QUESTION: You certainly think highly of Buddhism. I suppose you believe it is the only true religion and that all the others are false.
ANSWER: No Buddhist who understands the Buddha’s teaching thinks that other religions are wrong. No one who has made a genuine effort to examine other religions with an open mind could think like that either. The first thing you notice when you study the different religions is just how much they have in common. All religions acknowledge that humankind’s present state is unsatisfactory. All believe that a change of attitude and behavior is needed if the human situation is to improve. All teach an ethics that includes love, kindness, patience, generosity and social responsibility and all accept the existence of some form of Absolute. They use different languages, different names and different symbols to describe and explain these things. It is only when people cling narrow-mindedly to their particular way of seeing things that intolerance, pride and self-righteousness arise.
Imagine an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Chinese and an Indonesian all looking at a cup. The Englishman says, ‘That is a cup.’ The Frenchman answers, ‘No it’s not. It’s a tasse.’ Then the Chinese comments, ‘You are both wrong. It’s a pei.’ Finally the Indonesian man laughs at the others and says ‘What fools you are. It’s a cawan.’ Then the Englishman get a dictionary and shows it to the others saying, ‘I can prove that it is a cup. My dictionary says so.’ ‘Then your dictionary is wrong,’ says the Frenchman, ‘because my dictionary clearly says it is a tasse.’ The Chinese scoffs; ‘My dictionary says it’s a pei and my dictionary is thousands of years older than yours so it must be right. And besides, more people speak Chinese than any other language, so it must be a pei.’ While they are squabbling and arguing with each other, another man comes up, drinks from the cup and then says to the others, ‘Whether you call it a cup, a tasse, a pei or a cawan, the purpose of the cup is to hold water so that it can be drunk. Stop arguing and drink, stop squabbling and refresh your thirst.’ This is the Buddhist attitude to other religions.
- This is based on A Good Question Good Answer, by the Ven. S. Dhammika
It’s a noble though that all the religions are same, the only difference is of name. All the religions have teachings, only for the betterment of the society. Some times I come across some Buddhist terms which goes difficult for me to understand, but when I find out its meaning it is nothing but a different word of other language with same interpretation I am learning for years in my religious teachings.
By: Stepheni on June 27, 2008
at 7:26 am
Hi Stepheni, thanks for the visit and the Buddhist dictionary link, I added it to my dictionary page. I think it’s the fear of the unknown that’s a turn off to most people, but if we have confidence in our faith, then we’re more open to other religions as well, sometimes I feel that religion is one of the invisible walls that divides people.
By: Ginger on June 28, 2008
at 10:23 am
I don’t think that all religions are the same, they just share some basic common of the teachings. Buddhism may be a big tree, other religions may be its branches.
By: Laobuddhism on September 20, 2008
at 7:47 am
I’m a Buddhist myself, but I feel that it would be biased to say that “Buddhism may be a big tree, other religions may be its branches” because I’m sure everyone feels this way about his/her religion, that it is the big tree and other religions are its branches. We can argue about this till the end of time.
Thanks for the visit, nice blog that you’ve, but sadly I don’t know enough about pasa Lao, but I can read some and make sense of it.
By: Ginger on September 20, 2008
at 8:31 am
Thanks for pointing out that buddhists do not cling to any certain knowledge as one cannot cling to one scientific point of view, simply because in ten year time this point of view will be changed anyways, although when you drop a cup, it falls to earth and probably it shall be broken.
What I liked most is that the Frenchman used tasse in his explanation of the word for cup. Most French probably don’t know that word either, because it is German
By: Edwin Hissink on November 20, 2008
at 12:37 pm
I would just use my hand to scoop water out and drink from it. Am I consider a Buddhist?
By: Dallas on December 8, 2008
at 4:48 pm