Defining Spirituality
Self-transformation in the search for a higher truth
The New Mindscape #A1–2
Spirituality starts with the feeling that somehow there is more to life than daily things like studying, working, making money, buying things, grasping for power, or seeking the approval or admiration of others.
What should I do with my life? How should I live my life?
Somehow, we feel that there is some deeper purpose and significance to life. Somehow, we feel that we have a deeper connection with all of humanity and even the whole universe. There is “something.”
But what is that thing? Spirituality starts with the feeling inside us that there is “something” — some kind of meaning and purpose, and with it a feeling that this “something” is not just an abstract idea — that “who I am” is connected to that “something”. If I want to know who I truly am, or to fully develop, grow, or transform myself as a person, I want to know more about that “something”.
A spiritual orientation to life starts with the assumption that life is not just about making money, acquiring reputation, asserting power over others, or indulging in sensual pleasures — that there is “something else” that matters more, that our life has a higher purpose or significance, one which involves a deeper connection with others, with the universe, and with something we might call divine.
For some, such a “spiritual orientation” may be an illusion, a mere fantasy. For some, it may be a vague feeling that arises from time to time; for others, it might be a strong conviction; and for others, it might be something so natural that they never even think about it.
But what is that higher purpose or significance, that connection, that “something”? It’s hard to express in words. It refers to something invisible and intangible, something about our inner being, something transcendent, something that connects us to something bigger — all of these “somethings” is what we call “spiritual”.
The word “spiritual” has many meanings and can be understood in many ways. The English word is derived from the Latin word spirare, meaning “to breathe”, and came to carry the meaning of “breath of life”. This is the root of the word “spirit” which was associated with the notion of the “soul”.
There are several Chinese terms that have some connection to the term “spirit”, including shen (神), ling (靈), qi(氣), or the modern term of jingshen (精神). “Spiritual” is nowadays often translated as lingxing (靈性).
These terms have different connotations in different contexts. That said, when people speak of what is “spiritual” in the context of “spirituality”, they often refer to what they perceive to be a dimension of reality or an invisible order that may have some or all of the following characteristics: it transcends the material realm and human comprehension; it is life-giving; it is a source of consciousness; it has intention or purpose; it connects all beings, it is an aspect of our deepest essence.
Having a spiritual orientation to life leads to specific ways of understanding and nurturing yourself. In academic jargon, this involves constituting yourself as a spiritual subject — as a conscious and reflexive person in realms perceived as transcending the immediately visible and material world.
Another way of putting it is to say that this involves seeing yourself as being a soul or having a spiritual nature, and nurturing your soul — to consider that the dimension of reality that is often called “spiritual” is the most important part of who you are.
People nurture their spirituality through certain practices, experiences, disciplines, learning, conversations, and participation in social communities and institutions. These are means by which we construct our self, nurturing our spirituality in a specific way — as someone who is engaged in self-transformation, discovering or attaining our essence as being more than mortal flesh, and living in, interacting with, and aligning ourselves to a meaningful cosmos that extends deeper or beyond the immediate materiality of the world as it appears to the senses.
The ancient Greeks called this orientation and concern the “care of the self” (epimeleia heautou). This involved the art of governing oneself, so that you could take better care of others — of your family and of the community, the polis. In Chinese, this can be compared to the notion of xiu (修) applied to the self, including xiuyang (修養), xiushen (修身), xiulian (修煉) and xiuxing (修行).
What are the forms of knowledge, practice, and social relations through which people care for themselves and nurture their spirituality? For the scholar of Daoism Louis Komjathy, they are “techniques of transformation” that “aim to facilitate and initiate a shift in ontological condition”[1] from the self constituted by the unreflexive habits of daily life, to a self that strives to become conscious of, to experience, or to encounter a spiritual, sacred or ultimate reality.
The French philosopher Michel Foucault defined spirituality as:
“the search, practice, and experience through which the subject carries out the necessary transformations on himself in order to have access to the truth.” [2]
The key idea here is that spirituality is a search for truth, and that this search involves a process of transformation of oneself. Spirituality is an access to truth that comes through self-transformation rather than through the accumulation of knowledge.
The philosopher Richard White considers that there are three aspects to spirituality:
(1) a movement away from the ordinary goals and preoccupations of everyday life, such as wealth, power, and status, and openness to higher values and truths;
(2) some kind of quest or journey toward the truth and ‘‘ultimate’’ meaning;
(3) an integrated life that involves our whole self; it is not a hobby or a secondary aspect apart from the rest of our existence.[3]
In short, then, spirituality is a search for a higher truth beyond the mundane goals of everyday life, which involves the commitment and transformation of one’s whole self.
For more discussion on Foucault’s views on spirituality, see my essay “Why Western Philosophy Forgot Greek Spirituality, and How Foucault Retrieved it”.
On different academic approaches to spirituality, see my essay “Academic Approaches to Sprituality: Positivist, Applied and Critical.”
On the relationship between spirituality and sociological and anthropological theory, see my essay “Spirituality as Method in Anthropology and Sociology: It’s Been There All Along”.
[1] Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection, 25.
[2] Michel Foucault, The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the College de France, 1981–1982. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
[3] Richard White, “Foucault on the Care of the Self as an Ethical Project and a Spiritual Goal”. Human Studies (2014) 37:489–504, DOI 10.1007/s10746–014–9331–3.
The New Mindscape series is a practical exploration of spirituality rooted in the critical perspectives of anthropology and sociology.
Click here to read the first essay in the series (#A1–1): Your Operating System.
Click here to read the next essay in the series (#A2–1): Cultivating your Mindscape.
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This essay and the New Mindscape Medium series are brought to you by the University of Hong Kong’s Common Core Curriculum Course CCHU9014 Spirituality, Religion and Social Change, with the support of the Asian Religious Connections research cluster of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
