Speech of Mr. Jamyang Luosangjiumei Tudanquejijima, Deputy chairman of Buddhist Association of China

Your Excellency President of Kazakhstan!
Honourable religious leaders,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

In such a beautiful season and beautiful palace, the World Religious Congress is solemnly held once again. Now, please, allow me, on behalf of the Chinese Religious Delegation, to extend the warmest congratulations to the opening of the Congress. Our high tribute goes to His Excellency Mr. Nazarbayev, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the initiator and organizer.

Our tribute also goes to Mr. Abykayev, the Secretariat leader and we wish to offer our best wishes to all friends present here from the religious society all over the world.

The contents of my speech today have been set according to the theme of this Congress with its title "Make concerted efforts to build a pure, beautiful and harmonious world".

As we know, while living on this globe enjoying all conveniences brought about by flourishing science and technology, we also have to face all kinds of dilemmas and challenges: worsening environmental pollution, widening gap between rich and poor, abrupt hurricanes and tsunamis, weird epidemic diseases, consistent conflicts and wars, and frequent terrorist attacks.

Beyond the mainstream of peace and development, the society is not harmonious, people are not concordant and minds are disturbed. All these show that the world is far from peace, and to keep the world peace and join efforts to build a harmonious and beautiful earthly pure land has become a serious issue not to be avoided.

We also know that human peace and world harmony are the common pursuits of all religions, and peace is a great deal of mankind that has been elevated from blood and fire of wars. It is the fundamental task of religions to keep the world peace and tranquility and to create human happiness and joy, and this is also where the value of religions lies. Therefore, we should exert the unique rallying force of every religion to awaken people's inherent kindness, banish their evil thoughts, and make shared contributions to building a beautiful and harmonious earthly pure land.

Take my belief Buddhism as an example. Its doctrines include leniency, equality, departure from evil and approach to good, and also altruism. We, Buddhists, are in pursuit of our ideal - "To dignify the country and bring benefit and happiness to every sentient being"; we believe in devotedness - "To eliminate greed with a heart of mercy and sharing" and "to seek no ease and happiness for ourselves but try to help sentient beings free from suffering"; we live by ethic values like "benevolence and tolerance", "not to do any evil but to cultivate good," and "to purify our own minds". All these ideas are precious treasury of human civilization and medicine for purifying people's minds, and they should be followed as people's behavioral principles. More than 2000 years ago, Sakyamuni Buddha instructed the followers "to love others as themselves but never kill each other" and "to reject suffering and pursue happiness".

Ever since its foundation, Buddhism has been pursuing peace, and Buddha has been guiding us to oppose wars, enabling us to find out the right direction to the cause of human peace and happiness. Two thousand years have passed since the introduction of Buddhism into China, and it has been combined with Chinese inherent thoughts and culture, developing into Buddhism with Chinese characteristics. Chinese Buddhism has inherited and carried forward its original peace-loving ideas, seeking harmony and equality of all human beings.

Many eminent monks in the history went around, campaigning to eliminate wars, and their stories are still being passed on with approval in the history of Buddhism worldwide and also that of cultural communication. They certainly have set good examples for us to follow. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Buddhist society has been devoted to the cause of peace and friendship and has contributed much to the cause of world peace. In April, 2006, the Chinese Buddhist society successfully hosted the First World Buddhism Forum with the theme of "A harmonious world begins in the mind", which was aimed to set up an equal, multivariate and open platform of high-level dialogues, communication, and cooperation for those who love the world, care for living beings, shield and sustain Buddhism, adhere to leniency and are ready for actions.

Following Buddha's guidance, the forum welcomes any participant, whether one practices Theravada Buddhism or Mahayana Buddhism, whether one is a layperson or has left the home-life, whether one is inside or outside Buddhism. And it also encourages dialogues between orthodox and esoteric teachings, ultimate truth and worldly truth, and practices in this world or beyond. When we talk about "a harmonious world", we mean a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity that takes the concerted efforts from different countries, different nations and different religions to build. And when we talk about "begins in the mind", we mean that a purified mind contributes to a purified territory, a tranquil mind contributes to the tranquility of all living beings and a calm mind contributes to a peaceful world. What we try to achieve is a vision of new "six harmonies", namely, people's geniality, family harmony, interpersonal amiability, social harmony, human concordance and the world peace. This vision of ours has been commonly recognized by the participants of the forum and has left a positive impact on the whole world.

I have noticed that many praying concepts have been put forward in the documents of this Congress. For example, the proposal that we should enhance mutual understanding between different cultures, religions and nations to prevent conflicts concerning cultural and religious differences; the notion that the fundamental tasks of all religions are to reject violence, call for respect of others with different religious believers and seek peaceful coexistence with them. These rational reflections and propositions all help to promote the prestige and cultural value of religions, and they will enable religions to play an even more important and positive part in maintaining the world peace.

Just as a seed may develop into a forest, an idea may well awaken a world of disoriented minds. A tranquil mind and a peaceful world only exist in our thoughts. We religious leaders are shouldering the sacred mission to maintain the world peace, and to make sure religions live up to its commitment to promote the world peace, I suggest us making efforts in the following respects:

I.   Making concerted efforts to purify people's minds.

The sources of suffering are various, some of which are natural, while others are social, especially those man-made ones. In the view of Buddhism, the primary one of all sources is that some human minds are deteriorated. The social and man-made suffering can be dissolved, to a certain extent, through consultations and negotiations between nations and organizations. But to eliminate the sources of suffering fundamentally, we must purify people's minds. Thus, in the face of radical changes of the society and humankind itself, may the religions of leniency, equality and peace awaken the conscience and confidence in people of different nations, colors and religious believers, and may the cause of peace strike roots in the hearts of the people so that the peace campaign will be spread more widely in the world range.

II. Making concerted efforts to accelerate development and progress.
The world is colorful, so the variety and diversity of different nations, religions and civilizations should be given sufficient respect. We should seek mutual compatibility rather than discrimination, communication rather than repulsiveness, dialogues rather than confrontation, and coexistence rather than conflicts. On the basis of mutual understanding, equal treatment and the practice of seeking common ground while putting aside differences, we should try to cultivate the positive effects of various civilizations to accelerate the consistent development of the human society and synchronized progress of different countries and different nations.

Down the ages, there have been various mutual discrimination, repulsiveness, confrontation and conflicts between different nations, countries and people of different religious believers, which have not only brought about great losses and disasters to the countries and people involved, but also affected the stability, tranquility and development of many other areas and even the whole world. The painful lessons are never to be forgotten by the international community. The egoistic practice in the world and the actions intended to stir up any national split or even inter-ethnic hostility are against the historic trend and will surely harm the noble cause of human peace and progress.

III. Making concerted efforts to promote tolerance, communication and unity.

Let's be tolerant instead of discriminatory. Let's seek common ground and put aside differences, for common ground makes mutual affection, and differences, mutual respect; Let's seek communication instead of repulsiveness, and then we will be able to deepen mutual understanding, eliminate misunderstanding and promote the positions they share. Let's seek unity instead of conflicts, never do to others what we do not want done to ourselves.

Dear friends, here I would like to call on people of different ethnicities, different religious believers and different countries to join our hands. For the sake of the world peace and human well-being, let's make concerted efforts to build a pure, beautiful and harmonious world!

Thank you!