By Patrick Connolly

“Nowadays…it becomes more obvious to me that we need leaders. We need an individual that has a certain binding connection and vision,” said the Sakyong, a member of a panel of world leaders who spoke in Somerville Thursday.

The panel included Queen Noor of Jordan, Rabbi Irwin Kula and the Sakyong, Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche, an incarnate lama and leader in Shambhala Buddhism.

In front of a capacity audience at the Cohen Auditorium at Tufts University, the panel offered suggestions on how to be a compassionate leader in a post-9/11 world and encouraged social participation.

Kula, the president of the National Jewish Center for Leadership and Learning, recommended forming an open-minded vision. He suggested finding middle ground with people who have different beliefs and cultures, rather than demonizing them.

‚ÄúThe really interesting thing is the people who are able to fashion a type of vision that incorporates partial truths of the side they don’t agree with,‚Äù Kula said. ‚ÄúThe people who you despise most are as committed to justice as you are. It just turns out their understanding of justice is backwards from yours.‚Äù

Along the same lines, Noor shared an anecdote of being flown by helicopter into a Columbian jungle to negotiate with guerrilla fighters responsible for laying land mines and kidnappings.

‚ÄúThese people’s minds never evolved beyond being guerrilla freedom fighters,‚Äù said Noor. ‚ÄúThey actually had, if you’ll excuse me, an understandable reason for becoming [guerilla fighters] many decades before.‚Äù

In describing her decision-making process in that situation, Noor said all people would make the same choice.

‚ÄúWhen anyone has faith in your ability to perhaps make that much of a contribution to a process so desperately in need of resolution and to the benefit of so many people, I don’t think anyone would say, ‘No,’‚Äù Noor said.

Like Noor, Kula suggested that individuals take on personal responsibility, rather than transferring responsibility to perceived saviors, such as President George W. Bush or Barack Obama.

‚ÄúWe’re going to have to move towards a different understanding of leadership,‚Äù Kula said. ‚ÄúThat is, in beginning to view leadership as a process, an art, of creating environments in which we can actually face up to our own problems.‚Äù

The moderator of the discussion, Jerry Murdock, said people grow up believing leaders are other people in the room, and that concept needs to change.

“We ourselves need to have more strength, character and genuineness. We ourselves need to have qualities of strength and compassion if we are going to expect our leaders to have that, too,” the Sakyong continued.