TRANSFIGURATION: SELF-TRANSCENDENT LEADERSHIP

Transcription

1 by Muktananda The PaVima Institute prepares leaders for global transformation. We do so by immersing leaders in the PaVima Method so that they can learn to embody the principles and practices of transformation. In this way, not only they, but also their organizations are transformed in the process. Extraordinary leaders may, in time, through a process of self-transcendence, transfigure. Transfiguration is a state of being in which the leader s soul is revealed. Transfigured leaders are able to take their organizations to heights that were hitherto unattainable. The purpose of this paper is to distinguish between transformation and transfiguration and, in doing so, open an entirely new dimension of leadership education. In my white paper The Evolution of Self I argue that we human beings have undergone, and continue to undergo, an evolution in our understanding and ultimate embodiment of the selves that we are. I trace this evolution through the pre-modern, modern, and post-modern eras. At the end of that paper, I conclude that radical global transformation requires leaders who are willing to go beyond the post-modern interpretation of leadership that so dominates today s pedagogy. I argue, instead, that the next frontier of leadership calls for self-transcendence, and my white paper on that topic explains how and why self-transcendence is inextricably linked to peak performance or mastery. Victor Frankl points out in Man s Search for Meaning (1993) that the true meaning of life is to be found in the world rather than within man or his own psyche. He argues that human experience is essentially self-transcendence rather than self-actualization. Self-transcendence, however, can only become an embodied way of being when leaders are fully and passionately immersed in and committed to their missions -- missions that are, by definition, larger than themselves. In time, and within the context of transcending the limited selves that they are, certain leaders transfigure. In other words, transfiguration does not happen in a vacuum; it happens in the context of committed action. CHANGE VS. TRANSFORMATION To begin this exploration I want to briefly distinguish change from transformation. For example, at the beginning of each year, many people make resolutions. Perhaps they decide to join a gym so they may lose weight. As they exercise they may begin to lose weight. If they stick with it, they will have achieved the change they were seeking. If, later on, they quit exercising, they will probably gain back the weight they lost. Regardless, both conditions are what I call change. Transformation, on the other hand, is a recent secular name for what used to be called conversion or being reborn. St. Paul s famous conversion on the road to Damascus is the classic example of transformation. In ontological parlance, this is often referred to as re-inventing the self that you are, and it is achieved, in part, by shifting the observer that you are. So, one big difference between change and transformation is that change is reversible, whereas transformation is not. Once you are transformed you can never be what you once were. Your identity is altered. The observer with whom you have TRANSFIGURATION Copyright 2016, The PaVima Institute, LLC 1

2 identified is forever altered. You have become a different observer, and, as such, you cannot revert to the interpretation of reality in which you were previously immersed. TRANSFORMATION VS. TRANSFIGURATION Transfiguration, as distinct from transformation, is a revelation of one s true self. In other words, transformation is about reinventing who you are, whereas transfiguration is about revealing who you are. Within the Christian tradition, transfiguration has been associated with Jesus who, on the mount, stood revealed as if a mask was removed from his face and his disciples were allowed to see who he really was. Transfiguration, in this sense, occurs when there is a shift in one s DNA. In our work with energy, as explained in our white paper by Herwig Schoen entitled, Information and Force: the Origin of the Material World, Herwig makes the point that force and information are the building blocks of our physical universe. DNA has the information of structure and function in its template as well as the force to organize matter accordingly. Every particular DNA creates the specific shape and function of a body. For transfiguration to have occurred, it was necessary for Jesus to connect his DNA to a different template, which is what I am saying occurred when he transfigured before his disciples. That is an example of transfiguration from a mystical or esoteric perspective. The PaVima Institute, however, employs a secular approach designed to make transfiguration an operational distinction for leadership development. Thus, our focus explores how transfiguration enhances our awareness of the selves that we are becoming. This approach is consistent with the ontological design component of The PaVima Method, which addresses how we think and feel, thereby altering our moods and emotions. Over time, our embodied selves shift, which directly impacts our DNA as well as the neuronal pathways of our brain (see my white paper entitled Evolution of the Brain ). These are necessary pre-conditions for transfiguration to occur. Our advanced leadership work incorporates practices designed to produce this more powerful embodiment of self because it is connected with our essence or our soul. To explore transfiguration from an ontological perspective, I turn to Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action, and the Cultivation of Solidarity (1999) by Fernando Flores, Charles Spinosa and Hurbert Dreyfus, wherein the authors introduce the term disclosive space. This is an important distinction because it refers to the socially inscribed contexts in which cultural innovation takes place. The authors define a disclosive space as an organized set of practices for dealing with oneself, other people, and things that produces a relatively self-contained web of meanings. Jim Selman, a leader in the field of organizational transformation, said in an article in the Huffington Post that the concept of a disclosive space essentially means that what is obvious to you is not necessarily so obvious to me, and what is obvious to me is not so obvious to you. Human beings always relate to and interact with the world that occurs for them, and not to some independently verifiable objective world they call reality. In other words, the possibilities available to us, our choices, and our actions all correlate to how the world occurs for us -- not to the way it is. How the world occurs to us is determined by the disclosive space in which we are immersed. Our worlds are disclosed to us by a variety of factors including our culture, our traditions, our education and our practices. A lawyer lives in a different disclosive space than a biologist. People who are born into a Chinese culture live in a different disclosive space than people who are born into a Colombian culture. Copyright 2016, The PaVima Institute, LLC 2

3 STYLE AND TRANSFORMATION Each of us has our own unique style. By style I am referring to an embodied way of being as expressed through our personality. A style, therefore, is an interpretation of what characteristics unify most of a person s or a group s or a culture s practices. It is not a fashion statement -- something we add on as a matter of refinement. Consequently, styles can only be understood by someone sensitive to practices as meaningful. When we do not recognize someone s style, we are not really recognizing the person as a person. Prominent figures in society, be they famous performing artists, outstanding athletes, successful leaders of business or social movements, become alive to their unique styles, and in doing so, they are transformed. They glamorize their personalities and their personalities are glamorized by others, often resulting in the characterization that they are larger than life because their style resonates with large segments of the population. For such persons, as for most humans, their unique glamorized styles are driven by ego. On the other hand, transfigured leaders are not driven by ego -- they are called by their souls. By becoming alive to their unique styles, transfigured leaders produce global transformation simply by the way they live their lives. In other words, their lives resonate with that latent possibility that resides in each of us. In advanced stages of transfiguration such leaders are not only passionate, committed, and fully present in the moment -- they are detached from the outcomes of their actions. Ego-based actions create attachment and fear - - the fear of losing what you have and who you have become. Soul-based actions, on the other hand, create freedom freedom to be who and what you are without fear, including freedom from the fear of death for, in that state, there is absolutely nothing to lose. Mahatma Gandhi is a classic example of someone who became transfigured as he immersed himself in India s struggle for independence. Before he transfigured, however, he transformed himself by discarding the trappings of his British education as a barrister and became, instead, a simple ascetic committed to the non-violent struggle for the independence of his people. In other words, Gandhi changed his style. In time, he became alive to his new style as an ascetic in a loin cloth embodying humility combined with unbending will and courage. Over time, by cultivating thoughts and emotions and adopting a lifestyle that were in harmony with his non-violent principles, the structure of his DNA altered, and the neuronal pathways of his brain adjusted, bringing them into alignment with his essence. As a result, Gandhi increasingly revealed his soul as he and his soul became one and the same. Not surprisingly, his followers called him Mahatma, which means great soul. For Gandhi, transfiguration had become a way of life. I could also make the same argument for Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela to name just a few. Any occasion that brings about a change in style makes one aware of oneself as a discloser or as a revealer -- as one who holds a space in which anything can show-up. This awareness is crucial to living fully as a human being. In other words, transfiguration unfolds as a leader becomes aware of himself/herself as a revealer within a disclosive space. In doing so, s/he resonates with the hopes and aspirations of those who are immersed in a specific disclosive space, but who are unaware that the disclosive space in which they are immersed is simply one of many possible interpretations. The revealer within the disclosive space awakens others at their core, thus freeing them from the feeling that they are victims, stuck in a situation about which they can do nothing. They become inspired to take action they otherwise wouldn t see as possible. Copyright 2016, The PaVima Institute, LLC 3

4 The PaVima Institute coaches leaders to become ontological observers of the disclosive spaces in which they and their organizations are immersed. Furthermore, we coach them to look for anomalies within the disclosive space. Thomas Kuhn in his masterpiece, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) explains that anomalies always point to situations that are incongruent with the disclosive space in which one is immersed. They are the starting point for innovation and transformation. To better grasp this notion of finding anomalies within a disclosive space, let s look at the phenomenon of gravity, which has had different explanations over time. Newton s law of universal gravitation revolutionized physics and, in doing so, constituted a powerful new disclosive space populated by the world s leading physicists of that era. However, Newton s law of gravity did not explain the anomaly of the planet Mercury s motion at its perihelion (the point in its orbit when it is nearest to the sun). Rather than question the theory (disclosive spaces inherently blind us from seeking other possible explanations), they did what most of us do when confronted with incongruence. They chose to live in denial by ignoring the observed fact and created, instead, a mathematical fudge factor to force the observed situation to fit Newton s law. In this case, astronomers invented the planet Vulcan (their fudge factor) to account for Mercury s mysterious motion. Yet, no one has ever produced any evidence to support the existence of Vulcan. Why? Because it doesn t exist. However, along came Einstein, an exceptional discloser within the disclosive space of Newtonian physics, who re-interpreted gravity as the warping of the time/space continuum by the size and density of the mass. His new theory of gravity perfectly explained the anomaly of Mercury s orbit. Although Einstein was heavily influenced by the disclosive space in which he and other physicists at that time were immersed, he wasn t blinded by it. He dared to ask questions and speculate about alternative possibilities that no one else had ever dreamed of. In Gandhi s case, he focused on the anomaly (and the hypocrisy) of the Salt Act of 1882, which made it illegal for anyone to collect or produce salt except for authorized British nationals. Gandhi orchestrated a march to the Indian Ocean to make salt in defiance of the act. At first, the British did not take this protest as much of a threat. The 240-mile march began from his ashram with about eighty men. But soon it resonated with thousands across India. This symbolic act made Gandhi s struggle for independence more understandable to the Indian masses and ultimately led to their committed participation in fulfilling his -- and now their -- mission. This is an example of a leader holding onto an anomaly by developing a compelling story around it that resonates with others, even though it is at odds with the dominant narrative about how thing are supposed to be. Creating a powerful story around an anomaly and developing it until it resonates with others is the story of transformation. Thus, for leaders committed to global transformation, being revealers of disclosive spaces for others is fundamental. It enables people to make their most important and creative contributions. Moreover, it is essential for being in relationship. Over time, this way of being can be cultivated. Justin Wise, in his daily blog that explores meaning and integrity in work and life, says this way of being can be nurtured by attending to the disciplines of listening (committed attention to the other person), presence (being here in the moment), compassion (understanding and responding to other s worlds), and attunement (discerning what other people are feeling). Copyright 2016, The PaVima Institute, LLC 4

5 LEADERSHIP AND TRANSFIGURATION The PaVima Institute is committed to working with leaders so they may become effective revealers of the disclosive spaces that are hidden to those who have fallen into a routine way of thinking about themselves, their activities, their world, their lives, and their organizations. In doing so, we help shift the structure of temporality in which they and the people they lead are immersed. In the temporal dimensions of transfiguring, the past shows up as the organization s mood about the project or activities in which its people are engaged. The future, on the other hand, shows up when leaders address the anomalies of their particular project or market, resulting in the subsequent transfiguring of their social space. From there a whole new world of possibilities emerges. Our work with energy has shown us that we human beings are multidimensional. Yet most humans are blind to it. Their perception and experience of reality is stuck solely in the dimension of physical matter, and they suffer for it. In this sense, our physical universe and the planet we inhabit within its unfathomable vastness may be viewed as a mega disclosive space. The PaVima Institute serves as a revealer within this disclosive space. As such, we attune and focus our energies so they resonate with those who are ready to transcend their entrapped selves by taking a stand for something they truly care about. In doing so, they step into the purpose for which they took birth. The PaVima Institute stands ready to serve emerging and seasoned leaders alike in this most noble endeavor. Copyright 2016, The PaVima Institute, LLC. This is an unpublished work of authorship protected by the copyright laws of the USA. It may not be reproduced, copied, or published by other parties without the express written consent of The PaVima Institute, LLC Copyright 2016, The PaVima Institute, LLC 5