Basically, spirituality refers to a sense of personal experience connected with basic sanity. When you begin to turn away from basic sanity, spirituality becomes materialistic, and one begins to turn away from their own power and wisdom. Spirituality has nothing to do with believing in spirits, or ghosts, so it has nothing to do with spiritualists or mediums. It’s not about the spirits of your ancestors coming back to tell you what to do. And of course it has nothing to do with alcohol, or that sense of spirits. [laughter] Here, the term spirit is like the spirit of the morning, or the spirit of watching the sun rise, the spirit of a journey. This kind of spirit is based on the idea of delight and joy and heroism. Here, spirituality is based on picking up on something that is inherently yours. You are about to give birth to it. It is that kind of spirit.
From The Enlightenment of the Buddha, Talk One, an unpublished seminar at Karme Choling, Vermont, 1975. Suggested by Anne Seidlitz.