In a very interesting, enjoyable blog post, "K" describes her experience with our meditation podcast. Her post is fun to read, and it raises a lot of interesting questions. First of all, she begins by saying "I am not what you would call a spiritual person". In view of this, she was surprised to find herself listening to the meditations. That raises the question as to whether only spiritual people meditate, or whether meditation is necessarily associated with spirituality. And then, of course, there's the bigger question of what spirituality, or being spiritual, means. At one point K asks "Was I actually meditating?" (when listening to the podcast). This brings up yet another question -- "what is meditation?" These are all interesting questions to explore. My feeling is that asking these kinds of questions can lead to worthwhile self-discovery. One thing I loved about K's post is that her bottom line was that whether or not meditation is spiritual and whether or not she is actually meditating -- "there's no way I'm giving it up". For whatever reason, regardless of whether what she's doing is spiritual (as a supposedly "non-spiritual" person) and regardless of whether what happens as she listens to the podcast is meditation, she likes it. And isn't that what really matters? There are so many ideas about meditation and what it is to be spiritual. Often these ideas can become stumbling blocks that keep us from what we are really looking for. They can become "shoulds" that get in the way.
I'd love to hear from you -- how do you define spirituality and meditation? Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person, and if so, why? What makes you spiritual? Do you feel spirituality and religion are one and the same, or are they two different things? Do you feel you have to be spiritual to meditate? Do you feel that meditating makes you spiritual?