soul traders - six influential spiritual leaders: dalai lama, peter koestenbaum, deepak chopra,...

8/3/2019 Soul Traders - Six Influential Spiritual Leaders: Dalai Lama, Peter Koestenbaum, Deepak Chopra, Leslie Kenton, Yefi

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38 spiritual leaders

Businesses are turning increasinglyto spiritual guidance, so you mayfeel it's time to gen up on somegenuine philosophical gurus, Hereare a few to start you off on thepath to enlightenment

Business has a habit of taking words and reengineering them to suit its own needs. So itis with "guru". Test this ou t by asking a co lleague to name tw o gurus who have made anImpact on th e business world. The odds are thatthey w ill come ou t w ith Peter Drucker, CharlesHandy, Tom Peters or, if they are feeling patriotic,SirJohn Harvey-Jones. You'll cast around in vain fora ment ion of th e Baghwan.

But recent developments suggest all that mightbe about to change. A growing number ofunashamedly spiritual philosophers - real gurus, ifyou like - are making inroads into the businesswo r ld .

When an organ isation as traditionalist as theChartered Institute Personne l and Deve lopmen t inBritain can make room at its conferences to discussth e impact of shamanic techniques on morale andperformance ,you know the issue has become a sign ificant one.

What is at the root of this growing quest for spirituality in th e workplace?

No doubt it owes much of its momentum toWestern society's wider adoption of Eastern meditation and self-improvement techniques.

As th e boundaries between home and workinglife blur, an overspill of some kind is inevitable. Asmany US organisa tions demonstrated in th e 20thcentury. companies can often flourish on a common set of ethics frequently grounded on a sharedsystem of spiritual belief

Bu t th e real problem with gurus w ill always liein sort ing th e wheat from th e chaff No-one needsreminding that this is an area in wh ich charlatansflourish .

In recent years, some decidedly questionableorganisations have specifica lly targeted th e co rporate wo r ld in their recruitment campaigns. Theyhave managed to cap italise on th e blurred groundbet ween management "self-improvement"techniques and something more sinister.

Here. we offer a potted guide to some of th emore obviously benevolent gurus that haveemerged in recent years. Enjoy th e karma.

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40 I spiritual leaders

Hailed by Time magazine in 1999 as one of the "top 100icons and heroes of the century", Chopra has done morethan any o ther ind iv idua l to familiarise the Americanpeople w ith the tenets of Eastern mysticism. Born in India,he is a qualifie d doc t o r w ho combines his spi ritualme ssage w it h practica l suggestions for physical wellbe ingand self-improvemen t. In 1996, he opened the ChopraCen t er for Well-Being in LaJolla, California, offering everything from yoga, chant ing an d meditation , to Ayurvedic andconventional detox treatments.

"The poet-p rophet of alternative medicine" is a prol if cauthor and translator of mystic classics. His 25 books.translated into 35 languages, have won him a strong globalfollowing, but his heartland is still Californ a.

"Everything we expe rience as material reality is born in aninvisible realm beyond space and time - revealed by sC ienceto cons ist of energy and information ... We are now ready toun derstand divine intelligence directly In many ways, th isnew know ledge reinforces wha t spiritual traditions havealready promised ..Un less some small pa rt of God touc hest he material w or ld. he w ill remain inaccessible forever "

Too man y to name. His w ebsite is currentl y giv ing prominence to "How to Kn ow God ':

Easi ly ac cessible . Bridges the gaps bet w een spi ritua lity.science and modern commercial imperat ives . Provider ofimaginative paCkage holidays.

Can you cope with all that "primord al sound meditation"(aka chanting)?

Energy. quantum soup, information, miracles. darshan(blessings) , pujas (r ituals), dormant potentialities, detox.

If you 're seeking a mo re holistic approach to life, this is theguy for yo u. You coul d read his On the Shores of Eternity,new English versions of poems by Rabindranath Tagore,w hile undergoing colonic irriga t ion at the Center for WellBeing. Ei t her w ay, you 're bound to emerge feeling positi ve.

Kenton hurtled on to the HR sphere when she told the CIPDthat companies should follow shamanic techniques toimprove morale and performance. This former Harpers &Queen ed itor is clearly a renaissance woman, combiningad vice on achieving health. beauty, pe rsonal developmentand spiritual pow er w ith an undoubted entrep reneurialstreak. Kenton achie ved sales of 2.3m within two yearsof launching her regenerative skin product on to the UKmarke t . Daughter of the late US jazz musician St anKen ton, she is al so a social and env ironmen tal ac ti v is t andTV cook.Everyone from Estee Lauder, through Unilever to the European Parliament. Kenton's insistence that good hea lt hboosts creativ ity. pow er and autonomy - both personallyand in the business environment - has found fertile groundIn co rporate circles . Other clients ha ve included Guinness,Boots an d LO real."Rea l health, creati v ity and pow er come from w ithin. Theonly t rue 'guru' is the hu ma n soul." She can provide toolsand techn iques to help you release your potential forenergy, health and personal freedom, and thus improveyour home an d ',or kl ng life.

(noose f rom more than 30 best-sel ling books. Passage toPower sounds promising for busi ness types.

Learn how to be beautifully effective at t he same time asbeing effecti vely beautiful.

Ma y not appeal to unreconstructed ma les w ho don 't usemois t uriser.

Natural heal ing, vibrant, passion, raw, origins, agelessageing.

A breath offresh air on the management consulting circuit,Kenton's obvious ability to practice what she preache sattracts admiration. Sign her up if you're serious about worklife balance issues and want advice about healing the planet.

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soul traders - six influential spiritual leaders: dalai lama, peter koestenbaum, deepak chopra,...

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