Relevance of spirituality in our society

Sometimes people say, that our society just keeps degenerating spiritually. I find it to be otherwise. It seems to me that people are rejecting the dogmatic, often material, religiosity and are searching for true, deep spirituality.

I wonder what are your opinions on this subject?

Hi Kulaji! Nice to see you on the forum.

I agree with what you have said completely. People are looking for deeper experiences of their being. I see that philosophy, ritual, and certainly fundamentalism, are being rapidly rejected by those who desire to be in touch with their essence and in touch with the moment.

But not all people share the same progressive ideals and I feel this is where the polemic arises. Those desiring to connect with their spiritual essence are drifting apart from those who do not desire this. Although I do not like the idea of such a separation, and in my idealism would find it hard to deal with such a reality were it to manfest more obviously in everyday life, I cannot avoid but observing this.

It seems that true spiritualists are tuning to a higher frequency and making great evolutionary strides while others are struggling to maintain the status quo and fearfully freezing change. Who is in which group is not obvious for it cannot be demographically determined. It seems to be something internal, of the heart, and not of the mind. Neither does it depend on some philosophical understanding. But this is another topic and one that would require a lot of discussion.

I wonder what will happen when this division reaches critical mass?

Dandavats Hariji!

Hari wrote:It seems that true spiritualists are tuning to a higher frequency and making great evolutionary strides while others are struggling to maintain the status quo and fearfully freezing change. Who is in which group is not obvious for it cannot be demographically determined.

Yes, that rift happens within each religious tradition, and it is fear and ignorance that slows down the spiritual evolution in the social sense. Yet, the overall progress on the global scale seems profound and undeniable.

I see even in my lifetime, over the last 25 years or so, how rapid this process had become. Millions of people in the West have opened up to true Eastern spirituality, with many others exploring their own traditions for deeper meaning, while rejecting mental and spiritual oppression of religious "authorities".

Will the "showdown" be between the "old school" and the "new", or between the forces of materialism and spirituality? It is hard to say. Maybe there will be no "showdown" at all? I never thought communism will fall in Russia in my lifetime, let alone without one shot being fired. Yet it happened...

Hari wrote:It seems that true spiritualists are tuning to a higher frequency and making great evolutionary strides while others are struggling to maintain the status quo and fearfully freezing change.

one more comment on this.

sometimes it takes a very dramatic (and traumatic) event in our lives to go from one camp to the other, or to at least start questioning the actual substance of our spirituality. it is no fun being in the middle of such a spiritual trauma, but with the right perspective and time we can see the immense benefit of such events.

Your realizations are very nice. And you write so well in English too!

I don't know what is going on all over the world, I don't have enough contact with most of the world to have knowledge of what the various populations are into. So I can only comment on what I see in my day to day life either from wherever I am, or from what I can learn from the internet, T.V or other written sources (I don't listen to radio).

From my day to day experience of the people around me, I can't see any type of major or even minor spiritual awakening of any type, except maybe for the mass of Christians who seem to be riled up into reactionary head spaces.

From my experience on the internet and from reading and T.V sources I see this great polarizing going on. On the one side there are reactionary preachers in league with corporate/political operatives who have been on a long time ever increasing crusade which has the goal of creating political shock troops programmed into being supportive of corporate/political goals and agendas.

On the other side are the people who fear and loath that religious, political, corporate combine.

In the various media the reactionary forces have successfully co-opted the term "religious" or "god fearing", yet they are for all practical purposes devoid of morality, spirituality, or ethical ideologies.

The people who are opposed to the reactionary forces have largely taken on a knee jerk reactive posture and often like to forcefully speak out on being anti religion or anti god. Just turn to any left wing Blog or news source and you'll often see blind faith and demagoguery displayed in vicious attacks on creationism. Even though these people know nothing about that debate, they take a knee jerk demagogic stance because of the fear they have of the reactionary forces, which they see as threatening their freedom and the planet in general.

From my perusal of the various media I don't see any type of spiritual awakening, anywhere.

But like I say I don't have direct experience of most of the world. Maybe in Botswana or Ecuador there is something going on like you two write about. Not that I don't see any kind of interest in spirituality at all, I do, I just don't see it when it comes to masses of people as being anything of any significance when compared to the last 40 years.

gangster_of_love wrote:From my day to day experience of the people around me, I can't see any type of major or even minor spiritual awakening of any type, except maybe for the mass of Christians who seem to be riled up into reactionary head spaces.

maybe you are confusing material religiosity with real spirituality. for example, most American Indians were more spiritually awake then many Christian missionaries trying to convert them.

in the awakening of true spirituality, people sometimes reject their original religion and seek deeper meaning than mundane religiosity.

but, like I said in the beginning, people have different opinions on this subject...