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2009 Parliament for the World's Religions
an article by David Rounds
The Parliament for the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia
concluded on December 9 with a speech by the Dalai Lama. An aboriginal
elder wearing a ceremonial possum-skin cloak (no doubt worth a fortune
since aboriginal art and artifacts are hot these days), having
introduced the Dalai Lama, offered him as a ceremonial gift a
possum-skin, which for a man who would not wear leather clothing even
if he were suffering from hypothermia was an awkward gift. He was miked
and could be heard to say bemusedly, "Is it living?" and later when it
slipped off his lap, "It moved!" He's seventy-four, but still has a
charisma that combines gentleness and fortitude. He gave a rather
scolding speech urging religions to quit talking and get to action,
particularly concerning global warming and the various plights of
indigenous people.
There had been 650 presentations at the Parliament over the
previous six days; attendees amounted to about 4,500, compared to 8000
for the last Parliament (in Barcelona in 2004). This time the Dharma
Realm Buddhist Association was represented by a delegation of 25, led
by Rev. Bhikshu Heng Sure. Ten nuns, several laypeople, and five
seniors from Developing Virtue Girls' School, accompanied by one of
their teachers, Jackie Farley, were also part of the delegation.
Rosalind Kang, a long-time Australian disciple, and Amy Cheng made all
the arrangements. Heng Sure and Bhikshuni Heng Chih both made
presentations.
The Parliaments of the World's Religions really have two chief
purposes: first, mutual education, networking, and the building of
interfaith trust, though learning what other religions believe, and,
more important, what they do; and, second, marshalling the forces of
religions to work together for peace, social justice, and the health of
the earth. This particular Parliament focused on women in religion
(which will be the topic of next year's Religion East and West, the
academic journal of the Institute for World Religions, and so I went
around collecting promises for articles from speakers on women's issues
in various religions). One such speaker was the Benedictine Sister Joan
Chittister, who for years has been a thorn deeply lodged in the
Vatican's side. At the Parliament she gave several scathing speeches on
patriarchal aspects of religions, which as a matter of policy ignore
the feminine aspect of the sacred and of the divine ("We are confused
about who God is, but God is not confused," she said.)
The other emphasis in the Melbourne Parliament was the focus on
indigenous religions. The Parliament organization brought a hundred
indigenous leaders to Melbourne to make presentations - not only North
Americans (Dakotas Tlingits, Navajos, Iroquois), but also exotica such
as the Ainu, the white indigenous people of northern Japan - and of
course the Australian Aborigines. These indigenous invitees attended a
daylong conference of their own, which resulted in a charter.
Apparently such a meeting between so many widely separated indigenous
people had never before taken place. Another unprecedented aspect of
the Parliament was an unannounced attendance by two representatives of
the U.S. State Department and one from the White House Office of
Religious Affairs. According to one of Heng Sure's friends who took
part, the three Americans quietly convened meetings in which they
invited people to debrief them, asking, "What should we do to help, and
what shouldn't we do?"
(click here for continuation)
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Continuation of 2009 Parliament for the World's Religions
by David Rounds
For
six days I attended two to four sessions a day and took a lot of notes
There was every sort of presentation, such as the one on
Paganism, defined as resuscitated Euro-Indigenous spirituality ("We
worship the earth, not Satan; Satan is a character in somebody else's
narrative") I attended a guided meditation hour taught by Laurence
Freeman, a much-in-demand English Benedictine who travels the world
teaching Catholics how to still their minds, and who filled the packed
hall with a spiritual energy that hit me like a wind, something
I'd only encountered before with our own teacher, the Venerable Master
Hsuan Hua. There was an American Cardinal who with a South African
Rabbi and a Sikh preacher from Michigan described their joint
interfaith projects; ("If you want interfaith dialogue," the Sikh said,
"just walk down Main Street in an American town wearing a turban and
you'll have your dialogue immediately") A law professor
from the Dakota Nation spoke of women's roles and men's roles among the
Plains Indians A daughter of American black nationalists told of
her struggle before finally adopting her parents' faith in Islam
(whilst getting her Master's Degree at Harvard); she said she couldn't
shake the feeling that "One whom I cannot see sees me."
There
was also music. I heard a diminutive Indonesian lady who despite her
advanced years belted out the Qur'an in various styles and ranges
and degrees of warbling turns and trills, all sung entirely on the
notes of our minor scale (I suspect that this scale came across
the Pyrenees from Muslim Spain) An ensemble of Balinese dancers stepped
about as they bent their wrists and fingers into eloquent and
impossible positions. There were also two or three awe-inspiring
diggeredo players. The digereedo, which neither I nor my spellchecker
can spell, is a six to eight foot long tube, capable, when rightly
wielded, of making a deep trombone-like toneless but somehow seductive
blat.
For those who attend, the Parliaments of the World's
Religions are sufficient to open the eyes, and it would be hard for a
diligent participant to depart still blind to the multitudinous
diversity of human spirituality – and not only its diversity, but also
its validity. Outside the vast Melbourne Convention Centre, where 4500
people were keenly seeking their own truths, or attending to the truths
of others, a handful of protesters stood all day holding aloft
handwritten signs which read "Jesus is the only way" I kept thinking of
going outside and saying to them, "My friends, if you think there is
only one way, how little you know".. . ...more.
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