Hindu – Buddhist Philosophy on Conflict Avoidance & Environment
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Not for Sale Not for Sale Sale © VIF Vivekananda International Foundation 3 San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri New Delhi-110021, India info@vifindia.org Follow us @VIFINDIA www.vifindia.org First published 2017 for Photographs courtesy VIF All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without the prior permission of the author/s and the publisher. ISBN 978-81-8328-511-7 Published by Wisdom Tree 4779/23, Ansari Road Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110Not 002 Ph.: 011-23247966/67/68 [email protected] Printed in India Contents Sale Introduction 1. Welcome Address: NC Vij 3 2. Benediction: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 5 3. Ashin Nyanissara 9 4. Shinzo Abe 13 5. Minoru Kiuchi 15 6. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga 17 7. Narendra Modi for 25 8. Vote of Thanks: Masahiro Akiyama 31 Conflict Avoidance 1. S Gurumurthy 43 2. Lokesh Chandra 131 3. Arayawongso 137 4. Khy Sovanratana 143 5. Kripasur Sherpa 147 6. Nivedita Raghunath Bhide 149 7. M Bataa Not 177 8. Karsten Schmidt 181 9. Tsuneo Watanabe 193 10. SN Balagangadhara 197 11. Jean-Pierre Lehmann 201 12. Sai Sam Kham 205 13. Swami Govind Dev Giri 209 14. Concluding Remarks: Thich Nhat Tu 213 Environment Consciousness 1. Jangchup Choeden 227 2. Lyonpo Namgay Dorji 241 3. Sangajav Bayartsogt 245 4. Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji 249 5. Bellanwila Wimalaratana Thero 253 6. Barbara Maas 257 7. Naresh Man Bajracharya Sale263 8. Sudha Murty 267 9. Tenzin Palmo 273 10. Shrivatsa Goswami 275 11. Thich Thien Tam 283 12. Chuch Phoeurn 287 13. U Dhammapiya 289 14. Hsiang-Chou Yo 299 15. MD Srinivas for 303 16. Thich Nhat Tu 307 17. Telo Tulku Rinpoche 313 18. Concluding Remarks: Swami Paramatmananda 319 Summation 1. Welcome Address and Recall: NC Vij 337 2. Gabju Demberel Choijamts 341 3. Keynote Address: Sushma Swaraj 345 4. Vote of Thanks: Lama Lobzang 351 ChetiyaNot Carika Pilgrimage to Bodhgaya 1. Narendra Modi 355 2. Bodh Gaya Declaration of Buddhist Leaders 359 Samvad Speakers 361 Not forINTRODUCTION Sale Not for Sale 1 WELCOME ADDRESS: NC VIJSale t is my privilege to extend a hearty welcome to our Hon’ble Prime IMinister as he is visiting the Foundation for the first time and each one of you in the same way, for coming and joining us. In all its endeavours the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) seeks its inspiration from the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. He was a far-sighted thinker. The vision of religious harmony and cooperation that he articulated over a hundred and twenty years ago is very much relevantfor and is needed even more today. In his message delivered in the Chicago Parliament of World Religions in 1893, he envisioned interreligious relations that would go far beyond the secular ideology of tolerance. He emphasised the need for spiritual revival and warned that sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism will fill the earth with violence, destroy civilisations and send whole nations into despair—nothing could be of more contemporary relevance. We are meeting at a time when violence, uncertainty and differences amongst nations, between citizens and people of different faiths, and increasing radicalisation are pushing the world into an era of multiple confrontations. Besides traditional,Not ideological and cultural rivalries, new challenges have emerged in the form of lawless forces backed by extremely violent ideologies that threaten the very existence of de jure states. Our experience over the last century has shown that existing situations and mechanisms for dealing 4 HINDU-BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY ON CONFLICT AVOIDANCE & ENVIRONMENT CONSCIOUSNESS with these threats have not worked. The current approach towards conflict resolution is largely based on a Western and simplified perspective of conflict between faiths and civilisations. This approach to solve conflicts has been short-sighted and impractical. Apart from conflicts which threaten the world order, humankind also seems to be at war with Mother Nature, recklessly exploiting rich resources to such an extent that the very survival of planet earth has come into question. Similarly, the attempt to end environmental degradation through legislation and regulations is proving to be a failure. It is in this context that the world is increasingly noticing the benign nature of Hindu-Buddhist values which emphasise and espouse democratic and non- conflicting philosophies, not only toward mankind but also nature. The questions confronting us therefore are—one, as to how would we now change the established norms in resolving these disputes, two, Salehow can we now move from conflict resolution to conflict avoidance and three, how can we curb our greed and curtail the damage to Mother Earth. We are fortunate to have amongst us eminent spiritual leaders, thinkers, scholars, analysts, experts, opinion makers and environmental conservation experts, not only from Asian countries but also from Europe and the United States, attending the conference. We are hoping to evolve a new framework, which will be founded on the strong, non-conflicting philosophical paradigm of two of the oldest and vibrantly activefor civilisational forces, namely Hinduism and Buddhism. In these, non-violence is a fundamental value, which is compatible with modern democratic values and institutions. It is with this conviction that the Vivekananda International Foundation decided to hold this conference in collaboration with The Tokyo Foundation and the International Buddhist Confederation. I will be failing in my duty if I do not acknowledge here that the main idea and inspiration for this conference came from Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi himself. Conceptual support from others, mainly, Shri Gurumurthy and Ven Lama Lobzang and our Japanese friends from Tokyo Foundation has helped us in organising this important conclave. I am confident thatNot it will end with concrete suggestions and a declaration to carry this process ad momentum forward. The success of this conference will be measured by the concrete steps that we take to implement the resolution that we adopt. This will be called the ‘Bodh Gaya Resolution’. 2 BENEDICTION: SRI SRI RAVI SHANKARSale Om nama pranavarthaya suddha jnanaika moorthaye nama nirmalaya prasanthaya sri dakshinamoorthaye nama I bring greetings also from Swami Dayanand Saraswati—who could not be here due to his ill health—and he hasfor said that, ‘Hinduism and Buddhism offer among various available religions, a pre-eminently appropriate reservoir of thought and practice, which is at once convincing and practicable.’ Now, the very fact that we have said, conflict avoidance, has already sent a message to the world. People, who believe in this philosophy of conflict avoidance, perhaps nearly 3 billion or half the population of the world, also believe in non-violence. But our voice needs to be heard very loud and clear. The world cannot be at peace as long as some people think that they have the key to heaven and exclusive rights to heaven. This is largely due to ignorance. So we need to actually focus on three things: education, education and education.Not We need to educate the population of the world that there are many ways to one truth. The British believed that ‘familiarity breeds contempt’, but familiarity breeds contempt when there is no truth, no compassion and no enlightenment. We in the East believe something 6 HINDU-BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY ON CONFLICT AVOIDANCE & ENVIRONMENT CONSCIOUSNESS completely different. We say ‘familiarity builds respect.’ I want to cite an incident here. Once an imam confessed to me, ‘You know Sri Sri Gurudevji, I went to Benaras and studied the Vedas and Upanishads. My intention was to condemn them but when I studied them, I developed an enormous respect for the philosophy of this culture.’ This is to be noted: wherever there is truth, compassion and philosophy, familiarity builds respect not contempt and we have believed this for centuries. In the known history of the world of over 3,400 years, only a mere 8 per cent of the time, the world has been at peace. That is a recorded 268 years only that we have been at peace. The rest of the time, the world has been at war. In this century, from 2003 onwards, the world has faced thirty wars, both small and large all around the globe. What can we do? How can we avoid this? I wouldSale say by practising the philosophy of coexistence. Even if a small part of the world is left thinking that they have an exclusive right over heaven, they are going to create hell for everybody else. This is possible when through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) we create a curriculum of multireligious, multicultural and environment-friendly education right from childhood, right from primary school onwards. Our Prime Minister took a very beautiful step in declaring International Yoga Day through the United Nations (UN) in 2015. There has beenfor a tremendous response to this from the world over. This is an excellent indication that we are marching in the right direction towards peace and prosperity. If there is no peace, there will be no prosperity. They are linked together and prosperity does not depend on exploitation of our resources, rather on the conscious protection of our own planet and its resources. We have the power. We can all unite. We are like a sleeping giant. The Hindu-Buddhist confederation can contribute in more than one way to world peace. We have already been doing this in a small way. Hinduism has taken the path of Yoga and Buddhism has been a co-sponsor of this. Buddhism has inNot many ways been expanding compassion throughout the world and establishing its philosophy in developing countries as well as developed ones.