Values
as a spiritual focus
Values are at the heart of spirituality
Shalom Quest creates a space for you to find and explore your own unique life path. As you journey, we invite you to experiment with universal lifegiving values. On Shalom Quest we speak of values as, ‘the understandings we hold about what is good, which influences our thoughts, our choices, and our behaviour’.
Values are at the heart of spirituality, focusing on meaning and relationship, shaping our characters as well as our cultures. Whatever your big picture of reality, (meaningful or meaningless), values have real worth in enabling us to respond to each moment and relationship as special, even if we believe they are only fleeting.
‘Spirituality’- shaped from spiritus a word for ‘wind’ or ‘breath’ – clearly has “Being alive!” and “Being free!” as its essence. Any spirituality that fails to inspire life and freedom must surely be questioned. Also, the life and freedom spirituality encourage must be good – ‘what you intuitively sense is the best’ – good always enhances who you are as a person and enables all around you to thrive.
It is fascinating to reflect on how values seem to share some characteristics similar to ‘physical matter’ at a quantum level. Particles flow like a wave, while remaining firm, both at the same time. Similarly, love flows, while forever firm; this reality appears equally true for every other value. Alongside this, values are also ‘entangled’ and ‘interconnected’ with each other in such a way no single value can ever be fully experienced without reference (in some way) to every other value. Equally true, values appear to ‘intertwine’ with matter itself in such a way their character is found across and within every expression of reality.
Values are as subversive as they are spiritual
It is significant to note how closely lifegiving values relate to all the basic needs and essential rights that every ‘human’ and ‘more-than-human’ individuals and their communities require. A case in point would be that alongside ‘freedom’, both ‘justice’ and ‘compassion’ must play a foundational role when we live by values. This intersecting of values in the light of ‘needs’ and ’rights’ is seen everywhere in life.
So, every value is dynamic. They call us not only to think different, but also to live different. It is all too easy for values to remain just an ideal or an inspiring concept. We must never forget that it is only when we actually embody values in our actions that they truly come alive and make an impact.
Living by values is as subversive as it is spiritual. Subtle yet disturbing. Each value is like a ‘little revolutionary’, pulsating with life and power they are able to bring about real change in truly tough situations. Values are deeply personal, dramatically social, and definitely as global as they are local.
One key characteristic of every lifegiving value is its phenomenal power. We all know the phrase ‘the power of love ’because it’s mainstream, but actually just how powerful is love? Is it actually possible that it could be limitless? Think also of the power truth has to reveal, and the power of forgiveness to heal. What about the power of joy to disarm … and we’ve hardly started! Further, when you further combine and intertwine all the diversity of values together the possibilities become seemingly infinite. In the light of all this think of the potential your personal and unique spiritual path holds!
Living by values is living by “Yes” – which is vivid and full of possibilities. Living by rules is living with “No” – which is rigid and full of prohibitions. As values flourish and flower, rules just wither and die.
Living by values means living creatively: living from the inside-out. Watch big-wave surfers ride the rip-curl, or parkour urban freerunners turn obstacles into opportunities; connect with the rhythm and passion of streetwise breakdancers or listen to a free-jazz saxophonist; note the precision of a sculptor’s hand, or the poise of a gymnast’s exercise. Behind each expression of instinctive beauty lie hours, usually years, of developing their ability. Spontaneous freedom has single-minded learning at its core. Spirituality flows and expresses itself just like this.
Shalom Quest wants to encourage you to become a ‘values-craftsperson’: learning the skills of wisdom, empowered by compassion, taking initiative and responsibility for your actions, in ways that touch the lives of others for good.
So, lifegiving values are shared globally. It is astonishing that any person on the planet can connect with every culture on Earth – and usually with the help of an interpreter – can begin a conversation about love or gentleness, beauty or justice (plus a multitude more values), and will develop an immediate rapport. We should also expect that each distinct culture will also offer examples of unique value-understandings and nuances, not found elsewhere and so add to the enriching the whole.
Values as spiritual images
The fact that shared values flow through the heart of every world culture, and expression of spirituality across our planet, should make values ‘primary connecting points’ between all of us.
With this in mind, it is also interesting to see some examples of how lifegiving values are spoken about in different world cultures:
- Fruit (and characteristics closely linked to them), is a very popular metaphor (e.g. Asia, Africa and the Americas), for referring to values; first because they are seen as being attractive, fragrant, flavoursome, and physically nourishing, in terms of the character of an individual person. This is a reality to value which then seen to spill out across the wider community.
- Fertility and fruitfulness are also associated with how values are often perceived (e.g. India, New Guinea, and the Mediterranean), their ability and the reality of being able to produce and reproduce their qualities in others and then across wider society. This is another example of how dynamic values are understood to be.
- Flame and enlightenment are also metaphors used to refer to values in different cultures (e.g. Iran, China, and Egypt); illuminating and identifying a good person for who they are within themselves, someone to look to, admire and follow the example of. Also, recognising that by embracing lifegiving values an individual puts themselves in a place to gain insight, wisdom, and understanding – the gifts of positive maturity.
- Fabric and clothing are often spoken about to image values or illustrate a person’s character (e.g. Ghana, Japan, and Indonesia). A good person has presence, their spirituality cuts a style, in a similar way what someone wears speak a great deal about who they are. A head covering of truth, a cloak of kindness, footwear of humility, and so it flows.
- Fortune and treasure are frequently used to example that character qualities have the greatest value (e.g. Europe, West Asia, and North Africa). Goodness is worth far more than gold, character has infinitely more value than currency. You can be robbed of your wealth, but integrity can never be stolen. Physical treasure may be hidden or banked and still retain some value; in contrast, character value turns economics on its head by needing to be given away and shared with others in order to both demonstrate its existence and realise it’s worth.
For more about living by values go to: ‘Shalom Quest Living Values Project’
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