NEWS STORY: Dalai Lama urges interfaith harmony in the Middle East

c. 1999 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, made a personal appeal Monday (June 14) to rival religious groups in the Middle East to end centuries of hostility and recognize their shared destiny in the land that is holy to the three religions that practice monotheism. Tenzin Gyatso, the […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, made a personal appeal Monday (June 14) to rival religious groups in the Middle East to end centuries of hostility and recognize their shared destiny in the land that is holy to the three religions that practice monotheism.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, spoke at the close of a first-ever interfaith conference in Jerusalem that drew Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, as well as delegations of Christians, Jews and Muslims.”This historic place is shared by three major religions,”the spiritual leader told a news conference Monday.”It’s something very unique. This can create problems, but I think it also can make a contribution.”A unique thing can be achieved for humanity in such a shared place,”he added.


The three-day conference was sponsored by the San Francisco-based Inter-Religious Friendship Group. The group, which promotes international meetings between key religious figures, is led by Bishop William Swing, head of the Episcopal Diocese of California, and California businessman-philanthropist Richard Blum. Blum is a personal friend of the Tibetan leader and also the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

In appearances here that ranged from meetings with Jerusalem’s top religious dignitaries to simple admirers on the street, the Dalai Lama disarmed audiences with his unassuming demeanor and a simple language of peace. His visit here followed an initial 1995 trip to the region for an environmental conference.

For Buddhists, Jerusalem has no intrinsic religious meaning, he acknowledged. But he said he could appreciate the deep-felt sentiments of Jews, Christians and Muslims toward the city.

Yet seen from the perspective of the Far East, what is common to all three faiths is far greater than what divides them, he added.”All three major religions have the same concept of creator _ although there are some little differences,”he said, with a smile.”In fact according to both Christianity and Judaism, Buddhism is nihilism,”he added, referring to traditionalist Western views of Eastern religions interfaith activists have sought to debunk.

The Tibetan leader, who has been living in exile in India since China occupied Tibet in the 1950s, said repeatedly during his visit that he identified with the Jewish experience of survival in the diaspora and the ultimate return of Jews to their spiritual homeland.

But Palestinian Muslims and Christians also have”resentments and frustrations”Israeli Jews must try to understand, he told the news conference.”In ancient times, destruction of your enemy meant victory for your side. Today, the interests of you and your enemy are intertwined. One hundred percent victory is impossible. Because the world is interconnected, the interest of your neighbor is ultimately the interest of yourselves.”Human beings should consider other human beings as fellow brothers and sisters,”he added.”The differences of ideology, systems and nationality are secondary.” Earlier on Monday, the Tibetan leader made pilgrimages to Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites in the ancient Old City of Jerusalem and met with Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, as well as with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Diodoros I.

Appearing at the Western Wall with Lau, the Dalai Lama donned a bright maroon yarmulke matching the color of his robes. Standing before the ancient stones of Judaism’s most holy site, the Dalai Lama asked the rabbi to utter a prayer for peace. Lau recited a verse from the biblical book of Isaiah:”My house of prayer shall be a house for all the nations.” The Dalai Lama hung a white scarf, a traditional Tibetan greeting scarf, at the Wall and presented another such scarf to Lau, describing it as a symbol that represents purity, humility and eternity.”It is long _ a symbol that this friendship will remain forever,”he said. Then he added, with a characteristic twist of humor,”but the scarf has an end.” But Palestinian Muslim leaders were nowhere to be seen when the Tibetan leader ascended a few moments later to the nearby Muslim Shrines of Al Aksa and the Dome of the Rock.”The political environment is negative,”said Mahdi Abdul Hadi, a Palestinian academic, explaining why senior Palestinian Muslim and Christian figures generally stayed away from the interreligious event although some key Israeli Arab religious figures did attend.”If this kind of meeting could be held in a no-man’s land, you could see Palestinians, Muslims and Christians attending and participating, but as long as the city is still divided and people are really suffering, and they feel they are still under occupation, people will be too reluctant to move in.”DEA END FLETCHER


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