Love and compassion bring hope of peace

Finding Our Common Home—Muslim-Buddhist Dialogue

 Healing the wounds of war, hatred, and violence

Finding ways to resolve conflict has always been a deep concern for all of us. The current refugee crisis in Europe brings us much sadness. My hope is that everyone can enjoy a peaceful life, and that nobody will be made destitute and homeless by the ravages of war. For many years now I’ve been promoting world peace by teaching meditation and participating in interreligious dialogue and cooperation. I hope that today we can together come up with some effective ways to promote world peace.

The primacy of peaceful coexistence

I was born in a village in war-torn northern Burma. While still a boy, I was conscripted into the military and gained first-hand experience of the horrors of war. Those memories are still with me, but I also clearly remember the great value the Burmese people place on peaceful coexistence with each other and with nature; that memory has also left a deep impression on me. This experience taught me that we need to actively seek out ways to promote peace and heal the scars of war.

Love and compassion as the wellsprings of peace

I came to Taiwan while still a teenager. After becoming a Buddhist monk in my twenties I was deeply moved by the compassionate spirit of the bodhisattva Guanyin, and this has continued to be a powerful inspiration for me up to the present. Conflict and war occur when there is a lack of compassion in the human heart. Whenever there is excessive concern for oneself and one’s own narrow interests, conflict is bound to result. Understanding the principal of interdependence—that we all depend on one another—gives rise to compassion and inspires us to appreciate diversity and promote peaceful coexistence.

Using meditation to set in motion the inherent power of transformation

Meditation is the best way to cultivate compassion. Several times I’ve done solitary meditation retreats inside a cave. During that time, I have experienced the inherent peace of the world; it has entered my heart and become an integral part of me. This is the compassion that is an essential element of all religions.

Through meditation I’ve experienced the deepest levels of peace and compassion. This compassion becomes a kind of seed which can settle our hearts and transform and heal our inner wounds; it also inspires us to be actively concerned for the welfare of others and strive to transform conflict into peace.

Promoting world peace through interreligious cooperation

Peace and harmony are the inherent condition of life, but they are disrupted by conflict. Recognizing the great importance of the principle of “peaceful coexistence,” in 1994 we began participating in interreligious activities around the world. For us, this is a way of establishing friendly relations with other religions and promoting love and compassion as the basis for interactions between people, religions, and nations.

In Russia we met with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, Shamanism, and Tibetan Buddhism, and shared our views on promoting world peace; in Israel we met with quite a few Jews and Muslims to discuss practical ways for bringing peace to the Holy Land. At the United Nations World Peace Summit held in 2000 we joined with representatives of various religions to pray for world peace and jointly commit ourselves to promoting love and compassion as the means to resolving conflict. So we need to join together with like-minded people and walk the road of peace together; this is how our common aspiration for world peace will come to bear fruit, for every religion recognizes the central importance of love and compassion.

Realizing peaceful coexistence by striving together

Interreligious cooperation sets in motion a powerful force, so we need to come together and pray for world peace and interreligious harmony. We also need to work together in our disaster relief efforts. By starting with the recognition of our interdependence, we come to see the importance of helping others in distress; such selfless service goes a long way in promoting trust and positive values.

Using peace education to promote a global family of love and peace

We are presently developing a project in northern Myanmar (Burma) based on our ideals of peace education and peaceful coexistence. The project includes an orphanage, a seminary for novice monks, a meditation center, a free clinic, and an organic farm.

So let us recognize our underlying interdependence; let us work together to heal the wounds of war, hatred, and violence; let us establish a global family of peace and love. May you all be well and happy.

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