Spiritualities of XXI Century

"I do not see hope for lasting world peace.
We have tried everything and sadly we have failed.
 If the world does not experience a spiritual rebirth,
Civilization will be condemned to extinction"

Dag Hammarskjöld - Former Secretary General of the ONU

This work exposes the different spiritual realities described by various authors, which may in some cases be contradictory or contradictory. Besides starting from a concrete definition of spirituality, and describing two approaches. First; A historical view of spirituality and the second, to oriental spiritualities. Having here a central axis and articulator, in which the text comes to describe how the spiritualities in the XXI century within the same mystical or spiritual experiences come to resemble scientific-metaphysical phenomena, universal theories and physical theories.

Spirituality is understood by many authors as the founding element of human existence, from the twenty-first century most authors agree on defining spirituality as the deep consciousness of being, in relation to eternity ... with the universe. Spirituality, as a concept, continues to be a much debated topic or challenged today within epistemological-spiritual thinking. - For now - we will take the traditional definition in which spirituality is conceived as an element of transcendence that integrates the complexity of the human being. That is to say; Is simply a constitutive element of the human being that allows him not only to be an immanent being.

To understand spirituality today, it is also necessary to understand how it has been the historical process that have had the different spiritualities in the world. And although this is not a historical text that seeks to exhaustively describe the conditions or important events that came to affect in one way or another the spiritual experiences within different cultures. It is intended to give a general look.

Within the prehistoric era, spirituality already existed as a constitutive element of the human being and although we can understand various spiritual practices, we do not know exactly whether those "first humans" were aware of their practices, not only as a rite but as a transcendental experience. We note that with the evolution of the human being, it was also giving an evolution of consciousness and even a spiritual consciousness. In which preponderated natural elements that for the different cultures were elements that denoted life as << water, earth, sun, moon - among others - >> These different elements were understood even as mediations to transcendence, to the transcendent Or a transcendental experience. These first traits characteristic of human spirituality become the ones that have been most maintained throughout history and are even deeply rooted within the spiritualities of the 21st century.

Later on and taking a great leap forward, we find a great diversity of spiritualities that, through great characteristics of differentiation, the authors of the XX century and XXI century, have divided in their writings between western spiritualities and oriental spiritualities. Each one with specific characteristics. Western spiritualities became very marked by Platonic ideologies in which to define reality from the << good >> or << bad >> category was necessary to give way to a spirituality and a moral. Oriental spiritualities were not understood with this belief system and instead adopted a plurality spirituality and more rooted in meditation. The Eastern spiritualities were apologizing their tradition; So today many of them retain more faithfully the spiritual tradition of centuries ago.

Nowadays, spiritualities become almost as infinite as the same people. Within a phenomenon that the church calls "secularization" it has been seen that, although people secularize their churches within a large percentage increase their spiritual practices. That is to say; People today tend to belong less to a specific religion, but they do tend to be more spiritual people. How is this possible?

Today we speak of secular spirituality and even spirituality in art, music and meta-stories; Of this helps us to deepen Waldo Balart who states that << there is now an emphasis in which the human being has the need of an inner search that is not linked to religion but very close to what has traditionally been defined As spirituality "(B, Waldo, p 567). Balart has also deepened in the study of current spiritualities and quotes Erich Fromm who makes a classification of the current spiritualities dividing them into: Religious Spirituality and Secular Spirituality, of which Balart states "the first is based on an authoritarian, repressive and Submissive and secular in a humanistic, consensual and productive ethic "(W, Balart, p. 568) This statement, which I believe is not only authoritarian but also insufficiently informed and exclusive, in the sense that it is Denigrating of a spirituality arbitrarily. On the other hand, Balart points to the beginning of spirituality in art, stating "Spirituality in art occurs at the end of the 19th century where the Impressionist and Expressionist movements seek freedom of expression through a new plastic language" ( W, Balart, pp. 569).

Already in the twenty-first century is María José Arana who exposes the spiritual problem in this century in his text "Challenges of the world today to Christian spirituality and the keys to identity of a new liberating spirituality" stating "We are facing a global crisis; (...) a crisis that ranges from institutions to values, from political structures to social and family (...) climate change, the environmental crisis, the disappearance of so many species, the deprivation of nature ... All of them are voices of alarm >> (Arana, M. Page 1) With this statement, José María introduces us into the spiritual problematic of the 21st century, a problematic embodied in the social, political and economic reality of the world. Within the description of the problems José María proposes a solution already quoted by some authors and politicians << the spiritual renaissance >>.

He states that it is necessary for the world to have a spiritual rebirth and describes that although it is sometimes difficult to see, spirituality and survival are deeply united and the spiritual well-being and well-being of humanity are intimately linked.

Although there are other authors such as Antonio Royo Marín that carries out another reading of the reality of the spiritualities of the 21st century, in which spiritual plurality stands out especially in Latin America and Asia. Where in spite of the current problems already mentioned by Arana, Marin emphasizes that there is a great amount of spiritualities fruit of the great amount of religions and / or churches nascent in this last century. For Marin, the 21st century is one of the centuries in which the proliferation of new spiritualities has taken place. He affirms that within this century, whether due to economic problems or the simple lack of meaning in life, more and more people Who perform spiritual practices.

In the present century, we are able to weave and narrow the gap between science and spirituality with respect to Eastern spiritualities and scientific theories such as Einstein's theory of relativity and the theory of parallel realities. In which both states of consciousness and categories of meditation enter into play with the metaphysical realities studied by different scientists. Where many spiritual practices such as unfolding and bilocation become legitimately validated by means of these ones called by some authors as metaphysical sciences, where by means of a purely scientific language in which we speak of atoms and molecules, we also speak of complexity of the human body. Where thanks to Einstein's theory we realize that the human body is energy that travels at a specific speed millions of times less than the speed of light. And it is through this that we also realize that many spiritual meditations come to raise the energy vibrations of the body. And we find both scientifically and spiritually that the brain or mind is the most complex organ of all earth evolution capable of becoming a mediating organ between the immanent and the transcendent. All these similarities and relationships have been found throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first century where science and mysticism seem closer and closer. We speak of a scientific spirituality where the sciences of the metaphysical are demonstrated in the spiritual practices of both Western and Eastern spiritualities.

With all this, we finally come to understand that the great gap historically marked between science and mysticism, today they are transparent and practically mutually supportive and they carry out dialogues for their greater understanding and study. Today, in a world that more often uses the word "holistic" in its language, it forces us to understand a world, a science and an increasingly integrated and integral spirituality. Where we take into account all the dimensions and paradigms that come to understand the human being, his reason and his spirit.