Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism
Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism
Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism
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Setting the Scene<br />
Buddhist monks together in dialogue in July, 1996, in Gethsemani,<br />
Kentucky. While urging all participants to avoid the temptation to<br />
engage in ‘advertisement’ for one’s own tradition, <strong>and</strong> to guard<br />
against a certain kind of unhealthy competition, he maintains nonetheless,<br />
‘But I think we should have one kind of constructive competition.<br />
The Buddhists should implement what we believe in daily<br />
life; <strong>and</strong> our Christian brothers <strong>and</strong> sisters should also implement<br />
their teachings in daily life.’ Implementation of belief is central to<br />
the Dalai Lama’s vision of the transformative power of ‘practice’; it<br />
is insofar as ‘each side would like to be better practitioners’ that the<br />
competition between them is constructive <strong>and</strong> not destructive. 30<br />
For the Dalai Lama, the very process by which one deepens<br />
the practice of one’s own tradition illuminates the truth <strong>and</strong> wisdom<br />
of other traditions. For the ‘spiritual experience’ consequent upon<br />
deeper practice enables one ‘to see the value of other traditions.<br />
Therefore, to promote religious harmony, one should look into one’s<br />
own tradition seriously, <strong>and</strong> implement it as much as possible.’ 31<br />
If, by contrast, one restricts oneself to the purely theoretical aspects<br />
of one’s tradition, then the values which bring human beings<br />
together in goodness will be eclipsed by dogmatic coagulations:<br />
All religions teach a message of love, compassion, sincerity<br />
<strong>and</strong> honesty. Each system seeks in its own way to improve<br />
life for us all. Yet if we put too much emphasis on our own<br />
philosophy, religion or theory, becoming too attached to<br />
it, <strong>and</strong> try to impose it on other people, the result will be<br />
trouble. Basically, all the great teachers, including Gautama<br />
Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad <strong>and</strong> Moses, were motivated<br />
by a desire to help their fellow beings. They did not<br />
seek to gain anything for themselves, nor to create more<br />
trouble in the world. 32<br />
The Dalai Lama’s message on dialogue—on the spiritual dynamics<br />
underlying true dialogue—is at once ethically simple <strong>and</strong> spiritually<br />
profound, eminently practicable <strong>and</strong> philosophically irrefut-<br />
30. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, ‘Harmony, Dialogue <strong>and</strong> Meditation’, in D.W.<br />
Mitchell, J.Wiseman (eds.) The Gethsemani Encounter (New York: Continuum,<br />
1999), p. 49.<br />
31. The Many Ways to Nirvana, op. cit., p. 83.<br />
32. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Widening the Circle of Love, tr. Jeffrey Hopkins<br />
(London, Sydney, etc: Rider, 2002), p. 4.<br />
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