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Dialogue is at the heart of everyday language. It is at work and play whenever we think and speak and attempt to communicate internally within the self and externally among people. We could say that dialogue is happening whenever we use language – it pervades all our discourse.

Of course the practice of dialogue has always been a concern through the ages in the evolution of cultures. It takes many forms; we enter authentic dialogue through many levels and stages. Dialogue involves the encounter of different perspectives, views, worlds. "Dia–logue" implies more than one perspective coming into "conversation" in some way. Of course this is happening all the time in everyday life. Whenever different views come into some kind of direct relation or mutual encounter, whether in a "negative" form such as conflict or confrontation or in a "positive" mode such as reaching out in care or concern or curiosity, the dynamics and issues and challenges of authentic "dialogue" arise.

Dialogue can succeed for fail, and when it really works, genuine communication is taking place. In real communication there is a meaningful meeting of minds and perspectives, a deeper sharing of meaning that clarifies areas of agreement and disagreement and thus promotes deeper harmony and well-being. In this authentic meeting there is cultivation of shared open space and common ground and a certain level of communion and unity in the midst of clarified differences. But one of the greatest challenges to dialogue is the attempt to really communicate across and between different perspectives or worldviews.

It is also clear that a given individual inhabits a plurality of worlds in his or her inner psychic life as well. I may be a practicing physicist inhabiting that particular religious world, while also experimenting in certain exotic worlds of "alternative medicine," and so on. In this way my inner personal space is an interplay of diverse worlds as well as my outer inter–personal space. Thus there can be inner as well as outer dialogue. The challenge of dialogue is to achieve true inner communication and integrity within the self as well as to enter into true meeting and genuine human relations in our shared life with others. In this way dialogue is a measure of the health of our discourse at the deepest level.

The quality of our life and our well–being turn on authentic dialogue. when inner dialogue fails, one's psychic integrity and existential health suffers, and when external dialogue is impaired, one's inter–personal relations and quality of life suffer as well. And of course there is a direct correlation between the authenticity of inner and outer dialogue. When deep dialogue between worlds thrives in our inter–personal outer life, it enriches and transforms our inner psychic life, and of course when we engage in deep inner dialogue, it brings profound psychic, spiritual, and moral awakenings that affect the quality of our outer human relations.

Wherever there is human discourse – thinking, language, conversation – and human relations the concerns, challenges, barriers, opportunities, and breakthroughs of dialogue are all in play. Dialogue of some sort is happening all the time in everyday life. And in a real sense the art of being human is the art of being in dialogue.

But what is "global" dialogue? What is distinctive or unique here? Why do we distinguish it from everyday discussion or conversation? Why is authentic dialogue so challenging and difficult to achieve? What is so "deep" about it and why do we say that in entering global dialogue there is a profound transformation or awakening in the self and amongst the participants?

Corporate leaders in the business world face the urgent task of understanding the powerful forces that arise when diverse cultural and religious worlds interact. Ethics in the workplace must include more effective ways to cope creatively with interactions between diverse perspectives, ideologies, and worldviews. In this essay I focus on the essential connection between the origin of ethics, the process of dialogue, and the challenge of inter–religious and intercultural interchange. I try to make the essential connection between ethics, the awakening and transforming power of dialogue between diverse worlds, and the emergence of global ethics. We shall see that the process of dialogue between religious and cultural worlds is the rational, moral and spiritual foundation of global ethics.

We are living in a very exciting moment in history. Something profound and wonderful is happening, which can be seen only if we stand back and observe the spectrum of cultures and religions that have been evolving over the centuries. If we can do this and enter into alternative religious and cultural worlds, something amazing begins to show itself, a deep pattern that has been centuries in the making. It appears that the different religions and cultural worlds converge in a common theme of a birth of a new level of human consciousness, a new humanity. We see as we look across religious worlds that they are all deeply concerned with a stage of being human that needs to be overcome.

In one way or another, we have seen howe people have lived an ego–centered life. the different religious teachings agree that this egocentric life is the source of diverse human problems. The great world teachers through the ages have attempted to show that the essence of being human is in overcoming the ego–centered way. This can be seen, for example, deep in the Judaic tradition with the ultimate command to love God with all our heart and all our being. That injunction calls upon humans to open themselves in the deepest way to place the Divine Presence first and foremost in all life. This calls for a deep re–centering that transforms our being. This revolutionary re–centering in our inner most Self demands that we overcome and ego–centered view that places the ego consciousness as the center of our human reality.

If we look at the teachings of Jesus, the deepest concern and command to love one another, to awaken spiritually, and to go through a profound rebirth calls for a renovation of our being and the move to a dialogical consciousness. Thus, in the Judeo–Christian roots we find this call for the awakening of a new awareness that centers upon God and the Presence of God as the primary concern for human beings, which in turn calls for the deepest change in our lives. When we scan across the spectrum of cultures and look, say, into the Hindu worldview, clearly here too we find a different scenario, that relentlessly focuses on the same point, that the essence of our awakening has to do with overcoming ego–centered consciousness. In the Bhagavad–Gita, for example, Lord Krishna takes Arjuna, who embodies the ego–consciousness, on the deep transformation and existential awakening into the higher consciousness that centers on the Divine Principle, one that sees a profoundly interconnected reality, very different from the one shown in ego awareness.

So also the essence of the Buddha's awakening (the word "buddha" means "awakened one") turns upon seeing through the emptiness and futility of living in a world that objectifies everything and creates artificial "entities," especially where the self is concerned. The Buddha's great awakening shows that humans are not entities or objects of any kind and that this ego–self is empty or vacuous, an artificial construction of the ego will. This ego construction of the self that seems to take itself as a separately existing entity is profoundly wrong and wrongful and is in fact the source of the deepest human suffering. So that the themes of sin and suffering in our human condition are directly traced to our ego–centered way of being, and the deepest call of these religious visions moves us to dramatically transform our being to an open, interactive, unified, and holistic way of being a human.

So too if we look into the Chinese origins of the Tao or of the Confucian Mandate of Heaven. These moral origins call us equally to awaken to a higher consciousness that can see the inter–relationship of humans and the Higher Law as the centering principle in human life. Equally in certain African traditions, the "Nommo," the call of the Original Word or Name in the Dogon worldview, and the Vital Force found to flow through all Nature call us to honor and respect the Principle of Life that pulsates through every being and all of Nature. And so on.

When we stand back and take a truly global perspective, it is easier to see the deeper pattern of evolution of cultures and religions through the ages. This deeper pattern reveals that what is distilled and what survives in this evolution is the theme that human beings have been in a profound awakening of a global awareness that is nothing less than the birthing of what we are as human beings. So let us contrast theses two models or two paradigms of the human being – the egocentric human and the "dialogical human," the person who enters into dialogue with other people and with all creation. It is as if all history and cultural evolution are the interplay of these two paradigms or forces in the human nature.

On the one hand the ego–centered human takes itself to be a separately existing entity and centers its life and world and culture around that "reality." On the other hand the dialogical human somehow awakens to the realization that to be human is a profoundly interrelational, interconnected, interactive way of living and being. This means that everything in human life requires the living through of this interactive – the Buddhist would say "co–arising" – principle of reality itself. At this deepest level, we see a contrast and tension playing out through history between the ego–centered culture and the dialogical way of life.

This brings us to the question of the importance of inter–religious dialogue. For religions are deeply established patterns of life that have been distilled over centuries and millennia of ongoing cultural evolution and experimentation. Religious worldviews attempt to get to what is most fundamental in human culture and human reality. They are alternative, narrative, corporate expressions of what is profoundly first, the vital core of our cultural life. As we look across the spectrum of religions we find profoundly alternative ways of recognizing something primordial that is the common source of our diverse worldviews.

This Primal Reality is so profound and deep that there is no one name that can approach it or exhaust it and no name has emerged in the evolution of global cultures to presume to name it. And yet it is important to have a word that may function to help us focus our thoughts and attention on this deep common ground that emerges out of inter–religious dialogue.

A religion is a way of life that shapes a culture, so if we understand the interactions and interplay between and among religions we see that there is a profound common reality emerging from this creative encounter, found right at the core of the diverse religions. I use the word "Logos" to indicate this profound, primordial word, from the Greek meaning "the Word, the infinite Word." We need a truly global inter–religious and inter–cultural Primal Word to help focus our experience on the common foundation and source of all religions and cultures. One remarkable insight that emerges out of the interplay of world religions in dialogue is the recognition that there is a profound Logos, beyond any single narrative, beyond any single name, so profound in its infinitude, so deep in its Unity that it spawns a multiplicity of infinite possibilities and diversity. So Primal Unity in its infinitude plays out in infinite diversity, plurality, multiplicity, particularity and individuality. There is not the slightest contradiction between the Unity of Logos and the bottomless diversity and multiplicity in the unified Field of Reality.

This to me is one of the greatest lessons of the centuries of inter–religious dialogue and interaction – that Logos is so deep in its Unity that multiplicity and plurality and diversity are of its essence. Here we see the deepest roots of the origin of dialogue and the evolution of dialogical consciousness. If we rise to the global perspective between worlds we more readily see this historic pattern evolving. In this historic drama of Logos we see that human evolution inexorably moves beyond the egocentric culture to the awakening of global consciousness through dialogue. This deeper story of human evolution could not be seen clearly until we advanced to the global perspective that comes from creative dialogue between worlds. It comes down to the ultimate principle of reality itself. The painful awakening of human life in dialogue comes with this emergence of Logos in the human condition.

This Logos, this common ground at the source of all religious worlds, is the source of dialogue. Why? Because this Primal Word in its infinite depth and presence is so deep that nothing can stand outside of its sphere of influence and jurisdiction. This profound, primoridal Logos, which is at the source of all religious worlds and cultures, places all things profoundly in mutual encounter and interrelatinship. The Space of Logos, the Field of Reality itself, holds all things in original interaction. Nothing can stand apart or alone. Nothing is atomic or existentially independent, as egocentric reason imagines.

Perhaps the deepest lesson that we might learn from the evolution of cultures is that human beings are essentially beings in dialogue. We do not stand alone. The vision of human as an ego–centered, independently existing entity has simply been shown to be unacceptable and disastrous in the evolution of cultures.

This brings us to the condition in which we are living, an exciting moment in this evolution over centuries. The birthing of this dialogical consciousness is accelerating and peaking in contemporary times. And yet at the same time the counter ego–centric forces of culture are also peaking, so something very urgent and critical is happening in our cultures that puts our very survival and future sustainability at stake.

It all turns on the question of our coming to a deeper awareness and practice of this awakening to dialogue in our lives. In this global story of Logos it is clear that humanity must now make the creative corporate turn to dialogical culture if we are to survive. We have arrived at a historic showdown between the two ways of being human. We must find the way to make the corporate transition from egocentric culture to awakened dialogical life. this is why the special skills that come from the creative play of global dialogue, of inter–religious and intercultural dialogue, are vital now for our future flourishing.

I now want to connect the dialogical evolution and the new global consciousness that emerges from it with what I call the global mentality or the global mind. Of course when we hear the word "global," we tend first to think more of the physical dimension, the globe, the geographical sphere, as well as the political sphere composed of the different nations spread across the globe. We usually speak of "global" in this sense. but in the wider cultural sense, "global" means a mentality that recognizes the plurality of profoundly different cultural and religious worldviews and perspectives. In this philosophical and cultural dimension the term "global" means having to do with the relations and differences between multiple worlds, with the mutual encounter of the plurality of diverse worldviews and cultural forms of life in human evolution. This is what we call the "global context" and "global consciousness." Now it is easier to see that global awareness is based in dialogue. When we speak here of "global ethics," for example, it is clearer that the essence of "global" is dialogical. And inter–religious dialogue fosters global awakening.

I want to stress that living in dialogue is a deep change in our being. It is not simply standing where we are in our particular worldviews and speaking it out to others and listening to others from afar. The dialogical turn in living calls for a true risk, a willingness to let ourselves be vulnerable in our deepest being. This awakening to dialogue calls upon us to open our selves and our patterns of interpreting reality, and a willingness to question, reconsider, and revise at the deepest level the worldview in which we live. This of course includes all of our presumptions and assumptions that have been at the source of our way of life. Thus there is something deeply risky that can feel threatening to our very identity, our very "self," and to our most cherished habits of mind when we truly open ourselves in this way.

But it is the kind of risk that more enlightened people in the business world are already used to facing in one way or another. For example, creative entrepreneurs who have been forced by new challenges to reconsider the deepest assumptions of their business practices and business enterprise are already in touch with this dialogical risk and entrepreneurial spirit. So when I speak of the global, I mean global in the sense of a disposition to be profoundly open to others, to other persons, to other religions, to other cultures, to other perspectives. It means a willingness to revise and experiment and self–transform in an ongoing open–ended experimental or dialogical way. The global is dialogue in practice. It does not apply only in the so–called international global scene as we are used to think of it, but in our deepest inner life this dialogical or global outlook is already at work in our personal and interpersonal relations, in the corporate life of our business, in the workplace, as well as in all aspects of life in society, both at the micro and the macro levels.

The dialogical turn in awareness requires this open outlook – having the willingness to listen to the other and to encounter and to enter creatively the perspectives of others, and the willingness to question critically and even to overcome what one has uncritically presumed and assumed. What is remarkable in this global outlook is that the willingness to take this personal risk and enter into other worldviews and other perspectives always turns around to deeply enrich the participant and deepen one's root in one's own world. This dialogical awakening always comes home and deepens the inner Logos at the heart of one's own tradition. In taking the risk of opening to dialogue the participant is graced in the deepest way.

At this point I want to connect the global mind or mentality with the dialogical or global ethics. The term "global ethics" is being used in many ways right now, but to me global ethics indicates this consciousness of dialogue – the essential connection. And when we look at the evolution of ethics through the religious worlds it becomes clear that the most important advances in moral consciousness through the ages, from Moses to Jesus to Buddha to Krishna to Lao Tsu, has been the moving to a deeper dialogical being. In other words, ethics points to the deepest way in which we conduct our life and our mind and our thinking. It is not only an external behavior, but the external behavior reflects a deeper inner transformation. So the moral awakening of humanity over the past three thousand years has been pressing to this global awakening and dialogical way of being. This is why, for example, whether it is in the injunction to love God with all one's hear or in Jesus' version of the global moral principle that we should love one another, or Buddha's principle of Dharma or compassion, to love all beings and all creatures and to end to their suffering, we get many different formulations and different takes on what might be considered a principle of global ethics.

Ethics is profoundly global and universal across cultures and religions. It is perhaps redundant to call it "global" ethics. Ethics is global ethics. So I would like to speak of the principle of dialogue that is at the heart of global ethics and all moral consciousness. If, for example, we had a principle that we are responsible for the well–being of all creatures, as we propose it as a possible formulation of a principle of global ethics, one might naturally ask, why? Why should I be responsible for all creatures or anyone else other than myself and perhaps my immediate family? The answer is in this global consciousness that has been emerging.

When we realize that in our deepest being we cannot stand alone, we see that we are not human beings in isolation. In our deepest reality we are profoundly interactive and interconnected with those around us, not only with human beings but with all creatures, with all of nature. We are woven together in a dialogical, interactive principle, which we can call the Reality Principle. The principle of dialogue in global ethics lives right at the very core of reality itself. This global ethics may be formulated in many alternative ways. It is not something new. It has been emerging for centuries under many formulations in diverse religious and cultural worlds, and we need to see the connections and common ground in these alternative expressions.

The golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have others do unto you, the injunction to love God, the injunction not to harm other creatures, and the injunction to take responsibility for the well–being and care of others and the environment are all profoundly connected in the dialogical principle. Thus, I hope it begins to be clear why global ethics is so profoundly connected with inter–religious dialogue. For global ethics is inherently dialogical and the dialogue begins to emerge clearly when we see how interactions have been taking place through the centuries between alternative religious worlds and cultures. Inter–religious dialogue, global ethics, and dialogical consciousness essentially co–arise in each other and in Logos.

When we look at the state of our cultures and the present scene, as I said earlier, it is clear that we are in a very exciting moment in history, on the threshold of a new century and a new millennium. Some of us think this is the beginning of a new consciousness, a new age, a new stage of human evolution. But we should also stress the great risks and dangers that we face at this moment that make this time so critical. If we look at our American culture, for example, we can see the devastating evidence of ego–centered culture at work in the profound ways of violence in all levels as humans abuse themselves and each other through their addictions and their failures of relationships, the breakdown of values, the collisions of ideologies, and the many forms of violence that erupt from egocentric practice. On every level we see the evidence of egocentric culture, which always leads to separations, divisions, and violence in all forms.

Our future is at risk, and it is the kind of risk that certain enterprising future–oriented business persons are used to facing and negotiating. There is growing awareness among certain corporate leaders with moral vision that we have a positive responsibility to take the initiative of taking care of each other in the widest possible scope of our corporate ecology. It is obvious now that it is a matter of our sustainability and survival.

It is clear that the necessary awakening consciousness will not just happen, passively – it requires the active process of dialogue itself. This is the wonderful challenge – that dialogue cannot be told to anyone, no one can passively "get it." It has to be a process in which one opens up one's being through dialogue – and the emergence of global ethics begins to become a living reality.

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