The Dalai Lama calls for selflessness and altruism in a post 9/11 world
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| MONTREAL: SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the 2nd Conference on World's Religions after September 11. |
Find inner peace. Share with the others.
The Dalai Lama’s recipe for world peace sounds simple enough.
“It all starts with the individual,” he told the 3,000 or so participants of the second Global Conference on World’s Religions after 9/11, at the Palais des Congrès last Wednesday. "Not God, not the religious heads, but the individual!"
On September 7th, the Dalai Lama joined spiritual and religious scholars from all major faiths to discuss the role of religion in the process of building peace. Organized by McGill University and Université de Montreal, the conference aims to promote a better perception of world's religions. For the organizers, this is a small step to end the misuse of religion by people seeking power.
“All major religions are based on a set of moral ethics and carry the message of forgiveness," said the good humoured monk with a gentle smile. "The essence of their teachings is love and compassion. But these things will not be achieved simply through prayers to God!” he said. "We must make a personal, as well as an institutional effort, to reach out and talk.”
While acknowledging that religion can be seen as a cause for violence, corruption and division, spiritual leaders argue that religion can instead be harnessed as - and has to become - a force for goodness.
“If we use religion for division, to create more solitude, greed and fights," said the Dalai Lama, "then religion also becomes wrong and destructive. That is not because there is something wrong with religion; it is the person who uses it for wrong," he said. "If you criticize Islam due to some mischievous Muslims, then you have to criticize all the world’s religions for their mischievous people.”
Poised and dressed in the traditional red Buddhist robe, save maybe for his watch, the Dalai Lama spoke calmly, in a simple, accented English. Moving gracefully along the stage, and often making jokes with the public, the media and the other panelists, he urged for tolerance and open-mindedness, both among believers and non-believers. “All of us hold these seeds of destructive emotions: of greed, of jealousy and hate. It is up to us to cultivate the positive emotions,” he said.
Robert Thurman, professor in Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University and father of the famous actress with the same last name, concurs. “9/11 had nothing to do with religion,” he said. “It was an abuse of religion! And the reaction to it was an abuse of religion, as well.”
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| MONTREAL: SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 -- Members of the panel on Peace through Religion at the 2nd conference on World's Religions after September 11 (from left to right): professors Arvind Sharma, Tariq Ramadan, Robert Thurman, Gregory Baum, Steven Katz and Dr. Deepak Chopra. |
“Religion mobilizes people to the level of life and death," said Thurman, "which is why it’s so powerful, and so important. So, it is completely ridiculous to think there could possibly be world peace, harmony and justice - and even preservation of the environment - without mobilizing religions.”
The panelists admit there is a long road ahead if world religions are to ever work side by side. “ But if we want to speak about peace, we should be ready to speak about violence,” said Tariq Ramadan, professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University. “If we are serious about religious contributions, then religious voices should speak out about corruption, injustice, discrimination and poverty in their own communities.”
Dr. Deepak Chopra, physician and author of spirituality books, has a different view altogether. “If we really want peace, we are going to have to find the eternal truths of the religious experience as separate from the religious dogma or ideology,” he says.
Chopra believes social media is where the world’s conversation is taking place right now. According to him, this unprecedented global exchange will erode all national and ethnic identities, and rewire a new planetary consciousness. Science, furthermore, is revealing truths that contradict many of the mythologies of all religions. “It is changing some of our cultural beliefs that is going to be a challenge!” he admits.
Last but not least, the Dalai Lama spoke extensively on the media’s role to educate people on the moral ethics that promote a healthy society. “Sometimes, you see on the news only those negative things: murder, violence, greed. Nobody talks about the real ultimate source of a happy life,” that is love and compassion.
*The article appeared originally in the September 13th,2011 edition of The Concordian.
