Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

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Setting the Scene Buddhist monks together in dialogue in July, 1996, in Gethsemani, Kentucky. While urging all participants to avoid the temptation to engage in ‘advertisement’ for one’s own tradition, and to guard against a certain kind of unhealthy competition, he maintains nonetheless, ‘But I think we should have one kind of constructive competition. The Buddhists should implement what we believe in daily life; and our Christian brothers and sisters should also implement their teachings in daily life.’ Implementation of belief is central to the Dalai Lama’s vision of the transformative power of ‘practice’; it is insofar as ‘each side would like to be better practitioners’ that the competition between them is constructive and not destructive. 30 For the Dalai Lama, the very process by which one deepens the practice of one’s own tradition illuminates the truth and wisdom of other traditions. For the ‘spiritual experience’ consequent upon deeper practice enables one ‘to see the value of other traditions. Therefore, to promote religious harmony, one should look into one’s own tradition seriously, and implement it as much as possible.’ 31 If, by contrast, one restricts oneself to the purely theoretical aspects of one’s tradition, then the values which bring human beings together in goodness will be eclipsed by dogmatic coagulations: All religions teach a message of love, compassion, sincerity and honesty. Each system seeks in its own way to improve life for us all. Yet if we put too much emphasis on our own philosophy, religion or theory, becoming too attached to it, and try to impose it on other people, the result will be trouble. Basically, all the great teachers, including Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad and Moses, were motivated by a desire to help their fellow beings. They did not seek to gain anything for themselves, nor to create more trouble in the world. 32 The Dalai Lama’s message on dialogue—on the spiritual dynamics underlying true dialogue—is at once ethically simple and spiritually profound, eminently practicable and philosophically irrefut- 30. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, ‘Harmony, Dialogue and Meditation’, in D.W. Mitchell, J.Wiseman (eds.) The Gethsemani Encounter (New York: Continuum, 1999), p. 49. 31. The Many Ways to Nirvana, op. cit., p. 83. 32. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Widening the Circle of Love, tr. Jeffrey Hopkins (London, Sydney, etc: Rider, 2002), p. 4. 25
c o m m o n g r o u n d between i s l a m a n d b u d d h i s m able: if you bring to life, within yourself, the fundamental values of your own religion, you will not only change yourself, you will also change the world: Through your kindness towards others, your mind and heart will open to peace. Expanding this inner environment to the larger community around you will bring unity, harmony and cooperation; expanding peace further still to nations and then to the world will bring mutual trust, mutual respect, sincere communication, and fully successful joint efforts to solve the world’s problems. All this is possible. But first we must change ourselves. Each one of us is responsible for mankind. 33 One is reminded here of the verse of the Qur’ān: Truly God will not change the condition of a people until they change the condition of their own souls (13:11). The following passage expresses a compelling picture of the power of the ‘dialogical’ dynamics that are unleashed by the sincere and ever-deepening practice of one’s own faith. Those who realized the deepest values of their own faith are referred to by the Dalai Lama, again and again, as ‘practitioners’, those who engage in the meditative dimensions of their faith alongside the philosophical ones; and it is they who constitute the most effective partners in authentic dialogue: It is my belief that if prayer, meditation and contemplation 34 are combined in daily practice, the effect on the practitioner’s mind and heart will be all the greater. One of the major aims and purposes of religious practice for the individual is an inner transformation from an undisciplined, untamed, unfocused state of mind toward one that is disciplined, tamed and balanced. A person who has perfected the faculty of single-pointedness will definitely have a greater ability to attain this objective. When meditation becomes an important part of your spiritual life, you are able to bring about this inner transformation in a more effective way. Once this transformation has been achieved, then in following your own spiritual tradition, you will discover that a kind of natu- 33. Ibid., pp. 4–5. 34. By the word ‘contemplation’, the Dalai Lama means, here and in most other contexts read by us, the analytical or philosophical aspects of the tradition. 26
Page 2: Common Ground Between Islam and Bud
Page 5 and 6: First published in 2010 by Fons Vit
Page 7 and 8: Contents, continued Loving Compassi
Page 10 and 11: In the Name of God, the Compassiona
Page 12 and 13: Introduction to Common Ground By H.
Page 18 and 19: Preface by Professor Mohammad Hashi
Page 24: Common Ground Between Islam and Bud
Page 27 and 28: c o m m o n g r o u n d between i s
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c o m m o n g r o u n d between i s
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Epilogue The Common Ground of Sanct
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COMMON GROUND BETWEEN ISLAM AND BUD
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Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

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