Religious Harmony

There is a long history of Muslims being regarded by the Christian West as the forces of the devil. This began at the end of the eleventh century CE with the Crusades to take the Holy Lands from the Muslims. It continued with the fall of ­­the center of Eastern Orth­odox...

Introduction His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama emphasizes that religious harmony must be based on education, knowing about each other’s traditions. With thorough knowledge, we can acknowledge the common goals we share, while respecting the differences. In fact, from...

Setting the Motivation To differentiate from the non-Buddhists, there is the taking of refuge or safe direction, and to differentiate from the Hinayana path, there is the taking of the Mahayana refuge. We look to the Buddha Shakyamuni as our main example of a source of safe...

General Assertions Buddhism does not assert creation or a creator. The mental continuums of all sentient beings have no beginning. “Sentient beings” are living beings that act with intention and experience happiness or unhappiness as a result. Like souls in Islam, however, the...

What does it mean to understand something is a very important topic because there are so many things that we need to understand. We’re not talking simply about understanding the various points of the Dharma, but this issue is very important in our daily life as well. We need...

The Different Lineages of Mahamudra In general, we could gain a decisive understanding of voidness with respect to any basis characterized by voidness, or having voidness as its nature, such as a vase. There is no difference in the abiding devoid nature itself of a vase or...

The Dalai Lama advises that the concept of nonviolence and dialogue needs to be taught in educational institutions. It is important for the younger generation to learn them, so that the ideas of dialogue and nonviolence become a part of their lives.

Harmony in a multireligious society comes from education about each other’s beliefs and customs and, from knowledge, comes respect.

The health of a society arises dependently on each of its members developing a healthy mind and sense of ethics. See how the various world religions would tackle a disaster in accord with their own system of ethics.

All major religions try to answer the questions around what the self is and where it comes from. The Dalai Lama advises us to develop respect for each of the different traditions in order to know the essence of these religions and thus appreciate their value.