Atheists: what is "spirituality"?

[Alan V]

Spirituality doesn’t necessarily concern itself with religion. It can easily be a search for meaning or purpose or enlightenment in a purely secular manner.

Boru

In that sense, I am a spirituality minimalist: the less the better -- at least at this point in my life.

[Belacqua]

The definition is fuzzy because the concept is fuzzy, and the concept is fuzzy because the things it's trying to describe are not valued or encouraged in our society.

A subjective sense of belonging in the universe, and a feeling of solidarity with other living things, cannot be quantified, packaged for sale, or weaponized. But it can be easily mocked, by portraying spiritual people as unserious and a bit loony. 

But feelings really exist, and how people feel is important. So the fact that the word is weak is a sign that some important things are also weak.

Per Wikipedia:

Spirituality is the quality of being attached to or concerned with religious questions and values broadly conceived, although the term is loosely defined, and may mean different things in different contexts. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of man", oriented at "the image of God" as exemplified by the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the world. The term was used within early Christianity to refer to a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit and broadened during the Late Middle Ages to include mental aspects of life.

In modern times, the term both spread to other religious traditions and broadened to refer to a wider range of experiences, including a range of esoteric and religious traditions. Modern usages tend to refer to a subjective experience of a sacred dimension, and the "deepest values and meanings by which people live", often in a context separate from organized religious institutions. This may involve belief in a supernatural realm beyond the ordinarily observable world, personal growth, a quest for an ultimate or sacred meaning, religious experience, or an encounter with one's own "inner dimension" or spirit.

Some spiritual people are "unserious and a bit loony," whether they are mocked for it or not.  That is likely because the idea of spirituality is so poorly defined that they try all sorts of things.

Yes, I think this is exactly right. As the Wikipedia article describes, spirituality used to be more closely associated with Christianity. That meant that there were authorities defining how it should be. 

Now that Christianity has lost so much of its cultural importance, this leaves the "deepest values and meanings" field open for individual interpretation. So of course freedom of choice is good, but of course a lot of people are going to end up with something silly. 

And of course we are a part of our ecological systems, whether we understand that or not.  We don't have to seek it, just to acknowledge it and to do something about it.

But I would say that a scientific knowledge of our place in the ecosystem is not the same as a spiritual sense of belonging. Christians had the feeling that the universe cared about what they did, even if they were socially insignificant. A scientific worldview confirms our insignificance. Spirituality, as I understand it, has something to do with an affirmation of one's belonging. Even if, after your ayahuasca trip, you think of yourself as a speck in the Great Mind of Nature (or whatever) at least you feel there's a meaning behind it all. 

"How people feel is important."  I will have to work on that one for obvious reasons.  As I admitted, I seem to lack ordinary emotional intelligence.

I don't know about your emotional intelligence... I certainly won't judge that. 

Don't you think that a society in which people feel fulfilled is to be desired, as opposed to a society in which people are mostly miserable? That's putting it in extreme terms (exaggerated for clarity) but I think that if a given culture tends to give people the tools they need to flourish, then that's a good thing. And flourishing is surely more than material wealth. (Someplace I read that the most common complaint Americans have when they go to a psychologist is that they have everything they want but they still aren't happy. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense.) 

Spirituality is, currently, a rather unorganized concept that people use when they're trying to fulfill certain (perceived) needs.

[Alan V]

I used to think it was little more than a novel trait of humanity that demonstrated some of the richness and depth of our species...now I'm not so sure.

I'm hoping you could help me express it better  So, what is spirituality?  just a religious thing?  ^some novel trait of humanity that has us "connect with something greater than ourselves"? Something more?   Who does it apply to?   I mean, what's going on there?

Back to the original question, I think people's answers will depend to a fair extent on how old they are.

I will be 70 years old this year, and if anything I look back on my life and think I approached far too much of it with the wrong assumptions.  I took it too seriously for one thing.  I didn't see life as gratuitous, like a roller coaster ride.

I am pleased that my life had meaning to a few people, who in turn were meaningful to me.  But overall I shouldn't have tried so hard to find "meaning and purpose."  Those are the kinds of words wealthy and powerful people use to enlist others in their own self-important efforts.

I wasn't important.

[Alan V]

Don't you think that a society in which people feel fulfilled is to be desired, as opposed to a society in which people are mostly miserable? That's putting it in extreme terms (exaggerated for clarity) but I think that if a given culture tends to give people the tools they need to flourish, then that's a good thing. And flourishing is surely more than material wealth. (Someplace I read that the most common complaint Americans have when they go to a psychologist is that they have everything they want but they still aren't happy. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense.) 

Spirituality is, currently, a rather unorganized concept that people use when they're trying to fulfill certain (perceived) needs.

In the U.S., people are oversold on nearly everything. That includes spirituality, or what is packaged as spirituality.

I find the principles of wabi sabi more helpful than just about anything else I have examined in my life, and I don't really think of those ideas as spiritual so much as common sense.

For instance:
1) Everything is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
2) We can find beauty in the ordinary, just by paying attention.
3) We need less than we often think.

[Belacqua]

In the U.S., people are oversold on nearly everything.  That includes spirituality, or what is packaged as spirituality.

Sad but true! 

We live in a time that's uniquely hostile to the spiritual, so that what gets sold as spiritual is too often just hype. Performative imitations that are rootless. 

One of the problems is that traditional spirituality was demanding -- you had to give up certain things in order to gain something higher. But giving up things is apparently not the American way.

That, I think, makes wabi sabi very similar to spiritual movements, if it isn't exactly the same. Heightened awareness of value and beauty, perception of what's in front of you instead of grasping after goals. It makes life better but it's closer to letting go than to getting more.

One of the things I like about traditional Japanese culture is that (before Western influence) all the categories were different from ours. They didn't think of spirituality the same way we do. The arts weren't about skillful end products (jutsu - skill) but about the way one lived it (dō - as in judo or kendo -- is the same character as the Tao in Taoism). That's pretty close to a non-religious spirituality.

[Rift Zone]

Thank you all for the great responses.  It was very illuminating.  You have definitely improved my understanding of the situation.  Really appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

And of course we are a part of our ecological systems, whether we understand that or not.  We don't have to seek it, just to acknowledge it and to do something about it.

Where did you find that?  I keep missing it.

[Paleophyte]

To me it isn't a meaningful term, probably because it's been overused. A term like this that has been used to refer to most everything ends up not meaning anything.

[arewethereyet]

I haven't given it a whole lot of thought other than is sounds very new agey and full of woo.

It certainly doesn't raise my opinion of anyone.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

To me it isn't a meaningful term, probably because it's been overused. A term like this that has been used to refer to most everything ends up not meaning anything.

Spirituality is like pornography - it’s not easy to define, but you know it when you see it.

Boru

[Simon Moon]

I do not know how to define the word "spiritual", since I do not use the term. For me, the word is almost incoherent.

For every person that uses the term, I get different definitions every time.

If one wants to use the term to describe the feeling of awe when, say, they look at a nebula through a telescope, then I guess that's fine. But it seems to be dragging a lot of woo baggage along with it.

But most people use it to describe some sort of unevidenced, and contradictory supernatural crap. Christians use it, pagans use it, Tarot card readers use it, "energy healers", etc, etc use it. And they all are referring to different things when they use it.