LAST TIME I PROMISED TO CONTINUE OUR discussion of the differences in how the priest/king spirituality and the emerging natural spirituality use rules with an example.

"I don't know," he mused. "I guess I just thought my teachers made it up."

As you recall, natural spirituality views rules as tools—as means to an end—while priest/king spirituality views them as commands.

While some rules are merely commands, and others are clearly tools, that's not the whole story.

I've spent part of my career in practice as a private educational consultant, coaching people who are having difficulties as students, and helping teachers to improve their results.

Some years ago I was working with a forty-something graduate student in a business school, who was having some difficulties with the required math.

In the course of our work, I realized that he had misunderstood some rather basic concepts in algebra, which he had learned years before in high school, and that this was part of his current difficulty.

So I went back over those concepts with him.

I cleared up his problem with the rules of algebra, and at the same time I explained why the rules worked the way they do.

When I finished the explanation, he sat back in his chair, his eyes wide with surprise.

"You mean," he said, "that there's a reason for that rule?"

"Of course," I replied, "what did you think?"

"I don't know," he mused. "I guess I just thought my teachers made it up."

This was a classic example of the priest/king spirituality operating on a subconscious level.

He had never consciously thought about the nature of the rule, but had simply instinctively treated it as a command.

He followed it, or in his case misfollowed it, because his teacher commanded it, and his teacher was in charge.

Now there is hardly any rule which is further toward the rule-as-a-tool end of the spectrum than a rule of mathematics.

Yet this very intelligent man got well into his forties treating that rule as though it were the arbitrary dictate of an authority figure, rather than a common sense way to deal with numbers.

Over the years I have found that this single difference accounts for many of the problems people have with math.

Those who approach a rule of math as a tool want to understand how and why it works, and consequently almost always end up using it correctly.

Those who approach a rule of math as a command see understanding it as irrelevant.

Their teacher wants them to do it this way, it leads to answers the teacher approves of, and that's all they need to know.

As a consequence, they often misapply or misremember a rule, and get the wrong answer.

Also, they don't enjoy math.

The priest/king spirituality takes this same approach to all rules, and because of this the letter of the rule becomes more important than the purpose or spirit.

It differs from natural spirituality in the relationship it perceives between rules and agendas.

Let me give you another example.

It's common for a business to have a contract with a union, a set of rules worked out at the bargaining table.

Some managers, and some employees, see these rules as tools—as methods for handling employer/employee relationships in a way that creates a healthy and fair working environment.

Their agenda, a healthy and fair working environment, is achieved by following the rules set out in the contract, by striving to interpret and apply those rules in ways that support that kind of environment, and by pushing for changes in the rules which will help them to create and maintain that kind of environment.

Other managers, and other employees, see these same rules as commands which get in the way of their agendas.

They may try to circumvent or ignore the contract, or they may attempt to use it in ways that were never intended.

When they do follow the contract, it will often be because they see it as a responsibility or obligation, or because they are afraid of the penalties for breaking it.

And when managers or employees take this attitude toward a contract, the focus shifts from the intent, or spirit, of the contract to the letter.

Next time: more examples—and a look
at how each model breaks rules...