I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of

the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time, taking time to be more fully present.

Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right

now.

Well, I don't think there's anyone out there who doesn't want to feel more connected, more present and more alive this year.

That's what I call spirituality, being connected, present and alive.

And this is something that I not only love to talk about but try to also walk this walk.

The best days for me are days when I have those spiritual aha moments that you're going to see some of those later on in the show today.

And whether you're religious or not, I hope that this show will begin to help you find a deeper connection to begin to live a richer, more fulfilling life, to understand why you're really here on earth.

And before we get started, I want us all just to take a deep breath wherever you are, listening to me, watching right now.

Let's breathe ourselves into this present moment. Thank you for that.

Okay, for a best life class today, we're joined by some of my favorite spiritual teachers, Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, who's the founder of a Gapay International Spiritual Center.

All of you, a Gapay members out there, yes, he's here, an author of the spiritual book, it's called Spiritual Liberation.

And Elizabeth Lesser, who is the author of the Seekers Guide and Broken Open. She also co-founded the Omega Institute. And the Reverend Ed Bacon, who is the director of all saints at Piscopal Church in Pasadena, Reverend Ed, we're going to start with you.

Let's define spirituality. Go ahead, tell us what you think it means.

Well, I agree with you about connection. It is about our being connected with one another and being connected with the cosmos. It is the process of being healed, forgiven, empowered to go into the world to be fully alive.

But for me, the key to that, the doorway to that, is having the experience of being unconditionally and fully loved.

Elizabeth, your definition? To me, spirituality is, it's an instinct. Like we have an instinct to go to sleep, to drink water, to eat.

There's this instinct inside of each and every one of us that there's more to life than meets the eye. There's something greater out there than our daily grind.

And spirituality is the fearlessness to look at that something else. What is it? It's the fearlessness to ask the big questions. Who am I? What's my purpose in life? Where do we go when we die?

And how do we live a fully alive, meaningful, giving, generous life when we're here?

Okay, so everybody's asked that question of yourself, is this all there is? Well, spirituality answers that question. Yes, rub them back with.

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