A person is characterized by many qualities: caring, sympathy, non-conflict. It can be principled, conservative or liberal, soft or hard, soulful or spiritual. The word "spiritual" is now often used in different meanings: a believer, a representative of the clergy (clergyman), just an educated and cultured person.
No one will argue that the spirituality of a society depends on the people who make it up. Asking the question, what is the spiritual essence of a person, you can hear many different opinions. Of course, what degree of immersion in the spiritual to choose, everyone decides for himself. Someone else has just started on the path to excellence, someone has already made significant progress along it, and someone finds this path so burdensome that they turned off it.
What is a spiritual person?
If you look at dictionaries, you can see the emergence of the modern concept of "spiritual man". At a time when there were few atheists, society was built on faith in God, in man they recognized the divinespark. V. I. Dal did not include this concept in the dictionary at all (1863), and interpreted the word “spiritual” as “belonging to the spirit.” Regarding the use of the word "spiritual" in relation to a person, he gives the following interpretation: "Everything in him, relating to God, the soul, moral strength, mind and will."
D. N. Ushakov also does not include the concept of "spiritual person" in the dictionary (1935-1940). He points to the colloquial use of the adjective in the combination "a person of a spiritual rank", making a distinction between the spiritual and the secular. S. I. Ozhegov in 1949 described the word "spiritual" as referring to religion (music, academy, college).
S. A. Kuznetsov in 1998 distinguishes two understandings: the first - related to religion and the second - having a philosophical view of the world. It is interesting that the definition of a spiritually undeveloped person in the Dictionary of Synonyms looks more than unpresentable: bygone, backward, miserable.
Psychologists about spirituality
From the end of the nineteenth century, psychology began to study spirituality as a psychological category. They found out the connections of the so-called spiritual activities, representing art and culture, with the human psyche. After there were more studies - collective spirituality, higher spirituality as a source of creative inspiration, and others. As a result, it was found that human spirituality is something subjective. It cannot be explored with science.
It was determined that spirituality distinguishes a person from other forms of life, has a social character. Human canto use spirituality, and from the extent to which he does this, he will know the meaning of his life and his role and place in it.
Now psychologists consider the physical, material nature of a person to be only a part of him. The second part, no less important, is spirituality. That is, the totality of his moral and ethical values. Considering a person as a spiritual being, it became possible to talk about the psychology of spirituality.
Defining a spiritual person
Psychologists admit that now in society one cannot meet an absolutely spiritual person. This is a utopia, but everyone is obliged to strive for perfection. Then society will change its focus on destruction. In other words, peace and harmony with nature, society and oneself is the goal of modern man.
A spiritual person is characterized by high moral standards, he shows excellent qualities that characterize him as a balanced person, capable of high deeds, ready to help his neighbor. He strives for the truth, knows it and lives in harmony with it.
Man, as a spiritual being, cannot be satisfied only with material well-being. He can and is ready to sacrifice it for the sake of satisfying his spiritual needs. In history, there are cases when a person, having lost the meaning of life, faded away and even died. And, on the contrary, having an important goal (usually much more valuable than his own life), a person survived in the most difficult conditions. All these facts testify that it is impossible to simplify human nature and reduce it only to the physical.well-being.
Freedom of the Spiritual Man
Lawyers have a notion of "the spirit and the letter of the law." Since everyone lives according to the laws that he has formed in his “I”, a spiritual and moral person will act according to the spirit of the law, and not according to the letter. Example: a worker offers an intimate meeting to a married person. The wife does not know about it. What choice will he make?
When a temptation acts on a person, the unspiritual succumbs to it and loses his freedom - becomes dependent on the temptation. A spiritual person will not lose freedom, will not be tempted. Psychiatrists say that the constant struggle with oneself to do what one does not want leads to neurosis. Therefore, spirituality preserves mental he alth - a person does what he wants, but he wants to follow moral ideals. He will lose self-respect if he follows his desires.
The right to choose
All people have the right to choose how to live, how to act. What moral values to possess. A person who wants to get what he wants cares only about himself. Having received what he wants, he does not find satisfaction. A spiritual person thinks not only about himself. He sees his place in society, his role in it. And he correlates his own desires with what is higher and more significant than himself.
For some it is a service to God, for someone it is a service to science. Such people are happy with what they can give-“it is more blessed to give than to receive,” as recorded in Acts 20:35. These are the spiritual people.
Spirituality brings responsibility
Mature spirituallya person realizes that along with the freedom to do what he thinks is right, comes the responsibility for the exercise of this freedom. Regarding this, there is such an example: an airplane can roll on the ground, but this does not make it an airplane. That's when he is already in the sky, then it becomes obvious that this is a plane. It is the same with spirituality until there is a situation in which the spiritual qualities of a person will manifest, it is not visible. But when the decisive moment comes, his high moral essence becomes obvious to everyone - it manifests itself in this situation.
Psychology considers spirituality, freedom and responsibility as the most important components of personality. They are closely related. An unspiritual person will not want to be responsible for his actions, he will start looking for someone to blame. A spiritual person, having made a mistake, admits it.
Spiritual sphere of society
The society of people is divided into spiritual and material spheres. Of course, the material sphere is important - it provides physical existence. But in order to manifest himself as a spiritual person, he also needs an appropriate sphere.
The spiritual sphere of man includes religion, science, morality, culture, art, law. Pedagogy has established that instilling the foundations of culture from an early age allows you to educate a harmonious, responsible personality. Doctors have found that the connections in the brain that are formed when playing musical instruments expand a person's mathematical abilities. The development of creative abilitiesprovides art, expands the scope of freedom and teaches to make unconventional decisions.
The spiritual realm has a powerful influence on the individual. The conclusion is obvious: a person, as a social being, cannot fully develop without society.
Spiritual landmarks
In society there have always been accepted norms that were considered spiritual guidelines. Holy Scripture played a huge role in their development. The two largest religions based on it - Christianity - Islam - are practiced respectively by 33% and 23% of the world's population. The Ten Commandments form the social, economic and criminal laws and constitutions of many countries.
The golden rule, recorded in Matthew 7:12, calls for doing what a person would like to be done to him. This is not just the preservation of neutrality according to the formula “do no harm to anyone, so that no harm is done to you” and not a common proverb calling for retribution “as you do to me, so I to you”. This was taught by many philosophers of antiquity. Christ taught to actively do good, so that you yourself will be rewarded with good. And he added that this is the whole law and the prophets.
The spiritual orientation of a person as a person is even more connected with Scripture, even if he has never read it. Thanks to public morality, the concepts of bad or good, decent or dishonorable, acceptable or unacceptable keep the individual within certain limits. Literature is built on the basis of public morality - a powerful means of educating spirituality. A detailed description by the author of the deep motives of the actions of the hero is givenopportunity to gain personal experience. Among the great writers who indicated spiritual guidelines are L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P. Chekhov, C. Dickens, E. M. Remarque.
Spiritual hero in literature
The purpose of the writer was expressed by A. S. Pushkin in the work “The Prophet”. It echoes the biblical account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah. In the book bearing the name of the prophet, chapter 6 is devoted to this. With a verb, that is, with a word, to burn the hearts of people - this is the task of the prophet and writer who has been given a talent.
Daniel Defoe described the life of Robinson Crusoe far from civilization. Thanks to the moral values from the Bible, he created a beautiful world on the island. Not run wild, but melted down in the ordeal.
Jonathan Swift endowed his Gulliver with moral qualities. Some of his actions have become household names.
The Little Prince Exupery strikes with the wisdom of simple logic based on love.
The heroes of Jen Eyre, A. I. Kuprin, Jack London, V. Kataev accompany many from childhood. They endure life's difficulties with them, their qualities of character are worthy of emulation.
Personal qualities
In pedagogy, qualities are distinguished that are brought up for the formation of a spiritual personality. This is the ability to take responsibility for one's actions, understanding their impact on others. A spiritual person is first of all a moral person. He is characterized by honesty, decency, inner purity, nobility. He despises lying and stealing. He is characterized by tolerance for all, respect for personsopposite sex, mutual help, caring for those in need, self-control.
The behavior of such a person is not limited to the above qualities. He is constantly working on himself to achieve even higher ideals. This is ensured by inner freedom - personal autonomy. He does not violate the laws of society, not for fear of punishment, but because they are the laws of his personality.
The impact on society of a socially spiritual person
No man has influenced history more than Jesus Christ. He taught his followers to spread what they learned. How many times they tried to destroy them, like Christ himself! But they still carried the truth into the world. Religion is named after their teacher, the beginning of a new era is considered from his birth.
John Gutenberg invented the printing press to distribute the Scriptures, and this has had a huge impact on the culture of the whole world. Books became much cheaper and everyone could afford to buy them. Cyril and Methodius, Greek missionaries, created the Slavic alphabet for translating the Holy Scriptures and this enriched our language. Many Russian proverbs are actually taken from the Bible.
Leo Tolstoy highly valued the Word of God and in his works comprehensively considered good and evil. His novels were highly valued by M. Gandhi, who led the struggle for the liberation of India. He spoke about the significance of the Christian teaching that all the world's problems would be solved if people actually adhered to it.
As you can see from these examples, even one spiritual person -this is a clear benefit to society.
Conclusion
Questions of spirituality have always attracted the attention of the Russian intelligentsia. The twenty-first century is no exception. The modern idea of the spiritual nature of man revives the concepts of honor and decency, which are so necessary now in society.
