Islam

Personal Involvement My own personal involvement in Islamic-Buddhist dialogue has developed gradually over many years. In my travels around the world lecturing on Buddhism, I have visited a number of Muslim countries. In some of them, I did not directly engage Muslim...

Fresh wars of religion powered by the new ideology of religious nationalism are destroying peaceful coexistence for citizens globally. This new ideological virus first emerged in the 1920s in the form of Christian fundamentalism, before being adopted in the Middle East by...

Participant: You have indicated there are many points in common between Buddhism and Islam, but can you also point out some of the big differences that you find, for instance regarding the issue of punishment? Dr. Berzin: There are two levels of so-called reward and...

The Uighurs The two major Islamic minorities in the People's Republic of China are the Uighurs and the Hui. Both follow the Sunna form of Islam, mixed with several schools of Central Asian Sufism. The Uighurs are a Turkic people who came originally from the Altai Mountain...

Both Buddhism and Biblical religions have been tolerant of other faiths. Both have also instigated forced and subtle conversion campaigns, although each has used different methods. Biblical religions have launched holy wars, while the First Kalki King of Shambhala gathered...

I would like to say something concerning religious harmony. Sometimes, conflicts involve religious faiths. For instance, previously in Northern Ireland, although the conflict was basically a political issue, it quickly became a religious issue. This was very unfortunate....

The topic for the panel discussion is a comparison between the approaches of theistic and nontheistic religions toward teaching their followers ethics as the foundation for taking social responsibility for the common good in general and, specifically for environmental...

A Conversation with Dr. Snjezana Akpinar and Dr. Alexander Berzin Many in the West are ignorant about and fearful of Islam. With the hope of defraying some common misunderstandings and exploring resonances between Islam and Buddhism, Inquiring Mind set up a conversation...

The Pre-Islamic Period Shakyamuni Buddha lived in north central India from 566 to 485 BCE. He taught a spiritual path of meditation and training that fit within the context of the pan-Indic thought of his time. Thus, Buddha accepted the basic assertions found in most Indian...

Thank you very much for your kind introduction. I am really very pleased, and very honored to be here with you today at this very famous university. I have been asked to speak about Buddhism in the 21st century, which is of course an enormous topic. So, I asked for a little...