Spirituality and Its Relevance for the Contemplative Educator

Abstract

Spirituality is a difficult word to define, conceptualize and sometimes to discern. Given the enormity of the nature of spirituality, I realized that I could not possibly do justice to encapsulate all the relearning of the new while unlearning of the old in an attempt to augment my intuitive and academic understanding of spirituality. In the first two sections of this chapter I will attempt to highlight what I believe to be some of the salient conceptualizations of spirituality as a discourse and its sociological implications. I will begin by reviewing some of the more recent literature from two basic perspectives, one being religious and the other being academic. I will also make reference to some controversies in academia in defining the term spirituality. As well, I will point to some of the controversies surrounding the epistemology and ontology of spirituality in academic discourse. Following this I will attempt to define spirituality and its relevance for the contemplative educator. I will then share a short narrative of my meditation practice and how I use it to bring spiritual awareness to my teaching and my life in general. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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