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The
Silent Seed
by Robert Rabbin
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We are farmers, you and I, even
if we never touch a shovel or pitchfork, or sit in the
sloping rugged seat of a tractor, or pray that the frost
will not come, not now anyway, not now; even if we don’t
know what wheat, barley, or rye looks like when still
standing in the dirt naked to the waist, even if we don’t
get up at 3:30 in the morning to pull on muddy boots.
Wherever we work, we are farmers: we plant seeds every
day. Our thoughts are seeds, our words are seeds, our
actions are seeds. Our crop is harvested in our lives,
not seasonally, but daily. The world is our harvest.
Preparing, planting, and nurturing these seeds must
become a precise and inspirational art. We must take
great care to plant seeds worthy of the abundant future
we imagine.
One group of farsighted farmers
gets up early each morning to toil in hundreds of
"business" fields, planting and tending rare
seeds of possibility. They are summoning a great force
of conscience to liberate the human spirit at work, and
that liberated spirit will create enchanting workplaces
never yet seen or experienced. They are working hard and
long to infuse spirit, creativity, compassion, morality
and ethical conduct into the very structures, processes,
and purposes of business organizations. These farmers
are motivated by glimpses into the sacred mystery of
life, and dedicate themselves to making business
environments hospitable to spiritual unfoldment, to
clarity and wisdom, to caring, compassion, and
friendliness to people and nature.
These farmers are planting
seeds of spiritual liberation. The liberation of the
human spirit is crucial, for it is that elevated
spiritual awareness that helps us to see more clearly
and honestly what we are doing and how we are doing it.
It causes us to evaluate the effects of our work within
a larger context than mere profitability and return to
investors. It reminds us that all of life has spiritual
origins and thus all life is sacred, significant, and
meaningful. It teaches us that we must care for life,
not exploit it; we must serve peace, not discord; we
must invest in decency, not deception.
These spiritual farmers and
their crops of spiritual awareness feed us with wisdom.
We are learning that money alone is not the bottom line,
that we cannot justify all our behavior in terms of mere
profitability. We are beginning to seriously consider
how the processes and by-products of business may
corrupt the sacred ecosystem of the world habitat.
Spiritual values inform a growing number of corporate
vision and mission statements, and spiritual insights
translate into new guiding principles like social
responsibility, sustainable development, ethical
conduct, intuitive decision making. Certainly, we are on
the way to establishing a new order of business in which
the wisdom of the heart and clarity of the soul will be
acknowledged and respected. We can even expect business
leaders to become shamans who will sow seeds of
inspiration and beneficence and evoke the full spectrum
of human consciousness, even as they continue to create
dynamic and productive businesses.
I am delighted at this
burgeoning of spirituality in business organizations. It
is self-evident that the international business
community represents one of the strongest forces in the
world today, able to shape and determine the course of
social and national agendas and priorities. The
proliferation of spiritual awareness within the business
community will have a radically salutary impact on the
course of world events. Václav Havel, President of the
Czech Republic, said "the only real hope of people
today is probably a renewal of our certainty that we are
rooted in the Earth and, at the same time, in the
cosmos. This awareness endows us with the capacity for
self-transcendence."
This reference to
self-transcendence reminded me of an interview I once
read with philosopher Jacob Needleman, in which he made
the distinction between the exoteric and esoteric fields
of spirituality. It is an important distinction.
The exoteric field, or path, of
spirituality—always the more popular and
comprehensible—deals with external order and
propriety. Exoteric creeds contain prescriptions and
prohibitions, rules and regulations, practices and
techniques, and moral and ethical codes of conduct.
Exoteric spirituality seeks to create harmony,
understanding, and conformity within an imposed
structure of virtuous behavior. It promises the great
realization as a reward.
The esoteric field of
spirituality deals with direct experience of reality. It
begins where the exoteric path ends. The people who work
in this field are slightly mad: they seek to shed the
hallucination of separate existence and to disappear
into the effulgent visions of poets and sages. The
esoteric path is one of self-transcendence, the only
real hope for humanity. It does not promise a reward: it
is the reward. Its path is short, steep, and altogether
stunning.
The exoteric path deals with
establishing conditions and outcomes: it does not
penetrate the mystery of life directly, it is not the
precipice from which one can only fall into the
unknowable mulch-mound of ecstatic silence and loving.
The esoteric path is that precipice and the inevitable
fall into grace. It is the very recognition of that
seed-essence from which the crop of the universe has
grown. The esoteric path dissolves delusion, nothing
more and nothing less. The esoteric path penetrates the
mystery of life directly, and dangerously, through
self-transcendence. The sage Nisargadatta Maharaj said,
"If you are still concerned with outcomes, then
self-realization is not for you."
I mention this because I feel
that the spirituality-in-business movement is, so far,
primarily exoteric, concerned with creating a new world
order based on emerging scriptures of spiritualized
corporate vision, mission, and values statements. It is
a good and useful path. Much needs to be changed in the
world of business, and an engaged form of spirituality
has much to offer this change effort.
Even so, something in me is not
satisfied; I am still restless and hungry. I am not
fully fed by the exoteric pronouncements. The poet Rumi
said, "Reality is a rapture that takes you out of
form, not a feeling that makes you more fascinated with
forms." I want to live in the freedom of
self-transcendence, not just new and improved
conditions. A renegade who lives within me seeks the
rapture of freedom from imposed conditions and
structures and principles; he wants to be torn apart and
slaughtered by an intuited life beyond all forms,
structure, and conditions.
If I lived in a prison cell, I
would welcome new paint and furniture, reading material,
and a window to the outside world. I would welcome all
manner of comfort and convenience. The renegade within
me does not want a refurbished cell, but freedom.
Of course we want decent
workplaces and businesses run with conscience, but I am
not content with that. I do not want to lose my soul a
second time in the furor of a change agenda driven by a
single experience, a single glimpse of the vast mystery,
or a conviction based on theories, principles, or
doctrines. We should not forget that continuous
immersion in self-transcendence is the only real hope
for humanity. If we remain working only in the exoteric,
external field, we run the risk of establishing other
churches, other means of regulating and controlling
behavior and, ultimately, repressing the very spirit we
intend to liberate. It’s easy to become righteous
without the softening touch of self-transcendence. Even
the best of intentions can become instruments of
repression.
I don’t hear very much about
the esoteric path within the spirituality-in-business
movement. Perhaps we are still too entranced with subtle
control and particular outcomes. It has always seemed
odd to me that we speak of "spirituality in
business," rather than wondering what business
might become if it were set somewhere like a small stone
marker within an endless corn field of scintillating
consciousness. Something troubles me about conditioning
spirituality by the pre-existing concept of
"business" as though we need that concept’s
permission and validation to introduce truth and reality
into our lives. I would rather have business conditioned
by self-transcendence, which is the rapture that takes
us out of forms.
We are still overly concerned
with success, profit, market share, growth, reward,
performance—all the standards of the business-mind we
are trying to spiritualize. The forms and structures and
purposes of business and commerce are not immutable
facts, but are a projection of our ideas, of our own
mind. How did business become something separate from us
anyway? There is only one life. Awakening to the
universal sound within self-transcendence is the same
wherever we are. We can stare at our own image in the
mirror for a time until it dissolves; I wonder what
might happen if we stare at our creation of business
with the eye of self-transcendence. We should not turn a
single glimpse of reality into a petrified memory, but
continue to explore the silence of self-transcendence.
From this huge eye, what do the ideas of business,
commerce—even the notion of livelihood—look like? I
heard a sage say we should only work for our living two
days a week, and the rest of the time we should sleep in
beauty and make love to silence. Who will suggest this
to a board of directors?
We must continue the good work
of creating a bright external world, but we must also
not become entranced by our own agenda for change. Let’s
not forget our inner work of meeting the maker of all
things directly, face to face. Let’s not forget to
speak of this glory of self-transcendence, that rarefied
atmosphere into which we disappear and then mysteriously
reappear as the only true hope for humanity.
We should always remember to
speak of the power behind the seed, that mystery which
exists before there is any seed to plant. We should
always be willing to place our plans and efforts on the
altar of the silent seed from which the universe grows
in myriad and mystical ways.
©1999/Robert
Rabbin/All Rights Reserved
Robert Rabbin has had a
lifelong interest in the true nature of Self and
reality. In 1969, he began researching mystic traditions
and practicing meditation and self-inquiry. In 1973,
Robert trekked overland to India where he met meditation
master Swami Muktananda, with whom he studied for the
next ten years.
Since 1985, Robert has been
leading self-inquiry seminars, designing spirit-based
corporate retreats, serving as an executive advisor to
visionary leaders of numerous organizations, and
speaking with business, spiritual, and academic
audiences.
Robert is the author of several
books. His newest, "Echoes of Silence: Awakening
the Meditative Spirit," will be released in the
Fall of 2000.
For additional information,
please visit Robert’s web site: www.robrabbin.com.
Some
of Robert's Books:
The Sacred Hub: Living in Your Real Self
Invisible Leadership: Igniting the Soul at Work
Silence Of The Heart
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