Giving 'spirituality' a bad name

Summary of post: We should all be more spiritual

Post: When I talk about halacha (and thus, Judaism) being essentially 'this-worldly', the false dichotomy brigade come out in full force.  The view that Judaism addresses man as a physical creature in the world, is contrasted with the so-called 'spiritual' explanations.  I am thus accused of seeing the commandments as "this is what G-d says", as opposed to looking for the deeper reasons.

Now, what is so deep about doing gematria, talking about 'essences', discovering the 'auspicious', magical effects of the commandments or dreaming of far-off worlds, I'm not sure.  Gematria (etc) may aid us in finding the relevance of a commandment, but certainly does not constitute its relevance.  "Wow, this action effects 67.876 dimensions and may help your wife to get pregnant" doesn't cut it and isn't deep.

The equation of the "spiritual" with the "non-natural", gives spirituality a bad name.  Where beliefs are, to the proud pronouncements of its adherents, "non rational", why should we hold them?  When beliefs cut off from our experience of this world, what exactly are we believing in?  Ex Cathedra announcements about auspicious times may be beneficial for some mysterious "soul-stuff" but is not relevant for me.  They can lead to irrelevant nonsense but also to outright falsity or a perversion of values.  Potentially anything can be said which I wouldn't be allowed to challenge on the grounds that they are not rational.  For if I did, I would be denying the 'spiritual' knowledge which is not derived from rationality.

You shouldn't take the above as a defence of my position, but merely as a statement of it.  If spirituality requires knowing all about this 'deep' other-worldly stuff, then I want nothing to do with it!  However, does that mean I don't think one should be spiritual?  If spirituality means any of the points listed below, I am all for spirituality:

• Understanding what I say and do, rather than doing it by rote or by habit.
• Cultivating more lofty desires, and pursuing higher goals than merely feeding my every whim or desire.
• Seeing a meaning and purpose in my life.
• Having a theocratic motivation for my actions rather than simply being focused on what worldly benefits I can accrue from them.
• Utilising the whole of my spirit to the best of my ability- thought, feeling, physical skills, good sense and judgement, intuition, personality etc.  (Study the sources to find all the potentialities included in terms such as "ruach", "nefesh" and "neshama" and act on them.)
• Trying to maximise 'peak experiences' rather than merely surviving or getting by.
• Having a sense of G-d in my life.
• Trying to raise myself above the level of a member of the species homo sapien, and become an singular adam. 
• Transcend my status as an entirely natural creature created by circumstances external to myself, and choose to act in a way that makes me worthy of being b'tzelem Elokim.