Buddhism - "The Best Religion in the World" award


The Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) has bestowed "The Best Religion in the World" award this year on the Buddhist Community.

This special award was voted on by an international round table of more than 200 religious leaders from every part of the spiritual spectrum. It was fascinating to note that many religious leaders voted for Buddhism rather than their own religion although Buddhists actually make up a tiny minority of ICARUS membership. Here are the comments by four voting members:

Jonna Hult, Director of Research for ICARUS said "It wasn’t a surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World, because we could find literally not one single instance of a war fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other spiritual tradition."

A Catholic Priest, Father Ted O’Shaughnessy said from Belfast, "As much as I love the Catholic Church, it has always bothered me to no end that we preach love in our scripture yet then claim to know God’s will when it comes to killing other humans. For that reason, I did have to cast my vote for the Buddhists."

A Muslim Cleric Tal Bin Wassad agreed from Pakistan via his translator.

"While I am a devout Muslim, I can see how much anger and bloodshed is channeled into religious expression rather than dealt with on a personal level. The Buddhists have that figured out." Bin Wassad, the ICARUS voting member for Pakistan ‘s Muslim community continued, "In fact, some of my best friends are Buddhist.

"And Rabbi Shmuel Wasserstein said from Jerusalem, "Of course, I love

Judaism, and I think it’s the greatest religion in the world. But to be honest, I’ve been practicing Vipassana meditation every day before minyan (daily Jewish prayer) since 1993. So I get it."

However, there was one snag - ICARUS couldn’t find anyone to give the award to. All the Buddhists they called kept saying they didn’t want the award.

When asked why the Burmese Buddhist community refused the award, Buddhist monk Bhante Ghurata Hanta said from Burma, "We are grateful for the acknowledgement, but we give this award to all humanity, for Buddha nature lies within each of us." Groehlichen went on to say "We’re going to keep calling around until we find a Buddhist who will accept it. We’ll let you know when we do."
Source:
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=110289

Did Buddhism win the best Religion of the world award?

There’s a rumor going about a lot of blogs that Buddhism wins the best religion of the world reward. Unfortunately it’s only blogs that are reporting this. No ordinary news sources, nor can I find the ‘Icarus’ foundation that is said to have given the award because:

“It wasn’t a surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World, because we could find literally not one single instance of a war fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other spiritual tradition.”

While I am halfway to being a Buddhist, this just isn’t true. There are plenty of wars fought ‘in defense’ of Buddhism. Right now young Tibetans are defying the Dalai Lama and trying to get rid of the Chinese in their country for instance. While I fully sympathize with their plight, taking to arms just isn’t the same thing as nonviolence – and that’s what this online rumor does claim. So let’s go straight to the heart of this and quote what was standard reading material in a class on religion and violence I took a few years back:

… the history and teachings of Buddhism are not spotless. The great military conquests of the Sinhalese kingdoms in Sri Lanka, for instance, have been conducted in the name of the Buddhist tradition and often with the blessings of Buddhist monks. In Thailand the tradition called for those who rule by the sword as kings to first experience the discipline of Buddhist monastic training. They had to be “world renouncers” before they could be “world conquerors,” as the Harvard anthropologist Stanley Tambiah put it.

… Like Islam, the great expansion of Buddhism in various parts of the world has been credited in part to the support given it by victorious kings and military forces who have claimed to be fighting only to defend the faith against infidels and to establish a peaceful moral order. (p. 114, Terror in the Mind of God; the global rise of religious violence, Mark Juergensmeyer)

If you think Tibetan Buddhism is exempt – think again. Any history of the succession of the Dalai Lama’s (let’s go straight to the heart of the myth) shows them being killed off by courtiers one after another. A short summary of that is available here: Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth. It’s a Western wish to see Tibetan Buddhism as peaceful, to ignore the less savory sides of it’s history. And of course Tibetans in exile have a steak in that myth, because it funds their various monasteries, schools, hospitals etc.

I know this is neither comforting, nor uplifting, but I do think that the truth is the only foundation for true spirituality. The fact is: no religion is a guarantee for peace. It’s what human beings do with it that determines the outcome.


Read More by Katinka Hesselink: http://www.allconsidering.com/2009/buddhism-best-religion-award/

Spiritscience:
Buddhism - "The Best Religion in the World" award

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=110289

This got liked to my attention, thank you.