Imagine: every company hires a mystic to sit in the executive circle as an advocate of consciousness. His or her role is to enter meditative communion with the source of life, there to dwell and listen to the goings-on in the meetings. The mystic's mandate is to challenge motives, question research, require accountability, insist upon the highest good. They may speak whenever they are so moved. The others must listen and respond; there would be no turning away. This executive would not be bound by corporate agreements of secrecy or oaths of loyalty. They would be free at any time to reveal the inner workings of the decision-making machinery.
The mystic's perspective cannot be held by anyone who has an interest in the furtherance of the business agenda. The vice presidents of product development, sales, marketing, finance and so forth are concerned with analysis, planning, control, and manipulation. This is neither good nor bad; it simply is. Their perspective is a function of their commitments within the business context. It is frightfully easy to rationalize anything in order to actualize our primary commitment. If the primary commitment is the furtherance of either a personal or a business agenda, then it is quite possible to discredit or deny evidence that would disrupt those plans and desires. Can people in the wireless telecommunications industry really evaluate research on the potential effects of radiation emissions from their technology? Can pharmaceutical executives fully admit the health risks of a new drug whose profitability promises hundreds of millions of dollars? Can the executives of tobacco companies ... well, enough of that.
It is also true that while people live from self-images defined within a business context, they are prone to view situations as opportunities to enhance their own personal career agendas. They may be seeking power, position, status. They may have many desires that will distort their ability to see clearly the impact of their actions. The vice president of consciousness would balance this because they would have no personal agendas: they derive their sense of worth and meaning from purely internal factors.
Certain executive teams with a values-based operating philosophy or an interest in spiritual principles might ask transcendent questions. They may wonder at the environmental or social impact of their proposals and plans. They may even modify something in light of these questions and deliberations. Many people in the business community are awake, others are awakening. Explorations of inner reality and consciousness occur in executive boardrooms as well as in retreat centers. An awareness of the spiritual underpinnings of life is emerging within corporate America.
Still, to push the issue, can anyone give their full allegiance and attention to listening and feeling and seeing from a place outside the business context? Can anyone who is invested in any way whatsoever in the outcomes of the business be an oracle of silence, communion, grace-the mystical Oneness of transcendent consciousness? Should this be the territory of monks and swamis and saints alone? We often consult with these experts, but often we have to change masks first to protect our reputation; so we do it on the sly and hope we won't be caught. Should we not begin to groom and promote from within the corporate ranks people of this rare and refined capacity and proficiency in consciousness and wisdom?
The vice president of consciousness would be as simple, clear-eyed, and uncluttered as anyone would be after years of silent contemplation in the high mountains; this is their achievement. While others with different agendas might be obscuring the past or fantasizing about the future, the mystic is anchored to the shock-absorbing rebar that girds the Earth's core. Nothing moves them from a clear and mindful seeing beyond rationalizations into the undistorted present. Their affirmation of the sacredness of life is not a pose, belief, or value: it is a fact of their experience and perception. This person does not care about, probably does not even understand, phrases like market share or maximize profit or public relations spin or ROI.
These corporate mystics would be concerned exclusively with representing the seamless interconnected sacredness of all living things. Their vision, unclouded by expediency, would have the clarity of hindsight. When they sense pollution or degradation, another way must be found. Their interest is to safeguard the ecosystem of living beings. This executive is an open conduit for the consciousness that, when experienced, gives rise to profound love and spiritual insight. They want nothing other than to refract that light of supreme consciousness into the pot. They will say what no one else can say, and then fall silent in order to listen and sense from within the very center of wholeness.
So, why not be the first to go out and hire a mystic? Better still, promote from within.
May everyone be at peace, in love, and know their most perfect Self.
Robert Rabbin is an author, speaker, and advisor. He can be reached via e-mail at robrabbin@infoasis.com, or by writing: 2629 Manhattan Ave., Ste. 192, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. His new book, The Sacred Hub (The Crossing Press, ISBN: 0-89594-837-0), is available in bookstores or from the publisher at (800) 777-1048.
"Echoes of Silence" is a bi-weekly column by Robert Rabbin--author, speaker, and advisor--who has spend thirty years using self-inquiry as a means to explore the true nature of self, mind, reality, and consciousness.
His books include Echoes of Silence: Awakening the Meditative Spirit, The Sacred Hub, and Invisible Leadership: Igniting the Soul at Work, available through bookstores nationwide. Rob can be reached via e-mail at robrabbin@robrabbin.com.