Buddhist Soft Skills as a tool for Peace and Harmony in the Multi-Cultural Society

Abstract

Buddhist soft skills were introduced to the world by the Buddha 2600 years ago in India. It can be used as conflict resolution tools in any given situation without any discrimination. It basically focuses on understanding yourself, motivating yourself, managing your own emotion, your goals, intentions, responses, behavior and all. Similarly, attention is given to understanding others, recognizing other people’s emotions and managing relationships. Soft skills are personal attributes that describe an individual’s ability to interact with others. Soft skills are also known as people skills which complement hard skills to enhance an individual’s relationships. Every institution/organization is a complex organism, planning, reacting, adapting, evolving, growing and shrinking in response to external demands and internal capabilities. The ability to execute depends on soft skills or human capabilities. Soft skills is a term often associated with a person’s EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient) cluster of personality trait, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, strong work ethics, and positive attitude. Good communications skills, time management abilities, problems solving skills, acting as a team player, self-confidence, ability to accept and learn from criticism, flexibility and adaptability are also important. Dr. Daniel Goleman mentioned five basic components of Emotional intelligence; i.e. self -awareness, self-regulation, internal motivation, empathy and social skills in recent times in the western world. Mindfulness meditation is a very powerful tool for developing soft skills. Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity, conviction, virtuousness, learning, generosity, wisdom, will be the main focus in Buddhist soft skills to conflict resolution with reference to the Tripitaka. Buddhist soft skills will be one of the great tools for finding solutions to many problems occurring in the contemporary world today, and this leads to a big foundation for peace and religious harmony in a multicultural background.