Symbolic
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Spirituality is defined wherein the Transcendent is considered as any or all aspects of the physical natural world itself, and thus the very activity of any or all aspects the natural world can represent manifestations and dynamics of the Transcendent
or its realm. This means that the individual is considered to live in a spiritual world and thus will more than likely live
a spiritual life. Any or every decision the individual may make can be deemed as a dynamic of spiritual living.
For the religious individual the acceptance of a concept of the Transcendent is an intellectual conditioning or adoption of the individual. In general no individual sensory substantiation for anything Transcendent is possible, and the claim of such manifestations is often equated with evil, the devil, ghosts
or black magic. The depiction of the all representations of
the Transcendent must be created originally from the mind's imagination and are mental constructs. These creations take the forms of symbols such as words, and two and three-dimensional representations. Depictions of the Transcendent can only be transmitted to others through these symbols. For the religious individual, because the existence of the Transcendent is not an aspect of the real world, but only an aspect of the mind, it is static, dead, has no life, no animation and action. Every representation of the Transcendent must take the form of
tokens and idols.
In terms of the religious abstraction, the natural
physical world is not an end and does not have any inherent consequence in and of itself, since it is absent non-material transcendental qualities. Thus its only value and definition is that of material resource to be used for ends.
RELIGIOUS PARADOX (3 of 3)
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