1st International Conference on Organisational Spirituality
New Leadership - University of Surrey – 2002

Clash of Values

Why spirituality into business may not go!

Mike George

Contrasting spirituality and business, why they may ultimately be incompatible and… highlighting the leaders dilemma.

Before we can juxtapose spirituality and business, and see exactly why they may be incompatible, we need to enter the territory of spirit and know what spirit and spirituality means. The means definitions. Attempting to define spirit is slightly difficult using physical symbols to describe non-physical energy. As I set out some definitions I am not trying to get your agreement, only to build a vehicle in which to travel. Unless we share the same vehicle i.e meanings we will likely travel in different directions.

SPIRIT

If the truth could be described as that which never changes, one such truth is you are spirit…soul is what you are! Spirit is not matter, though some believe it to be so. This is extremely important, simply because how we see and experience ourselves is the most powerful influence on how we see and interact with others and the world. If we see ourselves as a physical form (limited, perishable and mortal), if we see ourselves according to nationality, race, gender, even by our religion, we colour our vision of others and the world accordingly. We box, compartmentalise and label ourselves and others. This is the nature of our self delusion. So deep is our misidentification and the attachment to these labels it is hard to see that it is this misidentification of the self and others that is the deepest reason why we have killed over one hundred million of our own species in the last one hundred years. Conflict will continue as long as we misidentify our self, because this is the root of all forms of ego and the source of all fear. It also happens to be good for business!

SPIRITUALITY

Spirituality is the knowledge and stable awareness of yourself as spirit/soul, and the conscious expression of your highest spiritual qualities and attributes, which are love, peace, contentment and truth. Spirituality is the expression of these innate spiritual qualities through your thoughts, attitudes and behaviours. Being spiritual means the ego has dissolved, virtue has been restored to character and spiritual values connect your inner and outer worlds (thought to action). Spirituality is the ability to see every other human being as soul/spirit, and thereby transcend all the false identities of race, colour, gender, nationality, profession, religion etc.
This is the spiritual vision which dissolves division, first within our own consciousness, then within our perceptions of others and attitudes towards others. It is this vision which restores unconditional and stable respect for all others, regardless of their vision and attitude towards us. The business mind does not like this vision of unity or the expression of peace, love and contentment from inside out in this way. It prefers to sustain the illusion that these conditions and experiences come form outside in, and therefore have to be purchased!

SPIRITUAL FACULTIES

One of your faculties of self/soul is mind. The other is the intellect. * They are your basic abilities to create thought/ideas/images (mind) and discern the 'quality' of those thoughts and make 'decisions' (intellect).
Right now the mind and intellect are conditioned and trained to create business thinking, even when you are not in business. Competing, winning, taking, profiting, beating, consuming, accumulating, capitalising, possessing, surviving are the language of business thinking, and a complete anathema to spiritual thinking. Your intellect is not able to discern this fully because it has become rusty, dusty and extremely distorted.

Imagine you have been given a set of binoculars to view the landscape ahead, but they are rusty, dusty and the lenses are distorted. It is impossible to focus and clearly discern the subtle shapes and shades in front of us. This describes the current state of our intellect and mind. The intellect is rusty because we have allowed ourselves to be influenced by others. We have allowed others to do our thinking, deciding and creating for us. We have allowed others to impose a set of wrong beliefs and perceptions. One such belief (of which there are hundreds) is that stimulation is relaxation. The entertainment industry perpetrates this illusion and relies on us to surrender both our mind and intellect, in the name of relaxation, which it then duly manipulates and puts to sleep! Not only are we bewitched and mesmerized by the creations of the entertainment industry, we stop thinking and feeling and deciding for ourselves. Unused and unexercised they become rusty.

They are also dusty. By absorbing the wrong beliefs and many negative images over time the screen of our mind and intellect become dusty and we cannot see clearly and discern what is right or wrong, good or bad anymore. We suffer from moral and spiritual blindness which creates a deep suffering within our hearts. However, we are reluctant to acknowledge our suffering as suffering because if we do we know we will need to make deep changes within. So we justify it as normal and par for the course called life. This, in turn, is largely due to the distortion of truth by the wrong beliefs and misperceptions now rampant in a material world. Beliefs such as 'competition is healthy', or that 'life is survival of the fittest' and that 'happiness is the reward of acquisition'. When explored fully, all these beliefs can be found to spring from one core illusion - that we are physical and not spiritual beings. These are the beliefs which cause separation, fear and greed within our consciousness, and the behaviours of manipulation and exploitation towards others. No one is to blame but we are all responsible. Business sustains these beliefs because they create and sustain what we call 'problems' for which business largely exists to solve and thereby generate profit.

In the heart of every human soul is love and peace. True love and real peace are both states of being and the radiant energy of the soul. When the soul is in its true state of love and peace it never gives rise to business thoughts. If it did (which means if we as souls did) that would be like saying I will love you, but only if you will love me. This is exactly the kind of thinking that turns our relationships into a business, and will eventually block the flow love within such a relationship. This is also one reason why we are all emotionally confused. We have been taught to believe worry is care, melancholy is love and excitement is happiness. Business also loves these kinds of beliefs, and spends millions sustaining them.

Soul or spirit is what we are. Pure love, pure peace and pure truth is what we contain at the core of our hearts. But they are suppressed by a business mindset, and whenever they are expressed they are likely to be distorted by business beliefs and thinking. If these spiritual attributes were to emerge in their true form from within people in business, they would either leave the business, compromise themselves (their spiritual values) to stay in business, or the business would cease to 'do' business. Why? Because the values of spirituality are in total contradiction to the values of business. In fact, the values of spirituality are not only contradictory, they are transcendent. At first glance they appear to be polar opposites, and that is enough to tell us we may be fooling kidding ourselves if we think spirituality has a place at the boardroom table, other than hidden in the hearts of the members of the board. But they are also transcendent. For example, love in the corporeal world of duality has its opposite in fear. But in reality, love has no opposite. It is complete and self contained, and it lives within every human heart. It needs nothing, wants nothing, yet it knows that all that is required will come to it, at exactly the right moment, even when it is embodied in a physical costume. This is an extremely high form of faith which is not present in a business mind that has wants, desires and needs, and that wants other minds to be infected by the same wants, desires and needs, so that it can…do … business!

Please don't get me wrong! I am not against business, I am not against anything. Equally, I am not for anything in this particular process of reflection. I am purely interested in the truth. My love affair is with truth. Take a look at the values below then stop for a moment, and reflect and scribble your thoughts, intuitions, insights in response. Are there any other obvious contrasts that I have missed? Is something not 'stacking up' for you here? Are you uncomfortable with what you have read so far? Is it all a bridge too far and if so why?

Ultimately spirituality and business do not stand as opposites – spirituality transcends business. Spirituality is simply a higher and truer way to live in the world.

And if you are thinking of a spiritual model of a business organisation, please look closely at your model (which really means your self). Is the organization really offering something without wanting anything in return - which is the true spiritual impulse? Is the organisation's culture defined by the above spiritual values? If it is, then the collective faith within the organisation will need to be 100% i.e. the faith that everything will come to you at every level at the right moment. Even 'religious' organizations can not touch this level of faith. They still have to pass the plate around and ask for something. That's the beginning of business. It's only a small step to exchanging, then accumulating, then imposing the apparent power of accumulation on others. Sound familiar?

Please don't get the idea that I'm trying to convince, convert or correct you here. I'm just talking out loud! I am entirely open to other points of view. This is an invitation to other ways of seeing and understanding. The spiritual view has no boundaries, and this is obviously the time in history for the dissolution of all boundaries at every level of our now small and joined up world. Neither am I seeking to establish a philosophy, or elaborate explanations. I have a deep feeling that the days of philosophy, conferences, papers, presentations and workshops are numbered. Not over, but numbered. Authentic spirituality always takes us towards the 'essence', the core. It simplifies and clarifies. Conferences and workshops tend to take us away from essence and into expansion and complexity where we get lost in a supermarket of ideas, concepts, theories and opinions. Gurus emerge. Panaceas are promised. New models created. Bestsellers are marketed and…well… you know the rest.

Neither can spirituality be approached academically or through philosophy. They take us away from 'spiritual experience' which is what I sense we all now need the most, so that we may be free of our 'wants'. This is why most philosophers are shy of spiritual experience. Although they seem to be interested in 'truth', if they have a personal 'spiritual experience', it means they may actually 'arrive' at a direct experience of truth. And that means the journey implicit in philosophical enquiry, to which most philosophers are attached and dependent, may end. Most seekers don't actually want to find. Which explains why spirituality is often a threat to the philosopher and the academic. Do we all have a little bit of philosopher within us?

I do have a deep sense that now is the time to move inwards not outwards, to the essence not into expansion, towards less expression and more introversion, towards a personal enlightenment not more interpersonal engagement. Connecting with others has its place and it's own value, but networking is so often just a way of avoiding ourselves and escaping from the inner work required for our own spiritual awakening. Spirituality does not need to network and connect. They are a natural consequence of our genuine realisation of self as spirit, and then living from that truth. To an enlightened soul everything and everyone comes to us at exactly the right moment. It does not need to be sought. To one who has a truly spiritual vision everything already is and always was connected and unified. All division, disunity and separation is illusion. But don't tell that to business because business needs the illusion of separation and disconnection, and the discomfort it creates, to sell us its wonderful connecting, unifying, comforting and fulfilling products and services which, when purchased, come with the promise of instant personal fulfillment, peace of mind and everlasting happiness!

But that's just where I am at. Where are you at? Still think business can change the world for the better? Actually, from a highest point of viewing, there are no businesses! There are no Coca Colas or Unilevers or Railtracks. They are simply labels for procedures, processes, policies, rules and activities. Just labels. Take all the labels away, take all the products and processes away, and what are you left with? A community of relationships. Communities of people whose minds are under the spell of business believing and business thinking. This is the religion of our modern age. The temples are the superstores and our devotion and surrender are to products and services, and to the icons who endorse them.

Business and organizations don't change the world for the better. People do. You do. I do. But we can't change anything together for the better until we, as individuals, rediscover and live by the deepest truth of who we are and what we are. And truth is not a word. The word truth, or words of truth, have no power, just as the word water never made anyone wet. To get to the truth it is necessary to recognise and drop illusion and falsehood, which basically means the wrong beliefs. And that cannot happen in the market place of modern life. It can only happen within our own consciousness. In Plato's cave the shadows were mistaken for reality. In our world, and therefore in our heads, there are so many beliefs that are pale shadows of the truth, but we give them the status of truth. We invent beliefs precisely because we have lost our connection and awareness of what is true. Money makes the world go round is one such belief, as well cliché. No it doesn't, gravity and peoples minds and hearts do! And when we live by that other world famous wrong belief, that money brings you happiness, then money becomes the instrument we use to make the world stop, hold on, possess, defend, kill, persecute, manipulate and control. But this is such a threatening truth to the business mind it will be instantly dismissed as the rantings of a radical, or denigrated as the philosophy of an 'ism' which threatens our very freedom, liberty and prosperity

If you have read this far I am fairly sure many of you won't like this. Either the style or the content may be bothering you. Some may be disagreeing profusely. Others will even say, "But where is the hope here? We cant just stop 'thinking business', and assume all will 'be spiritual' and rosy in the garden of human affairs. We can't all be saints. Where is the hope in this approach? If all the machinations of our business cultures are wrong, and the commercial engines of our global society are now sustaining such cultures, there is no hope in the world if we think like this!" Well, perhaps. But perhaps we also forget that hope does not come from the world. If you think like that, then it is just another dependency. (and you can be sure someone will try to turn it into a business). Hope comes from you. You are the hope of the world. You are a potential source of truth in the world. You are a saint in training. If you can see yourself as a source of love in the world of your relationships then your training has already started. You only need to check what you really mean when you use the word love! No small question in a world where a crisis of meaning strikes at the very heart at what really does make the world go round.

And Bjorn Borg never said "I'll be content if I reach the fourth round"! The only difference is that the perseverance of the saint is motivated entirely from the inside, from the awakening and the flowering of truth from within a sleeping heart, and like a flower in the first days of spring, reaching courageously upwards, to touch and be empowered by the sun. And then, like the sun, to radiate it's fragrance into world, asking for absolutely nothing, wanting absolutely nothing in return. Not the kind of thing that happens at conferences like this…normally! This of course is what makes every one of us potential leaders. Not team leaders or business leaders but potential spiritual leaders. Leadership is not a position it is an attitude. Leadership is not something you do it is something you are. And when our state of being and our attitude are grounded and aligned with what is true then the illusions which sustain the suffering in our world begin to dissolve. That kind of leadership is what then generates real hope in the hearts of others.

And so…to the Leaders Dilemma

Actually, if all this is true, if spirituality truly has no place in the universe of business as it is today, it becomes obvious that any modern leader who is even slightly enlightened has many dilemmas. One in particular is worth exploring. Competition or co-operation? It's a simple dilemma which does not require an international best seller to unravel! No effective leader would ever encourage members of their team to compete with each other. If they do they have not yet realised they are killing co-operation, communication and co-creativity which are the foundations of any effective team. It is obviously a leaders role to seed, water and sustain a culture of co-operation. And yet we live in a world where competition has become an epidemic. It has invaded every area of our lives from sport, business, politics, education, health, even religion. The belief system that has grown with competition within human consciousness is that competition is essential to progress and prosperity. Yet another shadow in the cave that is mistaken for reality. Progress of what? Prosperity of who? Competition is commonly accepted as a healthy aspect of life. This acceptance is so deep that anyone challenging it is either shouted down, laughed at or ignored. But there is no avoiding the fact that the leaders role is to build a culture of co-operation between people within his/her sphere of influence. Suddenly, without thinking, competition is forgotten, even discouraged. However they have to build that culture within the wider context of a market place which appears to thrive on rampant competition, of which he/she can do absolutely nothing. There are few greater challenges than build a culture of co-operation in a context of rampant competition. Much easier to settle for the fatal belief that 'competition is healthy' than deal with the 'values contradictions' between workplace culture and marketplace context.

Well, lets be honest, if the truth be known, this is exactly why there are so few examples of real sustained team work in organisations today. The key word here is sustained. The consultants and the trainers may whip up some enthusiasm for team player behaviours, but it's not long after they have gone that the 'competitive spirit' kicks back in, simply because the belief has such deep roots in the human psyche and is given the status of being an innate truth. Some will even argue that it is genetically programmed and therefore it must be natural to be competitive. To an enlightened soul 'competitiveness' is about as unspiritual and therefore as unenlightened as you can get! Perhaps that's why I have yet to meet a consultant or trainer who genuinely stands in front of their client and advocates co-operation without any competition whatsoever. If you are out there….

So in my experience there is lots of real team talk but very little real team walk. This is also because the belief which comes through the same door as the belief in competition, is that 'life is survival of the fittest' and 'it's tough out there, you have look after number one'. It is these beliefs which kill co-operation, real trust, genuine respect, sustained commitment and lasting loyalty. Beliefs one, values nil! Shadows one, reality nil! Trust, respect, commitment, and loyalty are the foundation stones of authentic human relationships. These are the values which emerge naturally when the manager/leader recognises that their purpose is the service of others and not the survival of self. Then the servant leader says, "You first", and by their action demonstrates that they mean it. They will ask, "How can I make your job/life easier? How can I assist you to be more effective and content in what you do here?" Not, "How can I exploit your potential to build and sustain profitability". The business leader, with one eye looking for self recognition and the other eye focused on the bottom line may also say 'you first', but is more likely to be thinking the opposite. Hence the disappearance of integrity and the values which so many of us now seek to help restore.

So we come full circle. How do we solve this dilemma? We only need to realise who we are, experience who we are as spirit, as soul, the being whose highest purpose is to bring love and light into the world, which means warmth and truth into our relationships. Not just occasionally, but consistently, even in the face of others criticism and negativity. We need to know by direct experience that we are beings who abide forever. To an enlightened soul who knows who they are, survival is just not an issue, recognition from others is unnecessary and the bottom line will take care of itself. Consequently, fear is no more, and that is what allows both love and integrity (integratedness) to return.

The astronauts of the sixties and seventies had a wonderful time ‘up there’. They came down with new knowledge, profound insights and a transformed vision of the world. The hardest part of their journey was landing the ship and living it. Such is the enlightened leaders challenge to bring the truth rediscovered ‘up there’ in the direct experience of self as spirit/soul, down to earth in the real world with courage and integrity, with love and humility in the very heart of ‘the epidemic’. Are you up for it?

The astronauts of the sixties and seventies had a wonderful time 'up there'. They came down with new knowledge, profound insights and a transformed vision of the world. The hardest part of their journey was landing the ship and living it. Such is the enlightened leaders challenge to bring the truth rediscovered 'up there' in the direct experience of self as spirit/soul, down to earth in the real world with courage and integrity, with love and humility in the very heart of 'the epidemic'. Are you up for it?

It is usually at this point that many counter such reflections with the perceived implication that in order to be spiritual in the world we have to give up the material things - the money, maybe the career and even our family - and head for the hills if we are really serious. In none of these reflections would I advocate dropping anything other than illusion when recognised, and some bad habits which are both deep and self evident! It is not necessary drop anything else. The return to spirituality in our personal life, and the restoration of spirituality to the world, is simply a question of changing our relationship with EVERYTHING, beginning with ourselves. Remind yourself who you are - not a physical, perishable, limited, finite being but a spiritual, infinite, eternal, unlimited being of pure light and love. This is the first and most profound change, but it does require going beyond the words, the idea, the concept in these sentences, into the direct experience of what they describe. This of course is the purpose of meditation. The awakening of the self, the enlightenment of the soul, the dispersal of the shadows and the revelation of what is real are not possible without the inner work of meditation and introversion. When you experience and realise yourself as you truly are, everything flows from there. This is what Einstein meant when he said we can't think our way out in the same way we thought our way in. Why? Because the thoughts are based in wrong beliefs. Belief is not truth. The deepest truth is the personal experience of self as spirit. This truth, when experienced, is both innate and revelationary. Whereas the beliefs which run the world today were created when this truth was lost. Those beliefs were then handed down and both learned and expanded by each generation. This can include what many see as the hopeful signs of growing spirituality in the world today. This is when we need that clear intellect and a clean mind to discern the true from the subtly untrue! Places where the shadows have almost the same texture as the rocks. In other words, so many of the emerging aspects of the new age movement and the pseudo spiritual practices which are fast arising in a commercial setting, including those who would 'sell' Spiritual Intelligence to business, are just extensions of the same, but creatively redesigned, learned beliefs which we have been using to lead ourselves astray for a very long time.
However, you mustn't believe a word I say!

The moment the truth of your own spirituality is experienced then, as you interact with others, you immediately know 'the others' are also spirit, but you also know that they don't know, yet! From this flows understanding and compassion, a deep patience and the impulse to help others, to serve others, to awaken others. And then, this game we call business is seen for what it really is … just a game. It cannot be taken seriously. But the newly enlightened soul stays in the game, plays the game, sometimes appearing to take it seriously. But they do so because it serves their purpose to serve others, to help others towards the light of what is true. This doesn't make them false, simply aware that they will confuse others if they attempt to enlighten them too quickly. Besides, they have the humility to know that their own enlightenment is never complete, so the game itself contains many lessons which serve to sustain their own continued awakening.

And the secrets of this game? There are many. Reject nothing and no one, most especially your self. Self-rejection is one of our deepest learned habits, and much of our suffering can be laid at its door. Resist nothing, accept everything exactly as it is. It does not mean you agree with everything and endorse everything. Acceptance is simply the first step out of resistance which is the most common form of self created suffering. Living fully means knowing you are both in the audience, and on the stage. Detached observation is as essential as right action. Everything is what it is, but, and this 'but' is important, as soon as you see illusion, wrong belief, dishonesty in operation, step away, withdraw, detach fully, refocus your attention and your energy elsewhere. This is not avoidance. We are not here to fix others or the world, unless we are invited. We are here to demonstrate another way, the spiritual way, and spirituality is not the police! Yes sometimes it is appropriate to speak and do something which may restore truth to a situation which is developing in the same room. But only in the same room. We do not need to rage or crusade against injustice. And it's not difficult to see unlimited amounts of injustice. Just the seeing drains your power. Any resistance at whatever level only sustains what is being resisted. Justice has it's own journey and arrives in it's own good time where and when necessary! By being aware and withdrawing our attention from illusion, by withdrawing our energy from what sustains suffering, by seeing the reality, the truth behind the illusions on which the business mind depends, change happens automatically. By living from what is true, by living with integrity, by acting with honesty the world will change in the right way at the right time. To attempt to rush this process is only to display both a lack of faith and the presence of fear. And that is not enlightened. To work with the inevitable is to co-operate only with this moment now. Transformation of our self, and as a consequence the world in which we live, is…inevitable.

Can we do this on our own? Can we do nothing, and be everything, without assistance? Can we reconnect with what is true and right, loving and pure without help? Some say yes, we have no choice. My experience teaches me to humbly beg to differ. Just as the flower, the tree, and the garden need the interference of a slightly higher source of energy to transform their limited world every year, we too may need similar assistance. Perhaps there is One who awaits our invitation to interfere. Perhaps there is One who knows that one day even our ego will have had enough of the suffering it so brilliantly creates, and the faint glimmer of our humility will be sufficient for the invitation to be accepted. Perhaps that One is already placing the subtle hands of spirit on heads and hearts… here and there. Perhaps you already know. If you do, you also know we need do little, if anything, other than accept the grace which they bestow, and know that as they change our inner universe they will change the world which so concerns us now. Perhaps we need only turn to face that One and learn to live in that light, walk in that light and reflect that light. Perhaps that is how an enlightened soul works in an endarkened world. Perhaps. And business? Perhaps it's only a matter of time before the shadow we call business, disappears in the light! Perhaps not!

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