Living Leadership: Integral Dimensions of a Complete Life 2012-08-20 10:08:04 Walker Karraa Walker Karraa Walker Karraa As integral leadership juxtaposes Western and Eastern leadership philosophies and epistemologies, the contrast can often feel murky, ambiguous to those of us striving to live a life of leadership grounded in appreciation of difference, dare I say diversity. At this cross roads, Eastern philosophies appear more palatable to the West, and theories of leadership born in penultimate diversity—America, are eschewed. As a result of our discomfort with mysticism in the West, and infatuation with that of the East, Western pedagogy often mimics Eastern philosophy, while simultaneously cutting ourselves off from the wealth of wholistic leadership living in our American history. The fullest spectrum of dimensions of knowing generates sustainable leadership. Hillman (1996) noted that for the West, all elements of transcendence, or connection between the realm of the gods/goddesses, and that of human life have been destroyed, or pathologized as disease (p.108). All explanations for, or connection with, the invisible, the mystical realm of the spiritual world we cannot see, describe, measure or dominate have been eliminated. Hillman (1996) reflected: In the kingdom (or is it a mall?) of the West, consciousness has lifted the transcendent ever higher and further away from actual life. The bridgeable chasm has become a cosmic void. The gods have withdrawn, said the poets Hölin and Rilke; it takes a leap of faith, said Søren Kierkegaard. Not even that will do, for God is dead, said Nietzche. Any bridge must be of superhuman proportions. Well that kind of bridge our culture has ready at hand; the greatest bridge, some say, ever constructed between the visible and invisible: the figure of Jesus Christ. (Hillman, 1996, p. 110) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. exemplified a rare ability to make this stretch across the cosmic void through bridging Christian mysticism with social action. Dr. King bridged the gap of consciousness, living leadership in full dimension—drawing people, systems, organizations and races together. He lived a complete life of leadership. Using King’s work provides a sturdy Western frame for describing the transcendental beauty, divine, and the existential questions necessary for self, collective and global growth. Within his kingdom, the words are chosen with deliberate Christian reference, for he was a man of a Christian God. From his study and faith, scripture served to illuminate ontology with a Jamesian radical empiricism suggestive of Plato’s cave, Buddha’s essence of wisdom, and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. When Dr. King preached scripture, nothing was as it appeared. On April 9, 1967, Dr. King delivered the sermon, The three dimensions of a complete life at the New Covenant Baptist Church, in Chicago, Illinois—one year, nearly to the day, of his assassination. I have chosen to use the 1967 version, published in Carson & Holloran (1996), as it is a direct transcription of the audio archive available at the Stanford University’s King Institute/King Papers Project. A complete audio recording of the sermon is available at: http://bit.ly/4V1kO7 . King’s (1967) Three dimensions of a complete life was set within the mystical vision of John, and King masterfully expands a Christian paradigm to physical proportions—spatial dimension. Spatially the model symbolizes a harmonious geometry and physical balance similar to Pythagorean theory. Harmonious living requires balance of outer and inner aspects of the Self. Philosophically the sermon resembles a