Habits are the end of honesty and compassion, the beginning of total confusion! Belief is a colorful hope or fear, the origin of calamity, While contentment comes at no cost, And he who is content will long endure.
Why are you asking if spirituality is hedonistic? If its because you are trying to be a proper hedonist and shaping your life around that you're doing something wrong.
Uhm spirituality is an abstract concept. Its real but indeed not a thing. It can seem hedonistic (personally i don't believe in hedonism though), or be acted upon in a hedonistic way, which does not make spirituality hedonistic of course. It merely indicates that (people who see themselves as) hedonists can also have a spiritual side. I just feel you're not entirely serious. I think its how you word your thread titles/first posts.
Spiritually hedonistic. Sounds like a bad album title, doesn't it? I think you can be both, but in most religions you would be considered immoral for it. I wonder sometimes what my life would be like were I a more spiritual person. But then there is also the thinking about where I would be if I were more hedonistic. Part of me feels like they are opposites; spirituality and hedonism. That's probably due to my religious upbringing. I was raised Catholic incidentally. Unfortunately I no longer practice my faith.
The root of the word spirit means breath. For example you can see it in the word: respiration. To be inspired means to be full of breath.
I think misguided people or people with good intentions can fall into hedonism or self centeredness in as much as getting high off of their spiritual practices and having a strong will for their own progress and developement while not caring about others. For example many practices like meditation or breathwork that generate spuritual energy are not necessarily healthy if a person isn't physically and spiritually balanced or prpepared. It can lead to a lot of sensation and sense of power which leads to self righteous attitiude. Further, many practices are internal, and people get lost in that, forgetting other people.
Only you can answer this particular question. However I will seek to contribute to the overall thought that to my mind the separation of "materialistic atheism" and metaphysical spirituality is only a construction of the being or beings perceiving them. The wall only exists because many so imagine.
Quite simply by being non-materialistic and by being either theistic, or not concerned with gods, or reconceptualizing what god is.
Spiritual has become the newest catch-all term for anything incorporeal or non-material with some agnostics today referring to themselves as spiritual. It counters materialistic atheism by asserting that there is more in heaven in earth than dreamt of in their philosophy. Something even quantum mechanics supports today which is the most wildly successful physical theory of all time.
That being said, spiritual people may be misguided into spiritual materialism in as much as pride of their experiences, practice, and lifestyle, accumulation of things for their spiritual practice, pride over their particular path over others' path, etc.
Spirit is material and material is spirit.Both weave in and out of each other as in a dance.Spirit animates the material and the material gives expression to the spirit.There should be no essential opposition between the hedonistic and the spiritual.They enjoy each other.Ideally they should take pride in their excellence.One does not need to be a destroyer of one's soul and ego to have experience of the spirit,as the spirit wants to overflow and be known through the works of man,in the physical realm,seeks embodiment in the creative act.The spirit wants to be felt by the emotions and mind,and rejoices in intoxication.
sure..we all need spiritualism..it's a live key for a lot of free souls..it unlocks doors... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoL2WMtMb_0
Everything can be hedonistic. Working yourself in a terrible sweat while digging an enormous hole in your garden in order to have your own swimming pool can be hedonistic.
If you perceive material reality as an illusion, that doesn't mean that you can't take part in the illusion or that is out-right bad. You might gain experiences that lead to more powerful insights. It's when you loose yourself to pleasure that you fall out of spiritual attainment. Alan Watts said it best, "Spirituality needs a beer and a loud burp. Sensuality needs a rough blanket, a hard bed and a cold night with the stars."
