[Mark Lapierre]

Excellent replies everyone

Originally Posted by nosussbeliefs

Well, how do you define being spirtual? Do you mean accepting gods will? that is all that occurs? Do you have some control over your ego based desires?

To me spirituality is a belief in a undefinable, non-physical life-source. Either God, or some form of non-physical energy. Or a belief in a something greater than what we see in nature. Or the belief in a higher power. Or considering the universe to have some form of consciousness. Beliefs of that nature. I don't know what you mean by "i try to balance my desires with how the universe unfolds" so I don't know if that fits with my understanding. Could you explain that?

Originally Posted by ethereal

...but all it really takes is just the awareness of existence, because that in itself is not different than joy/love/beauty and other qualities of Divinity, i.e. you feel more "alive" when you're in love, or appreciating nature, etc. When you achieve some goal, or you're with someone you love, or eating chocolate

Being non-spiritual, I see the things you describe as non-spiritual. They come from our humanity, not any divine source. But we're not in disagreement because the end result is a set of practices which lead to happiness for all, and as long as that is the aim, as you said, the source is irrelevant

Originally Posted by Jenny

I do not believe that spirituality is a requirement for happiness, nor do I think being spiritual or not in any way impacts the level or constancy of happiness an individual feels.

In my opinion far more important than spirituality in the pursuit of happiness is the development of self-awareness and self-acceptance. The more deeply one understands and accepts themselves the more clarity they gain in identifying just what it is that brings them happiness (and I’d argue that most people are very out of touch with where their happiness comes from) on a consistent basis.

I believe that some people confuse spirituality/religion and their teachings with the road to happiness because they do give a set of possible roadmaps to attain happiness. There are other maps though.

I think spirituality leads to unhappiness when people confuse the maps they provide with the message. I do understand and believe some people have frequent, or even occasional, feelings of bliss/happiness from their spiritual beliefs/knowledge but this is not the case for all people. For the people who don’t find their happiness primarily from spirituality but try to force themselves spirituality would definitely lead to unhappiness.

I'm with you there, couldn't have said it better myself.

Originally Posted by InJoy

If we were happy literally every second of every day of our lives, how would we know it? We'd have nothing with which to compare.

Something about that doesn't sit well with me. Probably that it seems to lessen the worth of consistent happiness. Not that I disagree with you, I just want it to not be true

Would it be enough to have experienced states other than happiness before, and recall the contrast? Probably not, there's plenty of evidence of our ability to make any emotional state our "base" state.

Originally Posted by InJoy

I feel that religion is something completely different and separate from spirituality.

How can you have religion without spirituality?

Originally Posted by Lychee

People are happy wasting away their time in front of the TV and drinking all day. Other people are happy while doing something for others and spending time with the people they love. But are both scenarios equal?

Equal in the degree of happiness felt? Probably not, but we can't know that. Though I suspect you were referring to a greater contribution to the happiness of others in the latter case.

Originally Posted by Cantando

If I was asked what true happiness was, I would say it was a sense of deep, inner peace and acceptance of self and others.

How, if at all, do you think this relates to spirituality?

Originally Posted by AidanMatthews216

As for spirit, most people mean a sort of conglomeration of the qualities which make us "human": our creative drive, our deepest emotions, our subconscious drives and intentions. I don't believe in a spirit as something separate from the physical or something which can endure apart from our bodies. But I believe in the spirit in the above sense, and I like to live a "spiritual" life in the sense of something more profound than sex and television. For me, physical/mechanical/"mundane" things can hold deep spiritual value. When I do a Calculus problem I often feel as if I'm worshipping.

It seems as if what you refer to as spiritual is closer to my understanding of "spirited", i.e., full of energy; animated. And something more, a desire to live, and a joy in life. Or happiness, as ethereal put it. But perhaps I'm just confusing the matter

Originally Posted by Akashic_Librarian

In my opinion happiness is something only YOU can create. A God, fictional or real, can't make you happy. Thats redundant.

Do you think that your beliefs about reality can affect your happiness? And thus your beliefs about God?