Religions Should Lead to Peace
We are all going to live on this planet together. We will always all have our own foods, dance, music, clothes, culture, history, architecture, thinking and religions. We can sit for the rest of our lives and find differences within each other that we don’t agree on. We can find differences between Siamese twins to something much bigger like people of the East and West. The differences will never end if we so choose. If you believe in God, then God created all these beautiful differences, so why disparage God’s creations? You should accept if you believe in the higher wisdom of God. Don’t use God’s name to disparage others. If your central foundation for religion is karma, then we have to realize karma is the source of all differences. Since karma is the source and the karma has opened up, it would be better to accept the karma and results rather to find faults. We should do something at the fundamental cause of karma which is ignorance.
Whatever religion others are, we must respect. We must not think of harming them or their beliefs. Their beliefs is what makes them who they are. Everyone has the right to be who they are… We all have to live on this planet together. No one religion can cover the minds of all beings on this planet. Having a variety is useful. To disparage others using religion can create great upheavals within the family, neighbours, city, country, continents and the world. Religion can be used to create so much peace when we practice each religion and develop the inner peace it is meant for. Inner peace will lead to outer peace.
Religion shouldn’t be used selfishly to further one’s career, profits, ego, insecurities, endeavors and goals alone, but it should be used to cultivate qualities such as compassion, tolerance, acceptance and genuine concern for others. The true goal of a religious practitioner isn’t to use others conveniently to get to heaven. How can we get to heaven by using others? Or to get as much as one can now and then get more in heaven. The goal should be to create a ‘heaven’ on earth by tolerance, kindness and living in peace from understanding each other. Some accept a heaven after death and some don’t. But we all accept a life now… this life is very important, once lost, many opportunities will be lost. Religion and its followers should promote respect, tolerance, genuine concern for others/animals/environment. The defining features of a spiritual person should be compassion and acceptance… This cultivation of good qualities from religion will make our lives lived in peace and lead us to a heaven in the afterlife if you choose to believe. Heaven now and heaven later is achieved by kindness.
Religion should not be used to increase anger, prejudice, bias, or destruction. Religion has been used for negative ends, but that does not make religion bad. Schools, education, medicine, science, law, culture, money all have been used for negative ends by wrongful persons in the past. But it does not mean schools, education, etc are bad per se. As they have been used to benefit also. It is not the religion but how a ‘religious’ person interprets the tenants within their faith. Interpretation is subject to the limits of human wisdom…
Religion just like anything else within our hands which can be used for positive or negative ends. Let’s all choose positive ends no matter how hard it is. All people of this earth has the right to choose their clothes, culture, music, architecture, religion and so on. No one is better or worse for their choice. Let people be. To criticize another’s religion no matter what your motivations are will lead to small and large wars. Inner wars and outer wars come from intolerance and nonacceptance. Every religion has a wonderful and powerful function to change our hearts and minds if we choose to practice correctly. Religion is an object to be embraced for the spiritual qualities we may wish to further enhance within our minds in order to better serve others.
Inter-faith dialogue, inter-faith gatherings and inter-faith meetings serve to increase understanding of each other’s religion which leads to peace from understanding. Inter-faith dialogues are important for our small planet. If we don’t choose religion, that is fine also… but we should definitely make peace and understanding wherever we are. Whether we are religious or not, we want the same things… that makes us have a common goal in the very end.
Remember, not criticizing but respecting another person’s religion shows you are blessed, a peacemaker and truly spiritual. To have Buddha and God in your heart means acceptance and creating peace everywhere you go… those who create peace are blessed… and they bless every place they visit… or abide. What God or Buddha would want violence, pain and hurt? None. Practicing your religion from your heart means to respect, accept and love others no matter how different they are from you. Religions should be used to accept differences leading to peace… inner and outer peace…
Tsem Rinpoche
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Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. Interfaith cooperation among religious communities around the world is a powerful counter balance to hate, violence, and injustice. All the religions of the world essentially practise and preach the same teachings for the betterment of the world. Every religion has its own set of beliefs and ideologies and this is where all the differences are created. Looking at those beautiful pictures of two great religious leaders tell us a thousands words of peaceful and harmonious environment created by them. They have a … common responsibility of upholding peace and justice through cooperation. The religions which are based on same common core values must play their vital role to establish peace and harmony in the world.
I absolutely love these pictures and I just love the communion that these 2 religious heads do. They play with each other like little school boys and the same time, they can spout the most eloquent teachings of their respective religions and they can think big and beyond their own religious dogma.
Such open minded religious folks encourages and foster inter-religious harmony especially amongst their own followers and for those who look up to them. I love to see such open, wonderful and positive religious leaders. I think that these great men are such positive influence on the world. It is no wonder that the Dalai Lama is considered the emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the Compassionate one. I am not surprise if this Bishop is some kind of emanation too. Bodhisattvas do not need to emanate as Buddhists in order to benefit others.
Peace is something every single person wishes for and which they pursue a spiritual journey for, yet somehow, it is ironical that religion is often misinterpreted to become the cause for the greatest violence and division in the world.
Rinpoche’s last paragraph in particular is the heart of world peace.
“Remember, not criticizing but respecting another person’s religion shows you are blessed, a peacemaker and truly spiritual. To have Buddha and God in your heart means acceptance and creating peace everywhere you go… those who create peace are blessed… and they bless every place they visit… or abide. What God or Buddha would want violence, pain and hurt? None. Practicing your religion from your heart means to respect, accept and love others no matter how different they are from you. Religions should be used to accept differences leading to peace… inner and outer peace… ”
i fully agree that when we are able to respect each other’s religious differences and not judge them as inferior or anyway less important or correct than ours, we will be able to coexist with true inner peace.
How strange it is that we forget that very simple sentence: “Religion should lead us to peace”. Isn’t that why each of us join a religion in the first place (or stay in one?) because the teachings therein bring us personal peace and happiness. So if this is what we are looking for, or what we have benefittedn from, then why would we use our religion for anything other than to bring the same to others?
Instead, the world has become about wars, oppression and conflict, all in the name of religion. Is that what we came into religion for? To create more suffering, more misunderstanding, more situations that are not peaceful? If we could only just remember why we came into religion in the first place – which is to find that own personal peace, then the rest of our actions within religion and in relation to religion should follow suit.
“Whatever religion others are, we must respect. We must not think of harming them or their beliefs. Their beliefs is what makes them who they are. Everyone has the right to be who they are… We all have to live on this planet together. No one religion can cover the minds of all beings on this planet. Having a variety is useful. To disparage others using religion can create great upheavals within the family, neighbours, city, country, continents and the world. Religion can be used to create so much peace when we practice each religion and develop the inner peace it is meant for. Inner peace will lead to outer peace.”
There are no religion better than one or another. All religions teaches us to do good. There isn’t one religion that suits everybody so we must find out what suits us at the end of the day. And also what we are comfortable with when practicing.
At the end of the day, everybody wishes to live peacefully and happily. WE can achieve this goal together if we work together. Meanwhile, we have KFR to look forward to. KFR would be the start of something legendary and would benefit everyone not only those from Malaysia.
Thank you Rinpche for your compassion, as always..
Thank you Rinpoche for reminding me about acceptance, and respect of others’ beliefs and religions. Religion can lead one to peace, trust, respect, tolerance, and love of others. However using religion for own selfishness will lead one to anger, hatred, jealousy, fights, and distrust of others. We need to think the qualities of being a human being and all the human beings living on this planet. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_HqVFEzY2U
In this video The Archbishop mentions that the Dalai Lama is one of the holiest man in the world. I feel the words are so so moving about the Dalai Lama. Religion is not the problem in the world, the problem is that people who have selfish minds who use religion to their own means.
As buddhists, we should be extra tolerance of others, be it religion, race, views, etc etc. After all karmically , at one time or another , we had been of another race or religion. When we start pointing at the faults of others, we need to notice the 3 fingers pointing back at us. That makes us look rather silly. 🙂
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for this beautiful post.
The photos are lovely and speak for themselves – that when we see great spiritual leaders, they have this glow, this aura of peace around them.
On the other hand, when an individual is greedy, angry, vengeful or in depression – they are so ugly. Their mind is like turbulent stormy waters and the energy they exude is so negative it shows.
I only hope that everyone can take the opportunity this precious lifetime gives us to make a change for the better. That we search deep and put into practice compassion and kindness that will lead us to inner peace. This inner peace is achievable for all regardless of which religion we call our own.
Every religion is merely a way, a route, a guiding light that shows us the way to inner peace within ourselves. When we have inner peace, we would create outer peace naturally through our thoughts and deeds. And when this spreads through the people who’s lives we touch everyday (our family, friends, colleagues), we create the forces for them to find inner peace too and therefore start to spread outer peace.
It is the selfish person that twists it around for his/her own greedy wants.
I am thankful to Tsem Tulku Rinpoche for putting it so well – Inner Peace leads to Outer Peace and for your teachings.
Heaven can be created on earth, why wait.
I agree whole-heartedly with the sentiments expressed in Rinpoche’s post.
Yes, religion is for peace not war. But peace will only arise when people of different faiths choose to not dwell on their differences, but instead focus on their similarities.
All followers of different religions should choose to make Love and Compassion the essence of their spirituality. In that way, we will come to see that all men are brothers and we are one great human family.
Dear Rinpoche,
This is a post for which I am sincerely grateful. Between religions – and let’s not forget within religions too – there is too much focus on difference to the extent where the whole point of a religion becomes distorted and people lose sight of the original essential message of the teachings they follow.
Religion is flawed because man is flawed. Had Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Padre Pio, HH Dalai Lama and John Paul II all shared some time together, there would have been only warm greetings and agreements on the value of virtues and the necessity of unity between all people.
Ven. Ajahn Chah said that the major religions are vehicles all travelling in the same direction. There is nothing more detestable than division. If it is wrong to say a white man can’t marry a black girl, so should it be between faiths – there is no difference. If it is abhorrent to carry out violence on other because they have yellow or red skin, it is just as abhorrent to carry out violent acts on those of a different faith. There is no difference.
As the Buddha said, in the sky there is no distinction between east and west – people create and perceive these differences in their minds and believe them to be true. Jesus said “Love thy neighbour” – he made no mention of condition. It’s so sad to see any kind of division manifest, especially between so-called spiritual practitioners.
In the end, there is far more that binds us together than divides us. It’s just a shame that people in the modern day spend their time “liking” quotations on compassion, love, tolerance, understanding and unity without actually taking the time to sincerely apply to their lives what they know in their hearts to be the very ideal that could bring lasting happiness and peace within us all.
Thank you, again.
Kind regards,
Sandy
Many people nowadays choose to be an atheist, not believing in a higher power or being, but just themselves.
They are afraid of the dogma of any religions because they have seen people using the name of their relogions or beliefs to harm or hurt others.
If we can all focus on our similarities rather than our differences, then we are all inhabitants of the world who want to have happiness. Just this wish is already one big common ground for everyone to practise compassion, patience, generosity, forgivness to each other, irrespective of what beliefs you may have.
If you want others to bring you a smile, you should also bring one to the others.
Religion is a personal choice. There is no right or wrong in one’s choice of practice. I know people who have in one lifetime changed two or three different religious practices. I always ask why? And I have found that the common reason is that they could not find the peace. I would add that this is a shallow answer but it shows only one point that religion is a source of peace.
It does not serve anyone to create destructive consequences by disrespecting others’ choice of religion. Many religions exist in this world to cater for the many peoples of the world so that we all have a path to practice our beliefs and seek the inner peace we all want.
Thank you Rinpoche for such a wonderful teaching on this sensitive subject matter.
I don’t think there’s anyone on this earth that does not want peace. Peace can come in many ways but if having a religion can lead to peace..then why not? All religions advocates compassion, generosity, and many other good values which can lead to peace. Let us then put all these values to good use and work together regardless of what religion we are from to advocate PEACE!