Wise Leadership Through Cultivating Life Force: Daoist Perspectives

• In Event: A Vital Life Force Approach to Reanimate Nature and to Build Equality and Respect Among All People

Abstract

Objectives or purposes

This presentation provides a Daoist perspective on leadership development drawn from two ancient Chinese texts: the Neiye (Inward training) and the Huainanzi. Two key themes are considered on how Daoists propose the self-cultivation of virtue and why and how this impacts leadership.

Perspective(s)

Contemporary Daoist contemplative practices can be traced to the Neiye (Kirkland, 2004) which parallels the Daodejing both dated to the mid-late 4th century BCE (Roth, 1999). The Huainanzi written in 139 BCE as a leadership manual for the emperor, states the most important preparation for leadership is the development of virtue through following the inner training regime proposed in the Neiye (Major, Queen, Meyer, & Roth, 2010). These texts will be considered for insight regarding contemporary leadership.
Daoists hold each person is given a unique inborn nature from the Dao which is situated in a constellation of emotions, heart-mind and tranquility. Life is determined by these elements, which in turn are bound by the nature of Qi (life energy). Humans are endowed at birth with Qi which is comprised of energy, information and matter necessary for life. This endowment of Qi determines one’s innate nature, which is vitally important in humans and plays an important role in self-cultivation.

According to Daoists, “That which gives life is the Dao” (Chan, 2010, p. 8). Because the essence of the Dao within each person is changeless pure, and inexhaustible, it is possible to return to the state of purity and limitlessness through cultivating tranquility. Through a process of returning to the uniqueness and particularity of who we truly are, that is, our Dao given genuine selves, we return to Dao, which encompasses the universe (Roth & Meyer, 2010). We become more ethical because we are guided by our authentic selves.
From a leadership perspective Daoist cultivation delivers particularly important outcomes: self-confidence, resistance to the temptation of profit, access to a higher level of knowledge, the ability to effectively influence others, and guidance from a higher power (the Way) (Roth, 1999).

Data, results and/or substantiated conclusions

We delve deeply into Neiye and the Huainanzi as our data sources. The Huainanzi advocated that the most important action a leader can take is to engage in self-cultivation utilizing the inner training practices of the Neiye and provides several insights in terms of ethics pedagogy for leaders: 1) The guide for ethical behaviour is one’s innate nature, the foundation out of which emotions arise, and which is unique to each individual; people can return to their innate nature by cultivating physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual tranquility. 2) Tranquility is not an escape from life. Rather, it is achieved in the presence of and in the full knowledge of the vagaries of life. The achievement of tranquility enables the return to one’s innate nature and the emergence of virtue in one’s life and also means realizing the Dao whereby one gains a broader understanding of and connection with the universe.

Authors

• Tom E. Culham, Simon Fraser University

• Neha Shivhare, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed University)