Leader In Harmony

Following the completion of the regional head elections, nature gives clear signs to human beings. In Bali in particular, the peak of Mount Agung was burned by an eruption, the Benua beach was burned by a fire. To be honest, nature is neutral. It is in the human mind that the signs of nature become negative or positive. And it will be destructive or constructive, depending on how humans react later. The world food board met in Geneva in 1974, at that time the only country whose population had been above 1 billion was China. For that reason, the world food committee forecasted, China will find it very difficult to feed their population. But what happen by the year 2018, China is a well-respected global economic power.

In short, prophecies and natural signs do not bring negative or positive energy in themselves. It is the action of people that make it negative or positive. Borrowing the discovery of a very intelligent historian Prof. Yuval Noah Harari in his beautiful book “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow”, economic growth everywhere is very fast. Even the fastest in the historical records. It is so fast, until no one can slow it down. In one of the sub-chapters, Prof. Harari even gave the title: “Can anyone push the brakes?”. The answer is very touching. First, no one can hit the brake. Second, no one knows where the brake is.

Like a fast train that keeps moving, if the brake is hit all of a sudden, it will create chaos. Consequently, the ecological impact of such rapid economic growth will be enormous. The spiritual impact is even worse. The signs here and there are already visible. However, one factor that is often overlooked by the forecasters of the future, including Prof. Harari, is human creativity. It is human creativity that makes horrific predictions of statistician Robert Malthus do not come true. It is human creativity that made the prediction of the world food council in 1974 which did not come true.

The homework which is waiting then, is how to invite new generations to grow more creatively. Depending less on the old formulas coming from a very distant past. In the spiritual world in particular, there are many friends who are very rigid with the sacred book. There are of course positive sides. But it makes the new generation far from being creative. Some holy book lovers even use holy books to kill others. Again the root of the problem is a narrow and shallow mind which is far from being creative.

It is at this point that we need spiritual figures who dare to enter the “spiritual creativity” area. The holy books of course remain an important reference, but the sensitivity to read the signs of changing nature is equally important. To be honest, the biorhythms of nature change everywhere. After the first world war, milk became a highly recommended human diet product. Now a lot of medical doctors and health observers are against milk. The spiritual question then, what direction to follow?

It is difficult to deny, the most feared forces of the world in 2018 are terrorists. Again quoting Prof. Harari’s opinion, the terrorist is similar to a fly that wants to destroy a store. Because the fly can not lift even a tiny cup, it goes into a big bull’s ear to make the bull rage and ruin the store. That’s what happened in the world in the early 2000s. There was no power at that time in the Middle East which could topple Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi president. For that reason, the terrorists enter the big bulls ear called the United States. What happened then, not only did Saddam Hussein fall but the angry bulls caused much greater damage.

Thus, what makes the terrorists occupy the world’s headlines is not their attacks, but the over reaction of a few leaders. It is like killing a mosquito using a bomb. The mosquito is dead, but the surrounding environment is damaged or destroyed. The inventor of the bomb made the explosives bomb only to help the government destroy the rock-filled hills. In order to build roads and other infrastructure. It was unimaginable for them, that their created bombs will be used to destroy a lot of human lives. The same thing is happening now, researchers who researched artificial intelligence and genetic engineering they might not imagine, if their findings can be used by terrorists to make a troop of destroyers with a much greater destructive power.

Learning from this lesson, it is very important to invite the new and incoming leaders especially, to learn to be calm in the midst of crisis shocks. This is where the starting point of spiritual creativity should begin. In the world of leadership it is often shared, once a leader can calmly balance, then a lot of chaos can be avoided. One of the world’s most remarkable leaders is Mahatma Gandhi. When millions of his followers were ready to go down a demonstration against the British invaders on salt policy, Gandhiji even sat quietly in balance in meditation position. As soon as he lost all the anger and grudge that burned, then he came down to lead the demonstration. The result has been recorded in history as one of the world’s greatest army forces was successfully expelled from India. Nelson Mandela is the second example. Though he was being imprisoned for 27 years by his political opponent, when he ruled, he invited the South Africans to forgive his enemies.

Behind the perfectly calm leaders, of course there is a spiritual secret, namely self mastery which is very impressive. In the story of Mahatma Gandhi, meditation (pranayama) was his close companions. Behind Nelson Mandela’s tranquility is hidden sincerity and honest devotion. Of course it is very difficult to find such calm leaders in this day and age. But the younger generation can prepare themselves as early as possible.

Pursuing higher education is of course important, having a wide network is also important. But above all, train yourself from the beginning to have an amazing self mastery. On the path of meditation, there is a suggestion to always witness in the middle. Anytime sad-glad, bad-good, false-true, remind yourself to smile witnessing in the middle. There is also a higher path called nirvikalpa samadhi. Not sitting in the third position in the middle, but sitting in the fourth position. Even the middle road should be witnessed. Speaking is easy, but putting it together in practise is not easy. It takes decades, and persistence to keep practicing, despite being disturbed by the trials and shocks. That is why the Compassion spiritual family has trained meditation to thousands of teenagers and kindergarten children in Bali in particular, to open the door to the birth of a “Leader in harmony” one day.

Author: Guruji Gede Prama.
Photo: Pinterest.
Proofread By: Kirsty Spence.