Cultivation of wisdom in the Theravada Buddhist tradition: Implications for contemporary leadership and organization

Abstract

What can be learned about wisdom from non-western and spiritual traditions, philosophies and related practices and what, furthermore, might be the implications for modes of organizing, leadership and organizational engagement? If one accepts a degree of universality within the human condition and the premise that aspects of leadership, organization and organizing are both transcultural and transhistorical, then it seems to me that a great deal can be learned from such non-western traditions and philosophies. In this chapter, I shall focus attention exclusively on the conception of wisdom and its practical cultivation as advanced within the Theravada school of Buddhism (Gombrich, 1988; Nārada, 1980). The latter is a branch of Buddhism, dominant in contemporary southeast Asia, whose genealogy can be traced, via its monastic order, directly back to Gotama Buddha some two-and-a-half millennia ago. It is also one of the many traditions hailing from the orient that, through processes of migration, has been taken up by practitioners in the west (Batchelor, 1994). Buddhism is of direct relevance to the theme of this book insofar as the cultivation of wisdom is, arguably, its principal raison d’être. My purpose is to outline the basic forms of wisdom embodied within the formal philosophical teachings of Theravada Buddhism and the course of training set out for those who wish to cultivate them (Nānamoli, 1979, 1984). I base my contribution on twenty-five years of study and training in Buddhist meditation, some of which time was spent as an ordained monk. This chapter thus combines my practical interest in Buddhism with my professional interest in organization and leadership studies.

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