Trevor, once again you have uncovered an often-overlooked gem in Greenleaf's theory and practice of servant leadership. When most of us think of "awareness" we tend to mean ego awareness; that is, OUR place in the environment. But Greenleaf is talking about the awareneness of the Buddha, of the Sufi master, of the Christ; a clear-eyed acceptance of What Is, in all its booming richness and paradox.

Greenleaf went on to say that the world is a dangerous place (another calm statement of fact, not a cynical judgment) and that substituting routine for awareness was risky.

Like so much in Greenleaf's thought, he saw awareness as a spiritual journey. Spiritual maps given to us by others help us sleep at night only because they represent a denial of awareness and satisfy a need for final answers.

Joseph Campbell reminded us that Galahad and the other knights who sought the Holy Grail (the Grail symbolizing the "highest spiritual fulfillment of a human life") learned that if they followed the paths of others through the forest, they went astray. Only by entering the forest where it was most dense and mysterious, becoming truly lost, and then heeding their finely-tuned intuitive awareness did they struggle through authentic "lostness" and approach the Grail.

That's the kind of awareness I believe Greenleaf meant.
Don Frick | 02.24.06 - 8:45 am | #