Spiritual Intelligence

"Spiritual intelligence is a term used by some philosophers, psychologists, and developmental theorists to indicate spiritual parallels with IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Quotient). Definitions of spiritual intelligence rely on the concept of spirituality as being distinct from religiosity - existential intelligence.

Danah Zohar defined 12 principles underlying spiritual intelligence:
Self-awareness: Knowing what I believe in and value, and what deeply motivates me.
Spontaneity: Living in and being responsive to the moment.
Being vision- and value-led: Acting from principles and deep beliefs, and living accordingly.
Holism: Seeing larger patterns, relationships, and connections; having a sense of belonging.
Compassion: Having the quality of "feeling-with" and deep empathy.
Celebration of diversity: Valuing other people for their differences, not despite them.
Field independence: Standing against the crowd and having one's own convictions.
Humility: Having the sense of being a player in a larger drama, of one's true place in the world.
Tendency to ask fundamental "Why?" questions: Needing to understand things and get to the bottom of them.
Ability to reframe: Standing back from a situation or problem and seeing the bigger picture or wider context.
Positive use of adversity: Learning and growing from mistakes, setbacks, and suffering.
Sense of vocation: Feeling called upon to serve, to give something back.

Ken O'Donnell, advocates the integration of spiritual intelligence (SQ) with both rational intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ). IQ helps us to interact with numbers, formulas and things, EQ helps us to interact with people and SQ helps us to maintain inner balance. To calculate one's level of SQ he suggests the following criteria:
How much time, money and energy and thoughts do we need to obtain a desired result.
How much bilateral respect there exists in our relationships.
How 'clean' a game we play with others.
How much dignity we retain in respecting the dignity of others.
How tranquil we remain in spite of the workload.
How sensible our decisions are.
How stable we remain in upsetting situations.
How easily we see virtues in others instead of defects.

Robert Emmons defines spiritual intelligence as "the adaptive use of spiritual information to facilitate everyday problem solving and goal attainment." He originally proposed 5 components of spiritual intelligence:
1.The capacity to transcend the physical and material.
2.The ability to experience heightened states of consciousness.
3.The ability to sanctify everyday experience.
4.The ability to utilize spiritual resources to solve problems.
5.The capacity to be virtuous.

The fifth capacity was later removed due to its focus on human behavior rather than ability, thereby not meeting previously established scientific criteria for intelligence.

Frances Vaughan offers the following description: "Spiritual intelligence is concerned with the inner life of mind and spirit and its relationship to being in the world."

Cindy Wigglesworth defines spiritual intelligence as "the ability to act with wisdom and compassion, while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the circumstances." She breaks down the competencies that comprise SQ into 21 skills, arranged into a four quadrant model similar to Daniel Goleman's widely used model of emotional intelligence or EQ. The four quadrants of spiritual intelligence are defined as:
1.Higher Self / Ego self Awareness
2.Universal Awareness
3.Higher Self / Ego self Mastery
4.Spiritual Presence / Social Mastery

David B. King has undertaken research on spiritual intelligence at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. King defines spiritual intelligence as a set of adaptive mental capacities based on non-material and transcendent aspects of reality, specifically those that: "...contribute to the awareness, integration, and adaptive application of the nonmaterial and transcendent aspects of one's existence, leading to such outcomes as deep existential reflection, enhancement of meaning, recognition of a transcendent self, and mastery of spiritual states."
- wikipedia

Photo - Catherine Ingram, (beloved dharma teacher who embodies spiritual intelligence for me)