The Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism project is an

interfaith Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. It is ...

initiative originated by

the Dalai Lama , coatofarms = , coatofarms_article = , coatofarms_link = , incumbent = Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama , incumbentsince = 22 February 1940 , image = Dalailama1 20121014 4639.jpg , caption = Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama , first = Ge ...

and

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad (born 15 October 1966) is a Jordanian prince and a professor of philosophy. He is the son of Prince Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan and his first wife, Princess Firyal. He is a grandson of King Talal of Jordan and thus ...

of Jordan. These two were joined by a panel of select scholars, and the project was officially launched on May 12, 2010, in Bloomington, Indiana, US. The project is based on the book ''Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism'', by

Reza Shah-Kazemi Reza Shah-Kazemi (b. 1 June 1960 ᴄᴇ) is an author who specializes in comparative mysticism, Islamic Studies, Sufism and Shi'ism. He is the founding editor of the ''Islamic World Report'' and currently a research associate at the Institute of ...

, who together with

Ingrid Mattson Ingrid Mattson (born August 24, 1963) is a Canadian activist and scholar, A professor of Islamic studies, she is currently the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario ...

and

Eboo Patel Eboo Patel is an American Ismaili of Gujarati Indian heritage and founder and president of Interfaith America (previously known as Interfaith Youth Core), a Chicago-based international nonprofit that aims to promote interfaith cooperation. Pat ...

was part of the scholars’ panel convened for the Bloomington event.

History

In May 2010, the Dalai Lama was in Bloomington giving a teaching on the Buddhist Heart Sutra. As previously arranged, partly through the mediation of Fons Vitae (publishers in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

), he took time out to meet with a small group of Muslim and interfaith leaders to launch the new book, and the new initiative.

Content

In his foreword to the book, the Dalai Lama writes, “This is an important and pioneering book, which seeks to find common ground between the teachings of Islam and of Buddhism. It is my hope that on the basis of this common ground, followers of each tradition may come to appreciate the spiritual truths their different paths entail and from this develop a basis for respect for each other's practice and beliefs. This may not have occurred very often before, because there has been so little opportunity for real understanding between these two great traditions. This book attempts to set that right.” Sections of the book include, among others, the following: “The Buddha as Messenger”, “Oneness: The Highest Common Denominator”, “''Shūnya'' and ''Shahāda''”, “Detachment: ''Anicca'' and ''Zuhd''”, “The ‘god’ of Desire" and “The Common Ground of Sanctity”.

Reception

Apart from notes in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', local press and some Buddhist journals, and in spite of the involvement of international leaders like the Dalai Lama and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, this project was and has remained practically ignored by the media.Cf. the topi
Buddhist-Muslim Dialogue at the Huffington Post

References

{{reflist

External links

Official project website

A related article by the Dalai Lama
2010 in religion 2010 in Indiana Interfaith organizations History of Tibetan Buddhism 14th Dalai Lama Buddhism and Islam

History

Content

Reception

See also

References

External links