Religion for Peace and Freedom from Fear

Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Morning!

It is a great honour and privilege for me to be here at this august gathering. I am particularly grateful to all collaborators for their relentless efforts in organizing this grand gathering in this Peace of the Religious Summit, which give us the opportunity of meeting like-minded, pious and devoted people who are working together towards a common ground of peace, harmony, and co-existence for all Religions.

 Today, we are living in the world of diversity in culture, faith and political and economical system. In this world, different people may have different opinions on different problems. Yet, there are problems common to all and we are interested in finding one solution to those problems. There will be no final solution to our human problems. Therefore, we must accept “Unity in diversity” concept in finding common platform for solving our problems while maintaining and promoting peace and security.

There are six major Religions in the world today. Since Human beings came on Earth, people worshipped the Sun, the Moon and various deities. They also sought refuge in them on the basis of fear. It was called a primitive religion. Most of scholars stated that horror initiated the religions of those days. The Buddha also clearly said that the idea and concept of religions originated from fear, worry, sorrow and suffering.

After the primitive religions there appeared Hinduism. And afterwards, Jainism also came out on the Land where Hinduism was being flourished. Forty years after the emergence of Jainism, there appeared Buddhism. Buddhism appeared on the birth place of Hinduism and Jainism. These religions peacefully coexisted with them for ages.

Six hundred years after the Buddha, Jesus Christ appeared in the World. In the ten commandments of Christianity we find many similarities with Buddhism in the field of Morality and Noble practice.

All most 600 years later than Jesus, Mohammad founded Islamism. In the Islamism also, we find morality, loving-kindness, compassion, patient, charity etc, as basic principle. In the religions of Hindu and Jain also, emphatically taught- Ahimsa= Non-cruelty. So, all of religions unanimously convinced the Non-violence and Non-conflict, Non-aggressive and Non-extremism.

Aggressiveness and Extremism are arising of conflict and violence. We all religious leaders have responsibilities to remove, to protect such Violence, Conflict and Terrorism.

Today, the world is full of chaos, full of violence, full of conflict, full of terrorisms. Our Lord Buddha stated in His Teachings “the world is shaking, unstable burning, internally and externally and the world is full of sorrow, and suffering.  The world is very ignorant really blind.” So, as religious leaders, we should try to educate the word of ignorance.

Many religious followers don’t know the intrinsic meaning of their respective religions.

Despite such diversities, I am confident that by building bridges of cultures and religions, we will be able to better understand other religions and reduce tensions and avoid conflicts at the same time. I strongly support the view that a bridge is a crossing in both directions which allow people to meet together and work together for common goal. Such bridges we will be able to channel different views and inspirations into common ground to promote peace and security. We should try to conquer ourselves by replacing the hatred, anger, greed, ignorance, aggressiveness, extremism and prejudice with the loving-kindness, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness (middle way). At the same time we must oppose extremism and aggressiveness and any manifestations around the world.

But we should be mindful that if we are unable to reduce and remove evil thoughts, evil speeches and evil deeds, greed, hatred and ignorance, we are like the beings living in a world of sorrow and sufferings. When there is darkness, the light is of a vital necessity. The darkness and the light are opposing each other; they cannot co-exist. We have to put the light in the place of darkness. When there is fire, the water is an urgent need for us. Today, the whole world is under the darkness of sorrow and sufferings caused by violence, conflicts and terrorism. The world has witnessed a lot of bloodshed due to power craving and ignorance of the truth. The Noble Truth is the inner core of all religions. There is nothing new to teach in this world but the Truth. The Truth is within ourselves. 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 its own outer shell and inner core. The outer shell consists of rites, rituals, ceremonies, beliefs, myths, and doctrines. These outer shells differentiate one religion from another. However, there is an inner core which is common to all religions. This is the universal teaching of morality, charity, mental discipline, pure mind, pure love, compassion, goodwill, tolerance and insight truth. This is a common denominator that all religious leaders ought to emphatically teach their followers to practice. If proper importance is attached to the essence of all religions, the pure love, tolerance, forgiveness and compassion are shown for their surface level, then conflicts and violence could be minimized.

All human beings should 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.

The Buddha said, “Animosity can be eradicated by its opposite which is pure 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 can be ceased. This is the eternal law.” This is the Dhamma. What is called Dhamma in the world has nothing to do with Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Islamism, or any other “ism”. Dhamma is a simple truth-

1)    To understand the Truth is our common core.
2)    To understand the Truth is our common goal;
3)    To understand the Truth is our common solution to common problems;
4)    To avoid the extremism and aggressiveness and to follow the Middle Path are our Common Platform.

Thank you,

Dr.Ashin Ñyāņissara (Ph.D., D.Litt.)
AggamahÈpaÓÉita, MahÈdhammakathika Bahujanahitadhara, AggamahÈ Saddhammajotikadhaja, SÈsanadhaja-dhammÈcariya Chancellor of Sitagū International Buddhist Academies Principal of Sitagu International Buddhist Missionary Association Founder of the Board of Director of TheravÈda Dhamma Society of America Chancellor of Sitag International Buddhist Academy Honorary Professor of International TheravÈda Buddhist Missionary University Chairman of International Association of Theravada Buddhist Universities