I would describe spiritual as the source of consciousness and sentience. What animates life. That element of being, bubbling up through all of it.

The problem is when we trying giving it form and the form takes over.

For instance, a spiritual absolute would be the essence from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell. More the new born, than the wise old man. The light shining through, than the images on the screen. The consciousness seeking knowledge, than the knowledge itself.

Reality is a dichotomy of energy and form and this sentience functions like energy. The forms it manifests, bodies, thoughts, feelings, come and go, while this element of being persists.

We have a digestive, respiratory and circulatory system, processing the energy driving us on, while the central nervous system distills out the useful form and information to guide us. Motor and steering. Hence we associate emotion and instinct with the heart and gut. The head is not so much a separate part, but the multitudes of desires arguing about which prevail and which sulk. Otherwise we would be disfunctionally schizophrenic.

As Emerson put it; “We are but thickened light.”