The Leader's Way: The Art of Making the Right Decisions in Our Careers, Our Companies, and the World at Large by the 14th Dalai Lama and Laurens Van Den Muyzenberg

The leaders have the ability to look at an issue from many perspectives and, based on that expanded view, make the right decisions.  They have a calm, collected, and concentrated mind, undisturbed by negative thoughts and emotions, trained and focused.  And true leadership recognizes the inevitability of change, the need for a sense of universal responsibility, and the importance of combining an economic system with moral values. That is the leader's way.

Making the right decisions depends on taking the Right View, which leads to the Right Action.  Taking the Right View involves what the Dalai Lama refers to as "a calm, collected, and concentrated mind", one that is peaceful, undisturbed by negative thoughts and emotions, trained and focused.

You cannot improve your mind if you do not think the right way.  Thinking the right way means making sure that every action is based on the right intention and the right motivation.

If your mind is influenced by anger, jealousy, fear, or lack of self-confidence, you become disturbed and inefficient; you cannot see reality.

The concept of impermanence teaches us that every goal is a moving target.

A humble leader listens to others.  He or she values input from employees, even if it is bad news, and humility is marked by an ability to admit mistakes.

Unwholesome tendencies -- such as distraction, carelessness, thoughtlessness, and forgetfulness -- result in suffering and harm.

Worry is a waster of energy, however.  It does not solve anything.  To get rid of worry is not easy.  But meditating on the uselessness of it and dropping the emotion as soon as it manifests itself (without violently suppressing it) eventually will lead to equanimity. 

Reaching perfection is beyond the capabilities of almost everyone; therefore, the main point is to aim for steady progress.

The Buddhist method for making calm and collected decisions involves asking ourselves four questions:  1. What is the reality and is it a problem? 2. What is the cause of the problem? 3. What do I want to achieve? 4. How can I arrive at the goal?

"Insight that leads to spiritual freedom" refers to an understanding that wealth can increase and decrease for reasons a person cannot control.  There is nothing wrong with being happy when wealth increases, but it is wrong to become unhappy when it decreases.

"When people are overwhelmed and in pain through suffering, they are incapable of understanding religious teaching".  Buddha

Profits are a condition for survival, but their purpose is to make a contribution to the well-being of society at large. 

Wealth need not come at the expense of others.

Leadership that acknowledges universal responsibility is the real key to overcoming the world's problems.

The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus by the 14th Dalai Lama

If you examine the nature of your existence, including your physical survival, you will find that all the factors that contribute to your existence and well-being – such as food, shelter, and even fame – come into being only through the cooperation of other people. 

To a large extent it is our mental attitude – our outlook on life and the world – that is the key factor for the future. 

Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life by The 14th Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins

Dying is a time when the deeper levels of mind manifest themselves; daily reflection also opens the door to those states. 

You are your own protector; comfort and discomfort are in your own hands. 

Taming the mind brings happiness and not doing so leads to suffering. 

Since our attitudes of permanence and self-cherishing -- held in our hearts as if they were the center of life -- are what ruin us, the most fruitful meditators are an impermanence, the emptiness of inherent existence, and compassion. 

Understand that this body, which you sustain at any cost, will someday desert you. 

As long as you have mindfulness, you must do whatever you can to keep the mind in a virtuous way. 

The continuum of this mind is what proceeds to the next lifetime. 

When you are capable of abiding forever in the innate mind of clear light without regressing through the coarser levels, there is no opportunity for the accumulation of karma. 

Afflictive emotions such as lust, hatred, enmity, jealously, and belligerence do not reside in the very essence of mind but are peripheral to it.  When the mind knows its own nature and when this knowledge is teamed with powerful concentration, it gradually becomes possible to reduce and finally to overcome the afflictive states that drive the process of repeated suffering. 

Aim in your rebirth to be reborn with a body and in a situation capable of finishing the remaining spiritual paths. 

Always adjust your motivation toward helping others as much as possible. 

Buddhas are teachers of the spiritual path; they do not give realization like a gift.  You have to practice morality, concentrated meditation, and wisdom on a daily basis. 

Physical happiness is just an occasional balance of elements in the body, not a deep harmony. Understand the temporary for what it is. 

What is performed in imitation eventually leads to what is accomplished in fact. 

Obstacles are not external but internal; they are delusions of our own mind. 

The real enemy, the destroyer of our happiness, is within ourselves. 

When something unpleasant happens and you get irritated, you are the loser, since irritation immediately destroys your own mental peace. 

Your enemy is your supreme teacher. 

The Truth Body is not a form which is visible or accessible to others but rather is a state actualized. 

The Dharma is the complete abandonment of both delusions and obscurations of the paths. 

Until we recognize that suffering is dangerous, we will make no attempt to get rid of it. 

 

No independent thing exists; everything depends on a cause. 

According to the Buddhist point of view, there are sentient beings who take part in the environment or natural habitat, and the universe evolves.  We accept beginningless continuity of consciousness.  

In order to practice genuine compassion or altruism, we need tolerance.  Without tolerance, it is impossible to practice.  Anger and hatred are the greatest obstacles to compassion and love.  To minimize anger and hatred, tolerance is the key factor.  In order to practice tolerance, we need an enemy.  The enemy will not want to help us deliberately, but because of our enemy's actions we get the opportunity to practice tolerance. 

Since death involves the separation of the body and mind, it is important to realize the nature of the “I” that is set up relative to the collection of physical and mental aggregates, as well as the nature of those aggregates themselves.  The type of body we possess is an impure entity, produced from the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, subject to pain from even slight causes, and like an illusion both in the sense of being here one moment and gone the next, and in the sense of appearing to exist inherently but actually being empty of such inherent existence.  By appearing to be clean if washed, and appearing blissful, permanent, and under your control, the body dwells, so to speak, in a city of misconceptions about the nature of consciousness and its objects. 

This human body is a precious endowment, potent and yet fragile.  Simply by virtue of being alive, you are at a very important juncture, and carry a great responsibility.

In order to change results you must deal with causes…. Wishful thinking alone does not produce the result.

It is helpful to know that at some point all hope for continuing this life will end.

When the mind pays attention to an object, it does so through the movement of wind, or energy.  The mind rides on wind like a rider on a horse.  

The Heart of Meditation: Discovering Innermost Awareness by The 14th Dalai Lama

Do not let your mind think on what has happened in the past or let it chase after things that might happen in the future; rather, leave the mind vivid. 

What is the purpose in achieving such concentrated attention? It is not just for the sake of gaining a mind of higher levels of concentration by temporarily suppressing manifest coarse afflictive emotions.  Rather, the purpose of meditative stabilization is to serve as a basis for achieving supramundane special insight realizing selflessness, the emptiness of inherent existence, through which afflictive emotions can be removed completely and forever.

Ethics for the New Millennium by the 14th Dalai Lama

Religious belief is no guarantee of moral integrity. 

One of the things that determines whether an act is ethical or not is its effect on others’ experience or expectation of happiness.  An act which harms or does violence to this is potentially an unethical act.

The bias we naturally feel toward our families and friends is actually a highly unreliable thing on which to base ethical conduct. 

Although attempting to bring about world peace through the internal transformation of individuals is difficult, it is the only way.

Negative impulses arise as spontaneously as rain and gather momentum just like water following the course of gravity.  What makes matters worse is our tendency to indulge negative thoughts and emotions even while agreeing that we should not.  It is essential, therefore, to address directly our tendency to put things off and while away our time in meaningless activities and shrink from the challenge of transforming our habits on the grounds that it is too great a task.  In particular, it is important not to allow ourselves to be put off by the magnitude of others' suffering.  The misery of millions is not a cause for pity.

A Force for Good by The 14th Dalai Lama and Daniel Goleman

All quotes from The Dalai Lama and Daniel's book

The global economy is like a roof over all of us.  But it depends on individual pillars for support.… First take care of yourself financially.  Then, step by step, stand on your own feet in order to help others.

We all have the same potential but not the same opportunities.

The real purpose of faith is the practice of love.

 “To change the future from a sorry retread of the past, the Dalai Lama tells us, we need to transform our own minds – weaken the pull of our destructive emotions and so strengthen our better natures.  Without the inner shift, we stay vulnerable to knee-jerk reactions like rage, frustration, and hopelessness.” Daniel Goleman

“The Dalai Lama’s view of mental health included qualities like wisdom and compassion…. Our model of mental health is mostly defined in terms of the absence of mental illness.” Dr Judd

If we hear disturbing news but do not have a calm and clear mind then our initial reaction may be, “Oh, I must do something, this is very bad.”  But if at a deeper level we stay calm and lucid, then we will make a better response.

“Relax your anxieties, drop your self-obsession, and dial down those me-first ambitions so you can think about others too.” Daniel Goleman

Loving is of even greater importance than being loved.

 “High academic achievement, the Dalai Lama argues, in itself does not reflect a complete education.  He sees modern schooling as needing fundamental reform, beyond the standard of knowledge.  The Dalai Lama calls for an education of the heart, with ethics and the capacity for living by compassionate values being essential. This education would include basics of how the mind works, such as the dynamics of our emotions, a healthy regulation of emotional impulses and the cultivation of attention, empathy, and caring, learning to handle conflicts non-violently, and a sense of oneness with humanity.”  Daniel Goleman

A sense of being special is a form of self-deception.

Sometimes we feel all the world’s problems are huge.  But who creates these problems?  Humanity is only a collection of individuals, so change must come from each of us.  I myself am also one of the seven billion human beings, so I have both moral responsibility and the opportunity to make a contribution, which  starts at the mental level with fewer destructive emotions --- more constructive ones.  Then share with friends, anyone can.  Changes spreads that way.

Intentions result in acts, which result in effects that condition the mind toward certain traits and propensities, all of which may give rise to further intentions and actions.  The entire process is seen as an endless self-perpetuating dynamic.  The chain reaction of interlocking causes and effects operates not only in individuals but also for groups and societies, not just in one lifetime but across many lifetimes.

"Today, according to United Nation statistics, just 0.7% of the people worldwide die a violent death – and that number includes all those caught in the smaller conflicts still smoldering round our globe.  The decline in the rate of violent deaths over 10,000 years: from 1 in every 5-10 deaths to 1 in every 140 or so.  This may be the safest era yet, not the most dangerous."

On any day of the year, the denominator of kindness will be vastly greater than the numerator of cruelty.” Daniel Goleman

The potential for cruelty is far greater than the aggression actually acted out. 

Consider how societies change. “Society” is but the aggregate of us all.

The Path to Bliss by The 14th Dalai Lama

All quotes from The Dalai Lama's book

It is very important that we do not waste the great opportunity afforded by our being human, because time is a phenomenon that is momentary and does not wait. 

All living beings survive in dependence upon others; even one's experiences of happiness and suffering come about in relation to one's interaction with others.

Any practice that can give you more courage when you are undergoing a very difficult time and that can provide you with some kind of solace and calmness of mind is a true practice of the dharma.

What you know should be put into practice immediately; you can thus derive the benefit of having some transformation within your mind.  Even though it may be a very minor effort, a very small practice just leaving imprints within your mind, still you must think that it was worthwhile to do.  Otherwise, your knowledge of dharma will be quite fruitless, and like merely playing something on a tape.

Initially it is very important to end the session when you are not tired, so that your practice of dharma will be steady like a stream, not momentary like water gushing out of a broken tank, emptying the tank in a few minutes.

Request the spiritual master at your crown to grant you the inspiration to overcome the obstacles to your realization.

Some people, when they subdue the active forces of the gross levels of mind as a result of their meditations, are able to increase the force of the subtle levels of consciousness through the experience of Clear Light.  As a result of such experiences, they are able to recall their past lives vividly. 

What is meant by dharma is the spiritual realization that you can achieve as a result of your practice.  Any factor that can enable you to achieve total liberation from delusions and sufferings and bring about the realization of a true cessation is the true dharma.

The presentation of the law of causality is the presentation of a natural fact.  It can be explained briefly in this way: if you do positive actions, you will face desirable consequences and if you engage in negative actions, you will have to face undesirable consequences.  There is a connection of commensuration between cause and effect.  Any action that produces happiness is positive. The distinction between negative and positive can be made only by judging the fruits.

It is in fact the delusions within the enemies and not the enemies themselves that actually cause harm.

When you are able to perceive enemies as being kind to you, you will have overcome a great stumbling block, because the enemy is the greatest stumbling block for the cultivation of the thought cherishing the welfare of others.

It is the self-cherishing attitude that is the source of all miseries and therefore is the only object to be blamed for all misfortune. 

The practice of generosity should be undertaken by giving away what you can afford.  You should enhance and develop your thought of generosity to such an extent that eventually you will be able to part with even your own body.

My Spiritual Journey by The 14th Dalai Lama

All quotes from The Dalai Lama's book

Our life depends on others so much that at the root of our existence there is a fundamental need for love.  That is why it is good to cultivate an authentic sense of our responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.

True compassion does not stem from the pleasure of feeling close to one person or another, but from the conviction that other people are just like me and want not to suffer but to be happy, and from a commitment to help them overcome what causes them to suffer.  I must realize that I can help them suffer less.  That is true, well thought-out compassion.

You can see the positive side of even the worst of tragedies if you adopt a holistic perspective.  If you take the negative as absolute and definitive, however, you increase your worries and anxiety. 

The past is not a reality; its just a concept.  The future corresponds to projections, anticipations that do not have any reality either. 

The present is that elusive moment between what no longer exists and what has not yet happened.

Each instant of consciousness stems from a previous instant of consciousness.

What we call a person is a concept attached to a stream of consciousness.  This stream, just like the person, is without beginning or end. 

Consciousness represents a faculty of clarity and luminosity that allows us to perceive and know phenomena by direct apprehension. 

We can do without religion, but not without spirituality.

Spirituality, when understood as the development of fundamental human values, has every chance to improve the life of our communities.

The practice of nonviolence applies not just to human beings but to all sentient beings.  Everything that is animate possesses consciousness.  Wherever there is consciousness, there are feelings like pain, pleasure, and joy.  No sentient being wants to suffer.

Cultivating a Daily Meditation by The 14th Dalai Lama

All quotes from The 14thDalai Lama's book

The dreams that are important are not the ones we have just after falling asleep, but rather those experienced during the time of dawn. 

Ordinary people cannot remember past lives because the level of consciousness during the time of death, the interval state between the previous life and the next life, is most subtle.  The subtle level of mind on which those memories are based cannot communicate to our gross conscious mind.  A person who has some experience of utilizing deeper consciousness has a better chance to have clearer memories of past lives.

As the root cause of suffering can be purged or eliminated, suffering itself can be eliminated.  Basically the root cause is the delusions.  All these delusions are rooted in the self-grasping attitude. 

This table is devoid of elephant.  The mere absence of that thing, the elephant, is the same as the way in which reality is empty of inherent existence and also devoid of delusion. 

All phenomena exist in the condition called dependent arising.  When we try to discover their essence, we find only labels posited by conceptual thought, giving them their designations such as "book". Further, the consciousness which thus labels is dependent upon earlier and succeeding moments of consciousness, the beginning of which is nowhere to be found. 

All negative states of mind have their root in the self-grasping attitude, a mistaken consciousness which can be shown to be distorted. 

One can say that this table is non-inherently existent because it is existent, since it exists depending on other factors. The very fact of its existence proves its non-inherent existence. 

Bodhisattva practitioners should deliberately and actively live in situations where there is trouble, because they are chiefly working for the welfare of other sentient beings. 

We need a purpose in this life to give it meaning beyond feeding this suffering body. 

The only actual enemy is the self-grasping attitude and consequent distorted mind.