Spiritual activity is an integral part of human life

We all constantly do something:walk, read, work, buy, sleep, eat, breathe. The totality of all human actions can be combined in one word - activity. But how different is our business! Someone is sawing wood, and someone is confessing in a temple, someone is inventing a car, and someone is studying art. Some actions are necessary for our body, and without some, our soul cannot be satisfied.

What is spiritual human activity?

The concept of spiritual activity came to us fromphilosophy. It is also found in theology, which interprets it almost the same. Spiritual activity is an activity necessary for the spiritual life of a person. Reading books, creating paintings and poems, the formation of religious (or atheistic!) Attitudes, awareness of the value system, education in themselves and other positive (as well as negative) qualities, exchange of opinions that goes beyond the bounds of frank life - all this refers specifically to spiritual activity.

Spiritual activity is also the process of searching for the meaning of life, ways out of difficult situations, the definition and understanding of such philosophical categories, such as happiness and love.

Unlike material activity, whichexists for the sake of changing the world around us (building new buildings, conducting medical experiments, and even inventing new lettuce); spiritual activity is aimed at changing individual and social consciousness. Even mental activity, as a type of spiritual activity, works for this ultimate goal, because, thinking about something, a person comes to new conclusions, changes his mind about something or someone, becomes qualitatively better or worse.

Definition problems

Some sources equateconcepts such as "spiritual life" and "spiritual activity." This is not entirely correct, because the word “life” is so comprehensive that it only includes “activity”, but is not limited to one.

Is there spiritualactivity? This is an ambiguous question, because no matter how many interpretations of the term we read, everyone will understand it in its own way. Those who believe that spiritual activity must necessarily be constructive, that is, to have some obvious result for everyone, can say categorically "no." From their point of view, a person who is not interested in getting anything except receiving money, not reading books, not thinking about the eternal and not aspiring to self-improvement, does not engage in spiritual activities.

But those skeptics will certainly be objected by those wholooks at this concept more widely. They will say that even marginals and madmen, maniacs and the most brutal murderers still do what they do without realizing themselves, with spiritual activities - after all, they at least think, build some images in their heads, set goals, even if they are mistaken, and strive to their achievement. There will be those who declare that even animals in one way or another carry out spiritual activities, because even a kitten, once in a new house, starts to study it, discovering and knowing the world ...

Does it make sense to break spears, trying to finda compromise in defining the concept of spiritual value? Probably not. After all, any philosophical concept is both philosophical, which implies a space for reasoning, polar opinions, individual understandings and assessments. Therefore, when defining this term for oneself, one can be content with one of the classical interpretations given in educational and encyclopedic literature. For example: spiritual activity is the activity of consciousness, as a result of which thoughts, images, feelings and ideas arise, some of which later find their material embodiment, and some remain intangible, which does not mean anything non-existent ...