市面上有很多关于当代领导素质的书籍和课程，其中讲述了各种需要去培养的美德：要有耐心而不急躁；要真诚而不肤浅；要有同理心，不对他人的困扰和问题漠然置之；要心胸开阔，不狭隘；要弃绝，不自恋；要知足，不轻易被迷惑、妥协；人应该活得正直学会原谅，而不是紧抓怨恨不放手。上述一切都是应该知晓的。这就是领导力。
然而，除非建立起强大的基石，将这些价值观建在基石上，否则人不可能顶住这世界的诱惑和压力。我们看周围的人，有多少精英以其不可思议的方式引领着世界，但仅仅因为诱惑就毁掉了人生。一个小小的诱惑，人的事业、荣誉和人生都毁于一旦。有句话说，“站得越高，塌得越重。”事实是，一个人得到一个丰裕的职位，就会有更多的人想要毁掉他。无论你是工人、学者还是精神领袖，位置越高，嫉妒你的人就越多。
因此，现在的问题是，如何增强我们品质的基石，让我们成为一个真正的领导者。这并不是你能从教科书上学到的。你能学到一些品质，能记住它们，也许会习练它们，并将它们用于你的人生，这样做很好。但是如果你将宏伟的高楼建在沙土上，它也许会屹立一段时间，风暴来临时，它会倒塌，因为没有真正的基石。我们应该将人生和品质建立在一个强大的基石之上，即：基于真理的真诚、价值和原则的基石。这样一来，不管我们的人生发生什么，我们也不会妥协。当人生价值的基石与大自然的法律协调一致，我们会与自己永恒的本质和谐共存。
现在，怎么得出这个结论的呢？通过灵性的习练，通过我们的经历和对真理的觉悟，通过我们的哲学、科学，去辩证，去说服自己，继续保持耐心，而不是急躁，用我们的同理心，而不是对他人的遭遇冷漠置之不理，拥有正直，而不是为短暂的利益而妥协，拥有包容，而不是怨恨。
There are many books and courses on modern leadership qualities, where they speak about various virtues one should cultivate: patience rather than impatience, genuinity rather than superficiality, compassion rather than neglect and apathy for the sufferings and problems of others. One should be broad-minded rather than narrow- minded, detached rather than attached to the ego, self-content rather than prone to fall victim to temptations and to compromise. One should live with integrity and learn to forgive rather than hold grudges. One would have heard all these things. This is leadership.
However, unless one builds a strong and real foundation to build these values upon, one will not be able to withstand the temptations and the pressures of this world. We see all around us how people in elite positions, who could really have led the world in such incredible ways, have ruined their lives by just giving in to temptations. One little temptation and one’s career, reputation and life is all ruined. There is a saying, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” And the fact is, when one gets a position where one is affluent, the more people there are who want to destroy that person. Whether you are an industrial, social or spiritual leader, the bigger you are, the more you will have people who will envy you.
So, the question we are asking now is how to develop the real foundation of our true qualities that make us a real leader. This is not something that you will learn in the academic textbooks. You may learn what some of the qualities are and you may memorize them and you may try to practice them and apply them in your life, and that is very good. But if you build a magnificent mansion on sand, it will stand for some time, but when the storm comes, it will all fall, because there is no real foundation. We should build our lives and qualities on a strong foundation: a foundation of real integrity, values and ethics based on truth. Then, no matter what comes in our life, we will not compromise. When the foundation of our values in life is in harmony with the laws of nature, we will live in harmony with our eternal nature.
When you become a leader, people open their hearts to trust you; they open their faith. In that state you can do the greatest benefit to those people’s lives, but you could also cause the greatest pain, anguish and devastation in those people’s lives. So leadership is not a post to enjoy If that is your idea, then you will be a very exploitative person and a very miserable leader. Leadership is a very serious, significant responsibility of service to others. A real leader is in a spirit of service. And, in order to be a proper leader in that way, one must have knowledge of what is actually right and what is actually wrong.
Now, how do we come to that point? Through spiritual practices, by which we experience and realize the truth, by which we have a philosophy, a science, to justify, to convince ourselves to carry on with patience rather than impatience, with compassion rather than apathy to other’s sufferings, with integrity rather than compromising for some temporary gain, with forgiveness rather than grudge.
摘自书籍《The Real You》（真正的你）
作者Radhanath Swami
