I’m not sure what I’m looking for as I adventure away from Christian Science, but this looks like a good list of things to take into consideration.
This essay was first published at The Humanist Contemplative.
Over the course of my comparative studies, there are some general traits I’ve noticed which seem to be shared between those wisdom streams and I thought it could be helpful to point them out. Here are some traits that are a sign of a good and healthy spiritual path…
10) Aim of True Happiness
Good spirituality will have as its aim the happiness of the practitioner. Of course, deep understanding of what this entails is essential. By ‘True Happiness’ we mean something more than mere pleasure associated with one’s conditions. Rather, the kind of happiness a good spirituality will pursue will be a deeper sense of contentment that transcends circumstance. It will be a source of inner strength in the face of adversity and humble appreciation in the face of fortune. Such a happiness is also not selfish in the…
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kind-ism 
By the measure of this list, Christian Science fails on almost every point.
Yep.
I find these outlooks (humanistic values) common and practiced widely in the atheist community so I’m not sure why they are then re-labelled and packaged here as if parts of a ‘good spirituality’. I have no clue why the term ‘spiritual’ is in any way meaningful or even helpful… other than to try to align these outlooks and practices to be co-opted as if ‘religious’ when they are fully grounded and temporal in the here and now for good reasons.
I think these 10 points make up any good value system, so I’m willing to over-look the “spiritual” packaging. I also think more religions could benefit from applying these, as they seem like a universally good idea — as Emerging Gently pointed out, Christian Science, the religion I/we left, fails on just about every point on the list.
I suspect the spiritual branding is to avoid criticisms that such humanistic values cannot possibly be – by religious fiat – as ethical or moral as another ‘spiritual’ one… specifically a religious one. But, as you point out, Christian Science does not favourably compare. Yet the religious fiat remains strongly supported by many in spite of compelling evidence to the contrary.