A friend recently asked on Facebook, “What does Spirituality mean to you?”

What is our definition of spirituality in the gospel? Does it simply mean any situation in which we feel the Spirit, which implies a connection to our religious ideals? Some people see yoga and meditation with simple phrases a wholly adequate form of spiritual practice, without commandments or specific guidance.

As often happens our gospel vocabulary contains different meanings than the same words used by the larger world. We’re faced with this inconsistency of meanings in our debate over marriage. In the church we believe marriage is foremost a covenant between man, woman and God. While the world views it as a legal contract with certain benefits. Another example is agency, as Elder Hales explained in a 2010 talk. I bring these up just as examples to point out that when we, as LDS people, talk about spirituality we might be losing our meaning in the course of the conversation because what we mean by spirituality and what someone else means could be hugely different things.

What specifically does spirituality mean to you? Does it involve yoga, chanting, and meditation? And if it does is that in any way inconsistent with the gospel?

Are there other words in our religious vocabulary that have different meanings in our larger culture which we should be aware of?


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