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Objectives for week 10
- To reflect on what motivates people to engage in helping others, and how spirituality sustains people in their service to society;
- To describe and apply the concept of spiritual capital and how it is manifested in some faith-based NGOs.
Spiritual motivations and volunteering
In 2008, there was a massive earthquake in Sichuan Province, China. A few months after the earthquake, I went to Chengdu. I was very surprised as I talked to taxi drivers and other people. I expected them to tell me horrible stories or tragic experiences about the earthquake. But that is not what they were talking about. The taxi drivers talked a lot about how they drove people for free during those days after the earthquake, because they wanted to help. They didn't say anything like, “Oh, it was horrible. I had to drive injured people around”, or “I lost so much income those days”. They sounded happy when they told me about it. I could sense that during that time, everybody was helping everybody else. People like the taxi drivers suddenly forgot about themselves. Their only concern was how to come in aid, to rescue people, or to help them in small ways.
As a result, I decided to do a research project on volunteers in China. Thousands and thousands of people from all over China had rushed to the site of the earthquake to help. Two years later, in 2010, I went to do interviews in many volunteer organisations in China, including some active in earthquake area.
One thing surprised me. Of course, right after the earthquake, so many people went to the earthquake area to help to rescue the victims, and displayed their “higher self”, rather than their “lower self,” if you recall our discussion of the dual nature of humanity two weeks ago. When people are directly faced with acute suffering, suddenly, the good side of people was expressed.
But two years after the earthquake, I went to Hanwang, a town which was completely destroyed by the earthquake. Right next to the ruins of the town, there was a prefabricated refugee camp. All the inhabitants of Hanwang were living there, until they could be moved to new homes. I interviewed the volunteers there. There were different organisations helping with the education of children, giving psychological therapy, or providing other types of social services. At that time, two years after the earthquake, when I went there, there were three organisations providing such services in the refugee settlement. What surprised me was that the three groups were all religious groups. One was Christian, and the other two were Buddhist.
In the days right after the earthquake, when it had been on TV every day, everybody wanted to help. But a few months later, however, only a few volunteers were still there. And very few stayed there for two years, living in cramped pre-fabricated cabins for refugees. Some of them were university graduates. They had gone and stayed there for two years. But the only people who stayed for such a long time were religious people.
I was surprised, because it was religious groups rather than the Communist Party Youth League that stayed there for such a long time. As you know, the Communist Youth League is one of the biggest organisations in China. It has far more members than any religious organisation in China, much more political backing, much greater organisational ability, and significant material resources. It should have been easy for it to send people to volunteer there. But two years after the quake, I didn't see the Youth League or other nonreligious organisations out there volunteering or helping, but only religious groups. What could be the reason for this?
Religious groups aren’t the only ones that teach people to be altruistic and to serve people – so does the Communist Party Youth League. The Youth League also tells people to go and serve the people, doesn't it? So why is it that the Youth League wasn't there, but the religious groups were, although they share a belief in altruism and in serving others?
Last year, students answered that perhaps their spiritual commitment compelled them to stay and help. Perhaps their spirituality made them more empathetic, and more willing to help people in need. Ordinary people don't say that they live to help others. Instead, they would probably say they live to make money, or something like that. But for many religious people, being moral is a huge part of their purpose of living. Perhaps nonreligious people would attach more importance to their personal affairs that they need to deal with. After a period of time, such people have to come back to their normal life. They wouldn't devote their entire life to helping people. So, it’s reasonable for nonreligious people to go back to their lives after a period of time. However, for some religious people, maybe they treated helping others as their objective in life.
I think these answers point to a certain understanding of the nature of human beings. What should we really be doing in life? Certainly, not all religious people are willing to devote themselves for years to volunteering in difficult conditions. Nevertheless, it is true that religious teachings, culture and morality generally emphasise that even in their everyday life, people should do their best to help others, to serve their fellow beings.
I started to think about that, and interviewed many volunteers, and talked to them about their different experiences. I found that for so-called “normal” people, when we do something for other people, we expect something in return. Perhaps this is at the level of “conventional morality”, as we discussed last week. Marcel Mauss, a French anthropologist, developed a whole theory of the gift, of the exchange of gifts, help, and favours between people.[1] On the one hand, human beings are generous — they are always doing things for other people. At the same time, as in the practice of guanxi in Chinese culture, if you do something for others, you will expect that later on the favour will be returned. At least, if you are doing something for others, the others should express their gratitude. In all cultures, there is a notion of reciprocity. We are generous to others, but we expect reciprocity — we expect people to reciprocate either right now or in the future, either through help or gratitude.
But what happens in volunteering? I'm sure many of you have had or will have volunteering experiences — for a while, it can be interesting, but no matter how many good things you do for others, at some point, some people may not be grateful, may take advantage of you, and may laugh or even scold you. Or simply, you might not see an obvious positive effect of your efforts. What's worse, the government might even put problems in your way. It's so much trouble. If you are expecting, consciously or unconsciously, something in return from the people you're helping or the general society, sooner or later, you will be disappointed. This is one of the reasons why people who are at that level of motivation – or of conventional morality -- will eventually lose their interest.
But for people who are engaged in a spiritual path, if you do something for other people, you don't expect something in return from them. Somehow, the reward or benefit will be a spiritual one. In Buddhist language, it is called “merit” (gongde 功德). You are accumulating merit by helping people with a pure motive. Thus, you don't expect anything in return from the people you help, because you will benefit spiritually. If you have selfish motives in helping others, you will not gain merit, in fact you may even lose merit. Or, in other religious terminologies, by doing good deeds you gain blessings, you come closer to God, you progress spiritually. There is always the idea that the benefit you get from good deeds does not directly come from the people you're helping. There is a third party, be it God or the spiritual reality. When you do something for another person, you actually gain something — not from that person directly, but from God, the operation of Dharma, or the spiritual reality — and you grow spiritually.
People who follow this spiritual logic, may be able to persist in volunteering for a longer time. It might be easier for them to overcome the obstacles that they encounter when they were helping people -- because they don’t expect anything in reciprocation from the people they help, and they will make spiritual gains. And it becomes easier for them to be detached from their material needs, because when they let go on the material side, they feel that they gain on the spiritual side.
For some of the Buddhist volunteers I interviewed, who were members of Tzu Chi Buddhist Compassion Merit Foundation of Taiwan (ciji gongde hui 慈濟功德會), they not only help people, but they thank those people for accepting their help, because they consider that the greatest blessing in the world is to be able to help other people. So, it is not the volunteers who are doing a favour to the people they are helping, but spiritually, it is the latter who are doing a favour to the volunteers! One can grow spiritually by helping people, by becoming selfless, and by overcoming the ego. So, if one is given a chance to help, it is so wonderful, because being able to help is a huge gift. Therefore, people in Tzu Chi don’t want anything in return, but only the chance to help. They thank people for giving them the opportunity to love and to share.
As a result, I decided to do a research project on volunteers in China. Thousands and thousands of people from all over China had rushed to the site of the earthquake to help. Two years later, in 2010, I went to do interviews in many volunteer organisations in China, including some active in earthquake area.
One thing surprised me. Of course, right after the earthquake, so many people went to the earthquake area to help to rescue the victims, and displayed their “higher self”, rather than their “lower self,” if you recall our discussion of the dual nature of humanity two weeks ago. When people are directly faced with acute suffering, suddenly, the good side of people was expressed.
But two years after the earthquake, I went to Hanwang, a town which was completely destroyed by the earthquake. Right next to the ruins of the town, there was a prefabricated refugee camp. All the inhabitants of Hanwang were living there, until they could be moved to new homes. I interviewed the volunteers there. There were different organisations helping with the education of children, giving psychological therapy, or providing other types of social services. At that time, two years after the earthquake, when I went there, there were three organisations providing such services in the refugee settlement. What surprised me was that the three groups were all religious groups. One was Christian, and the other two were Buddhist.
In the days right after the earthquake, when it had been on TV every day, everybody wanted to help. But a few months later, however, only a few volunteers were still there. And very few stayed there for two years, living in cramped pre-fabricated cabins for refugees. Some of them were university graduates. They had gone and stayed there for two years. But the only people who stayed for such a long time were religious people.
I was surprised, because it was religious groups rather than the Communist Party Youth League that stayed there for such a long time. As you know, the Communist Youth League is one of the biggest organisations in China. It has far more members than any religious organisation in China, much more political backing, much greater organisational ability, and significant material resources. It should have been easy for it to send people to volunteer there. But two years after the quake, I didn't see the Youth League or other nonreligious organisations out there volunteering or helping, but only religious groups. What could be the reason for this?
Religious groups aren’t the only ones that teach people to be altruistic and to serve people – so does the Communist Party Youth League. The Youth League also tells people to go and serve the people, doesn't it? So why is it that the Youth League wasn't there, but the religious groups were, although they share a belief in altruism and in serving others?
Last year, students answered that perhaps their spiritual commitment compelled them to stay and help. Perhaps their spirituality made them more empathetic, and more willing to help people in need. Ordinary people don't say that they live to help others. Instead, they would probably say they live to make money, or something like that. But for many religious people, being moral is a huge part of their purpose of living. Perhaps nonreligious people would attach more importance to their personal affairs that they need to deal with. After a period of time, such people have to come back to their normal life. They wouldn't devote their entire life to helping people. So, it’s reasonable for nonreligious people to go back to their lives after a period of time. However, for some religious people, maybe they treated helping others as their objective in life.
I think these answers point to a certain understanding of the nature of human beings. What should we really be doing in life? Certainly, not all religious people are willing to devote themselves for years to volunteering in difficult conditions. Nevertheless, it is true that religious teachings, culture and morality generally emphasise that even in their everyday life, people should do their best to help others, to serve their fellow beings.
I started to think about that, and interviewed many volunteers, and talked to them about their different experiences. I found that for so-called “normal” people, when we do something for other people, we expect something in return. Perhaps this is at the level of “conventional morality”, as we discussed last week. Marcel Mauss, a French anthropologist, developed a whole theory of the gift, of the exchange of gifts, help, and favours between people.[1] On the one hand, human beings are generous — they are always doing things for other people. At the same time, as in the practice of guanxi in Chinese culture, if you do something for others, you will expect that later on the favour will be returned. At least, if you are doing something for others, the others should express their gratitude. In all cultures, there is a notion of reciprocity. We are generous to others, but we expect reciprocity — we expect people to reciprocate either right now or in the future, either through help or gratitude.
But what happens in volunteering? I'm sure many of you have had or will have volunteering experiences — for a while, it can be interesting, but no matter how many good things you do for others, at some point, some people may not be grateful, may take advantage of you, and may laugh or even scold you. Or simply, you might not see an obvious positive effect of your efforts. What's worse, the government might even put problems in your way. It's so much trouble. If you are expecting, consciously or unconsciously, something in return from the people you're helping or the general society, sooner or later, you will be disappointed. This is one of the reasons why people who are at that level of motivation – or of conventional morality -- will eventually lose their interest.
But for people who are engaged in a spiritual path, if you do something for other people, you don't expect something in return from them. Somehow, the reward or benefit will be a spiritual one. In Buddhist language, it is called “merit” (gongde 功德). You are accumulating merit by helping people with a pure motive. Thus, you don't expect anything in return from the people you help, because you will benefit spiritually. If you have selfish motives in helping others, you will not gain merit, in fact you may even lose merit. Or, in other religious terminologies, by doing good deeds you gain blessings, you come closer to God, you progress spiritually. There is always the idea that the benefit you get from good deeds does not directly come from the people you're helping. There is a third party, be it God or the spiritual reality. When you do something for another person, you actually gain something — not from that person directly, but from God, the operation of Dharma, or the spiritual reality — and you grow spiritually.
People who follow this spiritual logic, may be able to persist in volunteering for a longer time. It might be easier for them to overcome the obstacles that they encounter when they were helping people -- because they don’t expect anything in reciprocation from the people they help, and they will make spiritual gains. And it becomes easier for them to be detached from their material needs, because when they let go on the material side, they feel that they gain on the spiritual side.
For some of the Buddhist volunteers I interviewed, who were members of Tzu Chi Buddhist Compassion Merit Foundation of Taiwan (ciji gongde hui 慈濟功德會), they not only help people, but they thank those people for accepting their help, because they consider that the greatest blessing in the world is to be able to help other people. So, it is not the volunteers who are doing a favour to the people they are helping, but spiritually, it is the latter who are doing a favour to the volunteers! One can grow spiritually by helping people, by becoming selfless, and by overcoming the ego. So, if one is given a chance to help, it is so wonderful, because being able to help is a huge gift. Therefore, people in Tzu Chi don’t want anything in return, but only the chance to help. They thank people for giving them the opportunity to love and to share.
Spiritual capital and faith-based NGOs
Some scholars refer to this “spiritual benefit” as “spiritual capital”. Together with this reading, I would like you to study the e-case on spiritual capital, which takes the example of the Fullness social enterprise in Hong Kong.[2] This enterprise tries to integrate spiritual principles and values into the operation of its business. They have what they call a “triple bottom line”: the economic bottom line, the social bottom line, and the spiritual bottom line.
“Spiritual capital” is a concept that emerged among some scholars in the past decade or so. In our capitalist society, we have learned enormously about how to generate material value and how to multiply it. That is to say, we know a lot about how to accumulate financial capital, as well as how to generate more capital with seed capital. In sociology, management and some other fields, there is an increasingly wider understanding of the ideas of capital and value. For example, a number of concepts of “capital” have appeared, such as economic capital, human capital, social capital, cultural capital, symbolic capital and spiritual capital. These are different types of so-called “capital”. That means that different types of value can be accumulated, generated and converted into other things. For example, social capital refers to your social network and connections. Cultural capital refers to your amount of cultural knowledge. Symbolic capital refers to your prestige.[3]
Some scholars have been using the concept of “spiritual capital” to understand how certain organisations, whether businesses, NGOs or religious groups, try to put their spiritual values into practice. They try to explore the value created through the application of a spiritual orientation to life — what is generated by spirituality. I have been doing some research on this in the past years in relation to the use of spiritual capital in the “third sector”, that is to say, in NGOs and civil society in Hong Kong.
At the core of religious teachings, in general, we find teachings of compassion and love, and the encouragement of good deeds, of generosity and of giving to charity. Thus, it is no surprise that we have many charitable organisations with religious backgrounds. In fact, the origin of charitable organisations in history is religious. It is quite common that we associate religion with charity. It is something that religious groups have been doing for a long time — helping the poor.
In this research, we tried to understand whether there is anything about the spirituality of some of these faith-based organisations that make them different from other kinds of charities. There are all kinds of NGOs and charities — some of them are religious or have religious backgrounds, while the others are not. Let’s assume there are two groups that help homeless people -- one is faith-based, while the other one is not. We would like to see if there is any difference between the two groups. Does spirituality generate any difference in the organisations that are trying to serve society?
In our research in Hong Kong, we found three types of faith-based organisations. One type is purely religious groups that only serve their own religious community. They do not necessarily serve society or the broader community outside their own group.
At the other end, there are some organizations that were originally started by religious people, but now exhibit scant difference from nonreligious organisations. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Hong Kong is an example. This organisation has a swimming pool, a sports club, a hotel, etc. It does many good things, but it’s hard to identify anything specifically spiritual about what it does. At the beginning, over 100 years ago, it had the urge and the generosity to help young Christian men — and hence it started those sports and educational activities. But gradually, these became very institutionalised, so that what they are doing now is hardly any different from what you could find in a non-faith-based organization.
The third type of faith-based organisations are inspired by a certain faith or spirituality, which leads them to do things for society differently from both traditional religious organisations, as well as from the secular social service organisations or NGOs. So, we were curious about what makes them different.
For example, there is a group called the Centre of Spiritual Progress for Great Awakening. Master Yanyang, a Hong Kong Buddhist nun, started a social enterprise primarily for middle-aged women. Some middle-aged women may encounter problems in their marriage or job; they feel worthless and become depressed. This organisation tries to empower them through rebuilding their self-confidence, and their sense of purpose and value in life. It has a vegetarian restaurant, similar to the Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant on our campus, which is owned by another Buddhist social enterprise. Maybe these middle-aged women are unemployed and have limited social skills. But through working in the vegetarian restaurant, they gradually gain self-confidence, friendships, interpersonal communication skills, and finally can return to society. We find what this group is doing something interesting and new, because it’s rare that Buddhist organisations would start social enterprises. Another interesting thing about this group is that it not only provides working opportunities for those women, but also opens a camp for them to learn about spirituality. Through the Buddhist teachings, they learn about their Buddha-nature, the value of life, dealing with suffering in life, etc. That is how they gain a sense of purpose in life, confidence, skills to handle quarrels with their families, and so on. Through spiritual training, they gain another kind of value. In this sense, this group is doing something rather different from what most organisations and even social enterprises do.
Another group that we visited is called the Christian Concern For the Homeless Association. As its name suggests, this is an organisation that helps the homeless. But unlike other organisations with the same objective, it doesn’t simply give the homeless food or shelter. It treats homeless people as human beings with as much value as anybody else. When the homeless people come to the shelter, they also learn how to become the leaders of activities. They learn that just like all human beings, they were created in the image of God, and that God loves them, even though they have nothing. In the eyes of God, they are just as valuable as anybody else. Thus, the homeless gain a sense of value and confidence, as well as the skills to organise activities. We can see again that this organisation is providing not only material help by giving food and shelter, but also spiritual help, or rather, “spiritual capital”. In this way, the homeless people are empowered after being involved with this organisation.
The next example is Mother’s Choice, which has a Christian background. This group works with pregnant teenage girls. When a teenage girl becomes pregnant, she will have a huge crisis in her life. She might be stigmatised by people around her or rejected by her family. She doesn’t know what to do — to have an abortion or to keep the baby? If she decides to keep the baby, how can she raise the baby? Should she put the baby up for adoption? All these questions will arise if a teenage girl gets pregnant. This organisation provides moral support for these pregnant mothers, as well as the first home for the babies of these mothers, if they decide not to keep their babies. We found a lot of babies in Mother’s Choice — it’s almost like an orphanage. But it was not like a conventional orphanage that I had once visited. At that orphanage, I had seen a lot of babies lying in their beds, which was a depressing scene. There was nothing but children and babies in their beds, and nurses feeding them in a mechanical fashion. It was not a happy place. In contrast, Mother’s Choice was a very joyful place. There was a real family feeling. The orphans were happy and the nurses and volunteers were playing and taking care of them with much love and joy.
The typical institution sees a child as a material being. Thus, the most important thing is to make sure that a child has enough food, has a bed, and is physically healthy. But there is no time or effort to give the child love. But in Mother’s Choice, they figured that they also should give love to the babies and the teenage mothers — no matter if the mothers are on drugs or have many problems. Again, just like the homeless people, they have nothing. Yet, Mother’s Choice considers that they have spiritual value — they are human beings, and have infinite value, just like anyone else. Mother’s Choice gives them love, and creates this happy family atmosphere among the orphans and teenage mothers.
We also studied the Fullness Christian Social Enterprise, which is the subject of the e-case accompanying this reading. This organisation helps ex-prisoners to reintegrate into society after their release. The ex-prisoners, because of their criminal record, have difficulty in finding their place in society. They will encounter a lot of prejudice and obstacles, which might lead them to commit more crimes and return to prison. This organisation, again, treats ex-prisoners as persons with infinite value. It creates a loving family atmosphere in the hair salon and the automobile repair shop where the ex-prisoners work. Here, the ex-prisoner gets a sense of his value, regardless of the mistakes he committed in the past, his weaknesses and faults he has. Instead, he is treated as an infinitely valuable person. This value is respected and nurtured so that it can grow and flourish.
The Junior Youth Empowerment Programme of the Baha’i community is another example. This programme is for junior youth between 11 and 15 years old, which is considered to be the most rebellious period of adolescence. It is an age that is often considered to be immature and rebellious. But in the Junior Youth Empowerment Programme, the attitude is just the opposite. That age is a very special time. One reason for the youth being rebellious is that they have a very strong sense of justice. They can see what’s going wrong in the world, and in their family. They don’t like it and they want to fight against it. Thus, this rebellion may actually be something very positive. How can that value — the desire to reject the bad things of the world, and to change the world — be recognised and nurtured? With this question in mind, this programme helps junior youth to form their own groups, in which they study about spiritual values and how to put them into practice, and in which they consult together to initiate small service projects. In these groups, the youth’s desire to change to world can be channelled in a positive way, where they can gain leadership skills, and where they can have positive influence on their peers and society.
In all these examples, we can see groups of people who generally are considered not to have much value in society. They certainly do not have financial capital, be it the middle-aged woman, the pregnant teenage mother, the orphan, the homeless or the junior youth. Neither do they have any social capital. Social capital in sociology basically means social networks. Social connections are very important in a person’s life, as they can help you move ahead in your career, make money, and so on. However, these people do not have social capital. Instead, they are looked down upon in society. Nor do they have cultural capital – their level of cultural knowledge and sophistication is quite low. And they don’t have symbolic capital – not only do they not have any “face” or prestige, they are even stigmatised and discriminated against in society.
The faith-based organisations I mentioned above, however, consider that these groups of people are very “rich” — they are rich spiritually. Inside themselves, they have infinite value — the value that God has given them, or the value of being an integral part of the flow of the universe. They have spiritual capital. These organisations treat these types of people with a genuine sense of dignity, and seek to nurture their high potential. They can contribute to society as much as anybody else. This is the foundation of the notion of spiritual capital.
Spiritual capital is defined as the capacities that are generated through spirituality. So, if you nurture your spirituality, you will gain the capacity to do certain things, which you would not have if you ignore your spirituality. For example, with their spirituality unattended to, the middle-aged women at the Centre of Spiritual Progress for Great Awakening felt that they were useless, because they are housewives ignored and beaten by their husbands. They just felt that they couldn’t do anything at all in life. However, once they gained a sense of their spiritual value, they also gained confidence, and started to learn many things. Just by affirming and nurturing the spiritual value of each person they work with — whether it is Mother’s Choice, or Christian Concern for the Homeless, or the Fullness Christian Social Enterprise — these organisations have already generated spiritual capital.
Some people have challenged our use of the word “capital” to describe spiritual capacities. When we visited and interviewed those faith-based organisations, most of them didn’t want to be associated with the word “capital”, because it sounds like money. They explained that they were doing spiritual things, which was not about money. And they asked me not to use the term ‘spiritual capital’.
I think this is a good point. But there is a very interesting aspect to the idea of capital. The word “capital” originally comes from a herd of cows — if you were a farmer and the number of cows keeps growing, you get more and more meat and cattle. That is capital — it multiplies. But you need to feed, nurture and protect your herd of cattle. You need to sacrifice for and invest in it. The outcome is not immediate. It takes time. This is also what you see in spiritual capital. There is nurturing, protection, making sacrifice, investing in other people and your own future. You will only see the outcome much later on.
Where does this capacity come from? This goes back to the concept of spirituality, which I talked about at the very beginning of this class. Spirituality is a concern for the ultimate meaning, purpose, value and coherence of one’s life, transcending specific tasks and events.
We are always concerned for the next thing that is going to happen. Right now, I’m concerned about the next sentence that I’m going to tell you, and what I will have to do right after this class. We are always concerned about specific tasks and events one after another. We also have broader concerns. For instance, my concern may be getting a good grade in this course, or being a lawyer in the future. These are higher-level concerns. But there are even higher-level concerns, which may go beyond my specific job, family or circumstances. The ultimate meaning, purpose and concern constitute one’s spiritual orientation to life.
This spiritual orientation has three aspects. The first is that the source of meaning is spiritual. Here, we return to the beginning of this course. Where does meaning come from? In a spiritual orientation, it doesn’t lie in the material world itself — not in material possessions, fame and fortune, material pleasure, or the power in one’s hand. It is beyond that. And it is spiritual and eternal. It is related to our true nature — what I am as a human being.
Spirituality also seeks to transcend our ego. This goes to the idea of the dual nature of the human being that we considered last week. What is my spiritual nature? How can I transcend my ego -- how can I tap into the spiritual inner beauty and ability within me?
Apart from the inner orientation to spirituality, there is also an outer orientation, which is related to connecting to the spiritual nature of other humans, of everything in the universe, and of the ultimate reality. In Mother’s Choice, for example, the founders and volunteers thought that there was something in themselves that was loving and caring for other people — that was their spiritual nature, their God-given gift, the most important thing in life for them. That was inside them. When they looked at those teenage mothers, although the mothers have so many problems in life, they found a heart-to-heart connection with them, a deep appreciation for the inner beauty of each of them.
We have explored in earlier parts of this class, the idea of the spiritual connection between our own hearts and what exists in the universe, between ourselves and the unseen ultimate reality, whether it is called Dao, God, Dharma, etc. What we have is a sense of oneness, the discovery of the connection between one’s own spiritual nature, and the spiritual nature of other people, of the universe, and of the ultimate reality. All these lead to a profound sense of oneness — a profound sense of connection. The sense of oneness and connection is so powerful that it leads to a desire to deepen it.
This can be described in terms of feeling the pain and joy of others, a wellspring of love and compassion. Think of when natural disasters, earthquakes or terrorist attacks occur in some places. So many people around the world, although they are so far away from the place where the event occurred, that they cannot physically feel the pain of the local people, but when they see the image of the disaster, they feel the pain, and donate money to the people affected. It is a feeling that leads to action. You want to do something to reduce the pain and increase the joy of others. So, you go out and donate to the victims of an earthquake. That’s a spontaneous action.
But then, you think more and perhaps want to change the world itself in order to reduce the pain and bring more joy, after seeing the suffering and injustice in the world. You want to act to change the society, so that the suffering and oppression may end, and world justice may appear. Let’s think about Mohandas Gandhi. Seeing the Indian people struck by hunger and misery, Gandhi didn’t simply want to give food to people. He felt that there was injustice in society itself that made the Indian people suffer. Thus, he thought about how to change the social structure and remove the oppressive structure of colonialism. Also, in the film Les Miserables, there was a spiritual dimension to the French Revolution. When people felt the suffering of others and the injustice of the world, they wanted to change society, and fight against injustice. In many ways, this kind of revolution is an expression of spirituality. This is how a spiritual orientation finds its expression: first a feeling, then specific actions, and then a desire to completely change the world.
There is a path to do that. Some of us may have this spiritual feeling now and then — a beautiful sunset, a feeling of being at one in nature, a feeling of compassion — a fleeting feeling that comes and goes. Everybody will have that kind of experience. But to strengthen the will and act in accordance with that consciousness requires practice. That is why it is called a path of spiritual growth. There are so many different paths. You walk along that path, because there are so many different things you have to do to strengthen that consciousness and your capacity to act.
This leads to transformation. I spoke about volunteers who were serving in Sichuan, two years after the earthquake. They have their faith, which leads them to overcome the obstacles and sustain themselves. However, faith alone is not sufficient. They need practice to transform. Therefore, spiritual practices, such as prayer, meditation, collective gatherings and study, and so on, strengthen the will and induce transformation. The practices of prayer and meditation clear the mindscape and enhances consciousness. For those who are engaged in this path, even all the obstacles and difficulties along the way are considered to be tests that help them to improve. When I interviewed the volunteers in the earthquake area, for example, they talked about how the sufferings and hardships that they had while they were volunteering, helped them to progress spiritually.
So, there are people who have a spiritual orientation to life, and are engaged in the practice of transformation. Then what happens? What is the result? As we visited and interviewed these organisations, we noted that people in these organisations have a strong sense of where they are going — a strong sense of purpose and direction in their life. They have spiritual perception and judgement. They judge things according to spiritual standards. For instance, in the Christian Concern for the Homeless, the chairwoman told me that once the Hong Kong government offered a lot of money to this organisation in exchange for relocating homeless people to another neighbourhood. However, to move them from one neighbourhood to another is a violation of this organization’s spiritual principle. The rich people don’t want homeless people in their neighbourhood. So, the rich people want to move them away to another neighbourhood. The chairwoman said, “We respect all homeless people. Even though the government was willing to give us so much money, we would not do it.” This is a judgement based on spiritual principle.
Members of these groups often told me that there wasn’t much arguing among members and volunteers, which is common in other groups. There wasn’t much conflict. There is a greater sense of peace of mind, joy, emotion balance, greater patience, generosity, forgiveness, and desire to serve others. Therefore, these organisations don’t need to pay many people to work. Their volunteers have the desire to help for free, the ability to sacrifice for others, the ability to cooperate with others. These were some of the individual capacities that were generated by their spiritual orientation. In terms of productive capacity, what we saw as a group is that these organisations have a very clear sense of their unity, vision, purpose and core values. They knew what they stood for and what they were trying to do. There was a greater level of interpersonal trust, harmony and conflict management. There was greater intrinsic capacity of motivation and mobilisation. Intrinsic motivation is the opposite of extrinsic motivation, which means motivating people by giving them money or punishment. But in these groups, there is a stronger intrinsic motivation, which means that people do something because they love doing it and think it is valuable to do so, regardless of reward and punishment.
These capacities are what we call spiritual capital. These organisations have their systematic and methodical ways to generate and strengthen their spiritual capital. It is not the case that you simply pronounce your belief in God and you get spiritual capital. First of all, they use inspirational stories. These are often stories of Jesus Christ, Buddha, saints, or other volunteers who have done good things. I mentioned earlier that they place an intrinsic value on each individual. They don’t have a strong hierarchy. They don’t use people as instruments for other goals. They downplay hierarchies and empower the weak. They train people. Therefore, they often offer workshops and study sessions to learn spiritual concepts and wisdom. They engage in spiritual practices, such as meditation and prayer. They created a physical and social environment that is conducive to spiritual growth — a certain type of environment that facilitates and generates a spiritual atmosphere.
How do they increase spiritual value then? The people who have tasted it usually want more, because they are inspired and attracted. The acts of service and generosity encourage people. What is interesting, which I mentioned earlier, is that when people encounter challenges and difficulties, they actually see that as a test on the path of growth —the bad experience thus becomes a good thing. In this way, they generate more spiritual capital.
“Spiritual capital” is a concept that emerged among some scholars in the past decade or so. In our capitalist society, we have learned enormously about how to generate material value and how to multiply it. That is to say, we know a lot about how to accumulate financial capital, as well as how to generate more capital with seed capital. In sociology, management and some other fields, there is an increasingly wider understanding of the ideas of capital and value. For example, a number of concepts of “capital” have appeared, such as economic capital, human capital, social capital, cultural capital, symbolic capital and spiritual capital. These are different types of so-called “capital”. That means that different types of value can be accumulated, generated and converted into other things. For example, social capital refers to your social network and connections. Cultural capital refers to your amount of cultural knowledge. Symbolic capital refers to your prestige.[3]
Some scholars have been using the concept of “spiritual capital” to understand how certain organisations, whether businesses, NGOs or religious groups, try to put their spiritual values into practice. They try to explore the value created through the application of a spiritual orientation to life — what is generated by spirituality. I have been doing some research on this in the past years in relation to the use of spiritual capital in the “third sector”, that is to say, in NGOs and civil society in Hong Kong.
At the core of religious teachings, in general, we find teachings of compassion and love, and the encouragement of good deeds, of generosity and of giving to charity. Thus, it is no surprise that we have many charitable organisations with religious backgrounds. In fact, the origin of charitable organisations in history is religious. It is quite common that we associate religion with charity. It is something that religious groups have been doing for a long time — helping the poor.
In this research, we tried to understand whether there is anything about the spirituality of some of these faith-based organisations that make them different from other kinds of charities. There are all kinds of NGOs and charities — some of them are religious or have religious backgrounds, while the others are not. Let’s assume there are two groups that help homeless people -- one is faith-based, while the other one is not. We would like to see if there is any difference between the two groups. Does spirituality generate any difference in the organisations that are trying to serve society?
In our research in Hong Kong, we found three types of faith-based organisations. One type is purely religious groups that only serve their own religious community. They do not necessarily serve society or the broader community outside their own group.
At the other end, there are some organizations that were originally started by religious people, but now exhibit scant difference from nonreligious organisations. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Hong Kong is an example. This organisation has a swimming pool, a sports club, a hotel, etc. It does many good things, but it’s hard to identify anything specifically spiritual about what it does. At the beginning, over 100 years ago, it had the urge and the generosity to help young Christian men — and hence it started those sports and educational activities. But gradually, these became very institutionalised, so that what they are doing now is hardly any different from what you could find in a non-faith-based organization.
The third type of faith-based organisations are inspired by a certain faith or spirituality, which leads them to do things for society differently from both traditional religious organisations, as well as from the secular social service organisations or NGOs. So, we were curious about what makes them different.
For example, there is a group called the Centre of Spiritual Progress for Great Awakening. Master Yanyang, a Hong Kong Buddhist nun, started a social enterprise primarily for middle-aged women. Some middle-aged women may encounter problems in their marriage or job; they feel worthless and become depressed. This organisation tries to empower them through rebuilding their self-confidence, and their sense of purpose and value in life. It has a vegetarian restaurant, similar to the Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant on our campus, which is owned by another Buddhist social enterprise. Maybe these middle-aged women are unemployed and have limited social skills. But through working in the vegetarian restaurant, they gradually gain self-confidence, friendships, interpersonal communication skills, and finally can return to society. We find what this group is doing something interesting and new, because it’s rare that Buddhist organisations would start social enterprises. Another interesting thing about this group is that it not only provides working opportunities for those women, but also opens a camp for them to learn about spirituality. Through the Buddhist teachings, they learn about their Buddha-nature, the value of life, dealing with suffering in life, etc. That is how they gain a sense of purpose in life, confidence, skills to handle quarrels with their families, and so on. Through spiritual training, they gain another kind of value. In this sense, this group is doing something rather different from what most organisations and even social enterprises do.
Another group that we visited is called the Christian Concern For the Homeless Association. As its name suggests, this is an organisation that helps the homeless. But unlike other organisations with the same objective, it doesn’t simply give the homeless food or shelter. It treats homeless people as human beings with as much value as anybody else. When the homeless people come to the shelter, they also learn how to become the leaders of activities. They learn that just like all human beings, they were created in the image of God, and that God loves them, even though they have nothing. In the eyes of God, they are just as valuable as anybody else. Thus, the homeless gain a sense of value and confidence, as well as the skills to organise activities. We can see again that this organisation is providing not only material help by giving food and shelter, but also spiritual help, or rather, “spiritual capital”. In this way, the homeless people are empowered after being involved with this organisation.
The next example is Mother’s Choice, which has a Christian background. This group works with pregnant teenage girls. When a teenage girl becomes pregnant, she will have a huge crisis in her life. She might be stigmatised by people around her or rejected by her family. She doesn’t know what to do — to have an abortion or to keep the baby? If she decides to keep the baby, how can she raise the baby? Should she put the baby up for adoption? All these questions will arise if a teenage girl gets pregnant. This organisation provides moral support for these pregnant mothers, as well as the first home for the babies of these mothers, if they decide not to keep their babies. We found a lot of babies in Mother’s Choice — it’s almost like an orphanage. But it was not like a conventional orphanage that I had once visited. At that orphanage, I had seen a lot of babies lying in their beds, which was a depressing scene. There was nothing but children and babies in their beds, and nurses feeding them in a mechanical fashion. It was not a happy place. In contrast, Mother’s Choice was a very joyful place. There was a real family feeling. The orphans were happy and the nurses and volunteers were playing and taking care of them with much love and joy.
The typical institution sees a child as a material being. Thus, the most important thing is to make sure that a child has enough food, has a bed, and is physically healthy. But there is no time or effort to give the child love. But in Mother’s Choice, they figured that they also should give love to the babies and the teenage mothers — no matter if the mothers are on drugs or have many problems. Again, just like the homeless people, they have nothing. Yet, Mother’s Choice considers that they have spiritual value — they are human beings, and have infinite value, just like anyone else. Mother’s Choice gives them love, and creates this happy family atmosphere among the orphans and teenage mothers.
We also studied the Fullness Christian Social Enterprise, which is the subject of the e-case accompanying this reading. This organisation helps ex-prisoners to reintegrate into society after their release. The ex-prisoners, because of their criminal record, have difficulty in finding their place in society. They will encounter a lot of prejudice and obstacles, which might lead them to commit more crimes and return to prison. This organisation, again, treats ex-prisoners as persons with infinite value. It creates a loving family atmosphere in the hair salon and the automobile repair shop where the ex-prisoners work. Here, the ex-prisoner gets a sense of his value, regardless of the mistakes he committed in the past, his weaknesses and faults he has. Instead, he is treated as an infinitely valuable person. This value is respected and nurtured so that it can grow and flourish.
The Junior Youth Empowerment Programme of the Baha’i community is another example. This programme is for junior youth between 11 and 15 years old, which is considered to be the most rebellious period of adolescence. It is an age that is often considered to be immature and rebellious. But in the Junior Youth Empowerment Programme, the attitude is just the opposite. That age is a very special time. One reason for the youth being rebellious is that they have a very strong sense of justice. They can see what’s going wrong in the world, and in their family. They don’t like it and they want to fight against it. Thus, this rebellion may actually be something very positive. How can that value — the desire to reject the bad things of the world, and to change the world — be recognised and nurtured? With this question in mind, this programme helps junior youth to form their own groups, in which they study about spiritual values and how to put them into practice, and in which they consult together to initiate small service projects. In these groups, the youth’s desire to change to world can be channelled in a positive way, where they can gain leadership skills, and where they can have positive influence on their peers and society.
In all these examples, we can see groups of people who generally are considered not to have much value in society. They certainly do not have financial capital, be it the middle-aged woman, the pregnant teenage mother, the orphan, the homeless or the junior youth. Neither do they have any social capital. Social capital in sociology basically means social networks. Social connections are very important in a person’s life, as they can help you move ahead in your career, make money, and so on. However, these people do not have social capital. Instead, they are looked down upon in society. Nor do they have cultural capital – their level of cultural knowledge and sophistication is quite low. And they don’t have symbolic capital – not only do they not have any “face” or prestige, they are even stigmatised and discriminated against in society.
The faith-based organisations I mentioned above, however, consider that these groups of people are very “rich” — they are rich spiritually. Inside themselves, they have infinite value — the value that God has given them, or the value of being an integral part of the flow of the universe. They have spiritual capital. These organisations treat these types of people with a genuine sense of dignity, and seek to nurture their high potential. They can contribute to society as much as anybody else. This is the foundation of the notion of spiritual capital.
Spiritual capital is defined as the capacities that are generated through spirituality. So, if you nurture your spirituality, you will gain the capacity to do certain things, which you would not have if you ignore your spirituality. For example, with their spirituality unattended to, the middle-aged women at the Centre of Spiritual Progress for Great Awakening felt that they were useless, because they are housewives ignored and beaten by their husbands. They just felt that they couldn’t do anything at all in life. However, once they gained a sense of their spiritual value, they also gained confidence, and started to learn many things. Just by affirming and nurturing the spiritual value of each person they work with — whether it is Mother’s Choice, or Christian Concern for the Homeless, or the Fullness Christian Social Enterprise — these organisations have already generated spiritual capital.
Some people have challenged our use of the word “capital” to describe spiritual capacities. When we visited and interviewed those faith-based organisations, most of them didn’t want to be associated with the word “capital”, because it sounds like money. They explained that they were doing spiritual things, which was not about money. And they asked me not to use the term ‘spiritual capital’.
I think this is a good point. But there is a very interesting aspect to the idea of capital. The word “capital” originally comes from a herd of cows — if you were a farmer and the number of cows keeps growing, you get more and more meat and cattle. That is capital — it multiplies. But you need to feed, nurture and protect your herd of cattle. You need to sacrifice for and invest in it. The outcome is not immediate. It takes time. This is also what you see in spiritual capital. There is nurturing, protection, making sacrifice, investing in other people and your own future. You will only see the outcome much later on.
Where does this capacity come from? This goes back to the concept of spirituality, which I talked about at the very beginning of this class. Spirituality is a concern for the ultimate meaning, purpose, value and coherence of one’s life, transcending specific tasks and events.
We are always concerned for the next thing that is going to happen. Right now, I’m concerned about the next sentence that I’m going to tell you, and what I will have to do right after this class. We are always concerned about specific tasks and events one after another. We also have broader concerns. For instance, my concern may be getting a good grade in this course, or being a lawyer in the future. These are higher-level concerns. But there are even higher-level concerns, which may go beyond my specific job, family or circumstances. The ultimate meaning, purpose and concern constitute one’s spiritual orientation to life.
This spiritual orientation has three aspects. The first is that the source of meaning is spiritual. Here, we return to the beginning of this course. Where does meaning come from? In a spiritual orientation, it doesn’t lie in the material world itself — not in material possessions, fame and fortune, material pleasure, or the power in one’s hand. It is beyond that. And it is spiritual and eternal. It is related to our true nature — what I am as a human being.
Spirituality also seeks to transcend our ego. This goes to the idea of the dual nature of the human being that we considered last week. What is my spiritual nature? How can I transcend my ego -- how can I tap into the spiritual inner beauty and ability within me?
Apart from the inner orientation to spirituality, there is also an outer orientation, which is related to connecting to the spiritual nature of other humans, of everything in the universe, and of the ultimate reality. In Mother’s Choice, for example, the founders and volunteers thought that there was something in themselves that was loving and caring for other people — that was their spiritual nature, their God-given gift, the most important thing in life for them. That was inside them. When they looked at those teenage mothers, although the mothers have so many problems in life, they found a heart-to-heart connection with them, a deep appreciation for the inner beauty of each of them.
We have explored in earlier parts of this class, the idea of the spiritual connection between our own hearts and what exists in the universe, between ourselves and the unseen ultimate reality, whether it is called Dao, God, Dharma, etc. What we have is a sense of oneness, the discovery of the connection between one’s own spiritual nature, and the spiritual nature of other people, of the universe, and of the ultimate reality. All these lead to a profound sense of oneness — a profound sense of connection. The sense of oneness and connection is so powerful that it leads to a desire to deepen it.
This can be described in terms of feeling the pain and joy of others, a wellspring of love and compassion. Think of when natural disasters, earthquakes or terrorist attacks occur in some places. So many people around the world, although they are so far away from the place where the event occurred, that they cannot physically feel the pain of the local people, but when they see the image of the disaster, they feel the pain, and donate money to the people affected. It is a feeling that leads to action. You want to do something to reduce the pain and increase the joy of others. So, you go out and donate to the victims of an earthquake. That’s a spontaneous action.
But then, you think more and perhaps want to change the world itself in order to reduce the pain and bring more joy, after seeing the suffering and injustice in the world. You want to act to change the society, so that the suffering and oppression may end, and world justice may appear. Let’s think about Mohandas Gandhi. Seeing the Indian people struck by hunger and misery, Gandhi didn’t simply want to give food to people. He felt that there was injustice in society itself that made the Indian people suffer. Thus, he thought about how to change the social structure and remove the oppressive structure of colonialism. Also, in the film Les Miserables, there was a spiritual dimension to the French Revolution. When people felt the suffering of others and the injustice of the world, they wanted to change society, and fight against injustice. In many ways, this kind of revolution is an expression of spirituality. This is how a spiritual orientation finds its expression: first a feeling, then specific actions, and then a desire to completely change the world.
There is a path to do that. Some of us may have this spiritual feeling now and then — a beautiful sunset, a feeling of being at one in nature, a feeling of compassion — a fleeting feeling that comes and goes. Everybody will have that kind of experience. But to strengthen the will and act in accordance with that consciousness requires practice. That is why it is called a path of spiritual growth. There are so many different paths. You walk along that path, because there are so many different things you have to do to strengthen that consciousness and your capacity to act.
This leads to transformation. I spoke about volunteers who were serving in Sichuan, two years after the earthquake. They have their faith, which leads them to overcome the obstacles and sustain themselves. However, faith alone is not sufficient. They need practice to transform. Therefore, spiritual practices, such as prayer, meditation, collective gatherings and study, and so on, strengthen the will and induce transformation. The practices of prayer and meditation clear the mindscape and enhances consciousness. For those who are engaged in this path, even all the obstacles and difficulties along the way are considered to be tests that help them to improve. When I interviewed the volunteers in the earthquake area, for example, they talked about how the sufferings and hardships that they had while they were volunteering, helped them to progress spiritually.
So, there are people who have a spiritual orientation to life, and are engaged in the practice of transformation. Then what happens? What is the result? As we visited and interviewed these organisations, we noted that people in these organisations have a strong sense of where they are going — a strong sense of purpose and direction in their life. They have spiritual perception and judgement. They judge things according to spiritual standards. For instance, in the Christian Concern for the Homeless, the chairwoman told me that once the Hong Kong government offered a lot of money to this organisation in exchange for relocating homeless people to another neighbourhood. However, to move them from one neighbourhood to another is a violation of this organization’s spiritual principle. The rich people don’t want homeless people in their neighbourhood. So, the rich people want to move them away to another neighbourhood. The chairwoman said, “We respect all homeless people. Even though the government was willing to give us so much money, we would not do it.” This is a judgement based on spiritual principle.
Members of these groups often told me that there wasn’t much arguing among members and volunteers, which is common in other groups. There wasn’t much conflict. There is a greater sense of peace of mind, joy, emotion balance, greater patience, generosity, forgiveness, and desire to serve others. Therefore, these organisations don’t need to pay many people to work. Their volunteers have the desire to help for free, the ability to sacrifice for others, the ability to cooperate with others. These were some of the individual capacities that were generated by their spiritual orientation. In terms of productive capacity, what we saw as a group is that these organisations have a very clear sense of their unity, vision, purpose and core values. They knew what they stood for and what they were trying to do. There was a greater level of interpersonal trust, harmony and conflict management. There was greater intrinsic capacity of motivation and mobilisation. Intrinsic motivation is the opposite of extrinsic motivation, which means motivating people by giving them money or punishment. But in these groups, there is a stronger intrinsic motivation, which means that people do something because they love doing it and think it is valuable to do so, regardless of reward and punishment.
These capacities are what we call spiritual capital. These organisations have their systematic and methodical ways to generate and strengthen their spiritual capital. It is not the case that you simply pronounce your belief in God and you get spiritual capital. First of all, they use inspirational stories. These are often stories of Jesus Christ, Buddha, saints, or other volunteers who have done good things. I mentioned earlier that they place an intrinsic value on each individual. They don’t have a strong hierarchy. They don’t use people as instruments for other goals. They downplay hierarchies and empower the weak. They train people. Therefore, they often offer workshops and study sessions to learn spiritual concepts and wisdom. They engage in spiritual practices, such as meditation and prayer. They created a physical and social environment that is conducive to spiritual growth — a certain type of environment that facilitates and generates a spiritual atmosphere.
How do they increase spiritual value then? The people who have tasted it usually want more, because they are inspired and attracted. The acts of service and generosity encourage people. What is interesting, which I mentioned earlier, is that when people encounter challenges and difficulties, they actually see that as a test on the path of growth —the bad experience thus becomes a good thing. In this way, they generate more spiritual capital.
[1] Mauss, The Gift.
[2] See the e-case here: http://ecase.hku.hk/presentation/Spiritual/#screen/b3fdd87d-f68f-42ef-a427-4bb7ddb415cc. Download the accompanying usage note here: http://www.socsc.hku.hk/webforms/e-case-spiritual-values-create-impact-in-the-third-sector/http://www.socsc.hku.hk/webforms/e-case-spiritual-values-create-impact-in-the-third-sector/
[3] Bourdieu, “The Forms of Capital.”
[2] See the e-case here: http://ecase.hku.hk/presentation/Spiritual/#screen/b3fdd87d-f68f-42ef-a427-4bb7ddb415cc. Download the accompanying usage note here: http://www.socsc.hku.hk/webforms/e-case-spiritual-values-create-impact-in-the-third-sector/http://www.socsc.hku.hk/webforms/e-case-spiritual-values-create-impact-in-the-third-sector/
[3] Bourdieu, “The Forms of Capital.”
References
Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by J Richardson, 241–258. New York: Greenwood, 1986.
Mauss, Marcel. The Gift. Translated by Jane I. Guyer. Expanded edition. University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Palmer, David A. and Michele Wong. "Clarifying the Concept of Spiritual Capital."Paper presented at the Conference on the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 10-13 July 2013. Available online: http://www.socsc.hku.hk/ExCEL3/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Concept-of-Spiritual-Capital.pdf
Mauss, Marcel. The Gift. Translated by Jane I. Guyer. Expanded edition. University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Palmer, David A. and Michele Wong. "Clarifying the Concept of Spiritual Capital."Paper presented at the Conference on the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 10-13 July 2013. Available online: http://www.socsc.hku.hk/ExCEL3/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Concept-of-Spiritual-Capital.pdf