Beyond Mindfulness to Spiritual Intelligence

Mindfulness

Today Mindfulness is widely used as a form of meditation. One of the advantages of Mindfulness is that it can be easily used in the workplace without interfering with work activities. This is an advantage that Mindfulness shares with Spiritual Intelligence. Mindfulness and Spiritual Intelligence have much in common, but there are also significant differences.

Mindfulness is the practice of simply observing your experience without judgement, which results in a sense of calm and composure. By contrast, spiritual intelligence is the practice of shifting from ego to the true self in the context of all experience. This difference results in three main distinctions between Mindfulness and spiritual intelligence, which can be summarised under the headings of Ethics, Meaning and Purpose, and Existential Issues.

1. Ethics

Unlike spiritual intelligence, Mindfulness has no ethical dimension. Mindfulness simply instructs us to pay attention to what we are aware of without judgement. While abiding by this instruction, you can mindfully lie, cheat, and steal. There are no ethical implications of simply being aware of experience without judgement. In the original Buddhist context in which Mindfulness was taught, it was accompanied by an admonition to live a right life (made up of right understanding, right intention, and right action), which involves inherently ethical demands. But in the western context in which Mindfulness is taught as a standalone discipline, the demand to live a right life is absent. By contrast, spiritual intelligence is inherently ethical because the experience of SQ is grounded in love and compassion, which are the foundation and guarantee of ethical conduct.

2. Meaning and Purpose

If you already have clarity on the meaning and purpose of your life, then Mindfulness can serve to remind you. But unlike spiritual intelligence, the practice of Mindfulness does not discover deeper meaning and purpose. Whereas spiritual intelligence discovers deeper meaning and purpose by virtue of shifting from the ego to your true self.

3. Existential Issues

Unlike spiritual intelligence, Mindfulness does not address existential issues, such as the vitally important question of “Who am I?” This is because Mindfulness merely attends to the objects of consciousness, whereas spiritual intelligence attends to consciousness itself. In fact, spiritual intelligence is equivalent to being consciousness itself, regardless of the objects of consciousness. This focus on being consciousness itself reveals all the answers to existential questions. A deeper sense of meaning and purpose actually depends on answers to such existential questions.

For the above reasons, spiritual intelligence is more comprehensive than Mindfulness, because SQ includes and exceeds the benefits of Mindfulness.

Spiritual Intelligence

As the intelligence of the true self beyond the ego, spiritual intelligence (SQ) has many benefits that exceed the scope of Mindfulness. Spiritual intelligence relieves anxiety and depression and the extreme pain of meaninglessness and despair that is often associated with ego states of awareness. Freedom from ego, as experienced with SQ, grants wisdom and clarity of vision; reveals the answers to existential questions of identity, meaning and purpose; uncovers a commitment to ethical conduct, combined with more empathy and compassion; increases creativity and intuition; and results in better performance on important life skills and work skills. Spiritual intelligence therefore represents the most powerful resource for personal and professional growth and fulfilment.

Case Study

In 2002 a well-known Wall Street company began training their employees in Mindfulness. Follow up studies in subsequent years reported that employees felt the benefits in terms of increased focus and well-being. Absenteeism and staff turnover also decreased. However, this same company was engaged in the dubious practice of selling credit default swaps based on sub-prime mortgages. As it turned out, the traders employed by this company who engaged in this practice knew in advance that the financial products they were selling would turn out to be worthless. Consequently, it is evident that the practice of Mindfulness helped them to pursue their unethical conduct with greater focus and sense of well-being. This is because Mindfulness used as a standalone discipline has no ethical implications. The results of this cynical and unprincipled approach to maximising revenue included defrauding millions of customers, which ultimately led to the 2008 world financial crisis.

By contrast, such unethical behaviour would have been impossible if employees engaged their spiritual intelligence instead of simply using Mindfulness. The experience of spiritual intelligence provides the same benefits as Mindfulness in terms of calm and focus, but spiritual intelligence goes further than Mindfulness because it also creates a sense of responsibility and caring that precludes deceiving people and cheating them.

3Q Training

As a powerful combination of three principal dimensions of intelligence, 3Q represents IQ and EQ in association with SQ. Studies in neuroscience reveal that the experience of spiritual intelligence is correlated with hemispheric synchronisation and whole brain activation. The resulting whole-brain coherence optimises brain function and replaces the ego (the false self) with the soul (consciousness itself, the true self) by shifting from the object-pole of attention to the subject-pole of attention, which results in greater fulfilment, increased creativity, sharpened intuition, more empathy and compassion, and improved performance on a wide range of work skills and life skills. If you want to learn more, there is a Course on 3Q Training here.

Sources

The SQ paradigm is based on a synthesis combining the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions with the findings of modern science, as summarised in this article here.

How to Experience Spiritual Intelligence [Video]

Spiritual intelligence is easy to experience. We all experience SQ spontaneously at times. But spontaneous moments of SQ are rare and unpredictable. Therefore it’s important to know how to experience SQ intentionally. When you can engage your spiritual intelligence voluntarily, at any time of your own choosing, SQ becomes your most powerful personal resource. This video provides step-by-step instructions on how to activate SQ intentionally. Watch the video here.

References

© 2013 – 2024, Richard Griffiths.