Spirituality is not something elusive

What is spirituality? Is it difficult to define? Does our understanding of spirituality have to do with which religion we are? Can an atheist be spiritual?

I’d like to think that spirituality can be understood independent of one’s religion. There are elements of spirituality which transcend culture and religion. When I wrote my Zen book, The Zen Teachings of Jesus, in the mid-90s, I defined Zen based on a number of elements. I will do the same to spirituality here.

Perhaps people’s difficulty in understanding spirituality has to do with the difficulty in defining “spirit.” What is “spirit”? One way to understand spirituality is to compare and contrast it with materialism. To be materialistic is to base one’s happiness on material things — money, possessions, fame, power, etc. To be spiritual, on the other hand, is to derive one’s happiness from non-material things. Typically, if someone can be happy or content without relying on the abundance of wealth and other material possessions, chances are that such person is spiritual.

Let us now spell out some elements of spirituality that transcend specific culture and specific religion:

1. Joy — can you have joy and be content with a bare minimum of material things?

2. Surrender and letting go — can you relax and accept the fact that many things are not under your control? Can you relax and surrender to what is?