Dialogue - Our Common Ground of Humanity

Continued here are the selections from Global Civilization: A Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue:

The Common Ground of Humanity

Ikeda: To borrow your metaphor, dialogue is a kind of light to illuminate one’s footsteps. The whole thing begins with one human being talking with another. Inter-civilizational dialogue is currently the focus of attention, but the point of departure or the prototype is human-to-human rapport.

Whenever I visited socialist or communist countries during the Cold War years, I was always guided by the conviction that “because there are people to talk with” it must be possible to build a bridge of friendship.

We must somehow break through the “friend vs. foe” pattern of relationship and talk with each other honestly and openly on the common ground of humanity. That, I was firmly convinced, would break the ice and lead to problem solving in the end.

...Just as once there were strong prejudices against the socialist countries, today many people, especially those in Europe and North America, hold on to stereotypical images and biased preconceptions about the Islamic world. This is very dangerous.

Tehranian: I, too, am deeply concerned about the current situation. But you have taken the initiative in pursuing activities to prevent specific countries from being isolated in the international community.

Ikeda: To know each other well is the first step toward intimate friendship. To appreciate one’s partner’s strong points and to be ready to learn from him or her—this is required of all of us who live in the world today. I hope this series of dialogues between the two of us, one with a Buddhist background and the other from the Islamic tradition, will help encourage people to follow our example.

Rules for Dialogue

Tehranian: As I said earlier, the Toda Institute has chosen “Dialogue of Civilizations for World Citizenship” for its motto. As we groped for the most effective way to conduct dialogue, we have developed a set of rules. They are suggestive more than exhaustive, but I would like to introduce them here.

There are ten points:

• Honor others and listen to them deeply with your heart and mind.
• Seek common ground for consensus, but avoid “group-think” by acknowledging and honoring the diversity
of views.
• Refrain from irrelevant or intemperate intervention.
• Acknowledge others’ contributions to the discussion before making your own.
• Remember that silence also speaks; speak only when you have a contribution to make by posing
   a relevant question, presenting a fact, making or clarifying a point, or advancing the discussion
   to more specificity or greater consensus.
• Identify the critical points of difference for further discussion.
• Never distort other views in order to advance your own; try to restate the others’ positions to their
  satisfaction before presenting your own differing views.
• Formulate agreements on each agenda item before moving on to the next.
• Draw out the implications of an agreement for group policy and action.
• Thank your colleagues for their contributions.

Ikeda: They are all important points. The common thread seems to be open dialogue based on respect for others. I think you have presented a highly valuable list of rules that will serve as a model for the kind of dialogue humankind should pursue from now on.