From the collective wisdom of Wikipedia: “The human spirit is a component of human philosophy, psychology, art, and knowledge - the spiritual or mental part of humanity. While the term can be used with the same meaning as ‘human soul,’ human spirit is sometimes used to refer to the impersonal, universal or higher component of human nature in contrast to soul or psyche which can refer to the ego or lower element. The human spirit includes our intellect, emotions, fears, passions, and creativity.” Often, our spirit is connected to, or defined by, belief, faith, religion, a calling, life's purpose or just being.
3. Your Spirit
6. Love
From The Guardian, definitions of love from five different writers. Physicist: “a powerful neurological condition like hunger or thirst, only more permanent.” Romance novelist:“before consummation…it fascinates: what separates you from love, the obstacles that stand in its way.” Philosopher: “love is a kind of passionate commitment that we nurture and develop. Without the commitment, it is mere infatuation.” Psychotherapist, on philia: non-sexual intimacy between close friends, family members…[or] soldiers as they fought alongside each other in battle; pragma (mature love that develops over a long period of time…practising good will, commitment , compromise and understanding); agape (a love for all humanity), philautia (self-love…caring about yourself), who then adds, “is it possibly unrealistic to experience all six types with only one person…” The nun: “Love is more easily experienced than defined. The paradox of love is that it is supremely free yet attaches us with bonds stronger than death. It cannot be bought or sold; there is nothing it cannot face; love is life’s greatest blessing.”
8. Hate
The spirit is fragile. It remains open to the dark side. Hate is a deep, emotional disconnection and dislike, typically held against an individual, a group, or a population. Often, hate is accompanied by a desire for dramatic action, including physical harm, sometimes on a large-scale basis. It is not a precise opposite for the concept of love, which tends to be more wide-ranging. Hate may be connected to prejudice, revenge, self-loathing, and discrimination. Hate drives war, and many political relationships. Sometimes hate is irrational, but sometimes it is a response to a long pattern of abuse, mistrust, or dismissive attitudes. Like love, hatred is very much a part of Bible stories, and deeply engrained in the human psyche. Hatred tends to be long-lasting, passed on from one generation to the next—that is, many psychologists do not consider hate to be a temporary emotional condition.
7. Peace
Absence of conflict is part of a larger conception that embraces balance, self-love and love for others, collaboration, joy and tranquility. Some sacred beliefs promise peace in the present day, more offer it as a reward in the afterlife. In contemporary life, peace is not a permanent condition—not for individuals whose lives are often too complicated to embrace peace as a daily reality, not for groups or nations who assume conflict to be inevitable. Perhaps the colorful hippie promoters of peace as a standalone concept were on to something important—a stillness of mind, a nirvana that could be achieved through love, respect, healthy living, helpful substances, music, and supportive communities. Perhaps the “no nukes” people have it right—maybe peace is achieved by first agreeing not to blow up the planet. Certainly, there are many ways to think about peace. And that’s probably better than not thinking about peace at all.
A. Personal and Social Wellness
2. Imagination
Perhaps a uniquely human characteristic, perhaps we’ll find out that other species do it better, or differently. Each of us possesses the power to form a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality, as well as the creative ability to confront and deal with a problem. Some people allow themselves freedom to explore divergent, unlikely or unreasonable possibilities—and welcome imaginative thinking into the center of their lives. Others shun imagination because it’s frivolous, non-serious, fear-inducing, perhaps contrary, counterproductive, blasphemous. Most of us are somewhere in-between, but all of us were probably more engaged with imagination when we were children. What happened? Can we, should we, regain that connection? Or does adulthood require imagination to fall away so that we may focus on other pursuits?
1. Self
Who are you? Are you a 5 foot 7 inch, 162 pound mass of skin, bones, muscles, blood and vital organs. Or do you define yourself mostly by your perception of your own mind? Or your relationships? Perhaps your legacy? Maybe something more grand: a field of energy, an essence with an impact on other humans, animals, plants, water, rocks, the sky, the stars above? Does your self begin when you are born, or long before? Does it end when your body or brain ceases functioning, or long after? Do you rematerialize in another form, reincarnated after past lives, transformed into pure energy? Do those past lives define who you are today, in your current form, or do you make those decisions on your own. Is your path pre-determined or yours to design? Is your path distinct and individual, or part of a larger whole? Can these questions be answered, or do we already know the answers? Is there a higher consciousness that will reveal more? Can I get there? Can you? Can we? Can we all?
3. Sacred Beliefs, Stories & Rituals
“…fire-theft, land of the dead, virgin birth, and resurrected hero have a worldwide distribution—appearing everywhere in new combinations, like the elements of a kaleidoscope, only a few and always the same…They appear…in religious contexts where they are accepted not only as factually true but even as revelations of verities to which the whole culture is a living witness and from which it derives both its spiritual authority and its temporal power. No human society has yet been found in which such mythological motifs have not been rehearsed in liturgies; interpreted by seers, poets, theologians, or philosophers; presented in art; magnified in song; and ecstatically experienced in life-empowering visions…Every people has received its own seal and sign of supernatural designation, communicated to its heroes and daily proved in the lives and experience of the folk. And though many who bow with closed eyes in the sanctuaries of their own tradition rationally scrutinize and disqualify the sacraments of others, an honest comparison immediately reveals that all have been built from one fund of mythological beliefs—-variously selected, organized, interpreted, and ritualized, according to local need, but revered by every people on other.”—Joseph Campbell, Primitive Mythology: The Masks of God. Will we all meet in heaven? Under the name of one true god, many true gods, or the comforting blanket of a thousand myths and legends?
4. Nourishing the Soul
As we contemplate the similarities and differences between a spirit and a soul, we turn on the music and think more clearly. We lose ourselves in music and a daydream. Plato: “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” Beethoven: "Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” Of course, there is more to nourish the soul: a walk in the woods, a child’s smile, a conversation with a friend, gazing at a wonderful work of art, sitting in the audience and laughing with a thousand other people, quietly watching a backyard bird while sipping hot chocolate, closing your eyes and remembering. Making art, making clothing, baking a pie, eating a pie, hiking, biking, teaching, reading, learning, finding out that you were completely wrong. It’s difficult not to smile when the Peanuts gang reminds us that happiness, and soulful nourishment, often comes from life’s simple things: “Happiness is finding a pencil. Pizza with sausage. Telling the time. Happiness is learning to whistle. Tying your shoe for the very first time…”
5. Does God exist--and if the answer is yes, is there one God or more than one?
Most people on earth believe in a higher power, a spiritual being. Many believe in God. Definitions and interpretations of God vary, but monotheism is very popular. That raises an interesting question—do all monotheists believe in the same being? Or do monotheists believe that their God is the true God, that all other Gods are false? Belief in multiple Gods, or multiple parts of one God, cause wonder: there a singular truth? To get a handle on this, it’s helpful to look back on the development of God, or gods, as a widely-accepted truth; that journey involves a close look at myth and legend, kinship with nature, spirits of good and evil, creation stories, and a lot of ancient objects that demand more explanation than a tiny museum placard can provide. Somehow, the idea of God and belief systems has spread throughout the world, each with its own set of undeniable truths, sometimes with proof of God’s existence, sometimes with an acceptance of open questions that are either unanswerable or can be answered only by looking deep inside one’s own soul over one or several lifetimes. Must we understand, or can we simply believe? If we believe, what do we believe, and how do we think about God? If at all.