The Five Pillars of Wisdom

The core principles that define the spiritually-based business are known as the “Five Pillars” and are derived from an idea I first heard about through my Zen studies. These Five Pillars are not rigid or dogmatic, yet they do create a framework for daily practice.

These pillars are:

• Meditation and Introspection,
• Exploring Kōans,
• Doing What Needs to be Done,
• Using business as a Tool to Make the World Better,
• Sing, Dance, Laugh, Love, and be Silent.

Each of these pillars requires wakefulness and a sense of focus on the many subtle elements that comprise the human experience. This is a complete awareness of your surroundings and your relationship to those surroundings. And then there is the full understanding of many specific qualities such as love, empathy, morality, creativity, compassion, or intellect. The genesis of this aspect of the work was greatly influenced by Howard Earl Gardner, an American developmental psychologist, who created the idea of specific, specialized forms of intelligence.

Gardner listed them as eight “key” Multiple Intelligences including logic-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, and intrapersonal (social). I embraced and expanded these “intelligences” to include morality, sexuality, existentialism, and pragmatism. I prefer to call what Gardner named intelligences as consciousness or “Understandings.” I name them in this way rather than intelligences as Gardner does, only because the word intelligence is often seen in relation specifically to the intellect, and in a Wisdom Practice to be aware or understand something means so much more than just an intellectual awareness. It is Zen Beginners Mind replacing the chaos of Monkey Mind — thought patterns that are chaotic and unfocused.

Understanding What Needs to be Understood

Part of how you will grow as an individual and how your business will grow as well is through understanding. When I speak of understanding, I am speaking of something very specific, not the way that the word “understanding” is often used. I am speaking of having a complete integration of what “Is.”

Within my spiritually-based business practices, I have found certain forms of understanding to be core to the process of understanding economics in the post-digital age. Most of the Understandings are primarily sensory and though an individual may be inclined towards one form of understanding over another, each form needs to be fully explored about one’s daily Business Practices. Doing what needs to be done in the way we have discussed the teaching “Chop Wood, Carry Water” requires that one understand what needs to be “Understood.”

With few exceptions, each of the “Understandings” relates to how we think. All of these Understandings involve various unique approaches to thought, and some Understandings have very weak connections to each other while others have very strong correlations. These various connections form patterns. For example, a businessperson who is comfortable and skilled in creating friendly environments in social situations may not necessarily be more compassionate, empathetic, or provide better customer service than one who is shy and uncommunicative. In the same way, the practitioner who takes time to master a skill like sweeping a floor may learn to solve a complex problem through a different way of thinking. Thus, an individual with a clear, profound, and fully developed Understanding in one area may appear to be slow in other forms of Understanding. The essential forms of Understanding for an individual on a spirituality-based business model include:

• the logical-mathematical,
• music and sound (auditory),
• linguistic,
• space,
• bodily-kinesthetic,
• the laws of nature,
• interpersonal as well as intrapersonal relationships,
• …and ethical, moral, existential, and pragmatic thought.

A wise businessperson will have the ability to leverage these understandings as needed just as they did with the nineteen core resources discussed in earlier chapters. A visionary thinker in this concept of patterns is Christopher Alexander, an architect and urban planner who has written extensively on this “pattern language.”

Thought, Word, and Deed in Business

Every thought has a physical response. Changing the words you use in thought and communication will change your sense of reality. Do you wish to live a life of purpose and meaning — a life of wisdom? No matter what your business is, the use of certain words and phrases will influence the social, emotional, and intellectual experiences you have and will set the fundamental patterns of your life and business practices. A.I. is now being used to explore these patterns.

An ordinary person, one who has no concept of spirituality, will use the ordinary and common language of survival. This is often a language defined by expectation, regret, fear, anger, lust, greed, vanity, and fulfilling short-term wants and business goals. An individual who has been drawn to the concept of spiritually based business practices will create and use a specialized language to draw them in and create an extraordinary way of being and living. Despite how it may appear on the surface this is not an exercise in elitism; every one of us will be ordinary at times and extraordinary at other times, but among all of us, some are on a journey to be extraordinary as often as possible and to have their business be extraordinary as well. For these individuals, the language they choose to use and the business associations they create or become part of will ultimately define how ordinary or extraordinary the business they create and build will be. The more specialized your business is and the clearer the intention you have, the more specialized the language you use will need to be.

This story is an excerpt from my course “How to Become Really Wealthy”

©Lewis Harrison, all rights reserved.

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I am Lewis Harrison, a successful entrepreneur, and advisor to philanthropists. I am also the award-winning author of over twenty books on business, leadership, personal growth, and strategic thinking. I offer programs, courses, and coaching. I also teach seminars and speak on personal development and life strategies. Reach out to me at askLewis.com

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