being A LEADERThesituation of the world is crazy. Many of the governments are notbased on spiritual understanding, but based on power and politicalmotivation. This is what brings the world into trouble. If allthe governments' people tried to practice enlightenment, moretrue enlightenment, not just verbal prayer and traditional rituals,then I think we'd have a better world. Yeah? We'd have bettergovernments. I think in the future they will do. We pray thatthey do.
..... Allwars come from ignorance. If we are ignorant, we don't know howto stop hatred, we don't know how to stop aggression and possessiveness.The higher the position we're in, the more danger we may causefor humanity; so first, you'd better be enlightened, and thenserve the world with greater understanding.
..... Peoplein high positions in particular, should care more about theirqualities. As an official, one should be honest and upright. Agovernment servant must work diligently for the nation, sacrificefor the well-being of her people.
..... Rulingthe country and pacifying the world are exactly the same as pursuingspiritual practice to save sentient beings. There is no difference.The ways are the same, the strategies are the same, and the spiritof serving others is the same.
..... Ifyou go to take a look in hell, you will see that it is full ofleaders of the world. It is horrible; just that they do not knowthis! It is because one person influences so many people, andin turn the whole world. If he leads people astray, of coursehe will incur an incredible amount of karma. So, if we are ordinarypeople, before we become very advanced in our spiritual practice,when we do not have wisdom or many talents, we still have a chanceto be saved, a chance to attain eternal liberation. If we do nothave any talents, morality, love and wisdom, and we climb up toa very high position and be one of those important persons, thenwe are finished! (Laughter) It is really very dangerous. Do youunderstand? Our karma will increase thousands of millions of times.
For us small people, how many people can weinfluence? The most we can influence is our children. We can onlyset a bad example for our children, or the wife or husband. Isthat not so? And there are also friends and relatives, if theylisten to what we say. Therefore, we do not have a big influence.If we were big people, of course our influence would be incredible.We would also attract the kind of negative and low level forcethat is similar to ours, making the whole world even more negative,more shaky, heading further toward that direction, and consequentlyincreasing the negative force even more. The karma would becomeheavier. That is why hell is full of kings. It's terrible, veryterrible!
..... Whyis our world in such a mess? So full of misery and war? It's becausethe so-called leaders do not discipline themselves. They do notcompletely become empty. While they are serving, they still wantothers to know and to have results. They want appreciation andrewards. They want recognition, therefore, they struggle for fameand profit and forget to serve. They are too busy grabbing fameand profit, then they are overcome by greed, hatred and ignorance.Their hatred and contending attitudes become dominant and theycan not do the right things.
There is a Chinese saying, "Disciplineoneself, take care of the family, govern the nation, and thenpacify the world." He has no problem governing nations nomatter how much money you pay him or how many things you givehim he will still serve others because he needs nothing! A personlike that can truly govern the nation. If he still wants to govern,it is not good. When he has no desire to govern, then he can governwell. He does it naturally. If he is called upon to govern, hecan govern. He does what he can do. He does when there is a need.He doesn't mind what kind of work. Whatever he does is to serveothers. Whenever there is a need, he does it, whether it's sweepingthe floor, mixing cement, laying bricks, or being a king. If onecan achieve this level of doing for the sake of other's needs,not because of any personal intentions, then he can govern anynumber of nations, no problem. If one hasn't reached that level,he can not even govern himself, not to mention letting him governa nation or pacify the world. Many people are eager to governa nation or to pacify the world without first examining theirinner attributes and abilities; such people can mess up this world.
