49 - Leadership

Free will is the hidden divine power in man, and it is his ignorance of his divine heritage that holds him back.

Those who have not recognized that the divine inheritance is in them are still like the machine. But there comes a time in the evolution of man where he becomes the engineer and works with the machine.

The purpose of life is like the horizon, the further one advances, the further it recedes.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Many people are disappointed or disenchanted in their lives because they have not found the purpose of their life, or have not achieved their projects. The consequence is self denigration which acts as a deterrent to any further strivings. Now these negatives vie together in reinforcing each other respectively in a vicious circle dragging one downhill.

If one still entertains a spark of positiveness, obviously one needs to break the vicious circle either by steering clear on a tangent: finding freedom in one's person; or tugging the circle into a spiral: the spiritual dimension.

1) The first step consists in getting very clear about one's motivation. To make it easier, since some have difficulty in being turned on by any motivation whatsoever, one might ask oneself: what would you like? or prefer ? Actually you may well find that this alters as you evolve and is based upon the values you ascribe to things.

2) This consideration is however linked with the second one which is: what am I good at? And if you don't think you're particularly good at anything, where amongst my many inadequacies am I a little more capable than in other respects? You might find that this tallies with what you wish (as under 1).

3) But if you are a dedicated person which is the type of person I am addressing, (because that is the hallmark of spirituality, and that is what I am about) then you will only feel good about your motivation if it is at the same time of service to others. This gregarious motivation is founded upon a deep feeling: really caring for others.

4) It is by aligning the three above mentioned considerations that you develop the makings of a leader.

5) Many people out there entertain wishes, even motivations in resonance with yours, but these remain in the never-never realm of wishful thinking, or the legendary 'maana'. So to gear the leader in making potentialities of your being into realness, that is if you answer the call of the Seraphim by "send me" then you will have to make those people's dreams which are also your dreams come true.

6) It is an incongruous observation that most people do not like to take responsibility; and a sardonic observation that people paradoxically both want to be told what to do and do not want to be told what to do. So much for the rational mind! But if you embody their aspirations and prove yourself that they can be materialized, then they will gain enough confidence in you to trust your judgement.

7) This means that you have to go out on a limb and make it happen; which entails that you have to work out every detail and program the steps leading to the target set for accomplishment, watch for the pitfalls, bear in mind the security measures to protect the project and the people involved, guard people's pride because you can destroy their psyche by dealing unfairly with them or undermining their self esteem. On the other hand if you give in to a person because they are more pushy, you might jeopardize the project that so many have been looking forward to or have invested their energy into.

8) This is where both your insight and your mastery are at stake, and what is more, you are being tested in your love. If you trip over, just one mistake, and they not only loose confidence in you but you have blown all their hopes in themselves.

9) There are good reasons why people procrastinate or demure at going out on a limb, and that is caution regarding their judgement (or that of another). This is generally based upon past failures due to faulty judgement. Also it is so difficult to foresee the consequences of a move. The success of the chess-player is in his/her ability to envision the consequences of a large number of moves ahead, and those consequences of all the alternatives which nears a cipher somewhat of the nature of a logarithmic exponential progression coasting on infinity. The other reason is of course sheer laziness, lethargy, timorousness and of course a lack of self-confidence which is grounded on poor self esteem.

10) This is where one needs to cast an in-depth look at human judgement, and where the things I have been saying lately about the limitation and therefore unreliability of judgement based upon our fallacious interpretations of situations prove to be relevant. Our opinion cannot but be limited by our personal vantage point which is just one vantage point in an infinity; moreover a further limitation is our middle range thinking. And this is where complementing one's point of view with the hunch of intuition proves to be the hall-mark of the successful leader. Note: this means reconciling these two poles of the antinomy of cognizance - not simply dismissing one's personal assessment either. And this is where complementing one's point of view with the hunch of intuition proves to be the hall-mark of the successful leader. Note: this means reconciling these two poles of the antinomy of cognizance - not simply dismissing one's personal assessment either.

11) But how do I develop intuition? And how do I gauge if it is reliable? No doubt learning how to turn within will shift consciousness into the intuitive mode. However one cannot integrate the 'input processing' type of judgement with the intuitive mode if one dismisses totally the judgmental.

Consequently, rather than 'placing a sentinel at the doors' just of perception one places a sentinel at the doors of perception and the doors of the speculative mind; one grasps the issues behind the situations or facts as one turns within. However admittedly the intuitive mode is in stark contrast to the speculative one in that one does not set oneself up as the subject passing judgement on an object, but one tunes oneself to a state of resonance, which means that one discovers in oneself that which one was experiencing as other than oneself.

12) How does one know if one's intuition rings true? By one's scruple about truthfulness, one develops a sense of authenticity about one's own inner sub-liminal feelings and promptings.

13) One might rightly ask: where is the spirituality in all of this? Yes the spiritual dimension requires of one a whole other quantum leap. It allies divine insight with divine power.

14) We started with looking at things from a very personal view point. Now if we wish to crown our actions with this infinite dimension offered us as our divine heirloom (but hardly ever availed of), we will need to have the courage to make a complete about turn of our vantage point and look at things as they would appear from the cosmic vantage point.

15) One may well query: but how do you know you are not fooling yourself? How do you know it is the divine vantage point? The answer is that we are programmed with a built-in sense of infinity, otherwise we could not envision infinity in numbers or space or eternity in time. This intuitive inherent knowledge is evidenced in our ability to envision that there can always be a larger number than any number that we conceive etc. But to transpose our consciousness into the infinity of consciousness is a tour de force that few, mainly the mystics, sometimes the scientists achieve. A clue to our ability to do so may be found in our ability to transpose our consciousness in that of another human or animal or plant or even mineral or angel and by analogy in infinite regress: God.

16) The same applies to power, discovering the divine heritage that is the infinity of potentialities invested in one's being. To all intents and purposes it looks as though there were some magic in this: the dervish reaches a point where what he / she wishes materializes.

17) Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan gives the clue to both when he says: if one's motivation is limited by personal interest, one's power to achieve it is limited by one's personal axe to grind. The same applies to understanding: one's personal motivation sets up constraints on one's insight and hence one's sagacity. Where the motivation is totally disinterested, both one's insight and the power one yields are limitless, overwhelming, magical, and inspiring. Albeit we must be clear that what we mean by being disinterested does not mean indifference, but espousing the aspirations of others and indeed of the nostalgia moving the universe; which means not just caring for others (3), but caring for others more than oneself.

18) At this stage the leader is a catalyst, inspiring and emboldening people to follow their bliss and actualize their incentive for the fulfillment of their purpose in the context of the overall purpose of life, which like the horizon "recedes as one advances".
