What does a person’s spiritual life consist of and what is this concept?

What is spirituality?

Issues of spirituality are dealt with by such sciences as philosophy, theology, religious studies and social studies. What is the spiritual life of a person? It is very difficult to define it. This is the formation of an inner world, which includes knowledge, feelings, faith and “high” (from a moral and ethical point of view) goals. What is the spiritual life of a person? Education, family, going to church and occasional alms? No, this is all wrong. Spiritual life is the achievements of the senses and mind, united in so-called spiritual values, which lead to the construction of even higher goals.

Religion

Religion is the belief in the supernatural, divine origin of the world. The first religions originated in ancient times. People worshiped idols, gods personifying natural elements in the hope of getting a good harvest, appeasing the forces of nature, and receiving protection from various disasters.

In the past, people worshiped many gods, a form of religion called polytheism (polytheism). In Ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, the gods represented entire families, where each family member was responsible for a separate sphere of the universe.

This is interesting! The Ancient Greeks had 30 main gods, and many additional ones. The Greeks even had a god of slander, a god of thieves, a patron of seals, goddesses of the seasons, and a goddess of vengeance.

Religions in the modern world are mainly based on the belief in one single god - this is called monotheism. There are more than 5,000 different religions in the world today. But the most common among them, which have a larger number of followers, are:

1. Christianity;
2. Buddhism;
3. Islam.

These religions are called world religions because they find their followers all over the world. There are also other types of religion: tribal, folk, national. Their peculiarity is that religion is shared only by representatives of one nation, ethnic group, people, tribe.

Religion is of great importance in the life of any society. The functions of religion include:

• Integration (uniting people with each other, achieving mutual understanding);
• Formation of worldview;
• Regulation of people's behavior based on religious norms and values;
• Calming and comforting people.

If in the past, a person’s belonging to one religion or another was determined by the society around him, today, in most countries, a person is free to choose any faith that suits him.

“Strength” and “weakness” of spiritual development

What distinguishes a “spiritually developed personality” from others? What is the spiritual life of a person? A developed, holistic personality strives for purity of ideals and thoughts; she thinks about her development and acts in accordance with her ideals. A person who is poorly developed in this regard is not able to appreciate all the delights of the world around him; his inner life is colorless and poor. So what is a person’s spiritual life? First of all, this is the progressive development of the individual and its self-regulation, under the “guidance” of high values, goals and ideals.

Worldview is the basis of the spiritual world of the individual

Worldview is a complex of knowledge and ideas about the world formed by a person. The structure of the worldview includes: knowledge, principles and values.

It is customary to divide worldview into:

1. Ordinary is the experience of a person and society associated with everyday human activities. As a rule, these are specific and simple recommendations.
2. Religious – the source is supernatural knowledge. Answers questions about the meaning of life and other philosophical queries.
3. Scientific – experience gained through experiments and research. Rarely directly applicable in life.
4. Philosophical – reflections on the meaning of life, conversation with oneself. As a rule, it is difficult to perceive and replicate.

Everyday worldview

Let's consider the main components of the everyday worldview:

• a person’s personal experience realized in daily practice;
• representations of society as a collective mind;
• behavioral stereotypes;
• superstition and historical wisdom.

An ordinary worldview is a person’s orientation in the world, answers to everyday questions. Examples of knowledge applied based on this type of worldview include:

1. Skills for self-care and helping others.
2. Basics of physical labor, home improvement, cooking.
3. Traditions in education and games.
4. Celebrations, rituals and customs.

Ordinary knowledge is what a person encounters on a daily basis.

Scientific worldview

The scientific worldview is based on objective truth. Key knowledge criteria include:

1. Objectivity - they do not depend on a specific person, they are subject only to the dynamics of changes in the surrounding world.
2. Consistency – it is permissible to repeat the examination by several scientists.
3. The use of special methods and techniques - experiment, modeling, and so on.
4. Specific language and literature.

Everything that cannot be proven or confirmed is rejected by science.

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Worldview features

What is the spiritual life of a person? Schoolchildren and students are often asked to write essays on this topic, as this is a fundamental question. But it cannot be considered without mentioning such a concept. as a "worldview". What is this? This term describes the totality of a person’s views on the world around him and the processes that occur in it. The worldview defines the individual’s attitude towards everything that surrounds him. Worldview processes determine and reflect the feelings and thoughts that the world presents to a person; they form a holistic idea of ​​other people, nature, society, moral values ​​and ideals. In all historical periods, the characteristics of people's views on the world were different, but it is difficult to find two individuals with the same views on the world. That is why we can conclude that the spiritual life of each individual person is individual. There may be people with similar ideas, but there are factors that will definitely make their own adjustments.

Humanism and humanity

The concept of “humanism” and the concept of “humanity” are synonymous. A humanist is considered to be an individual for whom the values ​​of another person’s personality are paramount.

Signs of humanism:

1. Autonomy - ideas are not related to religion or ideology, they are based on honesty, tolerance and loyalty of one person to another.
2. Fundamentality – are the basis of social society.
3. Universality – the ideas of humanism are characteristic of all societies.

The concept of “humanism” is associated with moral categories.

Types of humanists:

• popular - advocate for the interests of society as a whole and the people;
• human rights – focus on the rights and freedoms of people;
• pacifistic - oppose everything harmful and dangerous;
• public – support the social sphere and help vulnerable groups of the population.

The basic principle of humanism is based on three rules:

1. Society treats all people with equal dignity, regardless of their social status and status.
2. One of the priority human rights is to be oneself and express one’s own interests.
3. The presence of mercy, based not on pity, but on the desire to sincerely help a person.

The manifestation of globalization had a significant impact on the principles of humanism, as all people began to look closely at the values ​​and customs of other peoples. The main reasons for globalization are the development of technology and technical progress, erasing the boundaries between nations and countries.

There are positive and negative consequences of globalization. On the one hand, borders are being erased, technology is being exchanged, which stimulates the development of humanity. On the other hand, national cultural characteristics are being lost and folk culture is impoverished.

Values ​​and guidelines

What is the spiritual life of a person? If we talk about this concept, then it is necessary to remember about the value guideline. This is the most precious and even holy moment for every person. It is these guidelines that collectively reflect the individual’s attitude to facts, phenomena and events that occur in reality. Value guidelines are different for different nations, countries, societies, peoples, communities and ethnic groups. With their help, both individual and social goals and priorities are formed. We can distinguish moral, artistic, political, economic, professional and religious values.

Basic elements of the spiritual life of society

What is the spiritual life of human society? It applies to all levels and types of social consciousness:

• scientific;
• political;
• religious;
• moral;
• aesthetic;
• legal.

In accordance with this, the spiritual life of human society is conventionally divided into four main components.

• Religion.

The essence of this phenomenon can be briefly described as the commonality of the church, specific dogmas, myths, ritual and religious practices.

• Morality.

This concept means a whole system of rules of behavior accepted in human society, based on a person’s ideas about good and evil, social justice, bad and good. All these rules can reflect both a person’s independent internal beliefs and actions taken under the pressure of public opinion.

• Art.

This special form of social reason is a system of artistic images that appeared as a result of a creative rethinking of objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality.

• The science.

Philosophy interprets it as theoretically systematized knowledge obtained in the course of scientific research and expressed in the abstract and logical form of theories, laws, terms and hypotheses.

We are what we think about

Consciousness determines being - this is what the classics of philosophy say. What is the spiritual life of a person? We can say that development is awareness, clarity of consciousness and purity of thoughts. This is not to say that this entire process occurs only in the head. The concept of “awareness” implies some active actions along this path. It starts with controlling your thoughts. Every word comes from an unconscious or conscious thought, which is why it is important to control them. Following words come actions. The tone of voice and body language correspond to words, which in turn are generated by thoughts. Monitoring your actions is also extremely important, as they will become habits over time. But it is very difficult to overcome a bad habit; it is much better not to have it. Habits shape character, and this is exactly how other people see a person. They are not able to know thoughts or feelings, but they can evaluate and analyze actions. Character, together with actions and habits, shapes the path of life and spiritual development. It is constant self-control and self-improvement that form the basis of a person’s spiritual life.

Four components of spiritual life

priest Konstantin Parkhomenko

Saint Theophan the Recluse wrote to his spiritual daughter: “You have absolutely correctly defined for yourself the main goal of life - to correspond to the high dignity of man. To do this, it is not at all necessary (at least, most often) to radically change the external side of your life; the main changes concern the innermost spiritual life of a person. Usually you can still work in the same place, keep in touch with friends, and be interested in the same subjects as before. Only all this will be filled with a different content, all this will not be important in itself, now through all this man will ascend to God.”

Saints of all centuries of the Christian era say: if you want to begin the spiritual life, you must remember its four components and move forward in all four directions, otherwise all our efforts will be in vain. These four components of the spiritual path are:

• reading the Gospel and spiritual literature and reflecting on what has been read,
• participation in the liturgical life of the Church, in its Sacraments, and, above all, the Sacrament of the Eucharist,
• individual prayer,
• doing good.

The modern ascetic Father Alexander Men compared the importance of following these principles for our spiritual balance with the importance of legs for the balance of a table. He said: if one leg of a table is missing, then the table sways, but can still somehow stand, but if you remove one or more legs, the table will certainly fall. So in our life, if one component of the spiritual path is forgotten, then our spiritual life begins to sway and limp, if others are forgotten, then we inevitably lose our balance and our spiritual life collapses. This does not mean complete oblivion of any point of spiritual life, but less emphasis on it, giving it less importance compared to others. In this regard, this example can be given in a slightly different form: as long as the table of our spiritual life stands firmly on equal legs carefully adapted to it, everything is in order. But if at least one of the legs turns out to be smaller than the others, then the balance is disrupted, the table begins to sway and becomes unusable.

“The Son of God became man, so that man might become the son of God” (St. Irenaeus of Lyons). And if we strive to ascend into this sonship, then the listed foundations of spiritual life must take their place in our everyday life. They should become, as it were, supporting points, between which the rest of the space of our life is located.

Actually, these four points, four points, are essentially different manifestations of one desire, a person’s desire to meet God. Prayer, the saints say, is a conversation with God, an appeal from one person to another. And in this sense, individual prayer at home, congregational prayer during divine services, reading and thinking about spiritual things, and doing good - all this can be called prayer. Acting in each of these directions, a person turns to God either directly or through his neighbor.

Archpriest Alexander Men, an outstanding pastor and preacher of our days, liked to give the following example. He said: people often come to me who complain that everything in their life is not going well, that they don’t feel God in prayer and that, in general, God does not manifest himself in any way in their life and does not change it. To this, Father Alexander answered with a question: are you acting in accordance with my instructions about the obligatory nature of the four points mentioned for spiritual advancement? Do you regularly attend divine services and receive communion, are you attentive enough to those around you, and do you respond quickly enough to their needs? Do you set aside at least a little time a week to read spiritual literature? And finally, do you pray daily? The very minimum of daily individual prayer is ten minutes. If you don't do this, then what changes are you waiting for? In this case, the priest, as a doctor, gives recommendations, and the result depends on the person and his zeal. If a person comes to the doctor and complains that he has liver disease, then the doctor says: you should not eat spicy, salty, fatty, etc. But if the patient does not follow the recommendations, then the doctor cannot help him. It’s the same in spiritual life: if you don’t fulfill this minimum, then there’s nothing to expect for improvement in your spiritual state.

You can often hear: what is prayer for? It is clear that social activity has real benefits to the world. What is the use of prayer? Are we praying for God? But God already knows all our thoughts and moods, why explain to Him everything that He already knows perfectly well.

Of course, prayer is not needed by God, but by us. Prayer is a conversation with God, and a conversation involves both parties not only talking, but also listening to each other. Most often, we are only able to speak ourselves; we do not allow God to insert even a word into our monologue. Such a prayer, of course, does not make sense, because God is not a neighbor to whom we rush to express our problems, sometimes also a little disingenuously and exaggerating something, hiding something, in the hope of deriving some benefit from communication. God knows us and our needs much better than ourselves, so there is no need to go into long explanations. But if we want a conversation with God to take place, our main task is to learn to listen to what God tells us.

Psychologists and philosophers of the last century have often focused on a special property of the soul of modern man - the inability to listen and hear anyone other than himself. Of course, this problem has always stood before all generations of people. But in our irreligious age it has become especially acute.

Man has become less mystically receptive, so to speak. This happened due to technological progress, the achievements of which do not give a person time to get bored, do not allow him to be alone with himself. To set aside a little time for God, to tear oneself away from the usual pastime in front of the TV, at the computer, with a tape recorder, a person must make enormous efforts. Modern man is enslaved by the mechanisms he has invented; it is almost impossible for him to tear himself away from what occupies consciousness as a constant background, without forcing him at the same time to make an effort.

The same thing happens in the sphere of communication. Man has always – due to his sinful egoism – found it difficult to open his heart and consciousness to his neighbor. Now he has completely lost the habit of making efforts in communication, having become accustomed to the fact that an endless stream of information constantly passes through his mind, but does not linger in it and does not require thinking, serious and deep understanding and experience.

What can we say about God? A person cannot hear another person either. People can sometimes be friends or live together for years, remaining complete strangers to each other due to the fact that they do not hear each other. Maybe they want to hear, but they don’t hear. Where can we hear the voice of the invisible God, if even the person who is next to us is difficult for us to perceive?

What is first needed to change the situation? Of course, the main thing is desire and diligence. Our eldest daughter Ekaterina often shows us vivid examples of how much you can achieve if you seriously want it. Recently at a children's party everyone was playing hide and seek. Quite a long time passed, and finally everyone, except Katya, was found. Seven adults began looking for her, looking everywhere, whatever tricks they came up with to force her to give up her location. Everything was useless. She, who can never sit still calmly for two minutes, which always makes everyone angry, sat somewhere for forty minutes without moving and did not succumb to any provocations. We were already a little scared: was she alive, maybe she had climbed in and dropped something on herself. When we finally found her, her godmother, helping Katya get out, said: “Parents, pay attention to how much patience and endurance your daughter has, as soon as she wants. How, it turns out, she can diligently and independently do her homework if she wants.”

This happens in our life too. We can show the utmost attention and seriousness when it comes to advancement at work, receiving some kind of benefit or pleasure, but we do not have enough strength to work to listen to God or at least to our neighbor. But what is required of us, first of all, is the same thing that we demand of an inattentive child: learn to concentrate.

To hear your neighbor, you must, first of all, be able to be sufficiently attentive to his words, not be distracted, not think about your own things at the same time, not focus on what is close or interesting to us in his speech, but simply listen... Listen and perceive his words, thoughts, experiences. And this is hard work on yourself: to learn not just to remain silent in the presence of another, but also not to be distracted, to listen and understand him.

The same can be said about God. To hear the voice of God, it is necessary not only to remain tactfully silent, but at the first opportunity to turn the conversation back to yourself and your needs, but to listen with interest and attention to what the Lord answers us.

With this approach, prayer will not seem like something unnecessary, superfluous in a relationship with God. She is necessary for us. Little depends on us, but what we must do, without which we cannot achieve communication with the Lord, is to make every effort to teach our mind not to be distracted, to remain in a state of concentrated attention. (Look at this wonderful word: attention. This word means our willingness to listen!)

Philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm in his book “The Art of Loving” sees precisely this as an opportunity to heal the relationship of people who love each other: through daily exercises on the ability to focus attention. Fromm suggests setting aside a small time every day, at least half an hour, during which you should try to disconnect from everything and free your mind from any thoughts. He warns that this is a very difficult matter, requiring enormous patience and perseverance. At this most elementary level, prayer is similar to Eastern meditation, which also requires a person to learn to control his consciousness, to be able to free it from everything extraneous. This is something that depends on the person himself, and therefore is recognized even by people far from religion and is achieved through regular exercises, which are quite comparable to daily exercise or learning a craft.

The Apostle Paul compares a Christian to an athlete who runs his God-measured distance. And here it is important to say: in the matter of prayer, regular exercise is just as important. Like training for an athlete. Just as an athlete, through constant training, ensures that his body becomes obedient and ready for heavy loads, so our mind, thanks to appropriate exercises, becomes obedient and attentive.

Just like an instrument, in order for it to be ready for performance, our soul must be well tuned so that the touch of God, heavenly music, can sound within it.

In prayer we learn to be attentive and not to become distracted; in this sense, it serves as a special exercise for us. One could learn attention at a separate time, doing special exercises for this, and then turn to God, but this would be extremely unreasonable. When turning to God in prayer, a person perfectly understands his limited capabilities; he does not at all hope to reach God through his own efforts. This is the fundamental difference between Christian prayer and the practices of Eastern cults.

Effort is required from a person, the rest is given by God as a gift. The Lord approaches each of us as a Person. Like in school: if a student does not have the ability, but tries, the teacher will help him more and they will achieve success together. It’s the same in prayer: some people have a stronger will, while others came to God with an untrained or completely atrophied will. Some are initially more attentive and collected, others are completely absent-minded. Before God, everyone is in an equal position, you just need to make an effort, and the Lord will help with the rest. In the prospect of the promised union with God, we all need help, some a little more, some a little less. Saint Macarius compared our situation to that of a baby: a child cannot do anything on his own, he is not even able to stand on his feet and approach his mother. All he can do is cry desperately and call his mother. And she, seeing her child looking for her with such impatience, hurries to meet him, takes him in her arms, and gently hugs him. God behaves like a mother, explains St. Macarius. In an outburst of His infinite love, He Himself comes and resorts to the soul that seeks and calls Him.

There is one fundamental aspect to our relationship with God. A parishioner, despairing because it was difficult for her to pray, once asked Father Alexander Menu a provocative question. How is it possible, she was indignant, you say that our conversation with God should be a conversation between two loving beings. But when you talk to the person you love, you don't have to constantly make an effort to be with him, but to talk to God you have to work hard.

In this context, we should dwell on two points that play an important role in our spiritual life. Firstly, in Orthodox theology there is the concept of calling grace. This is grace that is given as a gift, as an advance to a person who has just come to God. This is the first direct meeting of a person with God, a guarantee of the possible future achievement of unity with God. It is comparable to falling in love, and just as falling in love after some time loses the original brightness of the experience, so this grace gradually moves away from the Christian. Now man knows how wonderful it is to be with God, and must strive to achieve the same and much more. Prayer in this case plays exactly the role that we talked about - the role of an exercise that helps you learn to listen intently to God; the role of an exercise that helps you hear and know God. Just as people who want to regain lost love can do this if they are especially attentive to each other and work to better understand each other, so a Christian must work to again feel close to God. Because true love for God is also achieved through considerable difficulty.

Why do we think that in order to love a person, we need to make an effort, but we are able to love God from the very beginning? We must work on our ability to love, then a conversation with God will truly be joy and relaxation for us, just as a conversation with a loved one is pleasant. Then there will no longer be a constant feeling of fatigue and the desire to finish the prayer as quickly as possible.

In addition, we must not forget that our sins separate us from God; they create a barrier between us and the Holy God. If we want to learn to pray, we should remember that our success in prayer will be directly proportional to our moral change, the cleansing of the soul from passions. No matter how much a person practices attention, no matter what heights he reaches, no matter how collected and able to listen he becomes, everything is useless if at the same time there is not a constant struggle with sin within himself.

from the book “On Prayer”

Freedom of conscience

Freedom of conscience is the right of a person to independently choose which religion to profess, or to renounce any faith and become an atheist. Freedom of conscience is guaranteed in all democratic, secular states where the church is separated from state power.

Freedom of conscience is also guaranteed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Russian Federation). According to the main law of the Russian state, any coercion to express or renounce beliefs is prohibited.