You Are What You Do... Or Are You?

You Are What You Do... Or Are You?

I was watching the movie Batman Begins recently. There's a scene where Bruce Wayne's love interest and childhood friend confronts him, telling him that "It's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you."

This sparked a small discussion amongst us viewers, and I especially was interested in the implications of this on-screen proclamation. Who you are or what you do? Being vs Doing. This interface is a particularly juicy place.

Both sides can certainly be argued, but try this on... both are true, both are important. And ideally, one informs the other. Ken Wilber's model of integral spirituality suggests how.

Wilber often points to the common core of the world's great wisdom traditions (recently including western science, to some degree): There are different levels or dimensions of our existence.

Beginning with matter, then stretching to life, then mind, then soul then spirit, reality can be experienced and understood from a range of perspectives, each of them valid. Wilber has come to call this the Great Nest of Being and refers to it as a Holarchy: each new level including and transcending the previous. Spirit is both the upper end of the spectrum and the ground that the whole thing rests on.

If you identify strongly with the lower levels of reality, it's likely that "what you do" is most important because it has such visible effect at the material or body level. But if your awareness includes the subtler soul and spirit realms, "who you are" - your "essence" - becomes highly relevant. So, as always, it depends where you stand.

Personally, I choose to honour both because I inhabit the full spectrum - I am matter, life, mind, soul and spirit - and I know it. I also believe that when my beingness informs my doingness, I'm more effective, more whole and integrated. This is what Stephen Covey means when he writes about fruits and roots. In order to reap sweet fruits, to get the results that you want, you must feed the roots. You must begin within. He talks about developing character. I suggest realizing your true essence.

The implications for Leadership are significant. Leaders who inhabit only the lower realms (matter, life and mind) will be bound to the values of doing. Not bad, but limited in scope. These leaders fail to recognize their own and others' spiritual essence, or value of being. They are blind to a whole range of possibilities. On the other hand, Leaders who inhabit soul and spirit consciousness are able to act more consciously in accordance with their own essence. Their being becomes the ground from which their doing springs. And that's a good thing. There's more possibilities here for evolution, innovation, transformation. And that, after all, is our great hope for business. Right? Right???

Bottom Line - Know your spiritual essence, and your impact in the material world will be more positive. So how do you get this knowledge? That's the question isn't it. Books point the way, but are still intellectual - an experience in the realm of mind. Spiritual knowledge must be experienced in it's own realm by way of, well, spirit. Ken Wilber and his peers suggest that significantly less than 1% of us are truly up for this. Are you?

For further inquiry: wilber.shambhala.com

You Are What You Do... Or Are You? - To learn more about this author, visit Justice Schanfarber's Website.

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