Education in Values and Spirituality :: Spirituality and Values

Module 2 Unit 1- How to Develop Spirituality and Values

An educational programme prepares us intellectually and for our social and professional participation in the world. An educational setting needs to provide an atmosphere of harmony, consistency and leadership that conveys the message of values and spirituality. Values that are lived and demonstrated inspire positive change. Leadership is the expression of deeply held values that are worthy of emulation. Good leadership cannot be separated from spirituality. Value-based leadership is about empowerment and relationship. You cannot progress without commitment. Commitment means to be disciplined in your regular study and meditation practice. It also means to face both the internal as well as the external challenges encountered along your journey with courage and perseverance.

Rehabilitation rather than punishment is required when antisocial behaviour is recurrent. Acting out is almost always a reaction to traumas experienced earlier in life. It is more compassionate to consider such negative behaviour as a cry for help rather than a sign of inherent wickedness. Destructive behaviour is also a sign of spiritual depletion. Meditation training and psychotherapeutic counselling have been shown to be effective in helping a person to participate constructively in society.

Values and spirituality are interdependent, and flourish best in the fertile ground of a higher consciousness. That means greater awareness and a refined perspective on the meaning of life and your own identity. Meditation precipitates change and accelerates your spiritual growth. It is a daily commitment to sit in quiet contemplation and reflection. Inner silence allows you to make decisions in a freer, more objective state of mind, to assess a situation dispassionately and to arrive at new creative solutions.

You are coloured by your emotional responses and preconceptions which distort what you perceive through your five senses. You reduce these cultural filters through meditation, and become more tolerant and accommodating. As you develop your spirituality, the quality and nature of your perception changes. As your perception changes so do your priorities. Courageous and innovative thinkers have responded to the extreme social problems of today’s world with completely new solutions, often inspired by deep spiritual experiences and insights.

The crisis in values is perpetuated by two powerful forces. One is the influence of preconceptions or myths of the prevailing culture which sustains anti-values, and the second is the accumulation of various hurts, violations, injustices, etc against which people react with retribution, righteous indignation, anger, revenge, bearing grudges for a long time, etc. In this way anti-values become justified. These forces are stronger than the moral injunctions that come through the religious and educational processes. You do not realise how much these forces colour your perception and influence your thinking and behaviour because they are invisible.

Meditation is the only known method that disconnects the consciousness from external influences and materialism. It cannot be taken as a separate and isolated practice but must be fully integrated into your life at each step and with each level of analysis. As long as body-consciousness persists, so will material values. The process of development of values and spirituality is holistic. You go repeatedly to the root which is to assert your sense of self as a spiritual being in the context of an eternal cycle of an equal balance of positive and negative. From an inner mental stance that is free from limitations, you connect with your true spiritual essence which is love, peace, harmony, wisdom and bliss. In this state you are non-reactive, uninfluenced and free.