To the Ladies...

I wrote this post earlier this week. Probably March 22nd.

I miss you guys. You know who you are. You are the people in my life that believe in loving on every single person.

Sometimes I think that we care in a way that others think is impossible. I feel like I could be caught up in thinking that thinks are impossible too if I let myself get carried away in some of the nonsense of this world. I know in part that I already do. I love shopping and going to the mall, and off course shoes. But as soon as I start spending my days thinking about volunteering instead, all of that goes away. Jesus takes over.

People need Jesus, without him I get those looks of I work really hard for what I have, but it's just given to someone else. I can't deny that I don't have some of those same feelings towards people that are given things by birthright, but that's not okay either. It will not make the world better; it only causes more judgment.

The more people I meet, I find out who they are, the more I need to reevaluate my own prejudices and give them up to Jesus, our hope. I recently read something that the Dalai Lama said in a book by Scott Hunt, "The Future of Peace". In it the Dalai Lama explained to the Hunt that,

"Since you and I are both Buddhists, to us Buddhism is best. Buddhism is the only religion, the only truth we follow. But now, on a human level, on the level of community and society, there cannot be a concept of only one religion or only one truth. There are many religions, and many religions are providing benefits to many different people. So, therefore, in a community we must say that there are many truths. There is pluralism. That, I feel, is the only proper way to work out the differences and confrontations between different believers. Several religions, several truths on the community level; one religion, one truth on the individual level. I admit that to me, Buddhism is the only religion. But that is merely to me. Because Buddhism is the most effective religion to me, I can't think about following the idea of a Creator. It is difficult for me to conceive of this. But to another member of the community, such as a Christian practitioner, to him or to her, Christianity is the most effective belief. Therefore, to Christians, Christianity is the only religion, the only truth. So, if you put one Buddhist and one Christian together, you have a pluralism of beliefs. That is the reality of the situation.

I think that when we talk about religion, about faith, that is primarily an individual's business. That's my felling. But each of us must recognize that all other religions have the potential--whether it is the same potential or not-- to provide satisfaction or inner peace or tranquility to humanity. To me, I have full conviction that Christianity and Islam and Hinduism--in fact all the great religions--have equal power to provide inner peace and define the purpose of life. Today millions of people can benefit from these religions. And they can in the future as well. So, there are plenty of reasons to recognize the potential of all religions to help humanity. Therefore, I feel there is a real possibility to create harmony among the religious traditions."

He goes on to mention five ways to improve harmony. He believes that all religious leaders should come together and visit each others holy cities and see the good human qualities in each of them. He went to Jerusalem and Lourdes in France and other Holy places to see people getting inspired of these great traditions. He believes that religious leaders should "come together to talk peacefully in front of the eyes of millions of people."

He goes on, "I think that is a very strong signal to the follows of the religious traditions who might be fighting somewhere. Exchanging bright words, in some cases perhaps very sincere prayers, I think that would be very good."

"The fifth is a point which has been suggested by the Archbishop Tutu. We need to exchange in volunteer work, in cooperative work involving the different traditions. That also gives us an opportunity to forget about our own tradition and work together as brothers and sisters. I think that is an excellent idea.

Hunt replied that, "[it] would go a long way to end religious fighting. But I think that the trouble in establishing peace is not with the true believers who have a strong conviction that they should do right, but rather with those who don't sincerely believe in the teachings of their own faith about peace." 

The Dalai Lama then point out two important things. That in order to reduce fundamentalist thinking the follower of the religion tradition should truly implement peace in his or her daily life and that we must recognize out interdependence upon each other.

SO, I was thinking that by learning about other religions and knowing the values in others we can really see how to use those values to bring about peace and compassion. I truly believe that each one of us has the power to change the world. It is foolish to not believe it to be true. After all,

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead