Spirituality & Business

by Raymond Siew

www.emasters.info

Close your eyes and think of a safe place...

Reprogram your mind... beingness... the laws of attraction....

You need to come to terms with your inner demons.....

Are you familiar with the words above? Have you tried applying them? Can you tell the forest for the trees? Where do you start? What is the first step?

Is there an ordered system that can take you through the process?

I think so.

And I believe that medium is BUSINESS — Everything you need to learn about SPIRITUALITY is there.

With the integration of
Spirituality & Business
you can become more...

Balanced. Grounded. Real.

I have met with skeptism when I say this. But think about this...

Would you agree that we have an innate drive to be productive?
Does doing business not challenge us to know ourselves, our skills, what we like (and not like)? Our ethics, our integrity?
Does it not challenge us to understand our realities?
Are we not challenged to grow, to ask hard questions?
And does it not systematically challenge us to improve - and to empty ourselves of attitudes and thoughts that do not serve us any longer - when we want to move to the next level?

If so... that will be the basis of our journey in this column.

Integrating Spirituality and Business

Many have told me that spirituality and business is incompatible. I beg to differ.

I think the way business is conducted now is incompatible with spirituality — But we can redefine business. We can make business an expression of who we are.

I believe if we conduct business with integrity, it provides a model where we will naturally - and in a phased manner - INTEGRATE all the spiritual principles we want to practise. Business can be the process.

And I believe if we stay true to the process, success beyond our wildest dreams can be ours — Our wins will not be pyrrhic, and we will lead balanced and fulfilling lives.

I first came across this idea over 10 years ago - in the works of M Scott Peck - and it changed the direction of my life. His thought that business could be the "next frontier of sprituality" intrigued me no end.

Towards the end of his life, Scott wrote that his desire to bring spirituality to business was largely unfulfilled — I've always felt that what he said IS possible, yet my own attempts to bring a sense of community and connection to business had been, to a large extent, frustrating too.

But recently, after a corporate presentation, I had this epihany — Maybe it's not possible in our current corporate set ups. There are just too many conflicting forces deeply entrenched in the system for the idea to take root.

A Better Medium

Some men see things as
they are and ask, “why?”

I dream things that never
were and ask, “why not?”

~ Robert Francis Kennedy ~

On deeper reflection, I now see the successes that I have experienced of community and connection actually came from doing business on the WWW.

I continue to believe that Scott is right... but his was an idea before its time.

And I have come to believe that the WWW offers us the BEST opportunity to see Scott's vision come to fruition.

Why?

Because for the first time we CAN do things differently: We can produce products and services that have integrity in every sense of the word. We can create new business models. It is viable because we have the whole world to sell to. The possibilities are endless.

That to me is the acid test for the laws of attraction — Will it work? In real and quantifiable terms!

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Why Should We Link Spirituality to Business?

It keeps us grounded. It forces us to examine the integrity of our products and services. It fosters growth because it keeps us real. Results are measurable.

I believe that reality is God's imagination. I believe there is no such thing as mysticism. So therefore, there is only reality or illusions.

And the journey of spirituality is in understanding what is REAL — Quantum physics is slowly revealing what are our "other" realities.

All the spiritual principles can be practised in business — Now, when I say business, I mean as a business owner and NOT as an employee (personally, I find being an employee very disempowering).

And when we INTEGRATE spirituality with business, then questions like "who am I?" will need to be answered.

That will be our exploration in this column.

Next time:
In the next issue I'll talk about my journey in eMasters and my efforts to incorporate spiritual principles into our business. I will later expand on the WWW and why I think it's the better medium for this to happen. I'll also be writing on business issues via in-the-loop Ezine so do join me there as well.

About the Author:
Raymond Siew is the CEO and business development strategist for eMasters as well as her two online publications: It's My Life! (lifestyle ezine) and in-the-loop (business ezine). eMasters' core business is Design, Advertising & Promotions — Visit www.eMasters.info to view eMasters' suite of products & services, or to read Raymond's bio.

About It's My Life! content: All content on It's My Life! belongs exclusively to eMasters and may not be reproduced or reprinted in any manner without permission from eMasters. If you wish to use any of our content, please contact us.

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Column: The Spiritual Realist