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.Paul also used the very unity that Romehad imposed on its subjugated peoples (its good roads, law, and even its language) for hismovement s benefit.Paul s leadership is evident in terms of the travails he was willing toundergo on behalf of his mission.Paul faced everything from hostile crowds to wild animalsin his sometimes dangerous travels (he even had to face the wrath of statue makers of pagandeities who feared their business would decline if the new Christian religion spread).Indeed,his later execution in Rome itself showed that he was willing to die for his cause and thusallowed him to maintain his leadership effect on posterity even beyond the grave as a holymartyr.Paul was that rare leader who was able to develop a radical message, spread it against allodds, and lay the seeds for a reversal of hierarchies in which the previously radical messagebecame the new foundational authority.His fundamental leadership message can be seenin his statement that: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, thereis neither male nor female; for you are all one in Jesus Christ. Paul s visionary belief andhis organizational ability were useful attributes for a leader who aspired to guide a youngand marginal religion to the very center of world history.His organizational skills are alsoapparent in many of the epistles or letters he wrote to Christian communities throughoutthe empire.His letters give advice and guidance to these communities on topics rangingfrom proper sexual conduct to rarefied theological matters.Above all, his emphasis on whathumans shared despite all their differences in the deeply hierarchical and polytheistic culture GGBD161C02 GR4818/Polelle Top Margin: 5/8in Gutter Margin: OctoberReligious Leadership 63of Rome was a revolutionary act of the first order.That he was ultimately successful inturning the revolutionary into the familiar is a testament to his leadership of the early church.FURTHER READINGDunn, James D.G., Ed.The Cambridge Companion to St.Paul.Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2003.BUDDHA: LEADING THE SELF TO SERENITYSiddhartha Gautama or Buddha (Sanskrit for the Enlightened One ; ca.480 400 BC ) ledhis followers with a starkly original vision of how mankind could best deal with the perennialissues of suffering and death.Whereas other prophets and spiritual athletes had traditionallyargued for the need to believe in the latest one true God or to practice some impossibly difficultform of asceticism, Buddha ingeniously argued for a middle path toward Enlightenment and thealleviation of existential doubt.The originality and plausibility of the Buddha s vision coupledwith his own ability to live up to his self-professed ethic continues to attract more and morefollowers even in the present age.The Buddha led by providing his followers the tools by whichthey could take decisive leadership of their own lives.No higher accolade can be given to a greatleader.Buddhism is now a thriving world religion with at least 300 million adherents.WhileIslam and Hinduism eventually drove Buddhism out of India, it expanded into much of Asiaand more recently the western world.Before the arrival of Buddha on the historical stage, India was dominated by the Hindureligion brought to the subcontinent by Aryan invaders.Buddha was born in what is todaynortheastern India (the area of Nepal).This area was divided up into petty states that foughtone another time and again.India was marked by Hindu orthodoxy.Unfortunately, as withConfucius, we largely know of Buddha s life largely through myth-history.Details surround-ing his life are obscure and we are not even sure of his birth and death dates.Tradition statesthat he was born to a family of warrior caste background.Stories about the Buddha indicateWorshipping at the shrine of the great Diabutsu, Kamakura, Japan.[Courtesy Libraryof Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-118350] GBD161C02 GR4818/Polelle Top Margin: 5/8in Gutter Margin: October 9, 200764 Leadershipthat to understand his biography, you must understand his past lives as well.Buddha in thisaccount is someone who finally reached nirvana or freedom from continual rebirth andthe pains of mortal existence when he gained final insight into the mysteries of sufferingand death.Buddha was the son of a king.He was said to be so precocious as a child that hecould walk and talk right after his birth.As the son of a king, he led a pampered exis-tence for twenty-nine years.His father shielded him from any sights of death, old age,and suffering.In his twenty-ninth year, he asked to tour the capital city.Before this trip,people who showed any signs of age or suffering were removed from the streets.Oneman who knew the facts of life still managed to stay in the city, however, and provokedBuddha to question the actual reality he was living in.His curiosity grew and he contin-ued making more trips around the kingdom in order to explore the wild variety of life,joy, and pain surrounding him.Finally, Buddha was moved to retreat to the forest wherehe could meditate about the meaning of all the shocking things he had recently discov-ered.The father desperately wanted Buddha to stay and become his heir.He promisedhis son anything if his wish were obeyed.Buddha then asked whether his father couldpromise him eternal life without pain or misfortune.The father could make no suchpromise, so his son began the momentous next stage of his life as an itinerant searcher ofwisdom.Buddha was now reduced to the life of an ascetic beggar.He determined to remain inthis condition until he achieved true enlightenment.After long years of intense asceticism,Buddha came to the conclusion that mere self-abnegating behavior was not enough.At thiscrucial phase of his life, he decided to situate himself under a tree and not move until hehad achieved his goal of self-awakening.Tradition says that at this time he was tempted bymalevolent forces trying to lead him astray from his search (a common trope in the originstory of heroes and great leaders).But he persevered until he grasped what became laterknown as the four fundamental truths.The undeniable and irreducible facts of life werethese: the generality of suffering, the ignorance that led to suffering, the knowledge thatsuch suffering could be conquered, and the possibility that following the Buddha s eightfoldpath could lead to an end to all suffering.Buddha came to the conclusion that this eightfoldpath must consist of the following: (1) the need for a right outlook on life (the idea thatthe self and ego are illusions); (2) the intent to focus on the true nature of the problem ofsuffering; (3) the need for right speech; (4) the need for right conduct; (5) the need for rightlivelihood; (6) the need for right awareness; (7) the need for right effort; and (8) the needfor right concentration.With such powerful ideas, the Buddha was soon surrounded by fellow searchers for en-lightenment.This community of monks came to be called the sangha.Women were em-powered by the new ideas of the Buddha as well by becoming Buddhist nuns
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