His Holiness the Dalai Lama, arguably the spiritual leader of the world, in his book, ‘Becoming Enlightened’ has expansively shared his views on what makes a person virtuous or non-virtuous.
Do read it in the context of the campaign that President-elect Donald Trump ran which catapulted him to becoming the world’s most powerful person!
His Holiness Dalai Lama, shares a selection of principles for being non-virtuous:
The 3 principles of the physically non-virtuous are:
• Killing,
• Stealing
• Sexual misconduct
The 4 principles of the verbally non-virtuous are:
• Lying
• Divisive talk
• Harsh speech
• Senseless chatter
3 principles of the mentally non-virtuous are:
• Wrong views
• Harmful intent
• Covetousness
Let us consider these in more detail:
Among the 3 principles of the physically non-virtuous, killing is weightier than stealing, which is weightier than sexual misconduct
Among the 4 principles of the verbally non-virtuous, lying is weightier than divisive talk, which is weightier than harsh speech, which is weightier than senseless chatter.
Among the 3 principles of the mentally non-virtuous, wrong views are weightier than harmful intent, which is weightier than covetousness.
In addition, many factors influence the weight of virtuous and non-virtuous actions:
• The intensity of your motivation
• Habituation over a long time
• Whether the action harms or helps people or groups that contribute to the society
• How keen you have been in regard to those throughout your life
When you evaluate the Donald Trump campaign, it would be evident that he embellished it with most of the traits which His Holiness Dalai Lama mentions as being non-virtuous.
Let me pick one aspect, which Donald Trump made an integral part of his campaign, divisive talk, and apply the principles enunciated by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
Divisive talk becomes weightier if we delight in it, encourage others to do it, perform the deed after much reflection and preparation!
Bottom Line:
1. In the long run, virtue will always win over non-virtue. This is true for leaders too – a virtuous leader will win over a non-virtuous leader, in the long run!
2. We should also practice being a virtuous person – though difficult and at a distance in the future, but it will pay a rich dividend!
In this series, Rajesh Srivastava, Business Strategist and Visiting Faculty at IIM Indore gives you a regular dose of strategy case studies to help you think and keep you one step ahead as a professional as compared to your peers. Rajesh is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and IIT Kanpur and has over 2 decades of experience in the FMCG industry. All previous
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