Robert Rabbin will be speaking in Monterey, California this Monday Evening, July 19th. Details follow this interview.
Interview with Robert Rabbin
Interviewer: I am so impressed with your book Igniting the Soul at Work. I just think it’s the most incredible book that I have read in a long time. It really changed my life. I’d like to zoom in on one chapter, called “How to Change the World.” That chapter deals with telling your truth. I would like to talk about that today, because the more we tell our truth in the business, the better off everyone will be. What do you mean by telling your truth?
Rabbin: Telling the truth occurs on two levels. The first level of telling the truth is what I might call the “personal level.” It means to honestly and accurately present our thoughts, our feelings, and our intentions. The second level is what I might call the “transcendent level,” which means to know and demonstrate the truth of who we are essentially. This means to know that we are one with the creative power of the universe. This means to know we are in our core, in our essence, a blazing spiritual radiance. So the two levels of truth that I think we’re always working with are the personal level of being honest and sincere and accurate about what our true feelings and thoughts and intentions are. And the second level is the transcendent level, which is to know and present the truth of who we are beneath the roles and the masks and the identities and the beliefs and the hopes and the wishes and the dreams that we all have. Beneath everything that constitutes our personal story and drama is who we are spiritually. And that is where we become one with not only each other, but with the whole of creation.
Interviewer: There’s one quote in here that absolutely knocks my socks off. You write, “If we want to transform ourselves, to free ourselves from falsehood, to liberate ourselves from anxiety and fear and conditioning, to experience truth, then we will have to tell the truth. We will have to put our actual lives on the line. All transformation begins from where we are, by admitting what is true. This might be painful at first, but telling the truth will ultimately bring exquisite health, joy, and radiance to our lives. The truth will set us free.” It’s my favorite part of the whole book.
Rabbin: I talk a lot in this chapter about telling the truth and about accountability. Accountability means to stand behind our actions, to own up to what we do. I speak about accountability for a very practical reason. If we assume that each of us has some interest in improving our lives and improving the lives of our loved ones, or contributing positively to the community in which we live, then we have to be able to relate to ourselves and others and the world as it actually is, not as we imagine it is. If we want effect a change, or a transformation, or an improvement anywhere, we have to be able to touch and see the reality of the situation. We can’t transform a conceptual idea of who we are—an abstraction or a fantasy. We have to look and face ourselves directly and be honest about who we are and what we’re doing. We can’t change ourselves unless we’re willing to say and see what is true, what is actual. This means that we have to depend less on our justifications and rationalizations, and depend more on actuality. This is difficult, because many of us are not in the habit of admitting what we actually do, even to ourselves.
One of the odd facts of corporate life is that the corporate structure as a legal entity is partly designed to shield individuals from their own actions: the corporate structure itself prevents accountability. We need to overcome the inertia inherent in this system in order to be accountable. It is imperative that we do so, for our own sake, and for the sake of others.
© 2002/Robert Rabbin/All rights reserved