Lead calmly and ethically: ten virtues, seven conditions and a check for every hard message
The ten royal virtues, the seven conditions of a thriving community, right speech and Ashoka's edicts, turned into a morning practice, a team-health check, a conflict reset and a 12-week programme. Philosophy for leaders, not religious instruction.
- A 10-chapter e-book with 40 verbatim quotations from public-domain translations (1881 to 1909) and Bodhih's own plain-words renderings
- The Ten Virtues and Seven Conditions workbook: a self and 360 virtue profile, a monthly team-health check with trend, and an anger and conflict log
- A 9-sheet practice workbook, 5 fillable forms and 7 Word files, including 40 scripts, 52 team emails and 26 AI prompts
- A 52-card practice deck, a Start Here map, a 55-event calendar and a 33-task board import
The Buddhist Leader · Bodhih Pro Kits · 156 by Bodhih Training, trainers to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
What are Buddhist leadership principles?
Early Buddhist texts offer leaders ten royal virtues (generosity, integrity, putting the team first, straight dealing, self-discipline, calm, gentleness, doing no harm, not blocking what is right and patience), seven conditions under which a community thrives, and a discipline of right speech. Bodhih Training's The Buddhist Leader kit turns them into daily practices and tools.
Want the full free guide first? Read Buddhist Leadership Principles: A Practical Guide for Managers.
You already feel the problem. Here is what it is costing you.
Calm until you are not
Most days you are steady. Then a release slips, a client complains to your CEO, and the message you nearly send at 21:40 would cost you a week of trust.
Hard news, said badly
Corporate scripts hide the truth; your own drafts are honest but sharp. Either way, people hear less than you meant and remember the tone.
A team weakening slowly
Remote sites stop speaking in meetings, decisions are quietly undone, newcomers leave in their first month. Nothing is badly wrong, and nobody is checking.
Good ideas that stall
Proposals wait on your desk for 'more detail'. You never said no, but people have stopped bringing ideas.
Permanent crisis mode
Every month is a push. Sick days rise, experienced people leave, and the pace that was meant to be temporary has become normal.
Ancient wisdom as posters
Quotes on slides rarely change behaviour, and many popular 'Buddha quotes' are not in the texts at all. Without a routine, a log and team tools, the ideas stay on the wall.
Picture the next few weeks with the kit open beside you.
Picture tomorrow at 07:30. Before you open any app you take three slow breaths, look at the day, and choose one virtue for the moment most likely to test you: patience for the review, straight dealing for the bonus decision. Three minutes, and the day already has a direction.
Now it is late on a hard day and a sharp reply is half-typed. Instead of sending it, you run the five checks: true, kind, open, useful, calm. As you save the draft and rewrite it in the morning, you notice the reply that comes back is a fix, not a defence.
Imagine the last Friday of the month. Your team has scored the seven conditions anonymously, and the lowest is plain to see: the remote site feels left out of meetings. You rotate the chair, ask them to speak first, and watch the score move.
And picture week twelve. You open both dashboards: your calm rating by week, the virtue you used to break most often, the profile your colleagues gave you then and now, the seven conditions trending up. Whether you begin with the e-book tonight or the first card tomorrow, the practice is already in your calendar.
22 files that do the work for you
The e-book shows you how. The tools make it happen. Here is exactly what you download.
The Buddhist Leader (e-book, PDF)
The guide: methods, worked examples, scripts and exercises
Start here map
The daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly rhythm on one page, which file to open for each leadership moment, your first hour and a 30/60/90 day use plan.
Buddhist Leader Practice Workbook
Nine-sheet master workbook: settings, 26-principle library, daily practice log with streak counter, weekly review, situations log, monthly team pulse, 12-week programme tracker and a dashboard with a weekly calm-rating chart.
Ten Virtues and Seven Conditions workbook
The kit's signature diagnostic: a ten-virtue self and 360 profile that marks blind spots and hidden strengths, a monthly seven-conditions team-health check with trend and alerts, an anger and conflict log with the response used, and a dashboard.
Morning intention and evening ten-virtue tick
Two fillable pages, a week per page: the three-minute morning intention (attention pause, the day's hardest moment, one virtue for it) and the two-minute evening tick of all ten virtues with a calm rating.
Right speech check before a hard message
Two fillable pages to run before any difficult email, chat message, announcement or conversation: the five checks (true, kind, open, useful, calm), a rewrite space, and a page for owning a rash word and receiving correction.
Seven conditions team check
Three fillable pages: score your team on the seven conditions of a thriving community with evidence, agree actions on the weakest, and run the protection walk for the people most exposed.
Cooling anger: a conflict reset sheet
Two fillable pages for the moment anger rises or just after a flare-up: notice, pause, separate the problem from the story, name what is needed, choose a response, then plan the repair and log what you learned.
Ashoka review: what I changed after a mistake
Two fillable pages for a thirty-minute review after a significant leadership mistake: what happened and who bore the harm, your part, the regret, the change, who you will tell first, and how you will know the change has held.
Leadership scripts and messages
40 exact-words scripts and messages for starting the practice, integrity under pressure, fair decisions, anger and conflict, hard news, team meetings and newcomers, pace, ethical risks and owning mistakes, each with when to use it and what to do next.
Team workshop facilitator guide
Facilitator guide for a 90-minute session and a half-day workshop on the seven conditions, right speech and the ten virtues: timed agendas, slide outline, exercises, debrief questions and follow-up.
Team leadership code: one-page charter
One-page team charter to adopt in a workshop: how we meet and decide, how we speak, how we handle anger and conflict, how we protect people and welcome newcomers, our pace, and the lines we will not cross.
Edicts for your team: public commitments from a leader
A template for three to five short, public commitments from a leader to their team, inspired by Ashoka's edicts: how to write them, 12 example edicts in six groups, a posting page and a quarterly review table.
Principle of the week: 52 team emails
52 short team emails or chat posts (one per card), each with a subject line, one principle, one question and one action, ready to send every Monday.
AI prompt pack for calm, ethical leaders
26 tool-agnostic prompts grouped by leadership moment, each with what to paste in and what to check before using the output.
Worked example pack: Yasmin's 12 weeks
The kit's main forms completely filled in for one composite leader: a week of morning intentions and evening ticks, the ten-virtue profile, a right-speech check, a conflict reset, a seven-conditions check with actions, an Ashoka review, her edicts and her week-12 dashboard.
All principles on one page, and about the source
The ten royal virtues with the translators' words, the seven conditions as team-health questions, the kit's four methods in a line each, and a card on the texts, translations, dates and how to read them.
Situation finder decision card
If this happens, use this: 17 leadership moments with the principle, the file to open and the first move, plus the four-virtue decision check.
Misreadings and mistakes card
9 harmful misreadings (calm as passivity, detachment as not caring, patience as tolerating abuse and more), ten practice mistakes and a Friday self-check.
Practice card deck: 52 principles
52 printable practice cards in four suits, one principle per card with a verbatim line from the 1881 to 1909 translations or an In plain words line, a question and a one-line action, plus a how-to page.
12-week programme calendar
55 calendar events: set-up, a Monday card-and-chapter reminder, each programme action and a Friday seven-conditions check for all 12 weeks, with monthly pulses in weeks 4, 8 and 12, each naming the file to open.
12-week programme task board import
33 programme actions as a CSV for Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira, with week, focus, file to open and due date.
Chapter by chapter
Each chapter opens with a real situation, gives you a method and ends with something to do today, using the tools in your kit.
- Format
- PDF e-book + XLSX + fillable PDF + DOCX + printable PDF + ICS + CSV
- Files
- 22 files plus a one-click ZIP
- E-book
- 67 pages
- Workbooks
- 9 and 7 sheets with sample data, formulas and dashboards
- Works with
- Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Word, Google Docs, Acrobat Reader, GoodNotes, Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner, Jira
- Best for
- Managers and leaders who want to lead calmly and ethically and build a healthy team
A Calm Way to Lead
A message nearly sent at 21:40, the four public-domain sources, philosophy not religion, and the daily engine that runs the kit.
The Ten Royal Virtues as a Leader's Profile
The Jataka's ten royal virtues as a leader's profile, with a self and 360 rating that shows blind spots and hidden strengths.
Self-Mastery First
Leading yourself first: the three-breath attention pause, the morning intention, the evening ten-virtue tick and the Friday look-back.
Generosity, Integrity and Putting the Team First
Integrity lines written before the pressure comes, generosity as credit and context, and team before self without martyrdom.
Straight Dealing, Self-Discipline, Gentleness and Not Blocking What Is Right
Straight dealing, self-discipline, gentleness and the virtue most leaders miss: not blocking what is right.
Calm, Patience and Doing No Harm: Cooling Anger and Conflict
The six-step conflict reset, why hostility answered with hostility never ends, and patience that is not tolerance of abuse.
Right Speech: The Check Before a Hard Message
The five-point check before any hard message: true, kind, open, useful and calm, plus owning rash words.
The Seven Conditions of a Thriving Team
The seven conditions of a thriving community as a monthly team-health check, starting with meeting in full and acting in concord.
Protecting People, Shared Places and Those Who Serve
Protecting the people most exposed, caring for shared places and welcoming newcomers, read with respect for the text.
The Middle Path and Right Livelihood
A pace the team could keep for a year, and a livelihood check on who your work could hurt.
Ashoka: Changing After a Mistake and Leading in Public
Ashoka's public regret after the Kalinga war as a model for owning mistakes, and edicts for your team.
The Twelve Weeks and After
How the twelve weeks run, what to do when you miss days, and how to keep going after week 12.
Reading the Sources Responsibly
Philosophy not religion, the passages we do not use, historical caution, HR boundaries and when to get support.
How to Read the Old Translations
How to read Müller, Rhys Davids, the Cowell Jataka and Smith's Asoka.
Not just reading. Tools you will actually open again.
E-book
- The Buddhist Leader: 10 chapters, introduction, conclusion, 2 appendices and 6 hand-drawn figures, about 10,500 words (PDF)
Start here
- 00-Start-Here-Map: the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly rhythm, which file to open for each leadership moment, your first hour and a 30/60/90 day plan
Spreadsheets
- Buddhist Leader Practice Workbook (9 sheets): Start here, Settings, Principles library of 26, Daily Log with streak counter, Weekly Review, Situations Log, Team Pulse, Programme Tracker and a Dashboard with a weekly calm chart
- Ten Virtues and Seven Conditions (7 sheets): a self and 360 virtue profile with blind spots and hidden strengths, a monthly seven-conditions team check with trend and alerts, an anger and conflict log, and a dashboard
Fillable PDF forms
- Morning intention and evening ten-virtue tick: a week per page
- Right speech check before a hard message
- Seven conditions team check, with the protection walk
- Cooling anger: a conflict reset sheet
- Ashoka review: what I changed after a mistake
Word templates
- Leadership scripts and messages: 40 scripts
- Team workshop facilitator guide: 90-minute and half-day versions
- Team leadership code: one-page charter
- Edicts for your team: a template for public commitments, with 12 examples
- Principle of the week: 52 team emails
- AI prompt pack for calm, ethical leaders: 26 prompts
- Worked example pack: Yasmin's 12 weeks, the main forms filled in
Cheat sheets
- All principles on one page, and about the source: the texts, translations, dates and how to read them
- Situation finder decision card: if this happens, use this
- Misreadings and mistakes card
- Practice card deck: 52 cards in four suits plus a how-to page (14 printable pages)
Calendar and import
- 12-week programme calendar (ICS): 55 events for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar
- 12-week programme task board (CSV): 33 tasks for Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira
When you have worked through it, you will be able to…
Every outcome is practised with a worked example and a tool, not just described.
- Run a three-minute morning practice: an attention pause and one virtue for the day's hardest moment
- Rate yourself and ask colleagues on ten leadership virtues, and see your blind spots
- Check every hard message for truth, kindness, openness, usefulness and calm before it goes
- Cool anger and conflict with a six-step reset, and repair what a rash word damaged
- Score your team monthly on seven conditions of a thriving community and strengthen the weakest
- Protect the people most exposed and welcome newcomers so they stay
- Set a pace your team could keep for a year, and check who your work could hurt
- Own a serious mistake the way Ashoka's edicts model it, and post public commitments to your team
Know your starting point. Prove your progress.
People who measure before and after improve faster and can show it. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has AI-graded assessments that pair with this kit. Take one now, work through the kit, then re-take it.
A taste of Chapter 5
Tunde used the reset sheet two days late, but honestly. His anger had been 8. The fact was a missing reorder point; the story was that Femi was careless. In fact Femi had flagged the shortage in an email Tunde had not read. On Wednesday he took Femi aside: "On Monday I shouted at you in front of your crew. That was wrong, and I'm sorry. The seals still matter: can we agree a reorder point together and who checks it?" Femi suggested a minimum stock level and a Friday check. Tunde added a line to his own routine: read supervisors' supply emails before 08:00. His conflict log then showed three more flare-ups, all before 07:00 on the line. He began walking the line at 07:30, after his morning intention, and the next month's log had one entry.
The honest comparison
| Free templates and typical advice | This kit | |
|---|---|---|
| The ideas | Inspirational 'Buddha quotes', many not in the texts | 40 verbatim quotations from public-domain translations, each turned into a method with steps and a worked example |
| The source | Unattributed lines or modern copyrighted translations | Word for word from Müller (1881), Rhys Davids (1881), the Cowell Jataka (1895 to 1905) and Smith (1909), with citations |
| Character | "Be authentic" | A ten-virtue profile rated by you and by colleagues, with blind spots marked |
| The team | Annual engagement survey | A monthly seven-conditions check with trend, a protection walk and a team code |
| Hard moments | "Stay calm" | A five-point speech check, a conflict reset sheet and 40 scripts with exact words |
| Religion | Mindfulness or devotion mixed in | Philosophy and heritage only, respectful of every tradition; no meditation beyond three breaths |
| Cautions | Calm sold as the answer to everything | A 'What this does not mean' box in every chapter: calm is not passivity, patience is not tolerating abuse |
Made for you if…
- Managers and team leads who want to stay calm under pressure without going quiet on problems
- Founders and heads of function building healthy teams across sites and time zones
- HR and L&D leaders looking for a structured programme on ethical leadership, conflict and team health
- Leaders who must deliver hard news and want words that are true, kind and clear
- Senior professionals curious about Buddhist ethics who want a practical system rather than quotations
- Leaders of any faith or none: the kit treats the texts as philosophy and heritage, not religious instruction
Probably not for you if…
- Anyone looking for meditation instruction, devotional practice or religious teaching: there is none beyond a three-breath attention pause
- Readers wanting academic scholarship on Buddhist texts: the history is brief and the focus is practice
- Anyone looking for legal or HR advice on restructures, investigations or discipline: the kit teaches good practice and points you to HR and local law
Built by trainers, tested in real rooms.
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008. Bodhih Pro Kits package what works in those workshops into a guide plus the exact tools we use, so you can apply it the same day without a facilitator in the room.
From here to using it in three steps
- STEP 1
Tap Get the kit
Name, email and country. UPI, card or netbanking in India; international cards everywhere else. No account to create.
- STEP 2
Download instantly
Your download page opens at once, with every file and a one-click ZIP. A permanent link lands in your inbox too.
- STEP 3
Open the first tool
Start with the quick-start chapter, then the main spreadsheet or planner. Most buyers use something from the kit the same day.
Your next hard message is already in your drafts. Check it first.
Open the Start Here map, type your start date into the Settings sheet and rate yourself on the ten virtues. Whether you begin with the e-book tonight or three breaths and the first card tomorrow morning, the practice starts the same day.
Personal licence for the buyer's own use (and use with your own team or clients where the kit says so). Please don't share or resell the files. Team and company licences: solutions@bodhih.com.
What buyers say
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Is this a religious book?
No. The texts it draws on are sacred to millions of Buddhists across Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana and other traditions, and the kit treats that reverence with respect. It presents them as philosophy and heritage applied to leadership, with no devotion, ritual, meditation instruction beyond a three-breath attention pause, or claims about rebirth or karma. It is written for leaders of any faith or none.
Which translations do you use and why?
Every quotation is copied word for word from public-domain translations: F. Max Müller's Dhammapada (1881), T. W. Rhys Davids' Buddhist Suttas (1881), the Jataka edited by E. B. Cowell (1895 to 1905) and Vincent A. Smith's Asoka (1909). They are citable and free of copyright. The In plain words lines and everything else are Bodhih Training's own wording; no modern translation is quoted or echoed.
What are the ten royal virtues?
A list from the Jataka stories of what a good ruler practises. In the 1897 translation: alms, morals, charity, justice, penitence, peace, mildness, mercy, meekness and patience. The kit names them in plain words as generosity, integrity, team before self, straight dealing, self-discipline, calm, gentleness, doing no harm, not blocking what is right, and patience.
What are the seven conditions of welfare?
In the Maha-parinibbana Suttanta, the Buddha describes conditions under which a community may be expected to prosper: meeting often and in full, meeting and acting in concord, keeping established ways, honouring elders, protecting the vulnerable, honouring shared shrines and protecting holy people. The kit turns them, with respect, into a monthly team-health check.
Is 'hatred does not cease by hatred' a real Buddha quote?
A line close to it is verse 5 of the Dhammapada. Many versions circulate online; the kit quotes only Max Müller's 1881 wording, exactly as printed. Many other popular 'Buddha quotes' are not in the early texts at all, which is why the kit uses only verified, cited lines.
Do I have to meditate?
No. The only practice is a three-breath attention pause before you open your inbox: a gap between waking and reacting, not a meditation technique. The kit's methods are reflection, checklists, logs and conversations.
Can I use it with my team?
Yes. The workshop guide has 90-minute and half-day versions, the team code is a one-page charter, the seven-conditions check is designed for anonymous team scoring, and the 52 principle-of-the-week emails match the card deck. Your personal licence covers use with your own team; company licences are available.
How do I measure my starting point?
AssessAll offers three assessments that fit this kit: Emotional Intelligence Profile, Ethical Leadership & Judgment, Conflict Navigation & Resolution. Take one in week one and again after week twelve to compare. They are separate products, not included; links are on the Start Here map.
How do I turn this into a development plan?
Write each growth action as an if-then plan, for example 'If a message makes me angry, then I save the draft and run the speech check.' Jobulary's guide to if-then plans at work, linked on the Start Here map, shows how to make such plans stick.
How is this different from Old Wisdom for Modern Days and The Stoic Leader?
Those kits focus on personal philosophy and personal calm. The Buddhist Leader is about leading teams and organisations: a virtue profile with 360 feedback, a team-health check, a speech check for hard messages, a conflict reset, public commitments and a 12-week programme.
How much does The Buddhist Leader cost?
₹1,299 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $34 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
How do I get the files after paying?
Instantly. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. Download each file separately or everything in one ZIP.
What software do I need?
Any of the usual tools: Excel or Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Word or Google Docs for templates, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, Xodo or GoodNotes for the fillable PDFs, and Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar for the calendar plan.
Can I get a refund?
Because it is a digital download, kits are not refundable once downloaded. We always refund a duplicate charge or a failed delivery, and if a file is corrupted and we cannot fix it within 3 working days. Full terms: bodhih.org/refunds.
Can my company buy this for a team?
Yes. Team and company licences, and workshops on this topic run by Bodhih Training, are available. Write to solutions@bodhih.com or call +91 99000 11601.
