Are You Ready For a Spiritual Awakening?

Yes, are you ready for a spiritual awakening? Are you in a position to take advantage of the great spiritual awakening that is occurring in our very own time?

How would you know if you are ready for this spiritual awakening?

Here are the dispositions or attitudes you should have in order to know if you are ready for this great spiritual awakening that is happening before our very eyes.

Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo

The first indication that you are ready for this spiritual awakening is a dissatisfaction with your present state of life. You may be rich or you may be poor. You may be healthy or sick. You may be normal or disabled or are a special person. You may be academically advanced or illiterate. But if you are deeply dissatisfied with the way things are in your life, then this is a sign that you are ready for a change, a change provided by this spiritual awakening.

Many Attempts But No Success So Far

The second indication is that you have tried many other things to get rid of this dissatisfaction with your present situation in life and you have not found one which has given you the success that you expect, one that surely satisfies and lasts.

You might have tried religion. You have gone to churches, Bible seminars, religious fellowships. But you are still left with this hunger for better things in life.

You might have tried alcohol and perhaps drugs. These have given you temporary relief. But afterwards the gnawing feeling of lack of joy and fulfillment in life returned and you are pushed to more alcohol and more drugs or worse than these.

You might have tried sex with different partners, hoping to enjoy the ultimate sexual thrill, only to be disillusioned and perhaps sick with deadly venereal diseases.

You might have tried basically good living, disciplining yourself to live a decent life, doing good to your self and others, without the help of religion. But to no avail, you are still left with this haunting fear that this kind of life has made you miss many of the enjoyable things in life, like a healthy body and the comfort of a family.

You Have Not Lost Hope for Better Days

And the third sign that you are now ready for this great spiritual awakening is you are still hopeful that there is a better way to live other than the ones you have discovered so far. You have not despaired. You know deep within you that there is a way of escape from the meaninglessness of life.

If these three attitudes are yours, you are ready for this great spiritual awakening.

You may ask me, Does a person have to go through all those miserable experiences of looking for meaning in life, like drugs and irresponsible sex, in order to be ready for the spiritual awakening?

Not necessarily. But most will have to go through one or other of these experiences in order to realize their futility. I myself had to go through the empty rituals of religion to discover that the way out of meaninglessness was not here, in these rituals.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Ten Differences Between Religion and Spirituality

This is now the fourth post on the article of Dr. Gianni Zappalà, “Spirituality is the new black …and it has social impact!” Its source URL is http://www.csi.edu.au/uploads/31642/ufiles/CSI%20Background%20Paper%20No%201%20-%20Spirituality%20is%20the%20new%20black%20-%20Part%20I.pdf

If you want to read the whole article, please click that URL.

Here is the portion of that article and my comments follow the article portion. The author’s words are in italics, mine are in ordinary roman.

The first part of this portion is a Table. Because the Table is not reproduced here it is arranged in phrases. The first phrase refers to religion, the second to spirituality. My reflection below tries to expand the meaning of these phrases for a better understanding, hopefully, of Dr. Zappala’s ideas.

Table 1 : Differences between Religion and Spirituality
Religion is described first before the comma (,), Spirituality is described after the comma.


1. Usually passed on from parent to child,
Usually discovered through life experience


2. An external system of beliefs and practices,
An internal system. of beliefs


3. Based on patterns of worship and ritual,
Worship and rituals may exist but vary by person


4. Tends to separate and exclude,
Generally connects and includes


5. Practiced in the public realm, e.g. institutions,
Practiced in the private and personal realm


6. Associated with church attendance,
May be part of informal groups & networks


7. Commitment to orthodox beliefs,
Higher levels of unorthodox beliefs


8. Behavioural,
Experimental


9. Doctrinal, regulated and authoritarian,
Spontaneous, freely available and democratic


10. One-sided and imbalanced,
Holistic and balanced
(Source: Adapted from a range of texts and articles cited in this paper)

In part, these differences are seen to account for the widespread trend observed across the Western world of falling Church attendance and adherence to institutional forms of religion and the rise in popularity of spirituality as reflected in interest in Eastern-based religions, yoga, meditation, and other eclectic so-called ‘new age’ practices and beliefs. The reasons driving the rising interest in spirituality are examined in detail in a separate paper, but as one scholar has noted: 25

[R]eligion as a powerful influence in individual or societal life seems to be in trouble. On the other hand, spirituality has rarely enjoyed such a high profile, positive evaluation, and even economic success as it does… today.26

The polarization of views has led some to attempt to reconcile the constructs of religion and spirituality. This work, examined in the following section, is helpful in reaching a working definition of spirituality that can be applied to the business and organizational field.

Here are the footnotes to this section:
25 G. Zappalà, Spirituality is the new black…and it has a social impact! (Part II – Explaining the increased interest in spirituality), forthcoming CSI Background Paper
26 Sandra M Schneiders, „Religion and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals, or Partners?., The Santa Clara Lectures, Santa Clara University, 2000, p.1.

Here is my reflection:

Dr. Zappala gives 10 contrasts between religion and spirituality. I explain briefly each one. I give first the wordings of Dr. Zappala, then I give my comment or expansion of meaning, illustrating from my own experience.

1. Usually passed on from parent to child

Usually discovered through life experience

Religion is usually passed on from parent to child, like an inheritance. Whereas spirituality is something that one discovers through personal experience in life. My religion is Christianity because my parents sported also this religion. I discovered my spirituality when I read the works of John of the Cross and the Hindu philosophers on yoga. This was all by myself, without the knowledge or encouragement of my parents.

2. An external system of beliefs and practices

An internal ‘system’ of beliefs

Religion is composed of a system of beliefs and practices which can be seen by other people. That is why these comprise an external system. Whereas in spirituality the system is internal, it is not seen by other people because the belief system is only in our head. In Christianity there is a creed which I memorized, the Apostles’ Creed. There were external rituals I went through: baptism, confirmation, communion, etc. In spirituality the beliefs I hold are not on paper. They are in my mind only. The beliefs are not set, as in religion. They are not to be memorized. I believe I am surrounded by spirit beings but I do not make a public announcement of this.

3. Based on patterns of worship and ritual

Worship and rituals may exist but vary by person

Religion is bound to a pattern of worship and ritual and this pattern is the same for all. Whereas in spirituality persons may worship and have rituals but each person worships in his own way and does the rituals in his own way also. In the branch of Christianity where I belong the manner of worship is the Mass, and the pattern of the Mass is the same no matter where I am in the world. There is the introduction, the readings, the sermon, the offertory, the consecration, the communion and the ending. This pattern does not change in the east or in the west, in the north or south of the earth. In spirituality I worship God but in the silence of my heart and the pattern is up to me. I may worship him while standing, while walking, even while sleeping. There is no fixed posture.

4. Tends to separate and exclude

Generally connects and includes

This is something that up to now religions are burdened with, separatism and exclusivity. There is always the idea in religion that this or that religion is the right one and is the only sure way to God. Christians separate themselves from Muslims. Even churches within Christianity separate themselves from one another. Whereas in spirituality we extend the hand of fellowship to whoever has the same spirit as we have. As a Christian I am separate from a non-Christian. But as a spiritual person I relate with all those who have the same spiritual inclinations as I have.

5. Practiced in the public realm, e.g. institutions

Practiced in the private and personal realm

Religion is practiced in institutions, in big organizations. Spirituality is practiced in private, in my personal life, even when I share it with others. Christianity has many institutions, big church organizations, with hierarchies. Spirituality has no such institutions. There is no superior person in spirituality giving instructions to others what to do. There is no hierarchy or grades of authority. Each one is an authority to himself. As a Christian I have priests and bishops above me. As a spiritual person, there is only God and myself and others on the same level with me.

6. Associated with Church attendance

May be part of informal groups & networks

In religion there is church attendance. And this is expected to be regular, once a week, for me on a Sunday. In spirituality we have gatherings but these are informal. We have gatherings around the Internet, away from the traditional church.

7. Commitment to orthodox beliefs

Higher levels of unorthodox beliefs

In religion there are beliefs to be adhered to, otherwise if we do not adhere to these beliefs we become heretics and if we separate we become schismatics. We are committed to hold on to these beliefs, even if we cannot understand these beliefs, like the belief in the Trinity. In spirituality we are free to hold any belief, even if from the viewpoint of churches these are unorthodox. An example will make this clear. My church holds officially the belief that the human person is made up of body and soul only. This is orthodox belief. But as a spiritual person I hold the unorthodox belief that the human person is made up of body, soul and spirit.

8. Behavioural

Experimental

This is something that I may interpret differently from Dr. Zappala. But I will try to elucidate on this. In religion there is pattern of behavior that we just have to go through. And we cannot do away with this pattern or change it. For example in my church the pattern of behavior is baptism by pouring of water on the forehead. This cannot be changed. You cannot experiment with other forms of liquid, like juice, or pour the water on the feet. It has to be on the forehead. Whereas in spirituality we are free to experiment. Maybe immersion in perfumed warm water is better as a form of spiritual relaxation.

9. Doctrinal, regulated and authoritarian

Spontaneous, freely available and democratic

This has been touched already in the above enumeration but maybe this has been added for purposes of clarification. In religion we have a group composed of theologians who regulate the doctrines in that religion. And they always base their speculations on the authority of the Bible or of their tradition. In spirituality we do not have such a group. Anybody can teach anybody else and we do not base our teaching on the authority of a book or tradition. We base our teaching on our experience and what works well for us.

10. One-sided and imbalanced

Holistic and balanced

In religion Dr. Zappala says that it is one-sided and imbalanced. Maybe what he means is that the emphasis is on the soul and its salvation. Never mind if the body of the member in our religion has no food or is sick, as long as his soul is sure to get to heaven. And so we have many members of Christianity who are deep in the lowest poverty with leaders high in the abundance of goods. Who cares? This is how God ordained it. In spirituality we cannot do this. We are a compassionate class of human beings. We care for the body as well as the soul. We even care for the environment.

I hope I have done justice to Dr. Zappala’s enumeration in his Table of Contrasts. Going through it and adding my comments and reflection enlightened me more about what spirituality really is. In religion I cannot do this, there is a set of ideas I have to go through and adhere to. In spirituality I am free to add here and there, comment here and there.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Five Similarities Between Religion and Spirituality

This is now the third post on the article of Dr. Gianni Zappalà, “Spirituality is the new black …and it has social impact!” Its source URL is http://www.csi.edu.au/uploads/31642/ufiles/CSI%20Background%20Paper%20No%201%20-%20Spirituality%20is%20the%20new%20black%20-%20Part%20I.pdf

If you want to read the whole article, please click that URL.

Here is the portion of that article and my comments follow the article portion. The author’s words are in italics, mine are in ordinary roman.

Spirituality and Religion

Part of the confusion and difficulty in defining spirituality is that at least up until the end of the 20th century, the words spirituality and religion were used, especially in popular discourse as synonyms. The media for instance still often (mistakenly) refers to ‘spiritual leaders’ when what is really meant is religious leaders (usually in a position of authority) of a particular religious group or place of worship.

There may be similarities or connections between spirituality and religiosity but it does not necessarily need to be the case. As Robert Fuller pointed out in his book, Spiritual, but not Religious, for instance, both terms allude to a belief in a higher power of some kind, be it the more traditional notions of God from the Judeo-Christian tradition or the concept of a universal energy field or force.20 Both terms also describe a desire to connect with this higher power and albeit less so with spirituality than religion, both concepts also have an interest in rituals and practices that help deepen one’s spirituality or religiosity, be it yoga and meditation or attending church.21

The result of this confusion between spirituality and religion is that much of the writing on the ‘new spirituality’ is about what spirituality is not, in particular, how it is different to religion. The two examples below, the first from an academic scholar of spirituality and the second by a best-selling popular author on spirituality illustrate the point:

„[S]pirituality refers to our relationship with the sacredness of life, nature, and the universe, and this relationship is no longer felt to be confined to formal devotional practice or to institutional places of worship…spiritual development is the intrinsic human capacity and yearning to embed the self in something greater than the self. In contrast, religions are the cultural mechanisms that can provide rituals and beliefs to aid this process’. 22

„[R]eligion asks you to learn from the experience of others. Spirituality urges you to seek your own..23

In short, the two concepts have become ‘polarized’ in the scholarly and popular literature. Table 1 summarizes some of the key differences often noted between the ‘new’ spirituality and religion taken from recent writing and studies. While stark academic dichotomies do not always do justice to the complexities, subtleties and contradictions present in real life, the characteristics of religion and spirituality depicted in Table 1 suggest that the two concepts diverge in several important respects. While traditional approaches generally saw religion as a ‘broad-band construct’ that was not differentiated from spirituality, and religion was seen as having both positive and negative aspects, modern approaches (such as those depicted in Table 1) tend to define religion more narrowly and explicitly distinguish it from spirituality. Religion is generally viewed as negative (with connotations of doctrine, institutionalization and authoritarianism) while spirituality is generally viewed more positively (as an individual journey and exploration of the self).24

Here are the footnotes:

20 See for example Greg Bradden, The Divine Matrix, California: Hay House, 2007.
Page8
21 Fuller, op.cit.
22 Tacey, op.cit p.38
23 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God, Vol 1., Sydney: Hodder, 2005.
24 Zinnbauer et al, op.cit, p. 898-99

Here are my comments:

When we were children we were asked, Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If we based our answer on the creation story in the Bible, we would answer, Chicken. But if we based our answer on our experience in raising chickens, our answer would be, Egg.

The same can be said of the answer to the question, Which came first, Religion or Spirituality?
In terms of our experience with religious books and discussions, religion came first. It is only now that more and more people are talking about spirituality and writing about it. In terms of the origin of both words or in terms of the object of our understanding, spirituality came first. The spirit was there before there was any religion. God was there before there was anybody to worship him.

We can even say that spirituality is an offshoot of religion. For many centuries people professed religion. Some of them even fiercely opposed religions other their own. Christians for many centuries opposed paganism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and any other religion. This has happened also with paganism, Islam, and the rest. They too opposed other religions.

But more and more people are discovering that mere religion cannot answer their deeper yearning for a better experience of life. So, they turn to something deeper and better than religion. They find this in spirituality.

Because spirituality in a sense is an offshoot of religion, there is bound to be some similarity between them, just like the similarity between the egg and the chicken.

These similarities are mentioned in the article of Dr. Zappala. Here are the three similarities.

First, both believe in a higher power of some kind. Religion believes in God the Father or Jesus, or Allah, or Brahman, or Tao. Spirituality believes also in this God or it may conceive of God as a universal or primal energy. Both believe that such being possesses power higher and greater than what we have.

Secondly, both religion and spirituality desire to have a relationship with this higher power. Although the nature of the relationship is different in religion than in spirituality, the desire for this connection is there. Religion connects with this higher power with fear and trembling. Spirituality connects with this higher power with love and affection.

Thirdly, according to the article both religion and spirituality have rituals and practices which deepen one’s religiosity or spirituality. Religion usually has sacred rites or sacraments. Spirituality has meditation or yoga sessions.

I may add two more similarities between religion and spirituality.

Both have respect for the sacred, the other worldly. This is not just respect for God. This is respect for the reality that is beyond our senses and reason. When religion pushes this respect to its extreme, it becomes superstition. When spirituality pushes this respect to its extreme, it becomes religious spirituality.

And the second similarity I want to add is that both have fear of failure. In religion this failure is punished by hell fire or repetition of existence or some other worse fate. In spirituality this failure is the inability to realize one’s true worth or value and the destiny of a life of meaninglessness. Hell, repetition of existence, non-existence, meaninglessness are forms of punishment for failure, either in religion or in spirituality.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

The Meaning of Genuine Spirituality in Life

This is now the second post on the article of Dr. Gianni Zappalà. Again the title of this article is “Spirituality is the new black …and it has social impact!” Its source URL is http://www.csi.edu.au/uploads/31642/ufiles/CSI%20Background%20Paper%20No%201%20-%20Spirituality%20is%20the%20new%20black%20-%20Part%20I.pdf

If you want to read the whole article, please click that URL.

Again as in the previous post, the words written by Dr. Zappala are in italics. My reflection follows after the section in Dr. Zapalla’s article.

What is this thing called spirituality?

It may seem like a futile exercise to attempt to define something that is different and personal for everyone. The concept or definition of spirituality in part eludes many in the social sciences because of its ‘fuzzy’ nature and a lack of consensus on what it means. As with many such concepts, we often intuitively know what we mean by them even though we struggle with trying to logically define them. As David Hay observed of the experience he and his colleagues had on embarking on an empirical study of spirituality:

[T]he variety of opinions that emerged [among academics who were knowledgeable of the subject] simply increased our confusion, but something interesting did emerge from this apparent failure. Everybody agreed that whilst pinning spirituality down to an agreed definition seemed impossible, they were able to recognize it when they came face to face with it. 13

The following small selection of definitions of spirituality gives a flavor of how social scientists, many of whom are writing about spirituality and business and/or organizations and/or workplace understand the concept:

• Spirituality is ‘the careful and reflective art of developing a relationship with the sacred’. 14

• Spirituality is the ‘basic desire to find ultimate meaning and purpose in one’s life and to live an integrated life.’ 15

• Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things…an idea or practice is “spiritual” when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life..16

• Spirituality is a concern ‘with our deepest sense of meaning, purpose and interconnectedness with one another and the earth we live on.’17

• The spiritual in human beings makes us ask why we are doing what we are doing and makes us seek some fundamentally better way of doing it. It makes us want our lives and enterprises to make a difference. [emphasis in original]. 18

• ‘Spirituality has to do with the paths people take in their efforts to find, conserve, and transform the sacred in their lives.’ 19

13 Hay, op.cit. p.130
14 David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution,Sydney: Harper Collins, 2003, p.28
15 II Mitroff & EA Denton, A spiritual audit of corporate America: A hard look at spirituality, religion and values in the workplace, San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999, p.xiv
16 Robert C Fuller, Spiritual, but not Religious, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
17 Tim Costello, „Spirituality and love at work. in C. Barker and A Payne (eds) love @ work, Qld: John Wiley & Sons/Australian
Institute of Management. 2006, p.212
18 Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital – Wealth we can live by, London: Bloomsbury, 2004, p.29
19 Brian J Zinnbauer, Kenneth Pargament & Allie B Scott, „The emerging meanings of Religiousness and Spirituality: Problems
and prospects., Journal of Personality, 67(6), p.909

Here now is my own reflection on this section:

My first comment on this section of Dr. Zappala’s article is that I am happy that now social scientists are embarking on an “empirical study of spirituality.” This implies that social scientists now acknowledge that spirituality can be studied empirically, just like any other social phenomena. Because of this spirituality has a new meaning for all of us. Where before it was the area of theologians and mystics, now it is an area of sociologists. It has more than a theological meaning, spirituality now has a sociological meaning.

That is why “pinning spirituality down to an agreed definition seemed impossible”, as we read in the article. This is because it has become a very rich concept with its entrance into the social sciences. It has become like the elephant to the perception of 7 blind men: one thought it was a tree branch, another thought it was a hand fan, etc.

But despite their disagreement on its definition, the social scientists agree that they recognize what it is when they come face to face with it. In other words, the meaning of spirituality can be grasped intuitively, if not logically.

The elements in their definition are: art, relationship, sacred, ultimate meaning, integrated life, beyond our selves.

First, genuine spirituality is an art. It is not a science. It is something that we practice, not something that we read about and forget, like the characters in a book. It is something that cuts into our personality. It is something that we are supposed to foster every day, otherwise we lose it, like the skill of painting.

Secondly, genuine spirituality has to do with a relationship with others, beyond ourselves. It is not delving into ourselves and losing track of the time and place we are in. It is not thinking of the I, me and mine. Spirituality is a relating with others.

Thirdly, this relating is open to the sacred, that dimension of our life which is beyond our mundane world. Here we acknowledge that there is a reality other than that which is seen by our eyes and perceived by other senses and deduced to by our reason.

Fourthly, genuine spirituality has to do with the ultimate meaning of our life, not just with our present needs and desires. There is something more to than just eating, drinking, and enjoying the present turn of events. Life has a grander purpose than just the enjoyment of pleasure.

Fifthly, genuine spirituality integrates our life. It makes us whole. In other words, spirituality is a unifying factor in our life. It unifies the many elements of our life: the physical, the material, the mental, the psychic, the financial, the ups and downs of our life.

These are the elements of a genuine spirituality and this is from the viewpoint, not of priests, pastors, religious people and theologians, but from the viewpoint of social scientists.

My last comment is that now social scientists can spot spirituality when it appears and they can distinguish the genuine one from the fake. Hopefully the social scientist can spot the genuinely spiritual person from the fake one.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Introduction to Spirituality as the New Black Art

This post and the 9 others following are mainly from the article of Dr. Gianni Zappalà, Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW, and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and Director of Orfeus Research, a boutique consultancy that assists organizations develop responsible citizenship strategies through research, evaluation and training.

The title of this article is “Spirituality is the new black …and it has social impact!” Its source URL is http://www.csi.edu.au/uploads/31642/ufiles/CSI%20Background%20Paper%20No%201%20-%20Spirituality%20is%20the%20new%20black%20-%20Part%20I.pdf

If you want to read the whole article, please click that URL.

This article is Part 1 of the Background Paper on spirituality published by the Centre for Social Impact, which is located at Level 6 East Wing, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 with telephone number 61 2 9385 6568 and Fax number Fax: 61 2 9385 6161. The website of this Center where you can find this material and other materials on spirituality is www.csi.edu.au

This Part 1 deals with the definitions and concepts of spirituality.

I found this article a very good introduction to the topic of spirituality. That is why I have put it after my topic on the functional meaning of spirituality.

With the kind permission of the author Dr. Gianni Zappalà I am posting here, in my blog on spirituality, his article in 10 parts. I will be writing in my comments or reflections before and after I present a portion of his article. His article appears in italics, to distinguish it from my comments which will be in non-italics or regular or roman text. As far as possible I have not truncated his article, lest I put something which can be misunderstood out of context. Incidentally, I find this method convenient for me in generating my own thoughts on the matter.

The article is quite heavy, I must say, as it should be, because it is dealing with fundamental terms and ideas in succinct expressions. That is why I have divided it into 10 parts and I may elucidate some of the sentences which may sound difficult for my blog readers to understand. Here is the first part.

Dr. Zappala starts his article with a quotation from David Hay in his book Something There – The Biology of the Human Spirit, published at London by Darton, Longman & Todd, in 2006. The quotation is "The enlightenment also has a down side, including the propensity to ignore or positively reject the reality of our spiritual nature, bringing in its wake a widespread sense of ultimate meaninglessness."1

This quotation implies that if we reject spirituality we are doomed to a life of ultimate meaninglessness. Nobody of us in his right mind would want that.

Then Dr. Zappala proceeds to the Introduction of his article:

Introduction

Spirituality is an increasingly significant factor shaping social trends and institutions in the 21st century. Indeed some have argued that it is the mega trend of our time and is informing and underpinning an emerging world view.2 As a recent book on the shifts occurring in society stated:

Humanity finds itself in the midst of a major shift in worldview... the shift involves a movement away from a material view of the universe and our place in it to a more spiritual view…Nature is no longer merely a neutral object for scientific investigation or a resource for industrial exploitation. It is a sacred order infused with intelligence and purpose – one with which humanity needs to cooperate..3

Before I lose any readers, let me first say that I am not using the term spirituality synonymously with religion. As this paper will make clear they are different constructs, and I regard spirituality to be a biologically prior and innate trait of humans that in some cases may lead some people to religion as we commonly know it but is certainly not the same thing as religion. This may explain the seeming paradox noted by political philosopher Charles Taylor, namely, that we are witnessing a resurgence of interest in spirituality when most social scientists accept some variant of the secularization thesis.4 Spirituality and religion are not only diverse but diverging in different directions. As has been observed in the Australian context (but is generally occurring throughout the Western world), „at a moment when Australians are experiencing a spiritual awakening, the churches that once guided that quest are being left out of the action..5

This paper is the first of several that will examine the implications of what is often referred to as the „spirituality revolution. or „spiritual turn. for organizations and business. A key aim of this project is to situate the current discourse on corporate responsibility and corporate citizenship within the broader transformation that is occurring in world views. We may not always know or explicitly acknowledge it but we (and the institutions we form) all think and act according to the assumptions of a particular world view. Having a model of the world is foundational to most people contemplating (if not answering) the most basic existential questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? But world views also create constraints – they keep us (and the institutions we lead and work in) from seeing the assumptions that underlie our beliefs and subsequently our behaviour. As a recent report stated:

An increasingly greater proportion of people are recognizing that habitual ways of thinking and doing must change or we risk catastrophic outcomes. And yet the shifts in perspective being called for seem to exceed our capacity to respond. We are constrained by a limited way of thinking about the world and our potential – a worldview – that we have inherited from the past and that may be incapable of overcoming the challenges it has created.6

We stand at a point of transformation and as has occurred at other times in history (e.g. theCopernican revolution) the dominant world view has reached its use by date. In this forthcoming series of papers I will argue that we are between world views and that this transition has implications for reforming one of the most powerful institutions of the modern era – the corporation. Attempts by one of the most recent reform movements to „civilize. the corporation, namely the loose alliance of thinkers, practitioners and activists within the „Corporate Responsibility movement. have been limited by the extent to which its proponents remain within the framework of the current dominant world view. I will argue in forthcoming papers that the movement needs to embed itself more fully in the emerging world view (one that is being underpinned by a new spirituality and science) if it is to achieve its goals.

Traditionally spirituality has been somewhat marginal in the social sciences. As Charles Taylor stated in his 2007 Templeton Prize speech, „the culture of the humanities and social sciences has often been surprisingly blind and deaf to the spiritual.. Another pioneer of the scholarly study of spirituality, David Hay said, „I think people are naturally spiritual…and the culture surrounding them crushes it out of them – sometimes suppresses, sometimes represses it. And this leads to a great deal of unhappiness..7

But the winds of change are slowly blowing through the corridors of university social science faculties and business schools, slowly „restoring our sight and hearing. with respect to this key human dimension. Indeed, spirituality has become of increasing interest to management scholars and practitioners, political scientists, sociologists, social scientists more broadly, especially those concerned with wellbeing and health8, and most surprising (or perhaps disturbing!) of all, economists. As a feature article in a leading financial daily stated:

Spirituality is not just a personal quest of the twenty first century; it.s a multi-disciplinary subject. It.s cropping up in physics, in biology, health care, sociology, management, social welfare…even find economists writing on it.9

Leaving aside for the moment issues of definition, consider the following indicators of the rise of interest in spirituality in the business and management studies:

*The publication of several special issues of management journals dedicated to the issue of spirituality and organizations, spirituality and the workplace and/or spirituality and leadership;10

*A growing number of conferences, books and articles on the same topics including the first handbook on spirituality and workplace performance in 200311 and the founding of the academicJournal of Management, Spirituality and Religion in 2004;

*The formation of an approved interest group on Management, Spirituality and Religion as part of the Academy of Management in 1999;

*An increasing number of courses on spirituality and business being offered in MBA programs and the establishment of academic centres for teaching and research in the area in at least eight universities in North America including Princeton, Yale and Harvard.12

Before we turn more fully to examine the work and ideas contained in these journals and books, we need to lay some ground work for thinking and understanding the concept of spirituality, and that is the subject of this paper.

The footnotes in this section are here:
1 David Hay, Something There – The Biology of the Human Spirit, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2006, p.xi
2 Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends 2010 – The rise of conscious capitalism, Charlottesville: Hampton Roads, 2005
3 Edmund J Bourne, Global Shift – How a new worldview is transforming humanity, Oakland, CA: New Harbinger, 2008, p.53
4 Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, Harvard University Press, 2007
5 Deirdre Macken, „Faith in modern spirits., Australian Financial Review, April 5-9, 2007, p.48
6 Institute of Noetic Sciences, The 2007 Shift Report: Evidence of a World Transforming, IONS, 2007
7 Interview with David Hay, „A child.s spirit., Encounter program, ABC Radio, 19 November 2006.
8 Andrew J Weaver, Kenneth I Pargament, Kevin J Flannelly & Julia E Oppenheimer, „Trends in the Scientific Study of Religion,
Spirituality, and Health: 1965 – 2000, Journal of Religion and Health, 45(2), 2006, pp. 208-214.
9 Macken, op.cit, p.48
11 R.A. Giacalone & C.L. Jurkiewicz (eds), Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance, Armonk, NY: M.E.
Sharpe, 2003.
12 On MBA courses, see C. Driscoll & M. McKee, „Restorying a culture of ethical and spiritual values: A role for leader
storytelling., Journal of Business Ethics, 73, 2007, pp.205-17. In 2008 I developed and taught the first (to my knowledge) graduate
course on spirituality and business at the University of Sydney as part of the Master of Public Policy/Public Affairs program.

Here now is my own reflection on this section:

What Dr. Zappala is saying is that spirituality is now a force to be reckoned with. It is shaping our society and our institutions. It is no longer marginal, as it was in the past. We are moving away from a materialistic view of the universe to a spiritualistic view.

If only the Catholic Church did not suppress the writings of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., this trend would have happened a long time ago. Fr. de Chardin already posited the aliveness and spirit present in all beings, even the stones and iron that we step on. This was a far away idea from that of Aristotle who classified creation under the animate and inanimate beings. The inanimate beings were considered those which do not have life, such as the soil and the elements. Surprisingly this is still being taught in seminaries which are supposed to train the future leaders of this Church. The Catholic Church has a long way to go in the path of spirituality.

We are now discovering that all things are breathing with life, with the spirit.

Also if the Catholic Church had only heeded the interpretation of Scripture scholars that we are composed of body, soul and spirit, instead of just body and soul, as Aristotle taught, this renaissance on spirituality would have happened a long time ago, most probably within the Church.

What has happened is that the ones who rediscovered spirituality are not primarily in the religion or theology segments of our academe. They are in the social and business sciences. What a paradox! We may soon or late have sociologists and business executives teaching our priests and nuns about spirituality!

I can only give a brief reflection here, as the longer it is, the more probable it will be that my blog readers will be weary. They will weary their spirits.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.