MESSAGE BOARD: Vol.2 Issue 7 July 2009

FEATURE ARTICLE: Looking Within: Living Potential

'Think of the power that's in the universe, moving the earth, growing the trees. And that same power is within you'
Charles Chaplin (Limelight 1953)

Just lately, I've been asked to explain what I mean by the phrase 'look within'. It's a fair enough question, and Chaplin's quote above illustrates my stance perfectly. He speaks to the fundamental belief that human beings have innate (that is, existing within) energies - no exceptions. Understanding these energies or forces enables us to fulfil our potential in daily life.

Just as science acknowledges the innate energy and potential of stored energy - we as humans also have innate energy which is diminished or enhanced by our physical, intellectual and psychological capacities. In humans, our innate potential is spiritual and therefore limitless - just part of who we are as living creatures.

"There are innate energies within each of us. Understanding these forces enables us to fulfill our potential in life."

Background: the three universal forces
There are three forces, energies, and capacities that enable us to experience our human existence. The first universal force is LIFE: this force which is beyond our capacity to comprehend, though many have tried. LIFE is an energy we know intimately and yet find difficult to explain. The second universal power we have as humans is to experience our existence - the inner force to KNOW that I exist. Finally, we have the capacity to experience our personal reality. This capacity is enabled via our ability to forms images, ideas, thoughts, attitudes, views, perceptions, sensations etc. Our personal minds at work. That we think - is the inner force or power to create all forms of thought. In the THREE PRINCIPLES' framework, these three energies are widely known as UNIVERSAL MIND, CONSCIOUS AND THOUGHT.

Looking within: potential and volitional attitudes
While those three powerful forces are UNIVERSAL and INHERENT, they are not necessarily recognised by all human beings. To fulfil or realise our personal potential requires recognition and volition - a deliberate taking up of the invitation to embark on an inner journey - an exploration that requires certain volitional attitudes:

Looking within. There is a space within each of us where we experience our whole self and know our being. Although this space is experienced psychologically; in truth it is spiritual in essence. It is an integrative space where we experience our being in the most personal way and yet, it is a most universal reality. There is a thirst or invitation to realise our being. A Eucalyptus seed has all it requires (innate potential) to be a tree without self-acknowledgement. The space within human beings however, needs our acknowledgement.

Looking within has critical value. It is doubtful that anyone who does not see and place value in their spiritual nature will want to look within. Looking within requires an ever increasing willingness or desire to look in that direction. Unlike the seed (which given the right conditions will realise it's innate potential), human beings are invited to choose to realise their full potential. Looking within requires a respect for inner silence. A very attentive and expectant respect for calmness - knowing that our intellect (our capacity to acquire and use information) has a place, yet that there is also a deeper intelligence that breathes life into commonsense and sound judgment. That silence is a willingness to invite ourselves to a quiet responsive space which is attentive to LIFE within us.

Looking within requires a respectful listening.Go to any business training program on 'working with people' and there will be much said about listening (and its obligatory skills training), though it is interesting to note that from birth to early childhood we had the extraordinary capacity to learn and develop language, the nuances of family, social culture and environment. As adults, we might ponder what happened to that capacity! Looking within requires us to respectfully listen, and attend to the quiet voice that LIFE has to offer.

Looking within asks us to be humble. Many people confuse humility with meekness or timidity, even cowardice. Humility of spirit is an acknowledgment that the power in the universe is working within. In this way, we see what true power is, and how it transforms our being and our relationships. Humility of spirit is about nourishing the common good and enabling the influential power of LIFE to work through us.

Looking within invites and gives resolve to act. When our minds are silent and attentive to LIFE confusion lifts and our minds are clear. Insight is present and new action is naturally compelling. What was once difficult is now 'do-able', while the cluttered mind struggles to make sense of the moment and action is difficult. An insightful mind has clarity; all that is left is action.

FINAL COMMENTS
We have all the information we need to make insightful and practical decisions (decisions for the common good) RIGHT NOW.

The financial crisis, world inhumanity, terrorism and the environmental crisis, are all symptoms of poor action. Corporations and businesses are not institutions but people, living in relationship. And when those people make decisions without looking within they fail to act insightfully.

CEO, CFO, directors, managers and employees - all of us - are leading stressful lives and not experiencing our own wellbeing. We are 'time-strapped', a paradoxical badge of honour that honours nothing! In the rush to be successful, or viable, or just afloat, we have forgotten to take action of another sort: a stroll in the park, a leisurely read, be a loving parent... rescue our most intimate relationships. A sure sign that we have missed the turning point, the opportunity, and the moment to act differently; many times. A symptom of our failure to understand the inner self, and the potential inherent in LIFE.

As Carl Jung once said;
"All the great and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved, only outgrown. The outgrowing process proves on further investigation to be a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest appeared on the person's horizon and through broadening of outlook the insoluble problem lost its urgency, faded out when confronted with a newer and stronger life urge."

'I haven't got time' is not working. In today's vernacular, it doesn't cut it anymore. MAKE TIME. Look within, broaden your outlook and find a newer and stronger life urge. You will find the insightfulness for the decisions and actions that make good business sense.

Permission is granted for personal use. For all other publication rights please contact the author.

WE ARE WHAT WE DO

As Frank runs to the car at 7pm he ignores the mobile from his wife, knowing that he is already twenty minutes late after promising he'd be home in time to put the kids to bed. He sits for a moment, numbed by what has been a normal busy day. His emotions are teetering on overwhelm, knowing if he let go he might not be able to stop the flow. Putting a sudden and abrupt stop to any outburst he starts the car, at the same time calling his wife to say he is on his way...

Frank could be any of one of us - unable to 'let go' and listen to our inner selves. These quiet and sometime not so quiet moments, are moments of invitation from our BEING. These compelling moments are a reminder that we have not taken up the invitation to listen and be open to OURSELVES. Often, we don't even know how we got to the numb world of our daily grind. One thing we can be assured of is that our BEING respects our choice.

People ask "how do I move in a totally different direction?" while at the same time I see the look of impossibility on their face. The answer is deceptively simple: Say yes to lunch, or close the office door and take ten minutes to read a book that deepens your reflection. Just sit and quieten the mind. Take a few minutes to appreciate a moment of beauty that is before you. Before you go to the next activity, give yourself time to breathe and feel the gift that breathing is. All these are moments of choice, opportunities for change. They are moments to take up the invitation to look within.