I hope that you will lead immortal, invincible and joyous lives, filled with confidence, pride and good cheer. I also hope you will display inspiring leadership, while doing your utmost to protect your respective areas.
Daisaku Ikeda
The first part of this guidance I guess it a reminder that life is to be lived and not simply endured, an obvious statement perhaps but one that is sometimes difficult to follow through, and this of course is where our Buddhist practise comes in.
The key thing that stands out for me in this guidance is the phrase "display inspiring leadership". Now, I have a leadership position in my local SGI group, and it's a position that I have really struggled with and still do on a daily basis. I think some of this is to do with the term 'leader' and though I know it does not mean 'boss' or anything like that, as someone who has an inherent dislike of authoratitive figures, I know it's lurking deep inside me somewhere.
Sometimes too perhaps, we can see a leadership role as something like management, with all the admin and paperwork that comes with that.
However, that is exactly what a leader is NOT. Sure, there is always admin in our daily life but this is not the focus of a leader, or to tell others what to do.
The role of a leader in Buddhism is to put the practise into action in our daily lives and to show actual proof of it by living positive and strong lives. By extension, this means of course that EVERYONE who does this in their daily life IS a leader and it's not simply a term that is handed out .. we have to put this into action through daimoku and then going out and taking part in daily life knowing that we are Buddhas (that does not mean feeling superior to others by the way but I'm sure I'll cover that another time).
The Time is Now!
