By James Sale (United Kingdom)
Sometimes in coaching, the question of spirituality comes up with a client. It is not necessarily the issue they engaged you for, but the conversation spirals in that direction, and you are faced with that awkward moment of deciding whether to explore it with them or leave well alone. I think it is important not to discount it for the simple reason that our lives are holistic in nature – and furthermore it is not as if ‘it’ – spirituality or God – could be compartmentalised even if we wanted it to be.
Many people of course have an entirely erroneous and/or stereotyped view of spirituality and of what ‘God’ means; this is natural since many religions themselves generate these limited images – idols – of their faith. As the Tao Teaching puts it: ‘The Tao [the Way, the God] that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao.” In short we must be careful not to take the words, signs and symbols too literally. One classic example of creating idols in the West is imagining God as some grandfather or Father Christmas in the sky that people must somehow slavishly kowtow to. But God, if we could speak of God in human language, is both transcendent and eminent and cannot be conveyed in that way.
Source: iCN Issue 3 (Life Coaching); pages 56-57
About James Sale
James Sale FRSA is an inspiring public speaker, fluent writer of management, educational, and spiritual ideas with nearly 20 books to his credit listed on Amazon. He is Europe’s leading expert, trainer and coach on motivation and performance, and the creator and licensor of Motivational Maps worldwide. Maps are now in six languages in eleven countries, and through its application-rich set of tools – Reward Strategies, Management Development, Appraisal and Team Building – James achieves outstanding results for the people and organisations he works with. He is also a business and personal coach and mentor who has enabled individuals to grow and succeed in extraordinary ways.
