Thinking about spirituality

About this site

Site author: Joseph Waligore

I’m Joseph Waligore, researcher, author, and retired philosophy and religious studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

I have found that critical reflection has helped me to live more spiritually as it helps to separate what is true from my wishes and desires. When I read many spiritual teachings from popular teachers, I see an inability to separate real spiritual experiences from things people want to be true or think are true because they have heard them often. Even worse, the non-traditional spiritual community fosters this lack of discernment because it often encourages an atmosphere that disdains critical reflection and questioning. The community says that if something feels true, it is true or it is true for that person.

Trying to be spiritual is a serious matter, both for ourselves and our civilization. We have to get it right. That means we have to separate our real spiritual experiences from wishful thinking and our worldview has to be consistent. I have no desire to belittle real spiritual experiences as they are wonderful things.

What I want to do on this site is to try to separate real spiritual experiences from the things added on to them that mislead people from living in a spiritual way. The goal is to help people so that they can live more spiritually in the modern world and more easily discuss their spiritual life with other people. This approach assumes that using our minds and our critical abilities are not harmful to being spiritual, and instead, can actually help people live more spiritually.

Personal Spiritual Philosophy

As I have written a lot about other peoples’ spiritual teachings, it is only fair that I put my spiritual philosophy out there so that people can get an idea of where I am coming from.

To do well in the world, we need to make our connections. Connections may be people, activities, groups, or places, or even things that we have a special relationship with and so are more important to us than others. They might be on the same wavelength with us, or give us what we need, or take us to the next step in our lives. They help us get a job, learn a skill, or introduce us to new ways of doing things. They can help us in very mundane ways or be so wonderful they are like God intervening to help us in the world.

We cannot succeed just through hard work and belief in our dreams. If we want a good life, we need to do well with these special relationships. Making your connections and doing well with them is also a spiritual practice. You do better with them if you get out of your ego and understand your temporary intertwinedness or interconnectedness with them. When you have trouble with them, you also do better if you learn from the lessons they are revealing to you.