We live inside a paradox. The modern world has gifted us more convenience than any era before. Food arrives with a tap. Conversations happen across continents in seconds. Knowledge, once preserved in monasteries and libraries, now rests in our pockets. It should feel like liberation. Instead, many of you, leaders not the least – tell me they feel trapped—by stress, distraction, and the smallest of obstacles.
The truth is that convenience has not freed us. It has made us fragile. And in the absence of real challenge, we often manufacture friction to fill the void. This is where Vajrayana Buddhism offers a different lens: what if the obstacles we avoid are the very raw material of leadership and transformation?
The Trap of Endless Comfort
Convenience is not the enemy. In Buddhist practice, we deliberately simplify our lives so that we can pay attention to what matters most. A meditation cushion is a convenience compared to the bare ground. A text handed down from a teacher is a convenience compared to figuring it out alone.
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But there is a tipping point. Too much comfort dulls our edge. The mind, unchallenged, becomes impatient and brittle. The smallest disruption—a delayed email, a misinterpreted comment, a system glitch—sparks outsized frustration. In organizations, I see this ripple outward: teams get frustrated not because the problem is catastrophic, but because their capacity to work with discomfort has been quietly ruined.
This is not weakness. It is habit. We have trained ourselves to expect ease, and so we are startled by friction, like a bird flying into a clear glass window.
Turning Poison into Medicine
Vajrayana Buddhism teaches a radical view: nothing is wasted. Even the poisons—anger, fear, doubt—can be transmuted into clear wisdom. Obstacles are not interruptions on the path. They are the path.
This principle is vital for leadership. A leader who embodies this way of seeing does not try to eliminate all difficulty from the workplace. That is neither possible nor desirable. Instead, they show how to meet resistance with awareness and clarity. Friction is not denied or smoothed over. It is acknowledged, worked with, and ultimately transformed.
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Think of it as alchemy of the mind. The raw heat of frustration can be refined into the clarity of problem-solving. The heaviness of fear can be reshaped into the solidity of courage. The restless energy of doubt can be redirected into inquiry and innovation.
But this does not happen automatically. It requires training, discipline, and what I call Wise Inner Leadership—the capacity to lead oneself before attempting to lead others.
Leaders and the Myth of Seamlessness
Modern leadership often obsesses over efficiency, productivity, and seamlessness. But seamlessness is an illusion. Life is inherently uneven, unpredictable, sometimes sharp-edged. Leaders who try to create perfectly smooth systems end up with brittle cultures: one unexpected challenge, and everything splinters.
Vajrayana leadership is different. It does not ask: “How do we remove all friction?” It asks: “How do we relate to friction when it inevitably arises?” This shift changes everything. Instead of reacting with blame, acting out or avoidance, leaders can cultivate resilience in themselves and their teams. They can normalize discomfort as part of growth, not as a failure.
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Convenience has its place—it clears unnecessary noise so that our attention is free. But when convenience becomes the goal itself, it weakens the very capacities leaders need most: patience, resilience, and the courage to transform the unknown.
Choosing the Path of Wise Inner Leadership
So here is the invitation. Do not allow convenience to dull you. Use it wisely, but do not let it define you either. Welcome friction not as punishment, but as training. In organizations, this might mean creating spaces where challenges are named openly, where teams are guided not to panic but to pause, reflect, and transform.
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This is the work of Wise Inner Leadership. It is the core of my guidance program for leaders—and very soon, I will open an exclusive try-it-out for a limited group of leaders, for a limited time. If you feel called to explore how Vajrayana wisdom can strengthen your leadership, you will find more details here: The Inner Wisdom Program. Guided in Swedish or English.
Convenience can smooth the surface of life, but it is clear presence that gives us sustainability. Presence that meets difficulty without shrinking and without lashing out. Presence that can hold an organization steady when everything around it shifts. This is the leadership our times are asking for: awake, resilient, and unafraid.
Your guide to integrating the Dharma into your everyday life,
Lama Chimey
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Lama Chimey 