what is the whole purpose of spirituality?
why meditate?
what is to be sought?
what ‘truth’ is to be found?
[QUOTE=makar;67485]what is the whole purpose of spirituality?
why meditate?
what is to be sought?
what ‘truth’ is to be found?[/QUOTE]Microcosmos to be connected with makrocosmos.
This is the purpose.
From a non-spiritual point of view, I think the purpose of meditation is being able to achieve calmness of mind. It is so important for one to know how to regulate their stress response, to quiet their thoughts, to be in the present moment. And like any skill, the more one practices, the better they are at it.
1.The purpose of spirituality is self realization. All spiritual traditions agree that we are spiritual beings. Experience shows that we are unaware of this. The purpose of spirituality is to lead us back to our own real nature.
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Meditation is one of the many spiritual practices around. It is a tool, or a step of the path described above. There are different ways and levels to meditate.
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What is to be sought is personal experience of the spiritual nature of Reality.
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To be found is the Truth. A truth to be found would be only a single truth. Let It be imagined than the ultimate Answer to everything.
Who am I ?
Whence did I come from ?
Whither do I go ?
I am not sure these are helpful answers to you. When the questions are so vague, the answers cannot be but general.
[QUOTE=malinamartis;68114]Yoga gives you a deeper confidence and It builds a conscious conviction in no-limitation…[/QUOTE]
The only real confidence comes form the knowledge of the Higher Self. All other confidence comes from the ego. When you are proud that you have been in control, disciplined, and achieved results, your ego will be strenghetened. But this ego is shattered by accident, pain, and death.
The real motivation in walking the spiritual path should be the desperate need for finding a bridge toward the eternal. It comes from the unattached, unbiased view of the human condition. Should you stop doing yoga, because you are doing it from the wrong reason ? No. Any reason is good, as long as you practice, the rest will follow.
Conscious-conviction is faith, said only in a more pompous way. No-limitation is an illusion. No-limitation is total freedom. Only the Absolute Being is free, or unlimited. Basicly you said that yoga builds faith in God. I admit, that without having faith in the cosmic importance of our own being, we cannot advance. Yet yoga is not a religion. Yoga is scraping the ground toward the direction we think God’s toes must be. Humility, and old fashioned word, is the start. When one starts to be honest, ask honest questions, and see things unbiased, one realizes one’s total dependence on one’s environment, nature, society, parents, food, air, ground to walk on. Even one’s inner conscious being is built from external factors. Tradition, experiences, the teaching of the elders, they determine our outlook on life. One must first realize one’s total dependence and one’s utter lack of freedom for the need to be born to transcend it. Only than yoga really starts.
PS. Today’s yoga is not the yoga of old. Today’s yoga needs to be built by each and every one of us, forging the blade of the mind in the fire of the heart.
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to connect with the soul, spirit or light which dwells inside of you. To move away from separation and shadow toward union and light.
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There is no reason to meditate unless you have the urge to change, the willingness to grow, and seek the unification mentioned in number 1 above.
3 and 4 require no reply.
I work a 12 hour hospital shift and I have 1 hour breaks where I like to take a nap in my car… Recently I have been taking 2 thirty minute breaks instead to practice meditation… what are your thoughts on this? Initially i thought it was just a better way to replenish my energy instead of napping. But I suppose there are a lot more benefits if I continue
I’ve been in my practice for about 2yrs now. And, I think that is the next step for me. I’ve never meditated before, until recently. I bought an amazing Nataraja murthi about 2 months ago. I put it in my bedroom on the dresser. I came home from class one afternoon and thought I would try to meditate. So, I laid down with my head facing the murthi, put on a beautiful Shantala song, and just relaxed. I was in and out of consciousness the whole time. I swear that I was floating at some point. It was pretty amazing. Not sure if that was mediation, proper. But, it was as close as I got to it in my opinion. 
Justin
JustinsJourney.net
[QUOTE=makar;67485]what is the whole purpose of spirituality?
why meditate?
what is to be sought?
what ‘truth’ is to be found?[/QUOTE]
1, peace, connection to the divine
2, self realization, normal blood pressure:) peace in mind, improved concentration, just for fun or out of boredom:) restoration
3, peace within, connection to the divine
4, the divinity of the world
what is the whole purpose of spirituality?
why meditate?
what is to be sought?
what ‘truth’ is to be found?
No truth is to be found, there is no purpose of spirituality, no need to meditate and nothing is sought, if one has no urge to do so.
Spiritual life is not automatically superior to material life. One should perceive it that way. The travelers on the spiritual path are often infected with ‘holier than thou’ hallucination.
A perfectly happy material being can wait till life turns colorless, turbulent, transient and unhappy enough to ask these questions to oneself. Till then the questions are redundant.
[QUOTE=makar;67485]what is the whole purpose of spirituality?
why meditate?
what is to be sought?
what ‘truth’ is to be found?[/QUOTE]
if you have a love of truth, an inquisitive and uncontrollable passion to search for answers to life, god and everything, then …
then meditation will happen spontaneously, because you will refuse to get up until you have the answers to life.
as you seek them, you realize that you are central to your circumstances; i.e. you are not a victim but a co-creater of them.
and as you seek, the mysteries of the universe are summoned up inside you and revealed to be not only more than you hoped for, but more than you could have ever have imagined.
in the beginning, your foresight would never have foreseen what lies ahead of us all.
in the end you see the perfection of it all, in hindsight, and spend the rest of your life trying desperately to show others the way.