Universal Spirit for Peace and Harmony

Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants,
Eminent scholars,
Dhamma friends,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good Morning! 

First of all, I would like to convey my heartfelt congratulations to this grand Buddhist occasion commemorating the United Nations Day of Vesak 2014, held in the year 2638 B.E in Bai Dinh Temple of Ninh Binh, Vietnam.

 The Buddha's day, also known as the Vesak day, is the most significant and auspicious day for the Buddhist world as it marks, the "Threefold Sacred Day"- the day on which the Siddhatha Gotama was born, the day on which He attained the Supreme Enlightenment and became the Buddha and the day on which He took the noble demise and passed into Parinibbana.

Today, I have planned to touch upon some important points in the light of Buddhist perspective with the hope that it would contribute towards making the world peaceful and stable lessening conflicts, chaos and violence that are pervasive almost everywhere.

It is a universal truth that when there is darkness, the light is of a vital necessity. The darkness and the light can never coexist. We have to put the light in the place of darkness. When there is fire, the water is an absolute need. Today, the world is under the darkness of sorrow and sufferings caused by violence, conflicts and brutal fighting. In the Buddha's message, it was said, "The world is blind, the world is unstable, and the world is burning internally and externally." Through the world history, we have seen much bloodshed due to power craving and ignorance of the Truth. The world today is badly in need of peace, harmony and co¬existence. This is a great challenge for the political leaders, spiritual leaders and religious leaders. We all have to accept it and prepare ourselves how we can help mitigate tensions and conflicts by virtue of the noble teachings of our respective religions.

Every religion has an outer shell and an inner core. The outer shell consists of rites, rituals, ceremonies, beliefs, myths. They differentiate from one religion to another. However, there is an inner core which is common to all religions. This is the universal teaching for morality, charity, discipline, pure mind, pure love, compassion, goodwill, tolerance, and insight. This is a common denominator that all religious leaders ought to emphasize and their followers to practice. If proper importance is attached to the essence of all religions and love tolerance and compassion are prevailing in the hearts of their followers, conflicts and violence will be gradually minimized.

All human beings should also be free to profess and follow their faith. However, they must be careful not to neglect to practise the essence of their own respective religions, not to disturb others by their own religions, and not to condemn other faiths. In this diversity of faiths, when people of different views approached him, the Buddha said, "Let us set aside our differences, let us give attention to what we can agree on and let us put the common core which we agree upon into practice. Why quarrels?" Such wise counsel still retains its value until today.

It is clear that the votaries of violence primarily hurt their own kith and kin. They may do so directly through their intolerance or indirectly by provoking a violent response to their actions. This is the law of nature. The Buddha said, "Animosity can be eradicated by its opposite which is love, patience, forgiveness and so on. Animosity cannot be eradicated by animosity. Violence is ceased by non-violence. Violence is never ceased by violence. Hatred is never ceased by hatred. Through pure love only, they become to cease. This is the eternal law." This is the Dhamma. Dhamma is the universal truth for Peace and Harmony. We should be mindful that we first harm ourselves by generating mental negativity. By removing such negativity, we can find peace within ourselves. Individual peace is the very basic foundation through which community peace, regional peace and global peace could be built.

While once again appreciating the organizers and collaborators for their relentless efforts in successfully organizing this grand occasion, I would like to conclude my message by stressing the need for all religious leaders to work harder in imparting the intrinsic teachings of their respective religions to their followers and make them practise these teachings accordingly. This, I believe, would surely contribute to maintain peace and stability of the whole world.

Thank You,
Venerable Dr. Ashin Nyanissara (Ph.D., D.Litt.)

Chancellor of Sitagu International Buddhist Academies
Honorary Professor of International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University
Chairman of International Association of Theravada Buddhist Universities
Chairman of the board of director (TDSA)