The 7th Habit

Some months ago , I wrote about the 'Hierachies to Wisdom'; but that is spirituality. I wish now to write about the path to that spirituality.
I have always been influenced by 'Maslow's Hierachies of Needs' and I have been fascinated by Steve Covey's '7 Habits of Highly Effective People'. I would like to talk about what he described as the 7th habit, and would like rather to put them into hierachies, acording to Maslow.
Covey described the 7th habit as 'Sharpening The Saw'; there, he described the works of sharpening the saw as physical, mental, social and spiritual. He didn't particularly put them into hierachies, and we should be careful to do this, but i have found that, towards the journey to spirituality, and according to Maslow, some paths do take more preeminence, depending on the stage in which we are.
I will also refer to the parable of the talents, and would endeavor to relate them to the 7th habit according to Maslow's hiearachy. Now , i would say, 'physical' is 10talents, 'mental' is 20 talents,'social' is 30 talents while spiritual is.... how many talents?We should bear in mind that the spiritual is also the opening forth of another journey entirely which i described in the 'Hierachies To Wisdom'. We should also remember that the ability to give back to Him who has given us these talents is what we should ultimately strive after, so we should not be distressed , regarding whichever state we feel we are, for it is not in being gifted that success is judged, but in our capacity to deepen whichever state we are, and perfect it , so as to give it back to Him who has lavished such gifts on us ; that is why my attempt towards putting these into hierachies will always be a dangerous one.
This brings me to another fascinating parable of Christ :The parable of the sower. We should note how the sower was so liberal with his seeds , in the hope that some would fall on rich soils, but the point I want to drive at is that God works everywhere and on everyone, even the blindest in faith. This capacity to see goodness in everyone is what will eventually influence our salvation. The attempt by whatever religion to box God and keep Him personal is a futile one. We can deepen our vision of goodness by experiencing His works in people through this reflection of the 7th habits, and the more an individual, group, society or nation grows through these 7th habits, and arrive at the path of the spiritual ( which i describe simply as awareness)the more their salvation is fostered. And if we feel we are the ones that have attained this depths of the 7th habits , we should bear it in mind that the capacity to recognise and give back the Giver is our salvation. What should we give? Our nothingness ( that is a different discussion )
The Hierachies of The 7th Habit
1)Physical
I have always been a staunch defender of eros, the starting point is our bodies. The reason? The Word has been made flesh, the Word has become Eros.We should take care of our bodies, our health, we should endeavour to look good, eat well and exercise, even the starting point described by Maslow is the physiological needs, if the body is so bad, why did Christ Himself perfome all those numerous healings? Looking good is serious business. We dont have a second chance to make a first impression, and since the bulk of humanity look at the physical and physique as a first impression, we had better look good or we will loose out, that is the first attraction, and it is not to be discouraged, but to be advanced , we must go beyond the physical, it is because a great lot of us stay put at this level that is why our advancement are crippled. There is a great deal beyond the physical. Physical duties are just the starting point of a long long journey. Tell the models that they do well , but they should go beyond.
2)Mental
We enter another horizon where we devote ourselves to the tasks of the brain. Intellectual work is the next work and it is just apparent how few are those who take this serious.This sort of intellectual task is not of the sort which we venture into as under duress, or in order to gain some financial benefits, it is our passion and interest about reality, and we only need to go into our higher institutions of learnings to see how few professors there are,then we shall begin to see how few are those who devote themselves to this mental business, the remainder of us are distracted by money and making ends meet.Education is an eternal project, we must continually exercise our intellect, otherwise we risk the chance of not advancing to the next level.Even though i have to say that this sort of education does not necessarily have to be in a formal environment, it is a sort that demands 'paying attention'. This 'paying attention', otherwise called studies open up a great awareness towards realities which are hitherto unknown. The path towards truth is a mental one. We miss it entirely when we feel our mental strife ends in school.
3)Social(Emotional)
The world is fast realising that skills alone and mental ability is not sufficient for growth.Emotional intelligience, the ability to keep a group and forge ahead, keeping mutual peaceful coexistence, this intuitive ability is what every leader of the 21st century needs badly and it is the life line of the world. How many learned people we see who lack this ability, it could be learned, yes,but I feel it works better when it is innate, and we need to 'pay attention' to develop it.This emotional ability in the society is the true work for peace, it is the boundary between the physical world and the spiritual world, it takes place in the society, one needs to love humanity to cultivate a positive emotional intelligience. Until the world advances towards this path, true knowledge cannot be sustained.
4)Spiritual
Spitituality is nothing but awareness, it is enlightenement. It is the destination of the 7th habit. If you would want to read more about this, begin by reading 'Hierachies To Wisdom' on this blog...

Eucharist: The Sink, The Towel And The Bowl

I already said that when we recieve the Eucharist, it is a 'tightening' experience, that is, nothing is reduced, it is like a man tightening a rope until it gets firmer and firmer. With each Eucharistic reception then, our glory is increased,because, we come closer and close to heaven, even on earth. But it is only when we care, if only we care, (hmm,'idagunla', 'aibikita'...)It is our desire, which assists our awareness that brings about this 'tightennig' experience, and it is not out of reach of any one of us, but it has to be nutured.In essence, our faith-which is our wisdom and victory - must be nutured by our interest, desire and affection. We need to 'be there'. But how can we be there when we dont love to be there? It is only by a constant and continual reception of the Eucharist that ensures our salvation,we cannot afford to be slack, because through it, our faith, hope and love are nutured.This is how it works:
When we receive the Eucharist, we are accepting an invitation to help Christ in His work, we become 'victims'. Take the case of a towel, dipped into a bowl of dirty water, then squeezed into a sink with running fresh water. (I had already made a reference of Christ as 'sink'). If the aim is to empty the water in the bowl and get the towel cleaner; with each soaking of the towel in the bowl then , the water reduces. yes, the towel gets heavy, but it gets lighter once it is squeezed into the sink and it achieves the double goal of removing the dirty water in the bowl and being cleaner under running water with each squeezing and scooping of the water in the bowl.
We are like that towel, Christ is the sink with running water, the bowl is the world, the dirty water in it is the evil in the world.This is our mission: with each reception of the Eucharist, we accept the invitation to be the hand and the feet of Christ, we go into the world , and doing our normal duty, with all its struggles and hardship, as long as we keep His memory alive, we go , we come back, 'taking away the sins of the world' and squeezing them into the 'sink', ie Christ in the Eucharist who is the ultimate victim. Now that is hope: the positivity of things, the journey of the world towards achieving eternal unity with God, just by receiving the Eucharist, keeping our desire for him alive and doing our respective daily task , whatever happens , He takes care of the rest, this is our mission, this is the covenant between us and Him. He died for us, takes care of us and ours in totality, and we allow Him to use us, He needs us; in a way , He cannot save the world if we dont venture with Him, the more we do venture, the more we hasten the salvation of the world!
Let's go back to the towel scenario. What happens if the towel is not squeezed into the sink or washed with the running water? It becomes heavy and dirty and useless for other jobs. That is what happens when we give up, we get weighed down, we cannot go any further, we loose sight of our destination , we lack vision. That is the challenge of loosing out on the Eucharist, no wonder it is called our Daily Bread.No wonder it is the Bread of life.
But we may ask , 'what is my concern with the world and its sins' why bother when i have my own gargantuan problems?'but it is in this concern about the totality and absolucity of things that our own trivial issues are adequately solved the more.We have become myopic in the vision of the action of God that is why we feel He is not at work in our lives, the truth is that we are not we, we are God, we must broaden our heart and accept the truth, we must discipline our mind into accepting the catholicity of creation, only then do we know Truth and only then can we be truely free, let us trust Him , that if we shift our focus from 'us' to 'Him', we can never be loosers in this project. Let us broaden reason. The task of a Christian is not an easy one, it is the task to be God! But with Christ, the yoke is easy and the burden is light, it is a 'leverage' project, just simply by receiving the Eucharist, and going about our daily duty in love, we have the immense capacity and advantage of doing the same work as God, of being God! Let us not squander this immense opportunity!Eucharistic vocation is that which we cannot afford to discard, through it we become coredemtrixes, we take away the sins of the world, but we must remain in Him to be safe, we must be continually there. He is the Bread of life!

Eucharist : Our Mission

Eucharist is the real mission, the actual dedication to the work of God. All God's work is about witnessing. When we assist at Mass and receieve the Eucharist, we do more work than the greatest evangelist. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, this statement is perfectly about him who receives the Eucharist.What wonder a willing heart who devoutly and submissively receives the Eucharist can wrought. The more we believe and trust, the more we benefit from this great wonder, but, not knowing or not caring to know, yet receiving this food of angels is what brings ills to people. Morality should not hinder us, it is our lack of desire, lack of passion and unbelief in this wonder of wonders that is the real great harm.Believing or not, Christ goes on with His work, and part of this is to make us believe, to make us see, and the more we resist this love, the more we suffer, that is why it is he who abandons himself the most to the working of the Eucharist who sees the most, and he who resists suffers,he cannot submit and often calls love punishment. That was why Paul made reference to those who receive the Eucharist and are sick and those who die, it is not immorality as much as unbelief,i-dont-care-ism.It is only through our reception of Him that He can actively engage with the world, we bring Him to the world again. He is love, the Word, and it is through this Word, which is truth that the world is renewed, the whole essence of our battle is against lie and that is what Chris who is in us in the Eucharist does .In one of the Eucharistic proclamation, and also the scripture, we say: when we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death. This proclamation of His death is witnesing, it is mission and it is our sole calling as christians, we do it perfectly simply by receiving the Eucharist in faith!This is what renews the whole world and brings it peace, even while we go about our normal daily duty, as long as we are passionate and we keep this memory of the Eucharist alive, we need not worry so much about our lack of charisma for evangelism which often is proselytism, our witness herein becomes very pure and devoid of personal selfish interest, it becomes universal,unlike evangelism which is confined to time and space. We become truelly like the sower (afurugbin)and through this Eucharist, we effect a great lot than relying on our myopic heart and ideas. What glory ours is. Surely if we keep faithful to the Eucharist, as Christ Himself admonishes us to labour for this(labour not for the meat that perish, but that which endures to eternal life) ,we shall surely be of the lot that ask Him of the positive 'when'( when did we see you hungry...).The Jews asked Christ in what this labour, this work consists, and He answered them : 'believe'. Our sole work is to endeavour to believe and trust more in this wonder of God, the Eucharist. We can only improve our belief by being with Him through an active communication with the Eucharist.Sin kills belief, it is a real cankerworm, yet we should not succumb to this temptation, our sins should not keep us aloof, it is being made up by the faith of the church, which is principally what we are also working at building through an active participation in the Eucharist!

O Ni Meaning...

O ni meaning...ki l'eko yen ko wa?

Impediment To Growth

3 things impede against growth: its either we dont study, or we dont venture, or we dont practice charity. Through these we grow and attain to wisdom.

Some Economics...

For any nation, exportation of goods and services is a means towards prosperity, the more diversified the goods and services and the more diversified the countries of export, the better for that nation.It is even better and makes for a firmer economy when that particular nation has enough to export and to utilise for her citizens in the area of consumption without much need for importation.It is bad when a country can only produce consumed goods and services without any for exportation. It is much worse when a country has few or nothing to export and yet cannot produce enough to feed her citizens and has to rely on importation of most of her products, that is a clarion call for poverty. When we work routinely,structurally and daily,like the popular 9-5, and having to wait for the end of the month for salary,we are like the self consuming nation which has nothing to export, this is bad enough.If we are innovative, creative and we venture, in as diverse area as possible, and we have succeeded in translating this innovation and creativity into money making ventures, and especially when we dont rest all our hopes on the mechanised 9-5 job,but on what we know that we can produce and what we can translate into money,then the better the future will be for us, because we can then consume and are able to export, the more diversified this is , the better.But if we are not creative or we dont have any means of translating our creativity into money making venture(exportation), and we dont even have the usual 9-5 means of livelihood(goods consumption), God help us then, because we have to rely on importation and aid , the third and worst case senario!And that is the state most parts of sub saharan Africa are, and that which has translated to individuals!

The Challenge of Leadership

The loneliness and anguish of a leader. It is not enough to know. The capacity to come down to the level of the led and lead them with all patience and humility is what makes a great leader. A leader must put up with the ignorance of the led, yet strive not to be consumed by it. That is tough, knowledge is a great challenge, the more we know, the lonelier we become.And there is an individual and communal maturity that has to be reached before dealing with certain things , and we cannot presume nor be impatient. Any experience borne out of lasciviousness without true knowledge ends in nihilism. There is this obstacle of time against which a leader must wait, even when he has his destination and route staring acutely at him. A good leader must learn to be patient with time and with the led.This art of balance between vision and patience with the led and with time is the challenge of leadership. I end with this beautiful prayer of St Francis of Assisi: Lord , grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference!