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The notion of deeper experiences of Hindu devotees inspired by divine images and sacred places has roots in the historical past, going back to the Vedic period (ca. 2500 BCE), where we find rich literature on performances, rituals and merits of pilgrimages. Considered the bridge between human beings and divinities, the experiences received are the resultant ‘blissful fruit’ (phala) that helps the spiritual healing of pilgrims through awakening conscience and understanding the manifested meanings, symbolism, purposes and gains. This system can be viewed concerning the ‘texts’ (the mythology, ancient text and related narratives) and the ‘context’ (contemporality and living tradition). These rules and performances have regional perspectives of distinctions, but they also carry the sense of universality, i.e. locality (sthānic) and universality (sarvavyāpika) interfaces. The devout Hindus reflect their experiences in conception, perception, reception and co-sharedness – altogether making the wholistic network of belief systems, i.e. the religious wholes in Hindu society. This chapter deals with four aspects: the historical and cultural contexts, the meanings and merits received, the motives and the journey and interfacing experiences. The study is based on the experiential and questionnaire-based exposition and interviews of pilgrims at nine holy places during 2015–2019 on various festive occasions and is illustrated with ancient texts and treatises. The sacred cities included are Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gaya, Ayodhya, Vindhyachal, Ganga Sagar, Chitrakut, Mathura Vrindavana and Bodh Gaya.

This study describes the accounting mechanism for an ethnic marriage in East Sumba, Indonesia. Blended with a rich culture of Indonesia’s familial piety (Kekeluargaan), the accounting perspective is argued as a root of Indonesia’s norm and plays an important role in defining accounting mechanisms in the Indonesian context.

The study observes the Belis traditional marriage in East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, in a qualitative approach. About 12 in-depth interviews from indigenous East Sumba sources, a direct field observation and a historical content analysis were used.

Traditional objects, local caste and spiritual karma are key factors in determining the Belis marital mechanism, which is intertwined with the Kekeluargaan norm. Marriage involves the unification of assets and liabilities bound to the newlyweds and their extended family and neighbors. The Kekeluargaan underpins the cooperation of both sides of the families with the manifestation of the parties concerned and is connected in mutual understanding based on harmony and respect.

This study suggests that accountants in Indonesia should factor in the organizational cultural context. They can do this by fostering relationships, integrating cultural norms into accounting practices and adopting a broader perspective that considers the impact on multiple stakeholders for more effective accounting.

The value of this study challenges the perspective from a non-western point of view that accounting and Kekeluargaan relate to one another and align the role of culture as a context in accounting.

In this chapter, the author explores the principles of responsible management education through the lens of Taoism. This chapter begins by introducing the concepts of knowledge-inquiry and wisdom-inquiry and highlights the differences between the two in the context of management education. The author emphasizes the importance of wisdom-inquiry in management education, arguing that it allows individuals to not only understand and analyze information but also to apply ethical considerations when making decisions. This chapter delves into how to synthesize knowledge and wisdom in education, highlighting the need for a balance between technical skills and ethical awareness in management education. This chapter concludes with an examination of the principles of managing talent by balancing competence and character. The author discusses how to hire for character and train for competence in human resources management and development. This approach involves focusing on developing individuals' character traits, such as integrity, compassion and empathy, in addition to their technical skills. This chapter demonstrates the value of incorporating Taoist principles into management education. When the importance of wisdom-inquiry, balancing competence and character, and developing ethical leaders is emphasized, management education can prepare individuals to navigate the complexities of the modern business landscape while promoting responsible business practices.

This chapter is one of five chapters dedicated to anti-racism, specifically focusing on its conceptual foundations. Drawing from critical scholarship on ideas that have inspired political debates and policies about racism, I address key questions pertaining to anti-racism as an idea, policy framework and as a catalyst for sociopolitical action. This chapter engages with the fundamental principles that underpin anti-racism endeavours, ranging from community engagement to political activism and civil rights movements. It critically examines the ongoing debates on whether the goals of anti-racism, such as racial justice and dismantling of institutional racism/privilege, align with existing sociopolitical order. In addition, this chapter contributes to anti-racism scholarship that has evolved over the past five decades, by synthesising how anti-racism relates to various societal goals. Furthermore, this discussion incorporates themes such as the promotion of tolerance, equality, social justice and recognition within the context of anti-racism.

Today, changing business systems, especially the COVID-19 epidemic, and the rapid development of technology have brought the phenomenon of spirituality to a new point. Cyber spirituality and dataism are also starting to become the focus of attention in this field. This situation also affects the issue of spirituality in the workplace. While the subject of spirituality in the workplace keeps up with innovations and expands in the literature, the relationship between religion and spirituality continues to be discussed and examined. For this reason, this study aims primarily to explain the relationship between the concept of religion and spirituality. In light of current developments, it is to mention the place of spirituality in the workplace between these two concepts.

This chapter presents a spiritual or wisdom-based approach to development, its rationale, conceptualization, methods and examples of applications. The politics of being proposes that societies explicitly make the fulfillment (‘being’) of all its members – humans and non-humans – their main goal, which should guide the development and implementation of public policies. It stands in opposition to the current development paradigm focused on economic growth or ‘having’, and rooted in a set of modern western values – individualism, materialism, reductionism, anthropocentrism, etc. By nourishing our relational nature, the politics of being can address the root causes of the meta crisis the world is facing, reconciling human flourishing with sustainability and supporting the cultural evolution that is needed. It proposes a dialogue between wisdom and science, the two main areas of knowledge, to guide its design and implementation. It conceptualizes ‘being’ as the actualization of our truest ‘being’ and our highest ‘being’. This means that societies should provide the right conditions for their human members to express themselves and fulfil their healthy aspirations, as well as to develop human virtues and qualities. Wisdom traditions and spiritual teachings offer relevant insights into the nature of human fulfilment and the process of spiritual evolution that can be applied to societies. They emphasize the cultivation of spiritual values and qualities such as love, peace, happiness, life, mindfulness, mystery and the understanding of interconnectedness. In recent decades, these qualities have become areas of scientific research and been at the core of social change and development initiatives. Together they can serve as the foundations of the politics of being and allow to identify actionable public policy agendas in many sectors mainly based on existing examples.

This paper aims to report the findings of a survey study exploring perceptions about cognitive impairment. These findings are relevant to public health campaigns and education programmes.

A survey exploring respondents’ views and knowledge about mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was circulated via UK networks. A total of 417 respondents completed the survey, including people living with cognitive impairment (n = 10), care partners (n = 23), older adults (n = 83), younger adults (n = 83), general health-care professionals (n = 96), dementia specialist health-care professionals (n = 48) and dementia specialists (n = 40).

Respondents were more confident in their knowledge about dementia than cognitive impairment but wanted more information about both conditions. Younger adults were uncertain about many aspects of MCI, and were the most likely to view MCI as a normal part of ageing. Diet (45.1%, n = 188) and personal behaviour (63.8%, n = 266) were the least endorsed possible causes of MCI, suggesting a lack of awareness of lifestyle choices as risk factors for MCI.

The results highlight the need to provide education and awareness raising about MCI to enable people to seek help in a timely manner and be able to make informed lifestyle choices that may reduce their risk of MCI and dementia. Implementing education about MCI and dementia in schools is a key target, as younger people were the most uncertain or misinformed about these topics. It is clear that further public health initiatives around MCI are both warranted and welcomed by the general public.

The purpose of this paper is to show that transmission of information and information storage or registration depends on structures. Structures emerge from coordinated sets of constraints. Complex systems depend on their structures to function. The temporal sequence of changes in the levels of the complex system determines its behavior. These three concepts are intimately linked with the environment. Environment, structure, function and behavior form a complex system–environment unit, which is the operational unit of existence for all open complex systems. Therefore, it becomes a point in the directional propagation of the cause, where stimulus environment becomes a Creaon, and then the Creaon becomes a Genon, becoming in turn the response to the experienced environment. The formation of structures is the main phenomenon of evolution. Evolution can also be accepted as free, in the sense that it does not cost additional deaths.

Mathematical and logical development of the structure and thermodynamics in complex systems.

Based on the above considerations, the authors are going to introduce two fundamental principles in Complex systems Theory: the Matthew Effect and the Principle of Sagan.

But as the authors’ purpose is to give a formal definition of a complex system from a totally theoretical point of view, they establish a relationship between concepts of General Systems Theory, Theory of the Environment, linguistics, Information Theory and thermodynamics.