During the Intellectual Summit in Prague in the autumn of 1998, one of the clearly identified trends of our time was seen to be interreligious dialogue, or the interfaith movement with its various forums around the planet. It was predicted that this trend would become a dominant and permanent feature of life in the third millennium and beyond.
As cultures removed from one another over the previous millennia, they nursed dangerous misunderstandings, suspicions, competition, intolerance of difference, and conflict. These tensions played out in thousands of wars. Now we are entering a new age, an interspiritual age, in which the religions are finding common ground and developing bonds of community among themselves, especially through organizations like the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the Temple of Understanding, the United Religions Initiative, and the World Conference on Religion and Peace. Through the work of these organizations and hundreds of local interfaith groups in every corner of the world, the horrendous interreligious conflicts that have plagued our century will become part of our past, never to disturb humankind again.
Cape Town 1999 as Another Watershed
The Parliament of 1893 witnessed the first conversations between and among representatives of the religions in the modern period amidst the striking symbolism of color and diversity. The second session in the summer of 1993 saw the emergence of the Global Ethic, a sense of community, and a seriousness about the critical issues. The third Parliament session in South Africa will take us to new heights of awareness and suggestions for possible action in a number of spheres: ecological, social, political, educational, scientific, spiritual, moral, and cultural.
The third Parliament, through the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and its Assembly, will issue a Call to the Guiding Institutions. This will serve as the primary act of the Cape Town convocation and a concrete way to impact the many areas of life mentioned above. Such a call is necessary as we face a new millennium with all its possibilities for positive, meaningful change. It is an important initiative on the part of the religions and a way of highlighting certain practices or beliefs of each of the guiding institutions that are counter productive. It also is a way to suggest concrete actions that can contribute to a universally beneficial approach to life — one that is sustainable, humane, and enhancing of planetary harmony — in the millennia ahead.
The Parliament’s initiative was inspired directly by Towards a Global Ethic. It addresses religions, governments, commerce, industry, labor, education, arts and communications media, medicine and the sciences, and nongovernmental organizations, all of which hold enormous power for good or ill. Through it, the Parliament may stimulate reflection and reevaluation in the light of interdependence and economic, social, political, cultural, and religious harmony.
Both the Global Ethic and the Call pursue and promote Universal Responsibility, an altruistic, compassionate, loving attitude, and commitment and practice that articulate the essence of the Parliament itself, and the whole interfaith movement.
The documents dovetail nicely with both the Parliament’s agenda and the vision in the Dalai Lama’s book, Ethics for a New Millennium. In this significant book, His Holiness speaks about ethics free of a religious context. He has in mind something profounder and more primordial, even more basic, and I believe, more ultimate than practical reason; instead, he is referring to what I would call human, or natural spirituality, the essential good-heartedness of each human being. It is a valuable contribution. Natural human spirituality needs to be explored further and given a place in the interfaith encounter. Through the Dalai Lama’s book, it will enter the culture and forum of the Parliament itself.
Interspirituality: Finding Common Ground Among the Religions
One of the insights that has become clear to me over the years, especially in the interfaith context, is the importance of exploring spirituality together in a universal context, just as we have shared our ethical concerns, finding consensus in the Global Ethic. Spirituality is a universal dimension; it is found in all religious traditions and also in so many individuals who have no tradition at all. It is part of the makeup of those remarkable people who are called cultural creatives, who probably make up the bulk of the Parliament’s support. Cultural creatives (it has been estimated that they number around 70 million in North America alone) are well educated, inner-directed, open to new ideas, seeking connections, and given to action. In general, however, as people awaken within, they become intensely interested in and committed to spirituality. In fact it may be said that the real religion of humankind isn’t religion at all, but spirituality.
When spiritually mature representatives of all the traditions are placed together and compared, what becomes obvious is that they share many of the same qualities. They are all morally actual beings, living from a depth of moral awareness that has become second nature. They understand that the happiness of each person depends on the happiness of everyone else, thus realizing their interconnectedness with the totality of sentient beings. They are exquisitely gentle; they have evolved beyond the need for any kind of violence. They live simple lives, uncluttered by too many things. Their inner being is richly awake from years of spiritual practice and a depth of self-knowledge that prevents them from lying to others or to themselves. Spontaneously responsive to others, they are here in this world to serve, and they will not remain silent in the face of injustice. Their lives are surrounded by holiness and determination.
The enduring evidence of this universal mysticism, or global spirituality, is the effect each form of authentic spiritual life has on its practitioners. A Christian saint is no less a hero of virtue than a Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, or Sufi saint. Each one of these types shares in universal spiritual laws that require an orientation away from self-cherishing and a movement from self to others. Ethics alone cannot achieve this change of direction; it has to be supported by spirituality, the inner resources of the heart that can precipitate a revolution in consciousness.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions, and the interfaith movement as a whole, will only deepen and expand its influence to the degree that spirituality is the basis of its participants’ commitment. Evidence of such spirituality can be found in gifts of service to the planet, a kind of symbol of our desire to give the world a miracle in the form of something radically new and pure, untainted by false ambition, and completely for everyone. That vision is not possible unless it is crafted in the crucible of inner realization, a work that is precious and difficult. It requires a robust commitment and unwavering discipline, a steady courage, and a seriousness of intention.
Most of all, if we want humankind to change how it lives and uses resources, how it treats its own and other species, then we must be examples of that very change ourselves. There is simply no other way to genuine and valuable leadership in this new age — the interspiritual age — we are creating.