YOUR RELIGION IS NOT IMPORTANT a brief dialogue between a Brazilian Theologist Leonardo Boff and the Dali Lama.
Leonardo is one of the renovators of the Theology of Freedom.
In a round table discussion about religion and freedom in which Dali Lama and myself were participating at recess I maliciously, and also with interest, asked him: “Your holiness, what is the best religion?” I thought he would say “The Tibetan Buddhism” or the oriental religions, much older than Christianity.
Dali Lama paused, smiled and looked me in the eyes….which surprised me because I knew of the malice contained in my question.
He answered:
“The best religion is the one that gets you closest to God. It is the one that makes you a better person.”
To get out of my embarrassment with such a wise answer, I asked:
“Which is it that makes me better?”
He responded:
“Whatever makes you
more compassionate,
more sensible,
more detached,
more loving,
more humanitarian,
more responsible,
more ethical.”
“The religion that will do that for you is the best religion”
I was silent for a moment marveling and even today thinking of his wise and even irrefutable response:
“I am not interested, my friend, about your religión or if you are religious or not.
“What really is important to me is your behaviour in front of your peers, family, work, community, and in front of the world.”
“Remember, the universe is the echo of our actions and our thoughts.”
“The law of action and reaction is not exclusively for physics. It is also of human relations. If I act with goodness, I will receive goodness. If I act with eviI, I will get evil.”
“What our grandparents told us is the pure truth.
You will always have what you desire for others.
Being happy is not a matter of destiny.
It is a matter of options.”
Finally he said:
“Take care of your Thoughts because they become Words.
Take care of your Words because they will become Actions.
Take care of your Actions because they will become Habits.
Take care of your Habits because they will form your Character.
Take care of your Character because it will form your Destiny,
and your Destiny will be your Life… and …
“There is no religion higher than the Truth.”
Given the events in the world today and considering what is the background of most world conflicts, these words are the answer for world peace. The problem for us now in our quest for peace is the lack of understanding in levels of evolution of the thought forms and symbols in most religious interpretations of their holy writings.
We can only bring forth interpretations at the current level of understanding {evolution}. Maybe the idea of peace most of us have, i.e. no war, understanding, acceptance, kindness, oneness, righteousness, love, etc…. Cannot be achieved from our collective point of evolution at this moment in time.
I do not think it is impossible for those living now to experience peace. I live my life in anticipation of experiencing peace. But, I KNOW that for me to experience that kind of peace, I must have it within my very essence. Not a hope or an understanding, but a KNOWING.
It is a personal responsibility and a human obligation to strive for that inner peace. The world is depending on it. Nothing else will change current conditions. Most of us know that the energy the world is existing in is created by it’s inhabitants…. All of us contribute to that energy every second we breathe. It is the same for the animals, vegetables and minerals. How we treat our home, Mother Earth contributes to the energy of peace. We are a sum total of all the parts. All these parts must exist in peace for peace to exist. When the energy is a high frequency, we evolve and become closer to peace. When the energy exists in chaos and is low, we are stagnate or worse, entropy. We are always in control.
OK, So what???? Well, either get yourself on a solid foundation taking a stance in your truth, or not. It is always your choice. And when you make that choice, you have no complaints or negative comments available because you made the choice and you must live with it. Or continue to decay and rot. Sounds harsh but that is really what happens. We call it death.
The self is all you are really obligated to deal with in this human life. When you do that, you will become so service oriented and close to creator that you will make righteous choices without a thought about it. You live for humanity. You live in love.
There is a deep knowing that you are in the flow and you are a miraculous creation that has a destiny of peace and contentment in this human walk. You walk in bliss.
“Remember, the universe is the echo of our actions and our thoughts.”
“The law of action and reaction is not exclusively for physics. It is also of human relations. If I act with goodness, I will receive goodness. If I act with eviI, I will get evil.”
