Richard Serra - Literal

Tolerance and Universal Responsibility
n His Holiness the 14 th Dalai Lama
Wanfuge Buddha, located inside the Lama Temple - Yonghegong
My generation, (I see some old people, so I should say
our generation) the one who belongs to the twentieth
century, instead of solving the problems, created
more problems. So now, fortunately or unfortunately,
younger generations are extremely important to solve
those problems. It is very relevant to me to speak about
religious tolerance. It’s a great honor to speak on such
subject. So at the pin that I was given seems important
to the topic of my presentation to talk about the need
of tolerance and universal responsibility.
My commitment, until my death, is to promote religious
harmony and religious tolerance. Another commitment,
which I have already spoken about this morning,
is the promotion of human value, the importance
of compassion in human society. I think one of the big
differences in the twentieth century—particularly, in
the earliest part of it—national sovereignties and also
culture, or individual culture or individual religion, were
4 4 L ITERAL. LATIN AMERICAN VOICES • FALL, 2007
more important than the sense of global community.
Now in the twenty-fi rst century, due fi rstly to population,
and secondly to the global economy and tourists
and ease access to information everywhere, and some
other factors, of course, the environmental issue, the
whole globe has became a whole entity. I often tell people
the importance of the words “we” and “they”. War
destroys the concept of “them” and that is a victory of
“us”. Actually I think in reality everyone is interdependent.
West needs East, and East needs the West. Middle
East needs East, East needs Middle East. The northerners
needs southerners and vice versa. This is the reality.
So under these circumstances, the destruction of your
neighbor is actually the destruction of yourself.
It’s very important to have a sense of global community,
a sense of the oneness of humanity, a sense
of one big human family. If all people are happy and
peaceful, individual nations get peaceful and content.
And if some problems occur in some remote area,
eventually the repercussions will reach you in your
own home. So that’s the new reality. Global consciousness
is essential, and this is also true from the religious
point of view. All religions talk about humanity as a
whole. And some religions, Buddhism, Shintoism, not
only speak of humanity, but also for all sentient beings.
Both Theistic and non-Theistic religions have this view.
In fact, one of my Muslim friends says that we should
love not only human beings, but all other creatures of
God, the planet itself and all animals in it. From different
religious points of view it’s true; according to
religions all created by the source.
If all creatures come from the same source, discriminating
is a contradiction. Non Theistic religions believe
that all have the same rights, because all have the same
feeling of happiness and suffering. It takes the entirety
of sentient beings as one, to develop a concern for
sentient beings. Now the point is the global community,
the one family. That’s necessary and important.
The oneness of human being does not mean there is
Actually I think in reality everyone is interdependent. West needs East, and East needs the West. Midle
East needs East, East needs Middle East. The northerners needs southerners and
vice versa. This is the reality. So under these circumstances,
the destruction of your neighbor is actually the destruction of yourself.