The Interfaith Summit

I’d like to share with you some of my favorite comments that came out of the interfaith summit.

 Unity not uniformity

Interfaith dialogue could be the movement

from tolerance to understanding to respect to love.

Before we are a faith,

we are a people.

I was expecting to meet Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Instead, I met people.

“When you pray, first move your feet.”

As people of faith, we need to engage with the world.

Religions are a means to an end,

not the end in themselves.

In meditation, as we move within,

boundaries will drop away and we will find ourselves without and one with everything.

Be relentless in the pursuit of compassion.

Gossiping

• From the perspective of practice, the major problem of criticizing others is not “whether he is in fact wrong and I am right,” but the fact that our ears and eyes are already making judgments and our minds are closed to everything but our own perceptions. Further, we are creating negative karma through the incipience of our ideas and depriving ourselves of merits. Therefore, our six sensual organs are like six thieves, and the purpose of practice is to prevent them from wildly pursuing the sense objects so that we can close the door to vexation. We should train our ears not to crave for pleasant melodies; eyes, agreeable surroundings; nose, fragrance; mouth, tasty food; and train our minds to be free of discrimination. Then we can concentrate on reciting the Buddha’s name and the sutras, performing prostration, sitting meditation, and other practices that will liberate us from the cycle of birth and death. If we keep up these practices, how could we have the time and the mood to pursue external distractions, or to comment on how others behave?
• If you criticize others and your mind is disturbed or vexed by it, you would have no one but yourself to blame. Do not be judgmental of what others do: be tolerant. Then, not only will you enjoy peace of mind but will avoid creating negative karma through your words. This is the first and utmost important principle in practice. Remember: “Act according to (rather than against) circumstances, forbear everything, then enjoy peace of mind.” This is the best antidote for a troubled mind.
• Don’t say that there are good people and evil ones. All judgments are but distinctions made by our minds. To those who really know how to practice, all sentient beings are helpful mentors.

~ Analects of Master Kuang-ch'in

Eyes of a Buddha-to-be

There is no difference between me and you and they. We are all part of one another: we each have a Buddha-nature waiting to awaken. Every person—every being—we will encounter today is a future Buddha. A Buddha-to-be caught just as we are in our lack of awareness.

Unaware, they suffer just as we suffer. They too get hooked by their habits and carelessly react from those habits, not from wisdom. Deluded, they suffer just as we suffer. They too take wrong ideas for the truth and view the truth as falsehood. They too act out of ignorance and make many mistakes, not realizing the harm they are doing.

Today, all those we encounter will undergo trials. Take their disappointment and difficulties in as your own. And view them clearly and non-judgmentally through your eyes—the eyes of a Buddha-to-be.

Be Good

It's the eve of the One Humanity, Many Faiths regional summit, and we're now in Brisbane. The other monastics have gone across Ann Street to Brisbane City Hall to see the main hall, the exhibition hall, and other rooms we'll be using for smaller sessions. The summit is jointly organized by the Pure Land Learning College Association in Toowoomba, where I spend most of my time here, and the Griffith University Multi-faith Centre here in Brisbane.

I'm in the hotel room enjoying a cup of chamomile tea and listening to the chanting machine and the barely discernible city noises outside the window and thirteen stories down. And working on my laptop. And looking for entries that I can pinch for the next few days since I've been seriously neglecting this blog with all the time required to prepare for the summit. Oh, the entries I'm pinching are from here so since we define stealing as taking something without permission of the owner, I guess I'm not really pinching anything. ;-)

So tonight I'm advance posting some entries that I hope you'll enjoy and which you may not have read. I'll be offline for four days, so if there are comments, I'm afraid they'll have to wait till I'm back in Toowoomba.

When I first attended the Dallas Buddhist Association, it was as a participant in a meditation group that was started for westerners. Several of us had called at the time a monk arrived from Miami. He was extremely out-going, with an infectious laugh.

One evening, I was helping him carry some supplies to the building the group met in. In Chinese culture, it is very normal to ask someone their age. Since the Chinese respect elders, you quickly realize this is an excellent way to determine how to act properly toward another person and not necessarily a reason to worry about your recent behavior.

As we were walking, the monk asked me how old I was. I told him that I was forty-eight. He carefully considered this for a moment and very sincerely responded, "Too old to learn. Just be good."

Over the years, people have reacted differently to the "Too old to learn" comment. Perhaps it was the way he said it, but I didn't get upset over the first part. I zoomed in on the latter part, "Just be good."

Such a simple instruction—just be good. That's all we have to do. We don't need to complicate our practice. Just recite and learn one sutra. Just chant one Buddha's name. Just focus on this moment. Just be good.

The Unfaltering Vow

It is appropriate to cherish and protect this world for it is both our home

and of those yet to come.

A world so immense, yet so easily destroyed by selfishness and fear.

May all beings savor the nectar of contentment

to overcome desiring more than is needed

and bring forth the resolve to live gently and simply.

It is right for us to respect every being for they are one with us,

different aspects of a single entity.

We may feel we are dissimilar or superior,

but we share universal values and all seek to live and be happy.

May the perfection of our true selves blossom within us

as we let go of discrimination and contention

and bring forth forgiveness and generosity.

It is time to heal the wounds born of grasping and violence,

for if left untended, they will fester and cause irreparable damage.

For as we sow, we will reap.

May all our hearts and minds draw together

to forge the unfaltering vow to bring our world lasting peace.

~ Prayer to be given at One Humanity, Many Faiths Interfaith Summit ~