Promoting spiritual well-being among Hindu children in South Asian,Southeast Asian and African Countries: Bala Vihars of Chinmaya Mission

The main objective of the study is to examine whether the Bala Vihars (BVs) of Chinmaya Mission promote spiritual well-being among Hindu children in different cultural contexts. Deploying a comparative survey design, 1194 BV participants aged 11–15 years, across 13 South Asian, African and Southeast Asian cities comprised the sample and an equal number comprised the comparison group. Email questionnaire was used comprising scales to assess spiritual well-being, operationalised through attitudes to Hinduism, hope, happiness, strengths and self-concept. Results of scale scores, ANOVA and logistic regression showed that BV participants scored better on all parameters and their scores, in turn, were contingent on attendance regularity, self-practice, and the consolidated learning of Hindu culture tenets, life skills and moral values. The BV programme significantly promotes child spiritual well-being, corroborating the extant literature on religiosity, spirituality and children’s spiritual well-being. The programme works best for children who attend regularly, undertake self-practice and claim to get a consolidated package of tenets of Hindu culture, life skills and moral values. This has implications for practitioners in designing consolidated forms of religious programmes for children’s spiritual well-being, giving a simultaneous emphasis on regularity of engagement and self-practice.     

Beyond Tebowing and superstitions: religious practices of 15-year-old competitive athletes

Research of religious practices in sport typically limits investigation to Christian prayer and/or “superstitions” among professional or collegiate athletes. This study moves in a different direction by examining the religious spiritual practices reported by 13 adolescent competitive athletes in individual interviews and focus groups. With a mix of religious backgrounds among the 15-year-old participants, this sample of males and females reported religious practices such as talking with dead ancestors and different forms of prayer and meditation. The paper categorises these and other practices according to Nancy Tatom Ammerman’s 2014 study, enabling a conceptualisation of how adolescent athletes use religious practices in everyday ways to enable confidence in their play. The study overall points to a significant religious element within competitive youth sports that challenges cynical assumptions about elite athletes' use of religion found in other studies.     

Exploring the spiritual in the pedagogy of Friedrich Froebel

Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852) was the inventor of the kindergarten, and his emphasis on childcentredness and play influenced the progressive movement throughout the world. The concepts of unity and wholeness are highly visible in his writings. Religion is addressed in his work and that of his followers, but little attention has been paid to spirituality per se in Froebel’s thought. This paper explores the place of the spiritual in Froebel’s scheme and in some of what has been written about him. It notes his use of the concepts of the spirit and spirituality, and considers the relationship between his faith and the Christian religion. It discusses the ‘laws’ which Froebel enunciated: of Divine Unity, opposites and the connection of opposites; the principle of self-activity; and the process of ‘unfoldment’. These principles are observed in his teaching methods and resources, specifically in the Gifts and The Mother-Song Book of 1844. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for such concepts as the spirit of the child and spiritual education. The picture that emerges is of a child-centred education which honours the integrity of childhood. It is argued that such an education, fully embraced, is a spiritual education.     

Cultivating spiritual intelligence in adolescence in a divisive religion education classroom: a bridge over troubled waters

Religion Education (RE) forms part of the curriculum of public schools in South Africa. The teachers are, however, not always certain how to deal with divisive religious plurality in multicultural classrooms. Our aim was therefore, to illustrate how the implementation of a spiritual intelligence (SQ) programme can in a constructive way encourage meaningful interaction among students in RE classrooms in secondary schools. Over a period of three months a programme to stimulate SQ was implemented by means of a qualitative case study with ten Grade 11 students of diverse religious convictions. This article reports on the impact of the programme in respect of self-awareness, as well as universal awareness and connectedness as key characteristics of SQ. The collection of the data included reflective activities, informal conversation interviews, focus group discussions, field-notes of observations, and a self-reflective journal. The findings indicate how the programme stimulated meaningful interaction and opportunities to deal with religious plurality in RE.     

Everyday mysticism: Spiritual development in later adulthood

Most cultures contain a belief that aging, with its long span of life experience, can lead to spiritual growth or development. Theories of spiritual development have focused primarily on stages of spiritual growth, with less attention to its relation to the cultural life course. This paper posits that contemplative, mystical experience is the primary psychological dynamic that enables the qualitative change in life perspective that we associate with spiritual growth. While theoretically possible at any adult age, this shift in perspective is correlated with physical and psychological aging, with the relaxation of social demands that typifies the life stages of later adulthood, and with the simple, close-to-home lives led by many individuals after age 75.     

TOWARD A NEW CREATION OF BEING

Abstract. The author traces the path from split brains to basic beliefs by linking the deautomatized pattern of spiritual masters, as reorted in Rorschach protocols, with subsymbolic, parallel, distriguted processing, The older brain structures constitute humanity's common heritage, while the new brain constitutes particular cultural heritages. Expanding levels of complexity move from the limbic system throuh conitive left-mind vigilance and right-mind responsiveness to %Pelie patterns of proclamation and manifestation to the world-integrating mysticism of limbic input and the world-fulfilling action of the new brain. Whole brain activity combines emotional meaning and propositional explanation. Analogically seaking, the brain provides clues to understanding God. A ialectical theology parallels the reciprocal integration of brain processes. Whole brain belief originates in the old brain's evolutionary adaptation to our genetic inheritance and in the new brain's conscious intention to fulfill the will of God through our cultural inheritances.     

Sufism and Gerotranscendence: The Impact of Way of Thinking, Culture, and Aging on Spiritual Maturity

This essay examines the similarities and dissimilarities between a gerotranscendental person's and a Sufi's view of ontological questions, of self and of social and individual relationships. Using the Life History Approach followed up by thematic semi-structured interviews, I studied thirteen Iranian Sufis residing in Sweden, dividing the interviewees into two groups according to the stage of their life in which they became familiar with the Sufi ideas: those who became familiar with Sufi ideas early in their life (30 years) are called early Sufis, and those whose familiarity with Sufi ideas came about in their later life (>30) are called later Sufis. The study posits that the existence of a cosmic view of self and the surrounding world can be observed among early Sufis due to their intemalization of the Sufi ideas in early life. Regarding later Sufis, we can hypothesize that the existence of such a cosmic view is not only due to the intemalization of Sufi ideas, but also to aging.     

A Primer on Celtic Spirituality With Recommendations for Counseling Practice

Research suggests that expressions of Celtic spirituality are widespread among the U.S. populace (e.g., Pew Research Center, 2014; Sullivan, 2016). Adherents vary in their commitment levels, ranging from informal cultural participants to followers of structured forms of the faith tradition (e.g., Celtic Christianity, Wicca, Paganism). The counseling literature provides scant information on this movement and germane approaches to support clients who identify with this spirituality. To respond to this deficiency, we address the topic by contextualizing Celtic spirituality from definitional, historical, and thematic perspectives. Next, we consider implications for spiritually sensitive counseling practice. We include a case study, exemplifying potential adaptive counseling processes and interventions.     

Essential anxiety: COVID-19 in analytic practice

This paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on my relationship with analysands and my inner world. I reflect on the role of the archetypal Self during times of existential anxiety that may lead to an experience of ‘essential anxiety’. This term refers to a meeting by a fearful ego with an inward recognition of the Self, when faced with threat. The efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic changed our ways of life, while the virus itself threatened our existence in debilitating or outright destructive ways. But what also came into view, in sessions of analysis and supervision, was the creative instinct, and a celebration of life. The soul-to-soul relationship, and the connection with images of the archetypal Self, made the experience of existential anxiety at times an essential experience that facilitated psychological growth. I discuss some advantages of on-line Jungian analysis where, despite distance and partial view, the body still serves as container to hold important psychological material, conferring a sense of wholeness for analyst and analysand. The COVID-19 crisis is terrible and terrifying but it also provides an opportunity for self-regulation and individuation.     

Pierre Hadot on Habit,Reason, and Spiritual Exercises

This essay is a reappraisal of Pierre Hadot's concept of spiritual exercises in response to recent criticisms of his work. The author argues that contrary to the claims of his critics, Hadot articulates a compelling argument that spiritual exercises that employ imaginative, rhetorical, and cognitive techniques are both necessary for and successful at producing a subject in which reason is integrated into human character. Such exercises are critical for overcoming the effects of habit, as a result of which everyday conduct resists rational control, and Hadot provides a nuanced account of how particular practices affect different aspects of emotion, behavior, and thought. The concept of spiritual exercises remains a viable component of theoretical frameworks for the study of religious ethics, though the author concludes that Hadot's position on habit and its role in ethical practice requires further investigation.