Conflict in the name of religious differences very unfortunate: Dalai Lama
Special Correspondent
LEH, 21 Jul: His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Friday said that, while all religions inherently teach how to serve other human beings and how to be altruistic, it is unfortunate that today conflicts are increasing in the name of religious differences.
Speaking on the first day of the teachings at the Shewatsel teaching ground here in Ladakh at the request of the Ladakh Buddhist Association and the Ladakh Gonpa Association, the Dalai Lama said that “all religions teach us to be kind and of benefit to sentient beings.”
“Philosophically, there may be different ways of explaining the core concepts, and there may be differences in practice, but all comes down to the idea of serving other sentient beings. From my side, I always appreciate the teachings of all religious traditions and respect and value them,” he said.
He said that, “in spite of this shared value of humanity, people fight and there have been wars, battles and conflicts and many lives have been lost.”
“Although there are many different reasons for people to fight, it is unfortunate that increasingly religion is being used as a reason for conflict,” he said, emphasising that differences in the name of religion “is very unfortunate and heartbreaking.”
He said that humanity is today struggling with so many challenges like climate change and global warming, among others, and that “we have to find solutions to these collectively.”
“All of us live in human society and are dependent on the other. And therefore we may have differences, different ways of thinking and ideas, but there is no reason why we should fight because of these.” the Dalai Lama added.
Elaborating that “world peace cannot come merely from speeches by political leaders,” he said: “World peace will not fall from the sky, nor will it erupt from the earth. It will emerge from knowledge and wisdom.
It will only come from transforming our mindsets, and when we embrace the basic value of love and compassion, because that is the true root of happiness. For real world peace, we have to reduce our negativities like anger, malice and hate.”
He said that negative afflictions are not a basic nature of the human mind.
“When children are young, they are innocent and share all the positive values. But as they grow, the world teaches them the ideas of ‘me vs them’, and that’s when conflict begins. And therefore it is important for all followers of the various religious traditions to be good to one another and also to learn from each other’s tradition.”
“Of course, we follow our own religion, but we must also take beneficial knowledge from each other’s religions. We should gather sometimes and learn from each other. That is why I always strive to work towards harmonious coexistence amongst all religions of the world,” he said, and added that “we need to have a sense of oneness of humanity and respect one another, and through that we can build peace in the world.”
Extolling the teachings of Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo’s ‘Thirty Seven Practices of all Boddhisattvas’, the Dalai Lama called upon the congregation to practice the main teachings of Bodhichitta (awakening mind) – the altruistic spirit of enlightenment – terming it very beneficial.
“There is no greater factor than Bodhichitta to achieve one’s own goals and also to help and serve others,” he said.
The Dalai Lam said also that “we should focus on love and compassion as our main practice, because both are natural in our mind stream and also because it will bring us closest to Avalokite?vara.
“For this, there has to be a triple process of understanding. Firstly of study, then reflection and finally meditation and from that will emerge the Boddhisatva, the enlightened mind,” he said.
On the morning of 22 July, he will confer the Avalokite?vara Initiation (Chenresig Wang) and finally, on 23 July, a long life prayer to His Holiness will be offered by the Ladakh Buddhist Association and the Ladakh Gonpa Association.
