Vision

A More Joyful and Kinder Singapore.

Virtues

Love, Wisdom, Truth, Service, Growth and Joy

Here are some of our key lessons about these virtues, which we have gained through our personal experience and many wise teachers over time.

Love is the most healing and positively transformative force. Love towards self is the foundation for conscious love towards others. All beings are worthy of love, including those whose behaviours hurt us. It is when we are most tested, that love is most needed.

Wisdom helps us make sustainable decisions, taking into account what is best for us and others. Practical wisdom, according to Aristotle and as related by Dr Barry Schwartz, “is the moral will to do the right thing and the skill to figure out what the right thing is”. Dr Schwartz says wisdom is a blend of curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, creativity, perspective, discernment, perceptiveness and imagination, social and emotional intelligence.

Truth shines brightly whenever we live up to our words and when we own up to our mistakes. Sometimes we need to dig deeper to find Truth beneath the surface. Beneath the surface, we discover people’s stories, feelings, needs, struggles and strengths. And this helps us relate to them with more Love. We can all be investigators of what is true for us. The truth doesn’t lie in the hands of a few experts. Knowing ourselves well and being true to our higher selves are two ultimate expressions of truth. Sometimes it takes much courage to uncover truth and bring it to the attention of those who need to know it.

Service allows us to meet the needs of others. Yet it starts with service to oneself. When our own cup is full, we can give more to others. Service that is the fruit of the other five virtues would be powerfully healing and transformative. Good intentions are a good start but they are not enough. Impact is also critical. When we discover true needs, we are able to serve better. Frederick Buechner pointed us to a “place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”. At this place, we experience the magic and importance of being joyful as we serve.

Growth comes with greater ease when we gratefully learn from life and all it offers. Growing to become a more loving, wise and joyful person is integral to a live well lived. Personal transformation affects societal transformation. There is great wisdom in Gandhi’s call to “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. Growth starts with self-awareness. We improve self-awareness when we are open to others mirroring back our blind-spots to us. It helps to have a community of supportive witnesses to our growth, even if it is just one other person.

Joy is an outcome of choices. It emerges beautifully when we practise the other five virtues, honouring the interconnections between them. And when we are more joyful, we are able to practise Love and Service more deeply. Joy encompasses pain. There is a higher and deeper quality to joy than happiness. There is an exaltation and awe of life. Gratitude is a powerful path to Joy. As Dr Brene Brown says, “Joy seems to be constantly tethered to our hearts by spirit and gratitude”.

In her book, “The Gifts of Imperfection,” Dr Brown quotes Anne Robertson (a Pastor and writer) about the Greek word for joy, Chairo:
“It isn’t a beginner’s virtue. It comes as the culmination. They say its opposite is not sadness, but fear.”

We strive to remember that

• While each virtue is important by itself, it is the interconnections between each that hold most value. For example, speaking the truth with wisdom and love is likely to inspire more positive results than just speaking the truth, however it may sound, at all costs and at any time.
• Virtues look good on paper. Blending and practising these wisely and regularly, even when faced with a difficulty is where the challenge lies. We enjoy embracing this challenge.
• When we fall short of living up to our prized virtues, we are honest and compassionate with ourselves and strive to grow from it.

This is a living document and will be updated as we learn and grow.