Thanks so much for your insightful piece. I too find that in the world of spirituality we are often offending each other at the level of language by choosing words that alienate newcomers. And I welcome a vision of having CEOs, lawyers, and politicians, to name a few, embracing spirituality alongside their professional lives. Even though I have spent over a decade learning and studying, and the past several years writing and teaching, I have often found myself recoiling at very arcane and unduly complicated ways of speaking about spirituality.

Of course, inclusion has its limits. For example, I find that the chakras are an important part of my spiritual experience and how I work with others to heal, but that word may cause some to bristle. Sometimes speaking of energy, intuition, or mediumship can turn heads. It can be hard to find substitutes for words like kundalini or samadhi, and there are times that such words are necessary.

Rather than being wedded to certain words or banning jargon altogether, we have to learn to meet others where they are and find a language that they understand and can relate to. As you point out, however, our choice of words can often be a means to signal who is in, and to keep others out, which is antithetical to the basic premise of spirituality.

Thanks again for your contribution to broadening the reach of spirituality.