Pursuit of Leadership

Table of Content: HOW TO RAISE A RESILIENT KID: I AM NOT RIGHT BUT THAT’S OK

Dalai Lama is respected so much throughout the world because he is famous (like a movie star) and not so much about his contribution to the world. He is famous because he wanted to become famous, for political reason; i.e. to regain his position as the leader of Tibet. He is no longer the leader of Tibet. He doesn’t want to make peace with China, because he insists that Tibet is his territory and he must be the leader and not someone else. This goes against the teaching of Buddha. He was willing to be a pawn of the US to fight with China (before Nixon) so long as he gets what he wants; “love for peace” gets thrown under the bus. Of course, the US do not fight China anymore, except competing “peacefully”. Yet he is used occasionally to remind China about how he is an “asset” of the US (like Uygurs terrorist organization) that can cause some problems in China. As an intelligent person, he knows full well the US will never start a war with China for him. As an “asset”, of course the US will help him to become famous so that the value appreciates. He will fail if he goes around the world fighting as the former ruler of Tibet, because nobody cares about helping a deposed king to regain his throne. He has to sell himself as a learned Buddhist monk. There are definitely many Buddhist monks who are better than him (but not become famous) in terms of knowing the Way of the Buddha and walking the path according to the Way of the Buddha. There is a different between knowing and actually practicing it.

Tibet belongs to all Tibetans instead of a king. So long as Tibetans are happy, it doesn’t matter who is the leader. Tibetans will never again be the lower lives of the landowners. The return of the deposed king is not necessary. A good leader is one who brings better lives to the people. Let a better leader take over instead of insisting to occupy the throne.

The Buddha never seek to become famous; it was totally the doing of Karma. After Gautama achieved Enlightenment, he didn’t want to preach anything to anybody. His former companions who sought for Enlightenment begged him to help them achieved their endeavor to escape the cycle of birth and death. They didn’t want to be reborn into this world again to experience the suffering of life in an endless cycle. In the first sermon, the Buddha presented the Four Noble Truths. According to Buddha, (1) the lives of most people are full of sufferings. (2) The sufferings are due to desires which are not fulfilled. (3) One is freed from all sufferings when he let go of the desires. (4) Everyone can do it, by walking on the right path. The thinking that you have lost something, and you must do something in order to get something which you want, are the desires which lead to emotional suffering. Wanting to return as the leader of Tibet which he thinks belong to him but lose to someone else is a suffering to Dalai Lama. Anybody can have desires, therefore enduring the associated suffering, but not a true Buddhist monk. We never really lose anything, because nothing really belong to us. YOU ONLY LOSE WHAT YOU CLING TO

Devadatta (a disciple of the Buddha) wanted to kill the Buddha and takeover his leadership role. He fed large amount of liquor to Nalagiri, the most dangerous elephant in the royal herd of elephants, until it became dangerously drunk. Then the drunken elephant was beaten to make it extremely angry and violent. Finally, the angry, violent, drunk elephant was directed to the street where the Buddha was coming for alms. Nalagiri smashed everything that was on its way. People were terrified and screamed together in one voice. Nalagiri was dashing violently towards the Buddha. All the disciples who were with Buddha was horrified at this terrible sight and scrambled to flee for safety. Only Disciple Ananda stood firmly beside the Buddha. At that time, Buddha himself remained totally at ease and composed. He stood where he was and radiated his loving-kindness towards the elephant. Buddha’s love and compassion were so strong and powerful that the elephant could feel it. Just a few steps before it was about to charge into the Buddha, it stopped in its path and calmed down. It then trotted towards Buddha and respectfully bowed its head. Buddha stroked the elephant’s trunk and comforted it with soft and kind words. The elephant was totally tamed.

Love can appease any hatred only if your power of love is great enough. You can never have enough power of love if you do not abandon all desire and all attachment. Buddha would have been killed by Devadatta and the elephant otherwise. However, his power of love was not enough to overrule Devadatta’s love of power. His power of love could not appease the hatred of Devadatta against him; he could not make everybody loves him. Gandhi’s misjudged of his own power of love led to his assassination by his followers.