Spirituality and Early Spiritual Groups - Essay Example

? Spirituality  Introduction:       Spiritual refers to anything that is not material in nature. All the qualities that make up a human being – aptitude, gentleness, imaginative, and so on – are non-objective in nature. Even whatever human beings seek to get are non-physical, for example love and happiness. It is spirituality that created the world because whatever one thinks in his mind is what makes his world. It is believed that everything that is required to bring in happiness and good experiences, lie within a human being and is not required to come from outside. As Ron Eager had stated, “We have within ourselves a great reservoir of wisdom, strength and peace waiting to be recognized and released. Once we are strong within ourselves, we find that outer circumstances begin to mirror the inner, and life starts to change for the better.” Spirituality goes beyond the form of things, and is highly realistic in nature. It is about finding significance to an imperfect world and use what is learnt to remain healthy and happy (Preston, 1-3).  Spirituality and Early Spiritual Groups:       Capabilities of a human being remain restrained owing to his weaknesses or faults. According to the beliefs of spirituality, the first step in spirituality is to fight a conflict against all the wickedness that is present within one.  The process of self-refinement is referred to as “Tapa” or penance. It implies the process of searching all the disrepute within a personality and set right the attitudes through tremendous efforts. Discipline, time management, financial controls, and productive contemplation are the main constituents of the process. The next step is to improve one’s worthiness and this is done through “Yoga”. It refers to uniting the “Self” with the “Supreme soul”. Man’s personal God is nothing but a complete assembly of moral tendencies and qualities (Brahmavarchas, 23-25).       There were several early groups of spirituality, which include Paganism, Wicca, and so on. Paganism was concerned with perceiving systems of rituals. Students of earliest belief were well sensitive that paganism did not encourage any trust. Paganism could accept the values and practices of others much more voluntarily than many ideological religions. Till the beginning of neo-paganism, which is the revived Paganism of modern times, the term paganism was used to denote any religion other than Christianity. Because our ancestors had no refuge under the multi cultural shade, and had no legislative rules to follow, so every other religion other than the Christians could be called or even insulted as ‘Pagans’. Paganism would thus refer to the pre-Christian religious practices in Europe (Dowden, 2-3). Modern Paganism is among the top growing religions in the United States. The most well known Neo-Paganism religious movement is the Wicca and is very popular in the United Kingdom, the United States, and at other places (Strmiska, 1-2).       Wicca is referred to the religion of the witches. This religion has long been masked in mystery. If anyone had to learn anything about them, the only available sources were books to get hints from. People were displeased with conservative forms of spirituality. They were in search for a religion that would combine the realization of divinity with magic. Wicca was such a religion that would center on worship for natural world as seen in the Goddess and the God. Many people started practicing Wicca. However today’s times are changing, and Wicca, as a religion, is also changing. It is an amalgamation of Gods and Goddesses, of the complete energies that created all in reality (Cunningham, xiii-xiv).       The term “Shamanism” reflects a number of beliefs and rituals that are incessantly changing and growing as new religions. There are evidences of shamanistic elements in the pre-historic times, for example some old people in Hispaniola had been found to use tobacco to communicate with spirits or worship devils. This happened in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries (Walter & Fridman, xv-xvi). Joan Townsend had worked on earlier definitions and derived a definition for the Shamans which states that, “A shaman is one who has direct communication with spirits, is in control of spirits and altered states of consciousness, undertakes some (magical) flights, to the spirit world, and has a this-material-world focus rather than a goal of personal enlightenment. Spirits may be allowed to enter the sharman’s body, and speak through him. And he can call spirits to be present at a ceremony. He/she usually remembers at least some part of a soul journey and normally is a healer” (Walter & Fridman, xxii).       Shamanism was defined as the earliest belief. The shamans were the original humans with awareness. Although shamans have advanced in modern times, yet they still use tools such as drums, music and dance. Wicca is described as a shamanic religion. With use of spiritual tools, Wicca achieves a condition of ritual realization similar to those like the shamans (Cunningham, 3-4).  Spirituality and Religion: The Modern Views       People often articulate spirituality in terms of religion. Some people are of the belief that if religions are not followed, then one is not spiritual. Religion refers to a structured system of beliefs regarding a cause in relation to that system. Different religions have different frameworks that are followed. Although religions reveal particular beliefs of spirituality, yet there are many ways of accepting spirituality that vary form religion. Through spirituality, a person tries to gain something greater than him. It may or may not include any religious practice. Although while attending spirituality many people may hold on to certain religious practices, however these may at many times, restrict the full expression of spirituality (Burkhardt & Nagai-Jacobson, 11-13).       Many people following spirituality can be heard to say that even after hard and long practices, nothing could be achieved. Their expectations are high, and when that does not get fulfilled, they start losing faith. Spirituality can be seen to wane in modern times owing to the proclamations of science stressing on facts that there is no such object as God, and it’s only the science of nature that governs all human beings, etc. atheist philosophers at many times became successful in reaching their words to the people. People also wanted to see God in their own eyes. These reasons affected the faith of people, which gradually started waning away. However, as truth lies in its position, there are hops that spirituality would not vanish entirely from the earth or from the minds of the entire population. The difficulty lies in getting such people who would accept the truths of spiritual powers (Brahmavarchas, 31-38).   Misuses of Religion:       If the current religions are studied, many such instances would come up where people take benefit of their religions and misuse them in order to control others. With army supports, and supports from other religions, many times people suppress or provoke revolts in the nation. Leaders form groups to make anti communist retaliations. Lets us consider one instance. The Muslims reacted very strongly to the conversion of people to Christianity. Christians were accused of accepting communists into churches. This led to destruction of several churches. The enormous conversions of Muslims to other religions made the Islamic groups realize that the idea of “Islamization of Muslims” had to be their highest priority (Intan, 50-51). Thus from such instances the misuses of religions can be understood.   Conclusion:       Spirituality is a belief or a faith that follows an individual’s own personal values and principles. Accordingly, an individual may have different views on the faith as well. There would be some people who would not believe in God, or would not have faith in attainment of anything greater than himself. They may not try to fight their unworthiness or learn the ways of being happy. However, that would be one class of people. On the other hand there would be people who would believe in nature, believe in God, and believe in attaining greater powers in life. These powers would be their self-made. Believing in spirituality and following the ways of spirituality would help a person to understand his/her inner self, the strengths and weakness, and find out ways to fight the negatives to bring out the positives. There is no wrong in following spiritual beliefs or practicing a religion unless that practice is being misused. Spirituality or religion is supposed to do good to a human being. A man’s inner self should improve, and get cleaned from all sorts of sins through such practices. However, many people take advantage of such practices, and in the name of religion, try to control others. They treat other religions as if they should not exist. It can only be expected that people try to understand the real meaning of spirituality and practicing religions and not take advantage of them.                                            Bibliography  Preston, David Lawrence. 365 Steps to Practical Spirituality, United Kingdom: Howtobooks, 2007 Cunningham, Scott. Wicca: A guide for the Solitary Practitioner, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2007 Dowden, Ken. European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, London: Routledge, 2002 Strmiska, Michael F. Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, California: ABC-CLIO, 2005 Walter, Mariko Namba. & Fridman, Eva Jane Neumann, Shamanism: An encyclopedia of world beliefs, practices and culture, California: ABC-CLIO, 2004 Brahmavarchas. What is Spirituality?, Dr. Amitava Swaraj and Rajani Joshi (trans),  Uttarakhand: Shri Vedmata Gayatri Trust, 2007 Burkhardt, Margaret A. & Nagai-Jacobson, Mary Gail. Spirituality: living our connectedness, United States: Cengage Learning, 2002 Intan, Benyamin Fleming. “Public religion" and the Pancasila-based state of Indonesia, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2006 Read More