I
In a world full of accomplished people, great thinking is widely found. This is one of the causes of great accomplishment – be it in music, art or science.
High quality thinking is good, but it is not enough. It needs to be combined with an extraordinary desire for the good of all. Only then will the futures you see be truly auspicious futures.
Put differently, auspicious futures will be created by men and women who combine an enormous desire for the good of the world (i.e., expansion of the heart) with an enormous capacity to grapple with and find solutions to the deeply complex challenges faced by society at large (i.e. deepening of the mind).
II
The challenge facing our leaders is developing this double capacity – expansion of heart and depth of intellect. Let us call them Future-creating Leaders.
A great intellect will find general solutions to particular problems (e.g. a scientist). A great heart will find particular solutions to general problems (e.g. a social activist), but these Future-creating Leaders seek to find general solutions to general problems. They seek, in short, to enable their fellowmen to find answers to their deepest human questions.
III
How to become such a Future-creating Leader?
This state is not to be learnt or understood, but is to be actualized – everyday. Through the warp and weft of one’s aspiration and action.
Future-creating Leaders steadily work up from the state of finding particular solutions to particular problems, to discovering and grappling with general problems needing general solutions. This is done through the warp and weft of living.
They gradually expand their consciousness through their commitment both – to their field of study and the greater good – until one day they break through into the state of true Future-creating Leadership where their commitment synthesizes into a single whole vision of life.