him if they set unreachable goals for themselves. It
would be like dreaming of going to the moon without
first creating the means for space travel.
It should not matter too much if the group has to
make detours or whether they get delayed in the
brambles of these byways. Such detours are quite
often not without benefits in the long run. The most
important thing is not to lose sight of the ray of light
that marks the beginning of the eternal spheres on
high, thus of the beacon mentioned earlier. This ray
will always give direction even when we are temporar-
ily delayed or diverted. Nor must it faze the leader if a
particular path proves too difficult, or the resistance
too great. He should then immediately look for other
ways to move forward, even temporarily give up
ground and regroup, if there is no other way. It is the
war that he must not lose, the war against the
Darkness! It is the eternal goal that he must reach
even if he misses some of the smaller goals that he set
for himself and his group along the way.B
ut what of the other kind of leader? The Hitlers,
Mao-tse Tungs, Genghis Khans, the street bullies
and all the others. The pattern, like a sine curve, is
always the same: They rise, stay on top for a short
period and then fall again, leaving their nation,
community or group all worse off after their demise.
They are revered, idolised, envied and hated in equal
measure during their time at the top, only to be quickly
consigned to oblivion after their fall. Of course, some
of them will never be forgotten, but for all the wrong
reasons. The history books are full of such people. The
little good they did was always overshadowed by their
arrogance, vanity and lust for power. For them, ruled
only by their intellect, ‘the end always justified the
means’, which included torture, false imprisonment
and murder. Because one always ‘reaps what one
sows’, the structures they erected, whether political or
social, were always bound to collapse, if not in their
lifetime, then certainly soon after their death.
Finally, let us always remember that not all leader-
ship is to be found in the large arenas of life. Not
everybody can be an Apostle Paul, a Peter, a Lincoln.
There has to be, and always will be, a great multitude
of men and women who lead in the everyday affairs of
a community; the faithful wife and mother, the man
whom everyone seeks out for advice and help, the
citizen who works quietly to raise the standard of
living of his fellow men, the artist who attempts to
depict the beauty of the higher spheres in his work,
the teacher who patiently moulds the minds of
children and adults. These are all leaders too. They all
direct the community effort in an upward direction.
Their unselfish deeds loom large in the Book of Life,
and their rewards will be bountiful. Pearl • August 2019 15ISTOCKAll that we are is the result of what we have thought:
it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our
thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil
thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the
foot of the ox that draws the carriage... If a man
speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness
follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.Buddhahim if they set unreachable goals for themselves. It
would be like dreaming of going to the moon without
first creating the means for space travel.
It should not matter too much if the group has to
make detours or whether they get delayed in the
brambles of these byways. Such detours are quite
often not without benefits in the long run. The most
important thing is not to lose sight of the ray of light
that marks the beginning of the eternal spheres on
high, thus of the beacon mentioned earlier. This ray
will always give direction even when we are temporar-
ily delayed or diverted. Nor must it faze the leader if a
particular path proves too difficult, or the resistance
too great. He should then immediately look for other
ways to move forward, even temporarily give up
ground and regroup, if there is no other way. It is the
war that he must not lose, the war against the
Darkness! It is the eternal goal that he must reach
even if he misses some of the smaller goals that he set
for himself and his group along the way.B
ut what of the other kind of leader? The Hitlers,
Mao-tse Tungs, Genghis Khans, the street bullies
and all the others. The pattern, like a sine curve, is
always the same: They rise, stay on top for a short
period and then fall again, leaving their nation,
community or group all worse off after their demise.
They are revered, idolised, envied and hated in equal
measure during their time at the top, only to be quickly
consigned to oblivion after their fall. Of course, some
of them will never be forgotten, but for all the wrong
reasons. The history books are full of such people. The
little good they did was always overshadowed by their
arrogance, vanity and lust for power. For them, ruled
only by their intellect, ‘the end always justified the
means’, which included torture, false imprisonment
and murder. Because one always ‘reaps what one
sows’, the structures they erected, whether political or
social, were always bound to collapse, if not in their
lifetime, then certainly soon after their death.
Finally, let us always remember that not all leader-
ship is to be found in the large arenas of life. Not
everybody can be an Apostle Paul, a Peter, a Lincoln.
There has to be, and always will be, a great multitude
of men and women who lead in the everyday affairs of
a community; the faithful wife and mother, the man
whom everyone seeks out for advice and help, the
citizen who works quietly to raise the standard of
living of his fellow men, the artist who attempts to
depict the beauty of the higher spheres in his work,
the teacher who patiently moulds the minds of
children and adults. These are all leaders too. They all
direct the community effort in an upward direction.
Their unselfish deeds loom large in the Book of Life,
and their rewards will be bountiful. Pearl • August 2019 15ISTOCKAll that we are is the result of what we have thought:
it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our
thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil
thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the
foot of the ox that draws the carriage... If a man
speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness
follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
Buddha