*SPIRIT/*SPIRITUAL - see SOUL, DIVINE, WITHIN, DESIRE, WAY, WILL, PRACTICE, LOVE, FAITH, HOPE, GOD, MYSTICAL, GROW, HEAL, JOURNEY, POWER (force)
People of a more New-Age disposition tend to regard spirituality not as religion per se, but as the active and vital connection to a force/power/energy, spirit, or sense of the deep self. For a Christian to refer to themself as "more spiritual than religious" implies relative deprecation of rules, rituals, and tradition while preferring an intimate relationship with God and/or talking to Him as one's best friend. Their basis for this belief is that Jesus Christ came to free man from those rules, rituals, and traditions, giving them the ability to "walk in the spirit" thus maintaining a "Christian" lifestyle through that one-to-one relationship with God. Some excellent resources that further explain the "spiritual Christian" are found in the Bible, Gospel of John 4:24 for example (Wikipedia, Spirituality)
What is Christian spirituality in relation to Christian religion? Christian spirituality recognizes the ancient Christian tradition of mysticism, which is direct communion with the Spirit of God. Christian spiritualists follow the teachings of Christianity, but they take this wisdom a step deeper by discovering truth through contemplation, meditation, prayer, and other forms of knowing God deeply. (http://www.journeywithspirit.com/christianspirituality.htm)
To be 'spiritual' means, beyond that, to know, and to live according to the knowledge that God is present to us in grace as the principle of personal, interpersonal, social, and even cosmic transformation. To be 'open to the Spirit' is to accept explicitly who we are and who we are always to become, and to direct our lives accordingly, in response to God's grace within us. (Theologian Fr. Richard McBrien notes in his book Catholicism)
Spirit means breath and to breathe means to live. The Holy Spirit is the breath of divine life. (Buddha, Christ, page xiii)
If we touch the Holy Spirit, we touch God not as a concept but as a living reality. (Buddha, Christ, page xvi)
The Holy Spirit is the energy sent by God.The safest way to approach the Trinity is through the door of the Holy Spirit. Mindfulness is very much like the Holy Spirit because when you have mindfulness, you have love and understanding, you see more deeply, and you can heal the wounds in your own mind. (Buddha, Christ, p14)
People must have reverence for God who is mighty and just in all his ways. But most of all they must return love for love. The prohibition against representing God in some material form was to emphasize God's spiritual nature. (ReadingOT1, p46)
We were created solely to be God and that is the reason why we were fashioned like him. Whoso does not attain to being one with God in spirit is not a really spiritual man. (Contemplation, p75)
The fruit of the Spirit ... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Gal 5:22-23)
Why should it be so difficult to believe that there is also a spiritual realm, lying beyond the capacity of our present spiritual power to perceive? Is not our gross materialism due principally to the fact that we forget our limitations and the infinite distance between creature and Creator? (Rebld,p53)
Not by an army, nor by might, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.' (Zech 4:6)
Blessed are the poor in spirit for they depend only upon God. (Pursuit of God by A W Tozer)
If by spirit, then we are fighting God. If not, then it will pass. (Acts ??)
Spirituality may be defined as the awareness of God and the recognition of the sacred in our life. It includes the understanding that our quest for meaning is our most important task in life...and our drive for meaning have an impact on our lives, on the choices we make and the way we live. We sensitize ourselves to the pull of God and try to align ourselves with this pull...to love and to wholeness. God is the context within which we live. (Common Sense, p218,219)
Spirit manifests in all four quadrants equally, and so all four quadrants (or simply the Big Three) ought to be taken into account in order for the realization of Spirit to be FULL and COMPLETE and UNBROKEN. (Everything, p133)
Heaven = Holy Spirit; Spirit drives the physical just as the mind directs the body. (Randy)