But the known is actually more than what's out there. For example, you can look at yourself, in which case the known becomes you. You would then be both the observer and the observed. This is actually a key concept: To know thyself ... to know the knower. But here's the trick. This is not just a concept, it's a practice. It's something that one does. Moreover, it's possible to work at this, to improve one's technique, and progress through stages of spiritual development as you progress through life. This is another important point: that spirituality is an on-going process of internal growth.

Internal means inside of you. Not inside your body, or inside your brain, but in the non-material region of the mind/body continuum. People who are further along the spiritual path are able to recognize this internal, mental aspect of life. The reason this is important is because being in touch with your inner side is the more natural way to live. They call this "enlightenment". There are great benefits that come out of it, both physiological and psychological.

When you're in touch with your inner self, your character begins to form. Your best qualities start to come out, including the quality of compassion. This is how the quality of life is affected. When a community contains greater numbers of enlightened, compassionate people, things get better. It has to do with the interaction among community members. The enlightened people affect the thinking and the behavior of the unenlightened simply by moving among them: working, talking, socializing, carrying on the routines of life. There are of course degrees of this – partial enlightenment – but any amount of enlightenment at all in the community is better than complete darkness. Taking it a step further, the more enlightened communities we have, the better the whole of society becomes. Unfortunately, for quite a while now most of the world has been carrying on in state that is closer to darkness than to enlightenment. There are signs that things are changing, but we still have a long road ahead of us.

All Religions are Included

Notice that we have not mentioned God or religion. When it comes to matters of civic responsibility, you need to be as inclusive as possible. If you talked about spirituality in terms of a particular religious tradition – Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. – there would certainly be folks from other backgrounds who will take exception to your arguments. Moreover, religion itself is just the envelope, the outer trappings, of a deeper personal experience – a divine experience – that transcends all religions. Whatever route you take to this experience is a good one. Whatever spiritual tradition you have is valuable when you pursue it to its ultimate source in the divine. Garden Zone Community Management calls for a renewal of interest in spirituality, and in fact depends on this renewal in order for it to succeed, but it also requires that a manager remain neutral from a religious standpoint in order to attract the widest ecumenical support.