Buddhism Perspective

Buddhist attitude towards other religions

This topic of attitudes towards other religions is very important to society now with all the faith-based conflict and wars affecting our world today. Many of the world's conflicts today have arisen not from a real clash of religious teachings but from the lack of understanding of one's own religion, specifically in the teachings of compassion, humility and loving kindness.

From the Buddhist perspective, all religions teach compassion and pure love to other beings. Conflict arises when these teachings are ignored to fuel the self-serving objectives of individuals. The aim of Buddhism is to guide everyone to lead a noble life without harming any other being, to cultivate peace and harmony within and around oneself and ultimately to purify one's mind to overcome greed, hatred and delusion.

Buddhism is a religion which teaches people to "live and let live". There had never been any documented evidence of Buddhists interfering or damaging any other religion for the purpose of propagating Buddhism. Importantly, Buddhists do not regard the existence of other religions as a hindrance to worldly progress and peace. Of course, Buddhism clearly states that to develop true peace and happiness, one must understand that: the nature of our worldly lives are inherently unsatisfactory; the cause of this inability to be happy is our insatiable worldly craving; this suffering will end when we understand the true nature of the world and the way we can develop this understanding is by developing morality, concentration and wisdom.

The Buddha said that any religion which had these principles would be a religion which contributes to peace and happiness. In this way, Buddhism does not put itself above any other religions and more importantly, has no prejudice against any other religion. Buddhists are also expected to show compassion and loving kindness for anybody who does not have access to these teachings. Intolerance and superiority has no place in Buddhism.

Venerable Thich Nan Hanh writes that there are many similarities between religions that must be respected and encouraged. These values will bring all religions together in peace and harmony. True understanding and practice of one's own religion will naturally encourage respect for other religions. Therefore Buddhists are encouraged to truly understand and practice Buddhism before they comment on other religions.

Another important aspect of the Buddhist perspective on other religions is also dealing with criticism of Buddhism. Buddhists should not be easily insulted and then put themselves in danger of reacting in a non-Buddhist way, through anger and hatred. They should develop a calm mind which can clearly see the nature of that criticism and the viewpoint of the criticiser. Through the filter of compassion and wisdom, that criticism loses its bite and one does not need to react in a negative way. One should have the confidence that any criticism will only be at the superficial level and not a threat to the Buddha's teaching and one's practice of that teaching. We all need to share this way of relating to one another's religions.

According to Ven K. Sri Dhammananda, Buddhists are not forbidden to give due respect to other religions, to visit other places of worship or even attend other religious services. They can do so while maintaining their practice of Buddhism.

Inter-religious harmony is the responsibility of all religions and its practitioners. It is our collective responsibility to look at our own religion's teachings and its interpretations in order to identify that which is discriminatory and destructive to peace and harmony. We must also identify all the teachings that promote harmony and peace in the world. Buddhism's core teaching is about choice. We have choices and we must empower ourselves to exercise these choices for the good of all beings.

This article was prepared by Mr Ranmal Samarawickrama of the Buddhist Council of NSW, with the guidance from the writings of two well-known Buddhist scholars, the late Venerable K.Sri Dhammananda and Ven Thick Nanh Hanh.