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Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World's Religions Can Come Together Paperback – 6 September 2011
by Dalai Lama (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 48
"A must read." -The Huffington Post
"May the effort of this book be of benefit to the emergence of a genuine understanding between the world's great religions, and may it foster in us deep reverence toward each other." The Dalai Lama
In perhaps his most important book, the Dalai Lama shares his hopeful yet realistic views on how humanity must step into the future. In our daily lives today no one is untouched by what happens in the rest of the world. New technology, environmental problems, economic gain and loss, nuclear weapons, and instant communication have all created unprecedented familiarity among the world's many cultures. With this historic development, the Dalai Lama understands that the essential task of humanity in the twenty-first century is to cultivate peaceful coexistence.
Many believe in the inevitability of an escalating "clash of civilizations". Peaceful coexistence has long been problematic between religions, and while previous conflicts over religious differences may have been significant and regrettable, they did not threaten the very survival of humanity. Now, when extremists can persuade followers with the immense emotional power of faith and have access to powerful technological resources, a single spark could ignite a powder keg of frightening proportions.
Yet the Dalai Lama shows how the challenges of globalization can also move us in another direction, to a deeper plane where nations, cultures, and individuals connect through their shared human nature. All major religions confront the same perennial questions; each have distinct forms of expression. But this marvelous diversity of insight has the potential for inspiring dialogue which can enrich everyone's pursuit of wisdom.
In Toward a True Kinship of Faiths, the Dalai Lama also explores where differences between religions can be genuinely appreciated instead of becoming sources of conflict. Creating genuine harmony does not depend on accepting that all religions are fundamentally the same or that they lead to the same place. Many fear that recognizing the value of another faith is incompatible with having devotion to the truth of one's own. Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama shows how a sincere believer can, with integrity, be a pluralist in relation to other religions without compromising commitment to the essence of the doctrinal teachings of their own faith.
An issue of central importance for the Dalai Lama personally and for the entire world in general, Toward a True Kinship of Faiths offers a hopeful yet realistic look at how humanity must step into the future.
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T Endrich
5.0 out of 5 stars Key to humanity's future
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2016
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This is a very wise and desperately important book. The Dalai Lama has the capacity to see the best that each religious outlook has to offer, the flexibility to recognise each, and the compassion to embrace all in spite of various limitations that can be identified. Understanding and accepting his message is one of the keys to humanity's future -- a future otherwise very much in jeopardy.
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Milian France
5.0 out of 5 stars MAGNIFICENT, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BUY
Reviewed in the United States on 28 April 2014
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Intelligent, profound and practical, this wonderful book by the Dalai Lama gives us a practical plan and possibility for perhaps the greatest prayer of human existence: peace on earth. He describes a consistent similarity between religions as a belief in compassion, and the purpose for having good lives. Based on his personal, life-long visits with leaders of other faiths all over the world, speaking and praying from the same pulpits, talking about scriptures, doctrines and practices both similar and dissimilar, he presents the world's religions in easily understood ways, not soft soaping by any means, but by analyzing and comparing with a view toward the practical possibility that all of us can peacefully co-exist. Toward the end, he presents an intelligent, do-able plan that if considered and implemented, could actually allow us to create peaceful religious co-existence. He draws upon the great example of his huge adoptive nation, India, which like the United States, has religious freedom, and in which multiple religions have lived side by side as neighbors for over a thousand years. These include many religions, among them the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faith traditions. This magnificent book is a highly recommended buy for anyone desiring respectful cooperation between religions, as well as between the religious and the secular.
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Christof
5.0 out of 5 stars Sehr inspirierender Text des Dalai Lama
Reviewed in Germany on 14 February 2014
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Aus den Texten sprechen die tiefe gelebte Spiritualität und die weite Offenheit des Dalai Lama gegenüber allen Religionen. Sehr lesenswert.
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emgee
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 February 2016
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Amod A. Vaze
5.0 out of 5 stars Every religious leader should read this book about how to treat other faiths...
Reviewed in the United States on 17 April 2011
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I highly and enthusiastically recommend this book by the Dalai Lama. It's amazing how such a wise person can be so humble and honest at the same time. This book is truly necessary in our world, when religions have such a difficult time getting along with each other. For a leader of one of the largest faiths in the world to write a book about the positive aspects of other faiths is sorely lacking in this world and is a welcome endeavor to help ease tensions around the world due to religious strife. I hope people in power pick up this book and read it to truly get an understanding of how similar we all really are.
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Kyle J. Parker
5.0 out of 5 stars A view we can work from.
Reviewed in the United States on 31 January 2013
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What makes this work a worthwhile read is that it works on two levels: First it works on the shared level of encouraging a dialogue of respect and investigation between different religious communities, it also works on a personal level for us to view how all religions have shared values and that for religion to carry any benefit into the future how we must work from our commonalities. This is the same in all dialogue, that we can be respectful of our differences and work from our common ground. This is sensible, and while it will manifest in many ways depending on the people in dialogue the core remains the same: working from our compassion and wisdom.
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Judith T. Lackritz
4.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Religious Pluralism
Reviewed in the United States on 16 July 2012
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Toward a True Kinship of Faiths was chosen as a book to be read and discussed in our local interreligous council. It was a very good fit for the council because it was well received by many in the group and it generated several excellent discussions. The author lays out a case for the capacity of a religious person to be connected and devout to ones own particular religion and yet approach the tenets of another faith, or non-faith, with respect. The middle of the book contains interesting chapters about various of the larger religious groups, but for me, the central part of the book is the beginning and the end of the book, in which the Dalai Lama talks about religious understanding. Based on on the discussions in our interreligoius council, I would guess that a reader might disagree with various particular assertions of the book, but most readers will be attracted to the genuine tone and tenor of the book.
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Paul R. Buettner
5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading for this time.
Reviewed in the United States on 13 May 2013
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I chose this book as a part of a book group. I found it to be a wonderful look at the way in which we need to live our lives in the global world of today. The time for thinking that my faith is the only truth needs to peacefully end so that all people can live in freedom and self worth. One God, many paths.
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PrimeYogi Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars He Knows of What He Speaks
Reviewed in the United States on 16 February 2018
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He is one of the wisest people on the planet. We need to listen to him more. Benefits accrue to those who listen more and speak less especially if there is a sage within earshot.
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David Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars I believe this book is Dali's finest work. The culmination of his study
Reviewed in the United States on 28 January 2018
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Should be a pre-requisite read for anyone who professes a particular denomination. I believe this book is Dali's finest work. The culmination of his study, geographic history, and 50 years of dedicated research.
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Toward a True Kinship of Faiths
How the World's Religions Can Come Together
By His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Affirms the strong points of the world's major religions and chooses compassion as the spiritual practice they all revere.
Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/20157/toward-a-true-kinship-of-faiths
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, is deeply troubled by the rising tide of enmity between the world's religions and the growing polarization between believers and those with no religion. The former is based on the exclusivism of fundamentalists of all stripes and the latter upon a continuing lack of openness and a refusal to accept and respect the pluralism that is an essential aspect of twenty-first century life. Over the years, the Dalai Lama has engaged closely with various religions and come to the conclusion that compassion lies at the heart of all of them. It is the right time for inter-religious harmony to replace conflict, hatred, and misunderstanding. The Dalai Lama makes it clear that hospitality toward other faiths does not mean abandoning or slighting one's own beliefs and perspectives.
Living in India has given the author a keen appreciation for the birth of the four religions which thrive there: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The Dalai Lama affirms Jainism for its respect for all forms of life and its ethic of nonkilling. He singles out the service of the poor as one of the commendable practices of Sikhs and is impressed with the quest for peace as one of the chief goals of those of the Bahai faith. And he finds much to admire in Hinduism, including seeing the Divine in diverse forms and the four paths that are explained. The Dalai Lama was very much taken with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, an early pioneer of Buddhist-Christian dialogue. He has been impressed with the high value placed on social activism by Christians who believe in serving the poor and the vulnerable. He also salutes the work of contemplative practice as demonstrated by Bede Griffiths, John Main, Thomas Keating, and Brother David Steindl Rast. In Judaism, the Dalai Lama honors the strong memory of the past, the resilience of the Jewish people in exile, and the religion's mystical tradition.
Besides its advocacy of complete surrender to Allah, this Tibetan Buddhist monk is fascinated with Islam's emphasis on the spiritual practice of compassion, which he sees as the place where all the world's religions can come together. He describes it as "the natural capacity of the human heart to feel concern for and connection with another being." The Dalai Lama provides a captivating overview of this ethic of selfless service and altruistic action as it works its way through the various world religions. He then closes with a four point program for the promotion of inter-religious harmony and understanding:
1. Dialogue between scholars of religion on the academic level
2. Dialogue between genuine practitioners
3. Meetings between the leaders of the faiths
4. Joint pilgrimages to holy sites.
Hopefully, the outcome of such mutual respect and sharing will be communities working together to stem the tide of religious hatred and conflict, acting as a force for goodness, serving the cause of peace, contributing to the repair of the abused environment, and dealing with the vast inequities of wealth. He concludes:
"Make the vow today that you shall never allow your faith to be used as an instrument of violence. Make the vow today that you may become an instrument of peace, living according to the ethical teachings of compassion in your own religion."
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Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World's Religions Can Come Together
by Dalai Lama XIV
746637
Sally's reviewMar 03, 2011
really liked it
bookshelves: religion, social-justice-action
Religion can be a very divisive force, associated with intolerance, persecution, conflict, exclusivity and fanaticism. The Dalai Lama argues here that this does not need to be the case and that the religions can instead lead the way toward peace, tolerance, and greater understanding. The first section of the book examines several of the world's religions – Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – by recounting the author's contacts and experiences with each faith and its exponents. In this way it provides examples of how people can gradually become familiar with other faiths and get to genuinely appreciate aspects of them, while still being firmly committed to their own spiritual path. For those not familiar with these faiths, it provides an introduction to some of their basic ideas and approaches.
In the second section, the Dalai Lama gives his views on how religions can work together for the good of all. He points out that compassionate ethics is a shared aspect of all faiths, despite great metaphysical and cultural differences. Indeed, he sees it as a basic human quality that underlies all ethical teachings, religious or secular, and these ethics provide common ground. Moreover, because religions can motivate people to make great personal changes and sacrifices, as they reach a deeper emotional level than other institutions generally do, religions have a opportunity to bring about more peaceful, compassionate, earth-friendly behavior on a large scale if they work together for the good of mankind. He also includes the secular population, noting that all human beings need to work together for human good, and that religious and secular people need to learn to respect each other.
The author outlines his own approach to interfaith understanding, which rests on the recognition and celebration of differences. This raises the issue of truth in religion: "Can a single-pointed commitment to one's own faith coexist with acceptance of other religions as legitimate? Is religious pluralism impossible form the perspective of a devout person who is strongly and deeply committed to his or her own faith tradition?" (p. 146)
As leader of one branch of Buddhism, he has no interest in the withering away or merging of current religions. "A successful approach cannot hide the differences by promoting some vague vision of all religions actually being one, nor can it be a syncretistic attempt to merge their various strengths into a universal faith.. . . If inter-religious harmony is based upon a healthy recognition of the differences between faith traditions, this then allows us to transcend some of those differences and move beyond them to a higher level of convergence, where they have a common goal of human betterment and a set of key ethical teachings." (p. 132)
He agrees that "some version of exclusivism – the principle of 'one truth, one religion' – lies at the heart of most of the world's great religions. Furthermore a single-pointed commitment to one's own faith tradition demands the recognition that one's chosen faith represents the highest religious teaching. For example, for me Buddhism is the best, but this does not mean that Buddhism is the best for all." (p. 158)
Rejecting exclusivity and inclusivism, he opts for the type of pluralism that does not accept an ultimate unity of all religions, as streams flowing into the same sea or paths up the same mountain. Recognition of such ultimate oneness of religions "demands a precondition that remains impossible for the majority of adherents of the world's great religions....True understanding of the 'other' must proceed from a genuine recognition of and respect for the other's reality. It must proceed from a state of mind where the urge to reduce the other into one's own framework is no longer the dominant mode of thinking." (p. 148)
His starting point for respect of other religions is the recognition of their benefits to millions of adherents by providing them with ethical guidance, inspiration, meaning and solace. "Their profound benefit to others is really the ultimate reason each of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, must accord deep respect to the world's great faith traditions."
This is a problematic point because many nonbelievers feel that the harm religions do to believers outweighs any benefits, and religious adherents may feel the same about religions other than their own.
"Given the need for upholding the perspective of 'many truths, many religions' in the context of wider society, while the dictates of one's own faith demand embracing the 'one truth, one religion' perspective, I believe that a creative approach is called for here – if one wishes to uphold both of these perspectives with integrity." (p. 160)
This approach not only recognizes the benefits of other religions, but that the doctrinal teachings, though unbridgeably different, inform each religion's ethical way of life. "The doctrines themselves cannot be reconciled, but the way they make it possible to ground strikingly parallel and praiseworthy ethical system is a wonderful fact." (p. 161)
In the end, the Dalai Lama asks people to "return to our basic human quality of empathy and good heart": "On that level, all differences break down. Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbelieving, man or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally, and mentally, we are all equal. We all share basic needs for food, shelter, safety, and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears, and dreams. Each of us wants the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture, and language make no difference. Today's great challenge of peaceful coexistence demands that we remain in touch with this basic part of our nature." (p. 180) This book is a thought-provoking contribution to discovering paths to peace and well-being for all.
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Hungarian Wiki
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Toward a True Kinship of Faiths – How the World's Religions Can Come Together
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toward a True Kinship of Faiths (How the World's Religions Can Come Together)
Author Tendzin Gyaco
Language English
Topic religion
Expenditure
Publisher Doubleday
Release Date 2010, 2011
Media type book
Number of pages 224
ISBN 978-0385525060
Template • Wikidata • Help
In the book "Toward a True Kinship of Faiths - How the World's Religions Can Come Together" (in Hungarian: A true kinship of faiths - How the world's religions can come together), the 14th Dalai Lama , Tendzin Gyaco , reveals how the differences between religions can be appreciate without becoming a source of conflict. Creating true harmony does not depend on accepting that all religions are essentially the same or that they lead to the same place. Many fear that acknowledging the values of other religions will not be compatible with their commitment to their own religion. Although the Dalai Lama clearly demonstrates how a true believer can approach other religions openly without having to make any compromises regarding his own religion.
Contents
No country, culture or individual can remain untouched by what is happening in the rest of the world. New technological developments, environmental pollution , economic growth and decline, nuclear weapons , instant communication, have created a previously unimaginable family community among the different cultures of the world. According to the senior Tibetan lama , the great task of the 21st century is for people to learn and cultivate peaceful coexistence. Many believe that civilizations will inevitably clash with each other. Peaceful coexistence has not been easy for religions throughout history, but despite the fact that conflicts arising from religious differences have been significant and deplorable, they have never threatened the survival of humanity. In this day and age, when extremist groups are able to convince their followers through the sheer power of faith to use the most advanced technologies to commit heinous acts, we must pay close attention to each other. [1]
Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama shows how the challenges of globalization can take a very different direction, with nations, cultures and individuals interacting on the basis of their humanity.
The great religions of the world use different methods, but they represent the same values. The wisdom drawn from interreligious dialogues can enrich every individual. All religious traditions regard compassion for others as one of the keys to a good life. It is the duty of every person seeking spiritual perfection to manifest the fundamental value of compassion. On such a basis, it is possible to feel deep appreciation and respect for the faith of others. [1]
Notes
Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World's Religions Can Come Together . Goodreads.com. (Accessed: May 14, 2016)
More information
Information page of the book at books.google.hu (in English)
