OUR WORK IS OUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE: It is just as important to ask, "How can I make this a Soulful task?" as it is to ask, "How do I make my budget?" If we love what we do (Mastery), love the people with whom we do it (Chemistry), and love the reason for doing it (Delivery), work will become our spiritual practice. People are inspired to do what they do well by the love they feel for what they do (Mastery), by the people with whom they share tasks and relationships (Chemistry), and by their commitment to being of service to others (Delivery). The object of our work is to inspire the Soul.
Your work, your subjects, your students, the processes of teaching and learning--do you see how this can be your spiritual practice?

As we begin a new millenium, a number of teachers and leaders are exploring character education, higher levels of consciousness, practicing spiritual disciplines, and envisioning learning that will honor the spirit as well as the intellect. This usually means changing the focus from external things, and using tools such as meditation and contemplation to journey inward. While it takes courage both for teachers and students to explore the personal dimensions of learning, it is a timely and appropriate response to the materialism and consumerism of this era. This experience of inner life, referred to by some as character education, by others as spiritual or emotional intelligence, by still others as developing knowledge of the soul or heart, has led many educators to question the comparable shallowness of the curriculum that has evolved from the Standards and high stakes testing movement. Higher standards, if they are not also deeper standards, thin education to a lifeless and unsustainable shadow of the substance most parents want their children's education to have.