Posted on web: Thursday, 27 April 2006, 9:30 a.m.
The Editor
The Pioneer
Delhi
Sir,
This is in response to “Islam in the Eyes of the Dalai Lama” by Mr Balbir K. Punj, published Friday, 21 April in the opinion page of your esteemed newspaper.
“Islam is one of the world’s great religions, and it carries, basically, a message of love and compassion.” It is but extremely unfortunate that such a noble statement from a towering global figure, the Nobel Peace laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama would provoke anything but appreciation.
Those comments were made at the historic meeting of Muslim spiritual leaders with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in San Francisco recently. The summit aimed to negate religious extremism by highlighting that all major religions of world essentially “yield compassion, harmony and peace”.
Promotion of harmony among the major religions of world is one of what His Holiness has always pursued as his three main life-long commitments. [The other two being promotion of human values, and the Tibetan cause.]
This is based on the belief that “the purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to construct temples of goodness and compassion in our hearts. Every major religion has the potential to create this. The greater our awareness is regarding the value of other religious traditions, the deeper our respect toward other religions will be.”
His Holiness therefore always advise people to remain true to their traditional religion, and against conversions of people, community or an individual, from one religion to another, pointing out that human sensibilities and cultures are too varied to justify a single “way” to the truth.
Despite the language of love and compassion spoken universally by all major religions, every faith has its flip side–its own customized breed of, say, fanatics–and also, equally vulnerable to the manipulation of “rabble rousers”.
Having said that, should an entire faith be vilified for the misdeeds of “a few mischievous people”? This is the fundamental question that Mr Balbir K. Punj has parried in his article.
His Holiness always says that most of the problems faced by humanity are actually of its own creation.
And to a large extent, it stems from our mental attitude. “Our outlook therefore is the key factor for the future of humanity and the world.”
If the world continues to remain besotted with the historical wrongdoings, raking them up occasionally as a superficial balm to soothe the wounds of pent-up rage, than the future of humanity, if at all any, is doom and gloom.
Whereas, on the other hand, if humanity is on a bandwagon for peace and harmony in future, then this journey of million miles must embark from the single step of improving our mental attitude first.
Dhundup Gyalpo
Editor
Tibetan Bulletin & TibetNet
Dharamshala
PS: This letter was sent yesterday to the editor of The Pioneer in response to “Islam in the Eyes of the Dalai Lama” by Mr Balbir K. Punj, published Friday, 21 April in the opinion page of the esteemed newspaper.
(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration.)