended Mindful Moment, our recurring group meditation series, you will be tired of hearing this analogy that I was taught by one of my meditation teachers: Our deepest nature, which is felt inherently as a sense of simple well-being, lies behind all of our experiences just like the blue sky behind the clouds. All things that move through and or block out the sky entirely are our experiences - thoughts, emotions, sensations - and the simple awareness of experiencing is the blue sky. All experiences are objects of awareness (clouds) and therefore the subject must be the pure awareness itself which experiences the objects (the blue sky). What is therefore suggested is that a sense of well-being is not achieved or earned but rather revealed, or realized, as our inherent nature behind the content of all our experiences.

In this approach, we first use meditation to help people experience awareness and their innate sense of well-being. We then explore the implications:

• In the deepest sense of self, we are not our thoughts, emotions, bodies, or experiences.

• The awareness that is my deepest nature is the same as any other humans'.

• All objects of our awareness are mental representations. That which lies behind the mental representations cannot be known because the only way we have to know them is through further mental representations.

• That which cannot be known is the same that we are: the subjective awareness.

Now, is this act of meditation and the understandings gained through first hand experience a spiritual practice?

That's up to you! I'd like to end with a poem that answers this question as best I can:

If I say yes, I’m wrong

If I say no, I’m wrong

If I say maybe, I’m wise

If I say nothing, I am