When we use the word "spirituality" as a label for a galaxy of beliefs and practices that have little if anything to do with our spirit, we can distract and deceive ourselves. We can believe we are attending to our spirit when in fact we are attending to something else.
Many so-called spiritualities are not about our spirit at all. Take for example the search for meaning as Victor Frankl presents it in his book Man's Search for Meaning.
Searching for meaning is very much an intellectual pursuit. It requires hours of thought. We have to ask questions, read, study, think, discuss, evaluate, and reach conclusions about the purpose of our life. Is our life inherently meaningful or not? Is meaning something that we ourselves create for ourselves or is it a given? If it is something we create for ourselves, then is what is meaningful the same for all of us or is it different for each one of us? If we create meaning for ourselves, how do we do it? The serach for meaning is a very heady endeavor.
From the perspective of Thumotics, engaging in the search for meaning has little if anything to do with our spirit. If anything calling it a spiritual endeavor distracts us from our spirit and deceives us into believing that when we search for meaning we're taking care of our spirit when we're not.
When we engage in the search for meaning we're actually taking care of our mind and mental health. It's a psychological rather than a spiritual endeavor. Frankl was a psychiatrist.
Being spirited, alive, precedes our search for meaning. In order to search for the meaning of our life we must first be alive. We must first be spirited. Without spirit we cannot search for meaning. Spiritedness ontologically precedes our search for meaning.
So, let's be clear: the search for meaning is a mental activity that has little to do with our spirit. Since it is a mental activity it is an aspect of psychology not spirituality. Does this make it any less valuable? No, not at all.
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