compassionate action towards suffering in … · this pilot study has shown that these individuals...
TRANSCRIPT
COMPASSIONATE ACTION TOWARDS SUFFERING
IN ORGANISATIONS
A BUDDHIST CHAPLAINCY RESPONSE
TO THE CHALLENGES OF HUMAN SUFFERING
INSIDE FTSE 100 COMPANIES IN THE UK
THESIS COMPLETED AS PART OF
THE UPAYA BUDDHIST CHAPLAINCY TRAINING
PROGRAMME
CLAIRE BREEZE
MARCH 2009 – MARCH 2011
CLAIRE BREEZE 2
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT 3
INTRODUCTION 5
LITERATURE REVIEW 9
AN OVERVIEW OF FIRST PARTICIPANTS 19
DESIGN OF THE PROGRAMME 20
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST RETREAT
FROM SELECTED PARTICIPANTS 36
EMERGING RESULTS FROM THE SECOND RETREAT AND BEYOND 43
EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
AND CONTENT SINCE THE PILOT 50
THE ROLE OF THE BUDDHIST CHAPLAIN 53
CONCLUSIONS 55
REFERENCES 58
CLAIRE BREEZE 3
ABSTRACT
Between October 2009 and November 2010 a group of senior executives from a variety of
FTSE 100 companies actively participated in a programme designed to address some of their
inner states of suffering and discomfort, defined by themselves, in an effort to alleviate some of
the more obvious symptoms of stress, fatigue, ill health, relationship difficulties and anxiety
they were experiencing. Some were actively funded by their organisations and others chose to
self-fund to maintain their sense of privacy.
A group of eight executives attended a two-module retreat on mindfulness and resilience. A
further three chose a one to one intervention with the author to explore the same issues. All the
participants involved kept records of their experience and progress; through an on going
process of action inquiry. At the time of writing five of those who attended the modular retreat
have maintained a daily meditation practice for over twelve months, three have an intermittent
practice they return to at times of stress, one has ceased to practice but is still in contact and
two have demonstrated changes to life patterns and choices in the workplace.
The initial pilot has spawned several new initiatives that are actively taking shape. The first is
the design by two of the participants and myself for a continued programme throughout 2011
entitled ‘The Buddha meets Robin Hood’, that is designed to foster collaboration between
senior executives who benefit from the retreat programmes actively sponsoring someone else
unable to pay but who is suffering in the same way.
The second is a more diffuse but potentially wider reaching application of the pilot in the form
of a book to be published in the spring of 2011 which takes as its focus the actions of leaders in
establishment organisations to act as challengers to what they witness and participate in,
causing degrees of purposeful instability inside these systems to transform them. Participants
from the pilot, as well as other leaders, have contributed personal case studies and each section
CLAIRE BREEZE 4
of the book includes specific references to Buddhist teachings and philosophy as the substrate
from which the insights in the book arise.
In addition to these outcomes the author has been consciously investigating what these
activities have to reveal about the role of a Buddhist Chaplain inside these corporate systems
and how this may vary from the more traditional role of the Industrial Chaplain.
The Literature Search has taken a wide perspective on corporate life and the role of capitalism
and the Industrial growth age as conditions for creating suffering. As little research has been
done into the effects of mindfulness in corporate life and the possible changes it might catalyse
to both individual suffering and wider systemic issues, this pilot programme, though still in its
infancy, may offer some ground for further action inquiry to be undertaken. At time of writing
this thesis, the major centre for mindfulness research in the UK at Bangor University has yet to
fund any research into the effects of mindfulness practice in corporate life. Though the author
has been invited to speak at Winchester Business School in the spring of 2011 on the role of
Buddhist practice in organisations and leadership.
CLAIRE BREEZE 5
INTRODUCTION
There are five million people working in FTSE 100 companies in the UK. One in five people in
the UK suffers from depression, anxiety and or a sense of unhappiness. Ninety percent of those
employed in the UK earn no more than £25,000 per annum. Whilst at the executive level,
where this pilot programme was pitched, earnings are in the top 0.01 percentile; in some cases
in excess of £3million per annum without bonuses. Putting this into perspective we are
therefore talking about a very high earning part of the population who are less in number than
one thousand.
This group does not automatically lend itself to being seen or acknowledged as ‘suffering’. Yet
this pilot study has shown that these individuals of wealth and influence are suffering from the
same basic conditions as others: ill health, depression, anxiety states, loneliness, alcohol abuse,
domestic violence, aggressive impulses, fears of mortality, narcissism, greed, states of
continuous trauma and deprivation.
What is more they have direct influence over a population of five million who work for them
and countless others who either benefit from the wealth and activity that is created, or derive no
benefit from it in terms of their access to opportunity, the resources available to them or the
costs of the products and services they need to live effective lives.
Suffering therefore is not confined to the margins of our industrial society. Those who suffer at
the top of these corporations should also be concerning us. Their mind, their level of
consciousness and the actions they take have a direct impact in a complex web of relationships
that affect the fabric of our society and how inclusive it is. In Upaya Zen Centre there is a piece
of calligraphy displayed on a wall that says “peace in the mind, peace in the world”. This thesis
CLAIRE BREEZE 6
is an attempt to capture what happens in these large commercial systems when that proposition
is put to the test, and we begin to glimpse what might be possible. As Jan Chozen Bays
suggests ‘there is enough suffering for all approaches’.
All of the interventions in the pilot programme focussed on the fostering of a deeper
relationship to ones inner state as a method for alleviating suffering and creating the conditions
for more connectivity and pro social engagement. This illustrates a perennial consideration
when working with people inside these very complex establishment systems. How do we face
the challenge of working with individuals who are suffering and at the same time are at the
centre of a set of conditions, which could rarely be described as “right livelihood” in the
context of the eightfold path? As Chaplains we find ourselves facing the practice of the
Absolute and the Relative wherever we begin to engage. Corporate organisations are
confronting places to work as they are at the extreme end of a paradigm focussed on the
creation of wealth for the few, actively causing separation in communities, consuming
resources disproportionately and fuelling a particular sense of self as defined by power, wealth
and status which paradoxically creates a deep fear of loss and insecurity.
This goes some way to explaining why Buddhists have not eagerly gone towards organisations
and appear somewhat fearful of engaging with them, as sources of impossible corruption and
greed. In facing this dilemma myself I took the approach offered by Joanna Macy in her book
“Coming back to life” (pg 17-24,1998). Here she offers three types of intervention to support
what she describes as ‘the great turning’; they are holding actions in defence of life itself,
analysis of the systemic causes and the creation of alternative institutions and finally, shifts in
perceptions of reality at the cognitive and spiritual levels.
CLAIRE BREEZE 7
This project has primarily rested in the last of her interventions, and it is augmented by a belief
that there will be little chance of effecting a ‘soft landing’ for so many of these corporations
without engaging a deeper wisdom from those working within them and who themselves are on
the threshold of assuming power in these companies. From the perspective of a Buddhist
Chaplain engaging with corporations in this way; the capacity to bear witness to the entirety of
the system in which the people on this pilot participate is a foundational practice to facilitate
ways that they are both helped to alleviate their own suffering, and begin to access more pro
social ways of engaging at work, in an effort to change the culture of these systems which seem
to amplify suffering. The near enemy of an intervention of this type can simply cause people to
learn how to endure more, and maintain the current paradigm, as it exists. At this point in the
project, it is not clear at the wider systemic level whether we will avoid this situation or not,
and that is because it is too early to show conclusive results over a sustainable period, beyond
the capacity of individuals to practice. However there is some cause for optimism, rather than
despair. There are a number of conditions arising in our UK society at the moment that may
create a wider opening for the creation of new structures and mindsets for corporate life:
1. A deeper sense of outrage at the extreme disparity between rich and poor, fuelled by
Bankers bonuses and a recent political intervention by the Irish government to legislate
against them which was successful. This has forced the UK Government to take a
tougher line itself on issues relating to city bonuses and their impact on other parts of
our society. (December, 2010, www.citywire.co.uk)
2. The Centre for New Economics in the UK have finally gained some publicity for an
alternative view to traditional capitalism, which connects the relationship of
organisations more closely to issues of sustainability, health, wellbeing and community.
(www.neweconomics.org)
CLAIRE BREEZE 8
3. An explosion of interest in Mindfulness studies and courses in the UK, including the
National Health Service, education and the corporate sector.
(www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness)
4. A felt sense on behalf of many executives that the traditional way of responding to
financial crises in the economy simply leads to more exhaustion and suffering with
employees and cannot create anything more meaningful than another cycle of boom
followed by bust once more. The Psychological impact of this dawning realisation is
causing some to question their continued participation in large corporations in the
future, which may or may not lead to a talent drain from these institutions.
(www.personneltoday.com./articles/stress)
These issues may seem far removed from the work of a small pilot project designed by a
trainee Buddhist Chaplain. But they reflect some of the conditions within the UK at the
moment that are softening the outer edges of some senior executives to have a more open and
spacious inquiry into what they are doing, what impact it is having on themselves and others
and whether they want to continue to be so unconsciously part of something that they have
accepted as inevitable for so long.
CLAIRE BREEZE 9
LITERATURE REVIEW
In 1997, Charles Handy wrote an extraordinary book entitled “The Hungry Spirit” that
challenged everything he had stood for so strongly in his career as a CEO and celebrity
business consultant. Needless to say it did not sell as well as his other books, though the signs
of his shifting perspective had been there for all to read in his previous endeavours. The subtitle
to The Hungry Spirit was ‘Beyond Capitalism: a quest for purpose in the modern world’.
Thirteen years ago this man predicted the results of a system where money is seen as an end
rather than a means and growth is viewed as an absolute and unrivalled goal both corporately
and in terms of personal wealth. He saw the widening gap between rich and poor, the immense
power that a small number of corporations would have across the globe and in particular how
some of them would have as much if not more power than nation states. He predicted the
insidious effect of organisations behaving as if they are new theocracies with “missions, visions
and values”, the increased sense of meaninglessness that arises from the short lived delights of
too much material wealth and how the drive for “I” would leave people feeling materially
abundant but lonely, dissatisfied and questioning the purpose of their lives. In fact as I write
this I realise that this book would make a very fitting challenge to the habitual thinking of
aspiring corporate executives.
The people we have encountered in our pilot project could also contribute updated case studies
to this book. One man had amassed a financial wealth portfolio of staggering proportions and
yet suffered from insomnia, heart problems, a fear of dying as all his male relatives had at the
age of 52 (he was 51 when he attended the pilot), a regular drinking habit, no close friends and
a sense of depression at what he had accomplished in his life.
CLAIRE BREEZE 10
Handy like Drucker (1993) saw that the paradigm of capitalism has spawned what could be
described as a type of “consensus reality” whose subtlety has become so pervasive that our
western societies are predominantly geared to the acquisition of personal wealth through
commercial profitable endeavour. What is more this has created a false but narrow view of
what a successful life looks like from a very early age. The language of commercial business
has crept into schools, hospitals, charities, the arts and recreation. The idea of vocational work
that is not financially abundant is viewed so negatively that it has left our educational and
healthcare institutions in the UK with perennial talent deficits.
This is the context in which this pilot programme, no matter how small, has operated, and with
people who though dissatisfied with their sense of themselves now, have in some ways
personally benefitted from the consensus reality as it stands. It is one thing to help to alleviate
the suffering of individuals as they present themselves in the programme; it is another to stay
awake to the possibility of the transformation of the causes of suffering in our society by
shifting our perspective significantly.
However as Macy points out in “World as lover world as self”(1991), if we take a spiritual
standpoint that the world is a trap and that we have to avoid it by achieving practices of
tranquillity and transcendence, all we foster is a love-hate relationship with the world as it is.
This dynamic has a logical consequence that we are left with two desires: either to destroy or to
possess it. This seems particularly pertinent to the people, including myself, participating in
this pilot programme. To project onto corporations and those that work within them a sense that
they are wrong and can only redeem themselves by the destruction of that which they have
benefitted from, leaves us in a deeply polarised position. Living inside that kind of duality can
lead to a view that those with wealth or influence are less deserving of our compassion than
CLAIRE BREEZE 11
those without. Macy (1998) illuminates this dilemma and makes a call to us to work
compassionately inside these industrial growth systems, rather than attempting to destroy or
abandon them. She calls for a positive disintegration and uses the metaphor of the caterpillar
turning into a butterfly. Here the Imaginal discs, creates a slurry of gentle dissolution that
allows the butterfly to come forth. In this project we have been exploring the use of the
imaginal discs of mindfulness, compassion and connected purpose to create waves of subtle
dissolution in the minds and hearts of people responsible for our largest companies, so that
relationship by relationship they may ease suffering and dissolve the causes of them inside the
commercial systems they live in. The mistaken beliefs that are the root conditions of suffering
are alive inside commercial organisations. They are so nested in individuals, our thinking and
our structures that to stand outside of them and wish them destroyed cannot possibly be an
effective strategy for change. When compassion is at the centre of our intention it becomes
possible to adopt a conscious position in this pilot programme founded in the three tenets of the
Zen Peacemaker community (1994): Not Knowing, Bearing witness and Healing self and
others. In “Bearing Witness” (1998), Glassman offers compelling glimpses of the power of
these three grounds of practice. Using them to build upon Macy’s insight that a love hate
relationship can only lead to a desire to possess or destroy, the ground of not knowing when
encountering and working with the suffering minds and bodies of senior executives has been
necessary for those of us working on the pilot programme; and as we shall discuss later in this
paper, has offered executives themselves access to new ground within themselves and others.
For those paid to ‘know’, there is a sense of liberation that begins to arise from the freedom to
drop into a state of not knowing, or what we came to term, ‘the current state of your ignorance’.
CLAIRE BREEZE 12
So the skills and intentions associated with Bearing Witness to others and ourselves
organisational settings has helped us to come into a more intimate relationship with emergence,
feelings of inadequacy, longings of the heart, despair, hopelessness, delight and deep
dissatisfaction. We developed this idea further for executives by encouraging them to ‘witness
the establishment’ within themselves and inside their working experiences. It has been a feature
of this pilot programme that all of those involved have had to develop or find within
themselves some more intense sensation of courage or fearlessness. Either in requiring their
organisation to pay for the programme and therefore being unable to hide behind the privacy of
a personal cheque, or in taking the practices back into the work place and demonstrating a
commitment to their use in the public arena of work, rather than relegating them to the spare
room at home. As Pema Chodron writes in “Start where you are” (1994), we need to awaken
the warrior who cultivates bravery and compassion. The people who participated on our
programmes without fail came to acknowledge their deep fear of change particularly if that
change was perceived to have an impact on their material wealth or security. The consensus
reality of the Industrial Growth Society has done an excellent job of creating dependency on
the concept of ‘more’.
Over a short period of time the retreats themselves also began to point to a possibility that was
unplanned by the leaders of the programme. In an age when millions are spent each year on
cultural change programmes in corporate UK, the retreat participants began to experience a
new type of relatedness brought about by the quality of the inner and outer dialogues people
were engaged in. We did not have to manufacture a culture of collaboration, it arose as Norman
Fischer (2003) implies from having the courage to truly meet each other. Out of this a kind of
organisation emerged for the duration of the programmes, in which collaboration, emergence,
kindness and intimacy were a common feature. This experience surprised many of the more
CLAIRE BREEZE 13
senior executives who attended, as they could not understand how it was possible to be so
cohesive and yet be without rules and hierarchies. For some this experience led to some deep
self-reflection about the way they treat others in the workplace and the assumptions they have
held about workplace cultures.
This is not the only mistaken belief that has emerged in the pilot programmes. Most of the
participants arrived at them by discovering for themselves the inherent life mistake in what his
Holiness the Dalai Lama described in “Ethics for the New Millennium” in 1999 as the
underlying assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone. Going
on to develop a theme of the necessity of cultivating inner discipline as a ground from which
ethical practice can more naturally arise, some of our participants found the concept of inner
practice very daunting. There seems to be little place for a mature relationship to practice in a
commercial world that seeks instantaneous gratification, and in a western society where our
capacity for sustained attention is less valued than our ability to push on with speed.
Realising this we shifted our focus to attentiveness (His holiness the Dalia Lama, 1994) and
found that discovering qualities of attention during the retreats gave executives access to both a
desire to do more through their own volition (discipline) and a great sense of connection with
others. This may seem idealistic and not particularly related to commercial decisions, but the
industrial growth society has fuelled a compelling ability to ‘not notice’ the damage it causes to
the earths resources, to ‘not notice’ the lack of opportunity in disadvantaged communities that
reside alongside these commercial operations and to ‘not notice’ the intense pressure and stress
that people experience to fit into such a non diverse work force in order to earn a living. These
commercial structures are created and run by people. So when we look behind the brand or the
CLAIRE BREEZE 14
logo what we find are people not too dissimilar to those who have attended our programmes.
Developing attentiveness matters.
Prior to the economic downturn in the UK there had been a steady rise in the corporate
discourse associated with spirituality in the workplace. This should be distinguished from work
that religious groups have specifically undertaken, such as the work of Douai Abbey or “Faith
in business” (www.ridley.cam.ac.uk/fib.html), from a Christian point of view. Opening up this
distinction between spirituality and religion, Forman (2004) was able to point to a growing
sense of what he described as grassroots spirituality. This emerging sense of diverse spiritual
expression has picked up a broader inquiry about the need for deeper meaning in both our work
and our lives that Whyte (1994) began to explore in corporate America in his radical book “The
heart aroused”. Returning to 2004, Howard and Wellbourne took a UK centric perspective on
the issue of spirituality at work and what could be created within corporations if people were
allowed to bring their spiritual selves to the workplace as well as their physical selves. While
Tacey (also 2004) developed the theme of encouraging people to reclaim a sense of personal
spiritual expression in the hyper rational western societies we have come to see as ‘normal’. At
the same time PhD research was being undertaken at Ashridge Business School on corporate
cultures that created a space for spiritual expression and the effect on their bottom line. By
2006 the “foundation for workplace spirituality” was founded by Dr Josie Gregory.
The subsequent downturn in the economy moved the discourse towards questions of personal
meaning, the distribution of wealth across the society and the challenges faced by those who
are stressed and fatigued in the struggle for job security and wellbeing or happiness in the face
of so many archetypal aspects of a modern consumerist society suddenly appearing flimsy and
impermanent. Hence the focus of a pilot undertaken in the height of the economic difficulty is
CLAIRE BREEZE 15
more to do with the symptoms of ‘dis-ease’ caused by the fragility of modern economic life,
than overtly designed quests for spiritual expression at the Board table.
This has led the author to a broad inquiry about what the role of the Buddhist Chaplain really is
within this setting, and from there to questions of how to design an intervention that through
bearing witness to the suffering of those participating offers compassionate action,
empowerment to those involved and has a mindful eye on the deeper systemic issues that
underpin the necessity for a radical change in the consciousness of those leading our
corporations today. There is no existing template for Corporate Buddhist Chaplaincy, but there
is a deep tradition of Engaged Buddhism. Paget and McCormack (2006) offer a comprehensive
view of chaplaincy roles from a Christian perspective, including in the workplace. Whilst it is
possible to see much of the guidance in the book as generally useful to chaplains of any faith
through the expression of generic good practice, it is very clear that the paradigm of operation
begins with a working acceptance of the industrial growth age as it currently stands. During the
course of the pilot inquiry the author came to realise that the question of role is of less
importance than the ground of practice one comes from. Both Dass and Gorman (1985) seem to
offer a richer seam of ideas for this type of work than the heritage models appropriated from
other traditions. A short chapter at the end of this paper will offer the beginnings of some
specific thoughts on the role of the Buddhist Chaplain in Industry at the Great Turning, and
may be viewed as the next line of research for the author post the completion of the Chaplaincy
programme.
If the purpose of this pilot programme was to explore how to ease the suffering of people
within corporate settings, and the entry ground was not an overt spirituality agenda, the recent
gathering of research about neuroscience and mindfulness provided an opportunity for
CLAIRE BREEZE 16
scientific engagement with people who build their careers upon the dominance of the rational
scientific mind.
Sheila Wang (2005) in exploring the physiology of compassion and its relationship to Buddhist
teaching makes strong connections between an ever increasing sense of self and ones capacity
for connection to others. In doing so she creates an enticing possibility that leaders working in
large corporations may gain a renewed sense of their ordinariness and in doing come to
embody a type of leadership in these systems which is inherently more compassionate and
connected.
Since 1998 Goleman has been widely used in UK corporations as a focus for developing a
leaders emotional intelligence (EQ). Not unexpectedly the goal of this work has been narrowed
to competitive advantage, and while most executives know about the theory of EQ, there has
been little effective practice in executive development to help with the process of how to
develop these critical skills. This gap between the ‘What?’ and the ‘How?’ has rendered this
important material virtually useless except as a leadership theory. In 2003 his exploration of
overcoming destructive emotions, in collaboration with Buddhist thinkers and practitioners,
recovered some of this lost ground, but was not as widely picked up by UK industry as his first
work was. I think the reason for this is that the emphasis on Buddhist practice per se was
regarded as a step too far by most consultants and HR professionals at this juncture to be taken
up as wholeheartedly as his original work was, though this is conjecture on my part.
Something was needed to create a bridge between the concept of EQ, which was widely
accepted by corporations as both useful and leadership enhancing and a spiritual underpinning
from Buddhist roots. The answer arrived in the form of neuroscience research and findings that
CLAIRE BREEZE 17
could be viewed in a rationalist light: a discourse more acceptable to an organisational context
and a senior executive population.
In “The Plastic Mind” (2007), Begley tells a compelling story of the developments of
neuroscience research and the brains capacity to change itself. Whilst interspersed with
dialogues and propositions from the Buddhist perspective, the scientific story is vivid and
detailed. Doidge (2007) published a similar work focussing more on the applications of these
discoveries, and avoided any real reference to Buddhist practice!
In the same year Seigel published “The Mindful Brain”, and created a work that forged another
bridge for the purposes of this pilot programme. In his own roles as scientist, therapist and
mindfulness practitioner, he was able to bring a synthesis to the field that created a pragmatic
ground of inquiry, augmented by science and expressed in the action of helping others to
experience the same. In his subsequent book “Mindsight”, published in 2010, he explored case
studies through the use of mindfulness practice as a therapeutic intervention to create changes
in brain function.
Finally there are two other common discourses in UK organisations, which are always present
in the lives of people leaders. The first is around change and transformation and the second is
concerned with learning. Both of these modalities have become constrained by the consensus
reality of corporate life, and as such rather narrow in their definitions. In an effort to create a
much deeper and more conscious container in the pilot programme for both of these
interconnected aspects to flourish.
CLAIRE BREEZE 18
In the early phase of this literature search, I drew heavily on Joanna Macy’s work and in
particular her view that one of the three approaches to the Great Turning was the ability to help
people shift their consciousness and develop now models and structures for themselves. Senge
et al (2005) appear to have developed a deeply considered approach to the question of profound
change in people, organisations and therefore our society. This work could have been written
by Macy, but is even more compelling to me as it was written by Peter Senge who has had such
a profound impact on generations of leaders in corporate life. This is a business guru who has
open access to most of the Ftse 100 companies, exploring and sharing a radical new way to
think about self, business and the community, he is actively pushing at the very boundaries of
the consensus reality he has helped to form. He has one foot in the world of the executive and
one foot firmly outside it; offering a view that what is needed is a quality of presence hitherto
unheard of in corporate life. A rich presence that demands many of the skills of mindfulness
and meaning that take individuals right to the edge of their comfort zone and call them out of
their complacency, not just to aspire to their own personal happiness, or to be confronted by
their inner suffering, but for pro social action across our communities.
In 2007 my friend and colleague Bryce Taylor published ‘Learning for Tomorrow’ as a strong
challenge to the habitual thinking that dominates most leadership education in the UK. In it he
proposes that Whole Person Learning (WPL) has the attributes of:
Mind/body and spirit
Due regard/recognition and compassion for others as self
Moral imagination
CLAIRE BREEZE 19
Self-Regulation
These ideas formed the centre of the design for the pilot programme and are in themselves
aspects of a mindfulness practice which offers the practitioner access to these types of changes
within themselves as they seek to recognise and transform their own suffering.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE FIRST PARTICIPANTS
The initial programme was by invitation only and was focussed on potential participants at very
senior levels in organisations we were familiar with. This familiarity gave us an opportunity to
select people who would be amenable to an experiment, whilst being known to have personal
or work issues that were causing them a suffering state of mind.
Participant A (A)
A 51 year old male, with a Board position in an Investment bank in the city of London.
Suffering from high blood pressure, heart palpitations, digestive tract problems, and regarded
by his Boss and his colleagues as irritable, aggressive and emotionally dis-regulated.
Participant B (B)
A 45 year old female working in the senior executive team of a pharmaceutical company. At
the time of participating, she was accountable for a team of 300 spread across the UK, and a
special project reporting directly to the CEO. Still in active bereavement from the loss of her
father two month previously, she was suffering from sleep disturbance, regular panic attacks on
a Sunday evening, and had been diagnosed with exhaustion by her GP.
CLAIRE BREEZE 20
Participant C (C)
Was a 44 year old managing director of a consulting firm. Appearing to be well and healthy, he
had received some feedback from his staff that his levels of empathy and resonance with his
staff were very low. He found it hard to develop relationships with his teams and realised that
he had been good at feigning interest in his clients for commercial gain, but could not
manufacture the same approach of ‘acting as if’ with his staff. Subsequent feedback from his
children had led him to see that it was a wider and deeper issue of disconnection than he had
first interpreted.
THE DESIGN OF THE PROGRAMME
The programme was offered to a pilot group, who undertook to attend two weekend retreats,
join 2 out of 4 conference calls in between the retreats, take on a daily practice of between ten
and twenty minutes per day, and to offer support and receive support from a buddy
participating in the programme. In addition they contracted to keep in touch post the
completion of the pilot phase to share what changes they or others were noticing and how they
were evaluating these impacts.
None of the participants had participated in a retreat before, but were very used to corporate
workshops and all of the attendant behaviour that is associated with those experiences. For this
reason a fair amount of effort was put into helping people orient themselves towards the
programme and away from their habitual experiences before they arrived. Fig 1 illustrates the
approach taken to the whole programme, including an invitation for corporations to sponsor
their people more actively. Fig 1a, offers the reader a more detailed overview of the first retreat
content
CLAIRE BREEZE 22
Firstly we wanted to thank you for expressing an interest in participating in this pilot project with
Relume.
We have been thinking about the structure and the timings. So outlined below you will find details
about:
• Proposed timings
• An outline approach
• Learning support methods
• Costs
• Next Steps
The essence of the Relume event on June 3rd was a combined realisation that personal work on the
self has a direct impact on our capacity to create affiliation in strategy, and on our leadership
capabilities in the domain of:
• Executive functioning
• Increasing relational capability/ empathy and compassionate action
• Improvements in personal resilience and immune function
• Increased capability to work with change and impermanence
• Reduction in stress levels and stress induced behaviour
We also confronted the consensus reality that keeps leadership work on who we are distanced from
leadership work on what we know. In this consensus reality it would be easy for all of us to keep
this work separate from our organisational lives. We would like to consciously try a different
approach with this and ask you to enrol your organisation into supporting you to participate in this
pilot scheme. The work and the results can then have the oxygen they need to grow into an
intentional intervention over the long term. We are preparing a short pack that will explain the
approach and the benefits.
CLAIRE BREEZE 23
Proposed Timings
We are planning to begin this pilot with a weekend residential retreat commencing on the evening
of 30th October and closing on 1st November 2009. This will be followed by 9 weeks of practice
and a final residential weekend retreat commencing the evening of 15th January and closing on 17th
January 2010. The Retreat Centre is Bonhays, in Dorset. For more information go to their
website: www.bonhays.co.uk
AN OUTLINE APPROACH
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 Preparing Self Inquiry
X
2 Residential Retreat
evening plus 1.5 days
X
3 Daily Practice
X X X X X X X X X
4 Buddy Support
X X X X X X X X X X X
5 Conference Calls
X X X X
6 Podcasts
X X
7 Support from Claire on request
X X X X X X X X
8 Residential Retreat
Evening plus 1.5 days
X
week
CLAIRE BREEZE 24
LEARNING SUPPORT METHODS
1. SELF INQUIRY
Over the summer period we will provide you with some guidance for establishing what it is you are
looking for out of the pilot, what others think will help you and what benefits and value you are
looking to gain. As this is your inquiry, you can be very creative about how you formulate it. If you
are being sponsored by your organisation, you can tap into methods and processes already in
existence for gathering feedback that will be helpful to you.
Please make sure that you have your goals and inquiries broadly formulated before attending the
retreat. Seeing them as 80% there might help you. We will also provide you with a reading list,
though extra reading is optional, as materials will be made available to you.
2. RESIDENTIAL RETREAT 1
This is designed to give you space to drop into the territory of mindfulness more fully, to
experience a variety of methods and refine your plan in light of what you are learning.
In addition you will have plenty of time for practice and exploration with your peers, to refine your
own inquiry in light of what you are learning and to go into the research about this topic more
thoroughly.
You will form a buddy group, contract with each other about support in weeks 2 to 10. You will
receive feedback on your current practice level, anticipate areas of potential difficulty and do all of
this in a comfortable retreat centre where you can walk in the hills, or by the sea and use the heated
indoor swimming pool.
CLAIRE BREEZE 25
3. DAILY PRACTICE
The core of the programme is YOUR PRACTICE.
For most it is helpful to keep a few notes about what is happening to you and what you are learning
as you are going along. This can include insights into your experiences at work or at home and how
these are being reframed or altered by your practice.
Using your own inquiry guidelines you can keep yourself awake to what you set out to do and what
is happening to you.
4. BUDDY SUPPORT
Over the 9 weeks of pure practice, you will find it very helpful to talk with your buddy group about
what you are encountering. You can also encourage each other and offer each other approaches and
support as you go along.
Working with each other on the first residential weekend will help to cement relationships robustly
enough to make this a valuable and meaningful part of the learning support. You can be creative
about how you do this so that your own needs are met.
5. CONFERENCE CALLS
We will organise 4 conference calls during the programme. Attendance on two out of the four is
recommended. This will be an opportunity to connect with the whole group, hear what is emerging
and receive some input to stabilize or stretch your practice.
You can offer questions in advance of the call if that helps you.
CLAIRE BREEZE 26
6. PODCASTS
There will be two podcasts during the programme that you can access on the Relume Website.
These are likely to be about topics related to mindfulness and practice when you are in the real
world, rather than sitting quietly on your own. If there are themes emerging from the whole group
that need deeper thinking, the content of the podcasts will reflect this. You can then download them
in your own time.
7. SUPPORT FROM CLAIRE
You can request 1 x one to one session with Claire at any stage during the programme, though it is
more likely to be done on the phone or by skype than face to face. These are confidential sessions.
8. RESIDENTIAL RETREAT AND REVIEW OF INQUIRY
Prior to the final retreat, we will ask you to gather together your data about the programme and to
begin a process of evaluating what you have learned, what has changed and what has remained the
same. This may include you taking feedback from others etc. At the retreat we will deeply explore
the experience, reflect on the value of what you have done and have an opportunity to experiment
with other mindfulness and meditation techniques. If you are being sponsored by your organisation
we will help you to plan your approach to them about what has happened to you. We will celebrate
our endeavour together.
9. NEXT STEPS
Take some time to reflect on your involvement in this project, and then contact Karen by 30th
September to let us know:
• Are you going to participate?
• Is your organisation sponsoring you?
• Is there anyone else in your organisational life that you feel might benefit from joining us?
CLAIRE BREEZE 27
The Retreat Centre has capacity for a maximum of 12 people and places will be booked on a first
come first serve basis. Once we have established the number wanting to go ahead, we will be in
touch with a book list and some guidelines for your inquiry. Whatever you decide we really want to
thank you for considering this programme. We are very excited about the potential power of this
approach and look forward to sharing it with you.
Fig.1a
OUTLINE SCHEDULE
FOR MINDFULNESS RETREAT ONE
FRIDAY 30th October 2009
• 5.00pm Arrive and settle in
• 6.30pm Assemble in meditation room for Introductory session
• 7.00pm Meditation (Practice 1)
• 7.30pm Dinner
• 8.30pm Assemble in meditation room for ‘getting to know each other’
• 9.00pm Close for evening/ free time
CLAIRE BREEZE 28
SATURDAY 31st October 2009
• 7.00 am Morning Meditation (Practice 2)
• 8.00 am Breakfast
• 9.30 am The Neuro Biology of Mindfulness Practice
• 10.45 am Break
• 11.00 am The Neuro Biology of Mindfulness Practice
• 12.30 pm Lunch
• 1.30 pm Free time for walking, swimming, resting etc
• 3.00 pm Body Mind Awareness (Practice 3) and feedback
• 4.30 pm Quality of attention vs. pushing for a goal
• 5.30 pm Designing your Inquiry with peer support
• 6.30 pm Short Break
• 7.00 pm Meditation (Practice 4)
• 7.30 pm Dinner
• 8.30 pm “Eating your Resistance”
• 9.00 pm Free Time
SUNDAY 1st November 2009
• 7.00 am Morning Meditation (Practice 5)
• 8.00 am Breakfast (silence for part of this time)
• 9.30 am Participating in the pilot programme successfully
• 10.45 am Break / Room tidy
• 11.30 am Meditation (Practice 6)
• 12.30 pm Closing Council
• 1.00 pm Lunch
• 2.00 pm Depart
CLAIRE BREEZE 29
While fig 2, offers some details to the participants about the content of the first retreat. It was
done in this fashion to mirror as closely as possible the kinds of format that businesses produce
in advance of executive courses. So that unnecessary anxiety about the process could be
minimised and helpful anxiety that might foster alertness could be maximised.
Fig 2.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO EXPLORE ON THE FIRST RETREAT?
• Neuroplasticity
• Major functions of the brain
• The 9 functions of the Pre Frontal Cortex
• Major Benefits of Mindfulness Practice
• Attunement and its place in Wellbeing
• The ‘Left Shift’
• The Body Mind connection
• Different states of Awareness
• Six Meditation Experiences
• Designing Self Inquiry with Peer Support
• Working with your Resistance
• Dissolving ‘Top down’ Habits
• Planning a successful participation in the Pilot programme/ self monitoring
CLAIRE BREEZE 30
In fig 3, the participants are offered a more detailed view of their environment and the
cultivation of a mindset that may support them on the retreat.
Fig 3.
5th October 2009
Distinguishing a Retreat from a Workshop
Most of you are very familiar with executive workshops. The purpose of this note is to
prepare you for the Retreat environment and enable you to cultivate for yourself and others a
mindset conducive to a retreat setting.
Familiarity
Executive workshops no matter how good have developed a certain set of habitual conditions
that go along with them. These tend to include: the use of mobile phones, dealing with
business issues in the breaks, sugar filled snacks, coffee and late nights. As I write this I
realise I can see their comforting appeal! However a Retreat is designed deliberately to wake
you up, rather than support habitual behaviour.
The Retreat Environment
Bonhays is in a beautiful setting, three miles from the World Heritage Jurassic Coastline. The
area is stunning and there are plenty of good walks available to you. On site there is a small
heated pool for your use and a large meditation room which we will be using while we are
CLAIRE BREEZE 31
there for both teaching and mindfulness practice. There is a large communal kitchen with
sofas and a wood burner for us to use if the nights get chilly. The bedrooms are basic but
comfortable; there is plenty of hot water for the shower rooms. In other words everything that
you ‘need’ will be available to you for the weekend, though it is not designed to be luxurious.
The centre was built by hand out of straw bales and then lime washed. There is an eco
friendly sewage system using reed beds. Chris Hendley who built the centre will be on site if
you want to know more about it. He also bakes the most fantastic bread and I am hoping that
he will do that for us while we are there.
What to Bring
Bring clothes that are comfortable and practical. Loose fitting will help you with sitting
practice. Layers and waterproofs are also helpful given the unpredictability of our weather. In
addition:
Swimwear
Note book and pens
Toiletries
Towel
Walking boots/Wellingtons
Alarm clock
Torch
Snacks for personal use
Protocols for a Retreat Centre
CLAIRE BREEZE 32
Please remove your shoes before entering the meditation room. You will find a rack for your
shoes outside the door.
Use your mobile phones off site.
On the last day please strip your bed and leave the bed linen by your door for collection.
The Challenge of Taking Time
For most of us the idea of having such a spacious weekend will either seem like a luxury or
close to a nightmare! Retreats are about the domain of Being, not the domain of Doing. I
have attached a simple structure for our time together. Try not to fill your free time with
habitual activities like the mobile phone, the computer, or catching up on outstanding work.
You will gain the maximum benefit from this if you are able to stay awake to your habits and
choose an activity that is fresh and new to you. Activity in this context could be resting,
sleeping, walking, reading, sitting quietly, being with others or being alone, trying out a
period of silence, helping another to accomplish something.
Be very kind to yourself over the weekend.
Make contact before the Retreat
If you need any further guidance please call Claire on 07977 063395. We are really looking
forward to seeing you and want you to get the best out of the time we have together, so if
there is anything we can help with please do call.
Finally we designed a self- inquiry process for participants to explore, so that their sense of
personal ownership was heightened. During the retreat process it became apparent to all of us
CLAIRE BREEZE 33
that the inquiries we design are in themselves reflections of our current level of consciousness
and can reflect the truth of a suffering mind. By the time we reached the second retreat, many
of the initial inquiries that participants had followed were discarded as not deep enough or
“not hitting the mark”. This was seen by all of the participants as a sign of their growth in self
-awareness, rather than a fault in the design of an inquiry. On reflection I agree with their
interpretation. The early self designed inquiries are really expressions of suffering habitual
mind. As the participants began to develop their own practice, a loosening of old
interpretations and a softening of their inner rigidities, seemed to yield a quality of inquiry
that was revelatory to some and quite novel to others. It could therefore be argued that no self
-inquiry process has much value until the level of self -awareness of the individual has been
deepened. However by adopting this approach the opportunity for self comparison is lost and
with it an inner sense of progress which seems so valuable. Fig 4 offers the reader a chance to
read the material that supported the self inquiry process.
Fig. 4
MINDFULNESS PILOT PROGRAMME - DESIGNING YOUR INQUIRY
Participating in this Pilot will mean developing an active practice for the ten-week period
starting with the retreat at the end of October. To gain any of the potential benefits of
Mindfulness it is essential that you actually develop a mindfulness practice. Knowing the
theory will not produce the necessary changes in Neuro- plasticity that are possible.
CLAIRE BREEZE 34
Please consider this carefully. The purpose of this pilot is not to educate you theoretically. The
purpose of this pilot is to experience the effects of a mindfulness practice and to evaluate what
changes in your self you and others are noticing.
We want to support you in this programme as effectively as we can. Your experience will also
help us to refine and improve our offering to others in the future.
GETTING STARTED
When you reflect on your internal states what do you notice?
How developed is your sense of:
• Equanimity
• General well being
• Ability to cope with stress (not suppress it)
• Empathy for others
• Compassion
• Capability to be with change and impermanence
• Emotional regulation
• Physical health
• Resilience
• Attunement to your own needs
• Facing into difficulties (rather than avoiding them or displacing them)
What strategies do you currently use to cope with your life circumstances?
What habits have you developed over time to help you?
CLAIRE BREEZE 35
EXPLORING WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
What sorts of changes would you like to see developing in yourself by the end of this programme?
(Be as specific as possible)
What benefit might these be to you at this stage in your life/ career?
How might others notice these changes in you?
What habitual mindsets/thoughts/behaviours would you like to see loosened?
DESIGNING YOUR PILOT PROGRAMME
What kind of practice are you going to experiment with?
How long and with what frequency?
How will you keep a record of changes you notice?
What particular quality in your chosen buddy (buddies) can help you most?
What will you do if you falter?
How will you motivate yourself?
What is your back up plan if things get tough?
ELEMENTS THAT CAN HELP YOU
• Keep your buddy’s telephone number and email close to hand
• Join the Relume conference calls
• Listen to the Podcasts for an additional boost
• Contact Relume if you need guidance
• Pay attention to how you are working with the practice to keep it alive and fresh
CLAIRE BREEZE 36
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST RETREAT FROM SELECTED
PARTICIPANTS
Participant A
From the outset Participant A seemed both nervous and dominant. He was concerned to make
sure that he had a “good room” to sleep in and by accident revealed that he had brought
alcohol with him. It felt very much as if he was trying to cling to certain rafts of habitual
experience that helped him to feel more at ease. By the following morning he seemed to have
settled down a little more and found some novel delight in the attention required to sit still for
even a few minutes. Over the weekend this softening and opening seemed to continue at a
faltering pace. He described it to us later as:
“ I just didn’t realise how very stressed I was or how loaded up I was all of the time. At first it
was so good to begin to relax and then I got very agitated. If I do that what will happen to me?
I don’t know how to do this stuff and everything I have relies on me being on top of it all of
the time you know? It probably took me until Sunday to get to see that it is possible for me to
be different, I mean still me, but different. When we did that body practice, I remember
feeling so much I couldn’t cope..like I was disappearing down a tunnel. And I told myself this
is ridiculous, I am an important person, I make a huge salary and people do what I tell them.
(long pause) but I was frightened of this, this little thing. So I guess it is really a very big
thing…..(pause) I realise I am frightened of dying and I don’t know how I would be if I
wasn’t.”
It was interesting for us to note that even though the neuroscience aspect of the weekend
appeared at first to be a very necessary part of getting people onto the pilot programme, by
CLAIRE BREEZE 37
the time they had begun to develop a personal sense of practice, no matter how small, their
attention seemed to be dominated by the novelty of their own personal landscape. We did not
receive any feedback about the importance of this to the participants beyond referring to it as
“interesting”.
Returning to participant A, we noticed a more relational aspect of his behaviour emerging by
the later part of Saturday. By the evening meal he was serving others and participating more
rather than standing back and waiting to be helped. He was smiling more and responding with
more obvious courtesy than before.
By the end of the first retreat he was able to offer a much deeper level of self disclosure to the
group, which others appeared to both appreciate and learn from. He was also creatively
finding ways to develop his sitting practice. Faced with the challenge of a 5 hour commute to
work everyday on a train, he decided to purchase a pair of Bose noise reducing headphones so
that he could do several practice sits on the train. Unorthodox but fitting for a man with little
time, who would usually work on the train or make endless calls.
The rest of the group seemed to support the novelty of his approach and were interested in the
state of his wellbeing. In the last council practice of Saturday evening, he shared in more
detail about his flashes of temper, alcohol consumption and an impending sense that he was
also going to die shortly as every other male member of his family had done. His description
was simple, factual and poignant. There was a good deal of silence after he spoke.
When I entered the meditation room at 6 am to set up the morning sit, I found him sitting
quietly doing his own practice, and seeing that he had already set up the room for his fellow
CLAIRE BREEZE 38
retreatants, I simply took my zafu and began my own sit next to him. We did not speak about
it, but I noticed within myself a deep well of tenderness for his courageous movement away
from the consensus reality that had held him in a vice like grip for so long.
He left on the Sunday ready to face another week of intense pressure with a commitment to
practice and keep in touch with his buddy. I noticed a sensation in myself that he was on a
knife edge and I did not know in what direction he might fall. He did however look more
rested and was smiling more. There was almost an air of excitement about him. His parting
words were “thank you. I can’t tell you what this weekend has meant to me. I feel I have a
chance.”
Participant B
This woman came to the retreat used to living her life at a very fast pace and at the same time
experiencing the signs of exhaustion. She was finding it difficult to concentrate and remember
names and simple sets of data within her area of expertise. She spoke rapidly and moved
erratically. She fidgeted and was frequently coughing or sighing without appearing to realise
that she was doing it.
She was very personable, mixed well in the group and had a warm demeanour. She arrived
late on the Friday evening and then discharged her story loudly. Throughout the weekend she
expressed the most difficulty in being able to sit comfortably and still for even short periods
of time. She was mentally agile and grasped the concepts very quickly, helping some of the
others who were less clear. her help seemed to be appreciated.
CLAIRE BREEZE 39
However the actual process of sitting seemed to activate her almost immediately into a fear
state. She could not hold her attention for more than a few seconds and would feel as if she
was about to “tip over the edge” every time she tried. At this point we decided to focus more
on simple activities to focus her concentration and some body work o help her develop a
sense of relaxation. She found these activities easier to move towards and less alarming,
commenting afterwards, “I never stop you see. I am always doing something, that way I know
I am accomplishing something and I feel alright. I don’t have time to do nothing what’s the
use of that? I feel odd if I am not achieving.”
I am pausing here after her statement to propose that the consensus reality of most FTSE 100
companies, is exactly mirrored by this unwitting description. Busyness is a deeply held value
in these systems, an unrelenting focus on activity and doing results in a near distortion of the
value of action over reflection, of accomplishment through the lens of activating others into
busyness. Even minor practices of contemplation can seem too uncomfortable to come into
relationship with as they may invite in unwanted or unknown experiences that can cause an
anxious reaction and create a feeling of uncertainty. Uncertainty is not a welcome friend
inside the corporations our participants live within. Neither have they built successful careers
on a ground of not knowing.
She began to feel a sense of traction on the retreat when we invited her to work with her
buddy on an inquiry into tiredness, and in particular to reflect on how it manifested itself in
her body mind continuum. Framed as an exercise she felt confident to engage with it and
working with a buddy who presented similar issues led them both to a deeper discovery of
how exhaustion was a perpetual but unacknowledged companion. This exercise produced her
first catharsis, and was followed throughout the weekend by several more.
CLAIRE BREEZE 40
“This is why I don’t stop. I can’t afford to be tired so I just push on through. I keep willing
myself to do more, or just to keep up..and then I am so anxious about it that now I can’t sleep
at night. I am waking up all the time with things I have forgotten to do. (Pause) that list never
gets shorter you know.”
As the retreat progressed she worked more with a mindfulness of body practice, this provided
focus and an opportunity to explore sensations and somatic reactions without the more
familiar psychologically punishing inner narrative that was her constant companion. On the
Saturday afternoon we built in a couple of hours of free time. I was curious to discover what
choices she made about that. At the end of the weekend I asked her and this was her response:
“ My first reaction was to get the computer out and catch up on some work, but then I noticed
myself actually thinking ‘what are you doing?’ so I went out for a walk, a slow walk to the
sea. I rang my kids and then I came back and went to my room. I fell asleep so fast and only
woke up when I heard the bell. I never do stuff like that you know.”
Towards the end of the first retreat, Participant B designed an approach to practice that
focussed more on short periods of reflective time. We ran a session we called “The other
980”, the working assumption here is that there are about a 1000 awake minutes in a day.
Twenty of those could be taken up with the development of a sitting practice, while the other
980 are opportunities to bring mindfulness to other habitual activities from eating breakfast all
the way to a management meeting.
CLAIRE BREEZE 41
For many of the participants this was a significant discovery. Perceptually a twenty minute
period of sitting each day feels like a mountainous goal to achieve. In this way each
participant was given the choice to design an inquiry that matched their lifestyle and their
inner sense of capability. In the case of Participant B she felt more able to commit to a ten
minute sit each day and two periods of mindfulness in action. We were all interested to see
how she would make this wok in practice, or whether it would simply slide back into a
habitual state of perpetual motion.
Participant C
Demonstrated a quick mind and a readiness to participate from the beginning. He had a
charming personality and a ready sense of humour that people seemed to find engaging. In
fact in the early stages of the retreat I felt as if his presence there was really not particularly
necessary. He was absorbed by each of the practices and was quick to articulate what was
happening.
At a point where the warmth between people seemed to be palpable and a sense of flow in the
retreat was evident to all, he suddenly became agitated and spoke out sceptically about what
we were learning, how useful it really was and how it was just a collection of white middle
class nonsense. It was an interesting and challenging moment for us all. So we decided to use
the council process to enable a deeper exploration of what was emerging. We took about an
hour and gave space for speaking and silence. There were angry reactions from some, and
dismissal from others; then one of the participants suggested that it was hard to hold warmth
and intimacy without sometimes feeling the need to destroy it or cause discord. It was after
this that Participant C picked up the talking piece once again to speak. For the process of
CLAIRE BREEZE 42
council I have not recorded what he said at that time. However when we did some reflection
at the end of the retreat this is what he was able to say:
“I think I do that a lot you know (Pause) when everything feels warm and nice I just have to
get away from it. I can’t trust it, I never have been able to. I don’t care about people you
know, they just think I care about them because I am funny. I don’t want to be in all this
cosiness.”
Asking him how this manifested itself in his work life he answered like this:
“I know how to get people to do what I want. I am a good leader like that. Then they try to get
to know me and I don’t feel comfortable with that. I just employ them I don’t have to have
them in my life you know. (Long pause) It’s my kids you know that I worry about. I want to
love them and I don’t feel I can, well not in the way I think I should. I can only stand it for a
bit at a time then I have to get away. (Pause) it’s the same isn’t it? What I do at work is what I
do at home, it’s the same. Being here with all this niceness makes me just want to tear it
down, its like I panic. Why is that? I don’t want to be like this……I hurt people all the time, I
know I do.”
He designed and inquiry that included a focus on body awareness and a loving kindness
practice. He also decided to explore the notion of listening to himself and others more deeply.
CLAIRE BREEZE 43
EMERGING RESULTS FROM THE SECOND RETREAT AND BEYOND
The second retreat focussed on reflecting at a thorough level on what had been both
accomplished, remained problematic for people and perhaps most importantly what the effect
of developing mindfulness was having on both behaviour and consciousness. This work
culminated on the middle evening in a lengthy exercise on discovering personal purpose. Fig.
5 shows the bones of this exercise that took each participant about 90 minutes to complete
with meditation practice grounding each section.
Fig 5
UNFOLDING WHO YOU ARE AND STAYING CONNECTED
1. Write down all the qualities that you possess that really seem to reflect your individuality.
Write down as many as you can.
2. Now take some time to reflect on them and mark out the ones that feel that they most closely
express who you are. In other words if they were no longer qualities that are with you, you
would not feel yourself. If you can select up to 5 of these. Now put them to one side.
3. Now think of the actions you take in the world, your action signature if you like. These are the
things that seem core to you and how you act in the world.
Think of as many as you can and list them, do not edit them!
4. Now go through the same process as point 2 and refine the list down to a maximum of 5. Then
put it to one side.
5. Write a paragraph that sums up your ideal state for the world. Just from your perspective.
Connect to that aspect that you feel most impassioned by and see if you can express that in
terms of an ideal world state.
6. Now take a fresh sheet of paper and write the following across the top:
“The purpose of my, (name), is to use:
CLAIRE BREEZE 44
7. Add in your five qualities here then write “by” ......................
8. Add in your five actions here, then write “so that” ...............
9. Add in your paragraph about the world here.
It is hard to express the atmosphere that this exercise produced in the group from the instructions
themselves. By putting this exercise into the retreat we were trying to cause a widening and
deepening of connection for each participant, on the assumption that at least eight weeks of
mindfulness practice would have facilitated a much deeper relationship to self and others.
During the course of the pilot programme, we began to notice that change seemed to be emerging
for the participants in three specific ways: physiological changes, psychological or emotional
shifts and relational or pro social transformations. The purpose exercise is therefore offered to
participants to allow for a deeper and fuller manifestation of themselves as protagonists in the
world.
It is also worth noting at this point that all of these participants would be very familiar with
activities in the workplace designed to elicit vision and purpose for an organisation. These
activities are framed by self interest, competitive advantage and consumerism. Having witnessed
these organisational protocols over many years, I was interested in seeing how the condition of
mindfulness might foster a different type of relationship to questions of purpose and
responsibility. It would appear, from the five times that we have run this exercise in this retreat
mode, it does indeed create an opening for a narrative about purpose which is less about personal
obsession and more about a sense of social engagement arising from a sense of connectivity.
CLAIRE BREEZE 45
It was apparent to all in the room that many of the participants experienced a deep sense of
surprise when they put the sections of the exercise together, and then read them out loud. They
were received with tenderness and delight and awe. All of the purpose statements were much
wider in their considerations than personal wealth and well being.
Participant A
“My ideal state for the world is a place where all children are free from the poverty of resources,
education and love. Where young people are safe to express themselves and have access to
opportunities to find their place in the world. Where people can live free of fear and be healthy,
knowing they have the right to life and to purpose”
Fig 6 illustrates the shift in awareness and consciousness that Participant A was able to bring to
his daily working life, and the actions he took as a result of completing the purpose exercise that
he has described in his own words as a call to service. To protect his anonymity identifying
components have been removed from his email.
Fig 6
Subject: Walk this way.....
Date: Thursday, 4 March 2010 14:39
Hi Claire,
I wanted to send the note below to the Group but don't have their e-mail addresses. Could you
/Karen please forward it to them for me please.
Thanks
xxxx
Hi Everyone,
I hope that you are all well and are managing to sit more often than not. My sits continue to be
primarily on trains and planes but I have also used the candle flame technique as I find it quite
illuminating (sorry couldn't resist).
CLAIRE BREEZE 46
The reason for writing was to share details of a walk I did this morning. Hopefully you remember
my mindful walk no.1 where I focussed on the physical feeling of my walk to work, vibrations
from traffic, wind and sun on my face, feel of the ground etc. Well this morning I happened to
follow a woman pulling a suitcase on wheels which made a rhythmic noise and this gave me the
idea to do an "aural mindful walk". Basically I either looked downwards or kept my gaze in soft
focus so as to really concentrate on the noises around me. The result was quite amazing. It was as
if there were a symphony playing, traffic rumble pierced by siren which as it died away was
replaced by a jet engine that transformed into birdsong etc. What made it so good was the range of
normally 'unheard' or unnoticed noises - the varying accents speaking on mobiles, the different
footfall of male vs. female joggers, and the sound of a birds feet (do they have feet?) as they
hopped and scampered along a railing. By the end of the walk I was able to separate out and focus
on sounds from across the river then switch to ones nearby - a bit like tuning a radio.
So if you tried the first walk version and wanted some variety here it is - take off your headphones
and be as one with the noises of your world!
My other bit of news is that following Claire's powerful 'call to service' session with us I have
(financially) adopted children in Burundi, Guatelemala, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and am having
a drinking well built in an African village. I am also exploring becoming a Trustee of an
international children's charity. So thank you Claire for the wake up call. And don't even get me
started on my transformation into a mindful leader.............
In Gassho ANON
Using our model of physiological, psychological/emotional and relational, we asked participant A
to review what had changed as a result of his participation in the programme:
“When people ask me at work what I have been doing I tell them about the programme by saying
it was the most profound learning and leadership programme of my life. I learned to lead myself
for the first time ever because I discovered myself in the simple act of sitting. When dramas arise
at work now, I start from a position that people are trying to do their best, I don’t shout and push
my weight around, I let them talk, I listen and I find myself much more interested in their well
being than I ever was before. If I sense I am anxious or getting angry I just tune in, work out
what’s going on and so I feel I am closer to people now than I was before. I have got very
CLAIRE BREEZE 47
energised by our corporate and social responsibility agenda. We always had one but we never
really did much with it. I have brought some of my ideas closer to home, so now we are looking at
doing some work in the east end of London with one particular estate. I have got about a dozen of
my colleagues signed up to help. I haven’t had a heart palpitation for two months and when I
went back to the company medic he was able to confirm that my blood pressure was back to
normal. My stomach has settled and if I do get any trouble in that way I know that I haven’t been
mindful enough to my mood so I just stop and sit or take a mindful walk around the city. I see
things these days: The flowers the dirt and the light in between the buildings. We had some 360
degree feedback recently and everyone commented how much better I was to work for. My 52nd
Birthday is coming up and 90percent of the time I feel good about that too. I am not so afraid, so I
am less aggressive. There are things I can do in this world..here at work to make it more humane
and out there with children. Who would have thought just sitting could do all of that!”
Participant B
“My ideal state for the world is a place where my family know everyday that I love them. Where
none of us feel neglected or unheard and where we stand strongly together to face what life throws
at us. A place where I take time to tell my children my husband and my mother that I love them
and they get to see me more often doing things that show them I do rather than being at work all
the time. It’s a place where I can take time to look after myself and have a life that reflects my
priorities. It’s a place where I can do things for others that are not just about how much I earn or
how hard I work for the next promotion.”
Participant B struggled with fitting in a regular practice between the first and second retreats, but
as the time progressed began to see the significance of this as a metaphor for her life choices more
widely. She kept in regular contact and when she felt that she made small breakthroughs she was
eager to let us know. This included saying no to evening meetings on a more regular basis, taking
time to eat properly during the day and creating a culture within her team where others were
encouraged to do this too. In addition she joined a local meditation group, which she attended in
an ad hoc way and took her family away for an extended holiday, the first they had had all
together in eight years.
A senior member of her team went through an emotional crisis of confidence and purpose and she
walked towards this situation, offering a higher level of support than she would have done
previously. She even shared some of the techniques she had learned from the programme with the
CLAIRE BREEZE 48
staff member and recommended that she attend our next programme, which she offered to fund
out of her development budget. This was accepted.
Perhaps most significantly she made time to spend with her recently bereaved mother and to begin
a discourse about her father and how she had used work as a cover to avoid being there much as
he was dying. At these times she returned to the somatic awareness practices she had cultivated on
the pilot and taught them to her mother.
Several months after the end of the pilot I received this letter from her:
“I am nudging you to sort out a return weekend for all of us that participated in the pilot
programme. I know it will be a logistical nightmare but I really think it will be worth it. I hope you
are sitting down? I took my whole holiday entitlement for the first time ever. We used it to have a
big family holiday and went to a place where I could really relax too. Then we all pitched up to
help with the building of a community school and had great fun working together on something
that would benefit others. I felt so good doing it and I think everyone wants to do it again next
year. They have given me another big project to manage, but this time I said only if I could have
proper resources and time to do it properly. I was amazed but they agreed. I am starting to sleep
better, if I sit for a few minutes before going to bed I feel sort of cleaned out and able to sleep. I
am not completely changed, but I feel more relaxed and more assertive then I did before. I have
more time for people in all sorts of ways and I think I am better to work for as a result.”
Participant C
“My ideal state for the world is to see people on the margins come more into the centre,
particularly young teenage men who are estranged from their families and are on the brink of
making poor choices. There should be more kindness between different peoples and less
exclusion. A world where empathy is a deeper value than profit, and relationship is valued more
highly than power. A world where my children know they are loved and can extend that loving
kindness to others. a world where I am not afraid to express my care for others and having done so
can stay with them long enough for it to be a force for good.”
The changes that he realised as a result of participating in the pilot programme were mainly
focussed around his ability to stay in warm and intimate relationship with people. The key to this
CLAIRE BREEZE 49
advance seemed to be the practice of coming into a more intimate relationship with his own
somatic reactions and a consistent daily practice of loving kindness. He managed to sit every day
for at least twenty minutes and then kept extending his inquiry out to encounters at work and at
home. He regularly reported feeling more connected and warmer to others, and that his children
were happier with his time with him. At work there was some anecdotal evidence that he was
taking more interest in his staff, particularly the ones that he had previously avoided or disagreed
with. As this approach grew he himself noticed that his tendency to joke was diminishing. When
asked about this why he thought this might be so, he replied “perhaps I don’t have to hide behind
it so much anymore. I feel less threatened and so I don’t have to strike out so much. I listen a lot
more to myself, and others. People are more interesting to me than I could have believed possible.
I think I feel less cynical.”
He became a very active advocate for the continuation of the programme and has subsequently
become an assistant on the retreats, particularly working with male executives who have a
tendency with cynical or sceptical responses. He has been helping with the logistical operations of
the project as it has expanded and pitches up to make tea and to serve people. He has developed
some helpful metaphors for the work, which he shares with people who are having difficulty
developing their own practice and is very open to sharing his journey through the programme as
an illustration.
When asked by other executives how he has found the process of developing mindfulness this is
what he says:
“I came more out of curiosity than feeling I had a real need. I was successful, I did things my way
and I was in control. I came to see what an illusion that was. The ‘I’ being successful was at the
expense of others. the ‘my way’ was really out of fear of collaboration and relationship, and the
‘control’ was really a defence against fear and uncertainty. I was really disempowered and I didn’t
realise it. I was so small. I practice, not because I am a spiritual person, but because I feel more
resilient, more flexible and more creative. My relationships have significantly improved, my mind
and body are calmer and I enjoy people more. I lead a happier team, I parent happier children and
feel reconnected to my hopes and aspirations to work with people on the margins of our societies,
by getting others like me who have affluence to act.”
CLAIRE BREEZE 50
Each of these participants in their way found some significant benefits from participating in the
programme. These benefits appear to cover the spectrum of intra-psychic and inter-psychic
domains. The final expression of their daily practice has varied to suit their lifestyle, time
availability and level of actual commitment. However their own narratives offer compelling
insights into the nature of the changes they have undergone and how they themselves feel about
them.
EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
AND CONTENT SINCE THE PILOT
The programme is still evolving. Since the completion of the pilot, we have run three further full
scale programmes and introduced introductory days in city centres. These have proved a
successful way to give people an opportunity to sample the approach and to learn more about the
commitment that a full programme entails.
We have made some modifications to the original programme on the basis of feedback, but most
of the emerging structures have developed out a desire to do more in the way of enabling people to
connect to the programme, even if their organisation is less willing to fund them.
At present the following initiatives are actively being used:
Inner city Taster Days
Held every two months these days give people an opportunity to test out whether the approach
might be helpful for them, to meet previous executives, who have completed the programme and
to hear how they have benefitted. They are funded on a donation basis and people are informed
that they are actively contributing to a fund to enable individuals from other sectors of society who
might benefit from this approach to be able to attend for free. Each day takes a maximum of 12
participants.
The Buddha meets Robin Hood Fund
Each taster day and retreat is organised in such a way to enable the spirit of generosity through
Dana. Each company paying for an individual does so knowing that a percentage of their
contribution will go toward a fund to enable individuals who could not afford to pay, or access to
the retreat centre. In addition each individual, who attends a full retreat, is invited to make their
CLAIRE BREEZE 51
own personal contribution to this fund. By doing this we are regularly achieving a figure in excess
of one thousand pounds. This money is then allocated to individuals who have circumstances
where they would be likely to benefit from such an enterprise, but would not normally access it, or
groups of people who by coming together can have their resilience strengthened, i.e. Groups of
carers. We have had a number of people coming through this route from the public sector, such as
teachers and health care professionals, some people on long term sick with chronic disabilities and
some suffering from burn out. In three cases these people have been directly nominated by an
executive who has then supported their participation in the full programme by acting as a buddy to
help them. We would like to foster this approach further in the future.
Going Deeper
We have run one retreat for those wishing to take their practice deeper and in particular to explore
the effect of mindfulness more specifically on leadership and corporate communities.
Business School
We have been invited by Winchester Business School to deliver a series of seminars on the theme
of Buddhism and Leadership. The first will take place in March 2011.
Intact Executive Teams
At the end of February 2011, the first intact executive team will come to Dorset for a three day
retreat. They wish to explore ways to increase their sense of connection to each other and their
resilience. As they are strategy setting for the culture of a major insurance company in the UK, we
are hoping to widen their thinking about the nature of suffering in UK corporations from the
experience we have had to date. In addition we have a two hour slot at an executive conference on
the 7th February to discuss mindfulness and leadership.
The Challenger Spirit Book
Much of the work of the past two years has yielded deep lessons about how establishment
organisations hold leaders in a sort of consensus reality that is dominated by personal ambition,
profit, growth and competition. As we have watch those leaders that we have worked with attempt
to do things differently, we have seen both the struggles they have had and the results that can be
produced by adopting a deep level of consciousness about why we are here and what we are here
to do in the time that is available to us. The book has been written to encourage people to take a
stand and to search for new working methodologies that are more life and community enhancing
CLAIRE BREEZE 52
than the old establishment ways. Defining these domains as credos we have drawn heavily on
Buddhist teaching and philosophy to create six practices to develop a challenger spirit. These are:
Witnessing the Establishment
Hope and Ambition
Causing purposeful Instability
Challenger as learner
Dance Prod and shuffle
Being the face on the Dartboard
Each of these credos has an element of inner work and outer work associated with it, rooted in
mindfulness practice.
Due for publication in May 2011, it is likely to be followed by a companion book specifically
focussing on the inner work of the leader and the imaginal disc of practice to create
transformations inside our corporate establishments.
Developing the next group of Retreat guides
Over the next year we will aim to have a number of executives willing to give their time to this
project to act as retreat guides to their fellow leaders. Our aim is to cause an increase in the
facilitation resource so that we can offer more closely identified support to those trying to develop
a practice, from people they will have more in common with to start with. At present we have four
executives who are stable enough in their won practice to help in this way.
CLAIRE BREEZE 53
THE ROLE OF A BUDDHIST CHAPLAIN IN UK CORPORATIONS
In the UK the Church of England set up an Industrial mission in the early 1940s to encourage
workers in Industrial settings to maintain their commitment to the church. This was the foundation
for chaplaincy in the workplace, and has been used to move into areas of healthcare and prisons
and universities. The field of Human Resources has become more sophisticated and professional
over the years and in the UK these professionals are no longer just concerned with pay and
conditions but with corporate strategy, designing corporate cultures and fostering the well being of
a workforce. The rise in organisational psychology has increased the field in which these HR
professionals operate and in a post modern society the role of religion per se has been
marginalised to private spaces and pastimes. In UK FTSE 100 companies employees have regular
access to HR professionals, clinical psychologists, Employee assistance programmes, management
coaches, internal and external mentors and in some cases very effective leaders. Paget and
McCormack (2006) seem to suggest that chaplains hold the place of a mentor in the lives of
employees. They occupy a place of confidentiality and they offer a place for the expression of
inner feelings.
I have some real sympathy with this view, but it when I reflect on my own experience in this
project; I feel it misses some profound but subtle distinction. To get access to it I am offering an
example from outside the boundaries of this particular pilot project. I have had a coaching
relationship with a VP of a Global Pharmaceutical company for two years. Recently his HR
department told him, that as he was attending a leadership development programme he would
have to have a relationship with a new coach for the duration of the programme. They met and he
expressed his concerns to the new coach about his already existing relationship with me. The
coach listened and then asked “what is it about working with this person that gives you so much?”
He replied, “You will help me to fit in better here and help me to navigate what the organisation
expects me to do. This woman sits in Auschwitz for days at a time bearing witness to suffering,
has listened to my darkest fears of being swept up in money and career, has helped me to navigate
an ethical issue in this business that made me sick to my stomach and challenges me to give more
of myself in service to others that the business knows nothing about.”
His response surprised me, as we had never discussed his perspective on the work we do together
and I have never labelled myself ‘chaplain’. It is what Dass and Gorman (1985) refer to as a
CLAIRE BREEZE 54
helping prison, where the roles that may appear both appropriate and harmless, end up
constraining us with the excessive baggage we carry with them. For I might have replied to him
that sitting with him in the heat of such a complex ethical dilemma brought me to a place of
complete emptiness, and listening to his fears about the seduction of money and career brought me
face to face with all that I have tried to avoid and have so been attached to. In other words I have
not seen myself as a mentor in the sense that Paget and McCormack (2006) see the role of a
Christian Chaplain.
Returning to the pilot programme and all the subsequent work that it has spawned, I begin to see
that I have adopted a loose role as a “corporate contemplative”, and that I am trying to encourage
others in the corporate field to contemplate more deeply on their own lives and the impact their
work has on others. It does not matter to me that not one of the people who has attended the
programmes has ‘converted’ to Buddhism. It seems to matter greatly that people are learning to
see the truth of their suffering mind and in the process of developing a practice they are finding a
deeper sense of personal freedom coupled with a wider sense of responsibility to others.
So it seems to me that the closest I can get to what the role of the Buddhist chaplain is within
corporations is someone who tries to hold in consciousness the relative and the absolute. The
relative nature of each individual who is suffering and imprisoned in a suffering mind and the
absolute that we are all connected, all interdependent and all needing to make a shift in
consciousness and structures to work and economies that are life enhancing rather than separating
and reducing.
The job of a corporate chaplain is to come up close and personal to these institutions and to see the
people within them for what they are. Influential? Yes. Wealthy? Yes. Suffering and bewildered?
Yes. I am a flea on an elephant, but I am showing up. As this quality of awakeness is revealed to
executives through the medium of their own mindfulness practice, there is a small chance that the
consensus reality of corporations may begin to move beyond its current intellectual boundaries
and make possible some changes in wellbeing, awareness, fairness and consideration that are not
yet available because the minds of those leading these corporations are not yet stable enough to
manifest compassion.
CLAIRE BREEZE 55
CONCLUSIONS
The initial project and the subsequent developments that it has spawned are now no longer being
carried by the author alone. In that sense it is gratifying to see others who a year ago had no idea
about the power of personal practice, taking on aspects of this work to make it more widely
accessible to others. The fact that these people do not have a Buddhist practice per se, is of less
consideration, than their intention and energy to offer others an authentic experience of coming
into relationship with ones own body mind continuum and to manifest change as a result of it.
The ‘near identity’ of these people who are still successful, still working in organisations, having a
daily contemplative practice and opening up a wider and deeper philosophical debate about the
real purpose of organisations, the faulty belief in separateness and the suffering nature of
corporate life, enables those coming to the retreats to listen with more interest and curiosity as to
what is really on offer. There is real power in having a previous and well known corporate
participant speak openly about their drinking, lack of self care and perpetual greed for more
arising out of a deep fear that there can never be enough; shifting these actions and perspectives
over time into a healthier lifestyle, more concern for the well being of employees and organising a
street retreat in the city of London. With the audience that we are aiming at, this person has a
degree of credibility and commands attention. In Buddhist terms we might view this as Identity
action. A way of seeing that these participants as they move from learner to catalyst are able to do
so because they have some of the core conditions already present: they have identity of purpose,
an identification of their own self with the suffering nature of the other, they assume non
difference and an approach of mutual service, leading to co operation.
This could just as easily be a description of the role of the chaplain inside a corporation, and leads
me to wonder whether the question of who is the chaplain is less critical than finding the means
for increasing identity action in the executive population.
Each of the participants to date has demonstrated benefits to their own physiological state. These
have varied from improvements in blood pressure and digestion, through to reduction in alcohol
consumption, improved sleep patterns and a reduction in panic attacks.
At the psychological emotional continuum, we have witnessed participants developing a more self
caring approach to their own well being, a reduction or slowing down of habitual responses such
CLAIRE BREEZE 56
as aggression, cynicism, scepticism and controlling behaviours. An increased capacity to come
into relationship with impermanence and change, and therefore a richer narrative with which to
help others through that experience. We have received reports of increased capability to deal with
stress at work and at home.
By the time we look for benefits in the relational field we have participants recovering broken
relationships or deciding to leave some that have been toxic for some time. We have examples of
changes in leadership and coaching practices that repeated leadership courses have not addressed,
and evidence from 360-degree feedback that employees are feeling more respected, appreciated
and included.
There appears to have been a widening of pro social engagement both within the development of
the pilot programme itself and inside certain companies where there has been a more intense
dialogue about the nature of the companies corporate and social responsibility agenda. Where this
has been absent some participants have taken it upon themselves to sponsor children, pay for
school buildings or use their business skills to foster the success of charities that speak to their
ideal state for the world.
Our own “Buddha meets Robin Hood” programme is offering some executives the chance not
only to sponsor someone from another section of our society but also to share in the journey. At
this point it is too early in the process to say how successful this is likely to be; though there will
be more data available about this in three months time.
This small project has shown that there is a need for practice inside these large corporations and
that there is an appetite amongst senior leaders to change some of their habitual suffering states.
Rather than avoiding these complex communities, it is just possible that the dissolution of their
harmful consensus reality will be more easily brought about from within and by more enlightened
and awake executives, who are beginning to develop an embodied sense of what it means to have
responsibility and a passion to change things.
The scale of this is small and it is dependent at least in part in the conditions of our economy and
social unrest keeping alive a sense of dissatisfaction with the way things are. Whilst at the same
time realising that these people who are talented and capable are suffering from the very situation
they work so hard to protect. Compassion is needed for it all. Compassion and practice are
CLAIRE BREEZE 57
essential for the gentle dissolution of habitual mind to stand a chance of infecting the gentle
dissolution of our current corporate paradigms. None of us involved in this project have yet made
a breakthrough in our thinking in Joanna Macy’s terms to invent novel structures for what to
replace it all with. However we now have more tools to wake up to what we are doing to ourselves
and to others, and some practices that help us regulate our emotions in the face of no current
alternative.
Some time ago the Roshi asked us in the chaplaincy training to reflect upon our own personal
precept. Mine was “be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”
The simple conclusion to this project is just that; we have managed to activate a little more
kindness towards self and others in a small group of executives. By developing some new and
emergent offerings we are finding ways to augment the development of this pro social behaviour
and create a connection in the minds of those participating that this is what people can do when
they know how to ease their own suffering just enough to see the suffering of others.
CLAIRE BREEZE 58
REFERENCES
J. Macy, M.Y. Brown, “coming back to life”, 1998. New society publishers. ISBN978-0-86571-
391-8
C. Handy, “the hungry spirit”, 1997. Random house UK. ISBN 009-180-1680
P. Drucker, “post capitalist society”, 1993. Oxford Butterworth Heinemann
J. Macy, “World as lover world as self”, 1991. Parrallex Press, CA. ISBN 0-938077-279
B. Glassman, “Bearing Witness”,1999. Bell Tower, New York. ISBN 0-609-60061-3
P.Chodron, “Start where you are”, 1994. Random House Inc, USA. ISBN 0-87773-880-7
N. Fischer, “Taking our places”, 2003. Harper Collins, NY. ISBN 0-06-058719-9
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “Ethics for the new millennium,” 1998. Riverhead books, NY.
ISBN 1-573220256
His holiness the Daiai Lama, “A flash of lightening in the dark of night”, 1994. Shambala. ISBN
0-87773971-4
R. Forman, “Grassroots spirituality”, 2004. Imprint Academic, UK. ISBN 0907845-681
D. Whyte, “The heart aroused”,1994. Doubleday, NY. ISBN 0385484186
S. Howard, D. Wellbourne, “the spirit at work phenomenon”,2004. Azure, UK. ISBN 1-
902694295
D. Tacey, “the spirituality revolution”, 2004. Brunner Routledge, NY. ISBN 158391874-4
N. Paget, J. McCormack, “the work of the chaplain”, 2006. Judson Press, US. ISBN 978-0-
817014995
CLAIRE BREEZE 59
Ram Dass, P. Gorman, “how can I help?’, 1985. Alfred. A. Knopf, US. ISBN 0394729471
S. Wang, “Compassion” (Chapter 5), 2005. Routledge, UK. ISBN 1-583919835
D. Goleman (ed), “destructive emotions: how can we overcome them?”, 2003. Bantam Books ,
NY
D. Goleman, “Emotional Intelligence”, 1996. Bloomsbury, UK. ISBN 9780747528302
S.Begley, “the plastic mind”, 2007. Constable and Robinson Ltd, UK. ISBN 9781845296742
N.Doidge, “the brain that changes itself”, 2007. Penguin, US. ISBN 978-0141038872
D. Seigel, “the mindful brain”, 2007. Norton, US. ISBN 13-978039370470-9
D. Seigel, “mindsight”, 2010. Bantam Books, US. ISBN 978-0-553804706
P.Senge et al, “Presence”, 2005. Nicholas Brealey,UK. ISBN 13-9781857883558
B. Taylor, “Learning for tomorrow”, 2007. Oasis Press, UK. ISBN 13-9781871992458