I have the privilege of facilitating an amazing group of soul-centered business builders who are engaged in a 12 month exploration of what it means to practice conscious capitalism. Not just as a theory, but as both a spiritual and economic practice.

Yesterday, we received a special gift in the form of Terry Tillman, one of the senior elders in the field of conscious leadership development (www.227company.com). I think I’m learning as much as anyone in the group, and I had a particularly profound take-away that I want to share with you.

Terry reminded us that one of the highest spiritual laws on our planet is the law of abundance, also known as the law of giving and receiving. As defined by Deepak Chopra, “The universe operates through dynamic exchange…giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.”

What is the difference between a lush tropic island and the Dead Sea? The former circulates water, both giving and receiving it. The Dead Sea doesn’t – it only receives.

The spiritual law of abundance is as automatic and consistent as the physical law of gravity, and abundance only breaks down when we stop the flow. When we become attached to things, we stop giving, we stop the flow – and we suffer. When we judge ourselves as unworthy, we stop receiving, we stop the flow – and we suffer. In contrast, a commitment to providing exceptional value means being equally committed to giving exceptional value and to receiving payment for that value. It means being committed to practicing the law of abundance.

Notice in your life, do you have a harder time giving or receiving? Which side do you have more of your blocks on? (We all have at least some blocks – otherwise we wouldn’t have anything left to learn…)

When we open to spiritual reality, our experience is one of abundance. In contrast, modern economic theory is based on scarcity. One of Wikipedia’s definitions of economics is “the social science of choice under scarcity.”

This does not mean that economics is wrong. What it means is that the world changes as we lift in consciousness. At the physical level, the world looks like it’s based in scarcity, win/lose, either/or, and survival of the fittest. But as we’re able to see things from a higher perspective, we realize that things are based in abundance, win/win, both/and, and love.

The challenge is that when we start to see this, we naturally tend to go into spiritual bypass, where we only want to focus on the spiritual and we tend to deny the physical (which is just another form of either/or). We may shift from the receiving-only focus of unconscious for-profit organizations (“money, money, I want more money NOW”) to the giving-only focus of unconscious non-profit organizations (“there shouldn’t be any scarcity so I’m going to fix things by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor”).

We may sit around and think that if we just watch The Secret another 27 times, we’ll win the Lotto and live happily ever after. Or we may see our self worth as defined by how much we sacrifice our needs for others. Or we may feel a secret sense of entitlement, where we expect that if we become good enough at providing our services, we deserve to have a full practice – without having to learn how to enroll clients.

So how do we embrace both the law of scarcity and the law of abundance?

That is a multi-trillion dollar question our world is grappling with right now.

I believe this question is at the heart of the current economic crisis, of the shift from unconscious capitalism to conscious capitalism, and the shift from unconscious philanthropy to conscious philanthropy. It’s at the heart of Selling By Giving, and it’s at the heart of our 12 month group. You can read about the three keys to integrating spirituality and business (i.e. abundance and scarcity) that I’ve come across so far, in www.sixfigurepractice.net/ebook.

I believe the answer starts by recognizing how deep this conflict goes within each of us and within our organizations, and by learning to embrace this. It also starts by recognizing that conscious capitalism can’t be measured just by the mission of the organization. It also requires focusing on the consciousness of the members in the organization. In other words, it’s not enough to focus just on what we do, it also requires focusing on how we are as we do it.

As my teachers at the University of Santa Monica say, “how you are with the issue is the issue.” Similarly, “how you are with the conflicts inherent in conscious capitalism is the measure of how conscious your capitalism is.”

Most of the work in this area I’ve seen so far has tended to come from one of two angles.

1) For-profit organizations seeking to make their mission more loving. This includes corporate social responsibility, the triple bottom line, etc.

2) Non-profit organizations seeking to make their mission more self-sustaining. This includes social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, etc.

But the thing is, when we’re coming from a lower place in consciousness, business is a battle for survival, and service is a sacrifice. When we’re at the bottom of the pyramid, we do have to choose between the left and the right, between for-profit and non-profit, between receiving and giving. It’s only as we lift in consciousness (a large piece of which happens by integrating the conflicts inside us and by learning to love all of who we are) that we’re able to actually live the law of abundance.

Because of this, you can’t build a conscious organization without also focusing on the consciousness of its members’.

When our conscious self is identified with our physical self, economics is about scarcity and service is about sacrifice. This is shown at the bottom of the triangle, and it’s what happens when we listen to the news and go into fear.

When our conscious self is identified with our spiritual self, both economics and service are about abundance and love. This is shown at the top of the triangle, and it’s what happens when we learn to see everything in life, including our inner conflicts, as opportunities for learning, upliftment and growth. It’s what happens as we find our inner conflicts, and instead of trying to fight, feed or flee them, we learn to love them instead.

Doing so requires learning to embrace both sides of Love (acceptance and loving self-discipline) and both sides of reality (physical and spiritual). Notice that the symbol for love is not a circle (which symbolizes oneness) it’s a heart, which symbolizes two becoming one while also remaining two. Similarly, to do business from a place of love and consciousness means integrating two value systems so they become one while also remaining two – the foundation to the three keys for integrating spirituality and business.

Love and light,

Brian

P.S. If this is interesting to you, please feel free to comment below or forward it to those you think would like it.