Here are some excerpts from the book Global Civilization: A Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue, which records the dialogue between Soka Gakkai International (SGI) President Daisaku Ikeda and Prof. Majid Tehranian, the former director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. In the fallout over recent events in Malaysia, dialogue is more sorely needed than ever to heal the wounds and to reinforce our common ground.
From the foreword by David Chappell:
"Islam and Buddhism in dialogue? Of all the religions, these two seem the farthest apart despite over a thousand years of shared history. In recent years, some collaboration has emerged in Southeast Asia, but Muslim-Buddhist dialogue has still remained the last frontier, the least likely arena, for fruitful interfaith dialogue. But this apparent gulf is now bridged...what Buddhists and Muslims share in common is much more powerful than what divides them, and that people of good will must work together and be enriched by their diversity, not fearful of it, if we are to build landscapes of peace.
...Beyond the rich tapestry that they weave from the threads of Buddhism and Islam, their dialogue expresses the inspiration and exhilaration of crossing boundaries, of discovering kindred spirits across history, and of crafting new frameworks for building cultures of peace. After testing many paths in their own journeys, their inquiring minds offer dialogue as the best sure hope for the survival and flourishing of civilization. More personally, they inspire each of us to choose dialogue within our families and neighborhoods, within our workplace and our world, as the strongest and safest road for human cooperation and peace.
Islam and Buddhism may be worlds apart doctrinally and institutionally, but in their common work of liberation, justice, and wholeness, they are two wheels for the progress of civilization. But it is the warm friendship of Majid Tehranian and Daisaku Ikeda that ignites sparks of mutual recognition across these traditions, and the pain and poetry of their lives that transforms them into two wings for the bird of peace."
From Daisaku Ikeda's preface:
"Differences of race, nationality, or culture do not of themselves create division or confrontation. It is people’s hearts and minds that supply the energy that tears people apart. It is the task of religion to control the heart and mind and, while glorying in these mutual differences, to direct them towards the source from which all values are born. To fix one’s eyes on the eternal, the universally valid, and in this way to bring about a revival in human values—this, it seems to me, is the prime requirement of the kind of world religion demanded by our present age.
In a religion that recognizes variety as a natural manifestation of vitality, difference will be hailed as a welcome enrichment to human society, as wisdom in its most creative and worthwhile form.In these dialogues conducted by Dr. Tehranian and myself, we have traced the spiritual sources from which flow the traditions of Shakyamuni and Muhammad, the Buddhist and Islamic traditions, and to discover how the spirit underlying them can be revived in the present. In doing so, we noted not only their points of similarity, but their differences as well, believing that in an approach that transcends both of these lies the basis for the wisdom of humanity in the time to come."
"If one drop of the water of dialogue is allowed to fall upon the wasteland of intolerance, where attitudes of hatred and exclusionism have so long prevailed, there will be a possibility for trust and friendship to spring up. This, I believe, is the most trustworthy and lasting road to that goal. Therefore, I encourage the flow of dialogue not only on the political plane but also on the broader level of the populace as a whole.
In my small way, I have tried to do what I could by engaging in dialogue with intellectual leaders of the Christian, Hindu, and other religious traditions and of various cultural backgrounds, as well as with persons from countries that deny religion. My aim was to discover a road to peace through the common dimension of humanity that we all share."
More to come...
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