[Buddha-l] Buddhism won "The Best Religion In The World" award

[jkirk]

-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of Weng-Fai Wong
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 9:38 AM


Not sure how true this one is but heck...

Buddhism won "The Best Religion In The World" award
15 Jul 2009, Tribune de Geneve
 

The Geneva-based International Coalition for the Advancement of
Religious and Spirituality (ICARUS) has bestowed "The Best
Religion In the World" award this year on the Buddhist Community.

This special award was voted on by an international round table
of more than 200 religious leaders from every part of the
spiritual spectrum. It was fascinating to note that many
religious leaders voted for Buddhism rather than their own
religion although Buddhists actually make up a tiny minority of
ICARUS membership. Here are the comments by four voting
members:

Jonna Hult, Director of Research for ICARUS said "It wasn't a
surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World,
because we could find literally not one single instance of a war
fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other
religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God
makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist
that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they
preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other
spiritual tradition."

 A Catholic Priest, Father Ted O'Shaughnessy said from Belfast ,
"As much as I love the Catholic Church, it has always bothered me
to no end that we preach love in our scripture yet then claim to
know God's will when it comes to killing other humans. For that
reason, I did have to cast my vote for the Buddhists."

A Muslim Cleric Tal Bin Wassad agreed from Pakistan via his
translator. "While I am a devout Muslim, I can see how much anger
and bloodshed is channeled into religious expression rather than
dealt with on a personal level. The Buddhists have that figured
out." Bin Wassad, the ICARUS voting member for Pakistan 's Muslim
community continued, "In fact, some of my best friends are
Buddhist."

And Rabbi Shmuel Wasserstein said from Jerusalem, "Of course, I
love Judaism, and I think it's the greatest religion in the
world. But to be honest, I've been practicing Vipassana
meditation every day before minyan (daily Jewish prayer) since
1993. So I get it."

However, there was one snag - ICARUS couldn't find anyone to give
the award to. All the Buddhists they called kept saying they
didn't want the award.

When asked why the Burmese Buddhist community refused the award,
Buddhist monk Bhante Ghurata Hanta said from Burma, "We are
grateful for the acknowledgement, but we give this award to all
humanity, for Buddha nature lies within each of us." Groehlichen
went on to say "We're going to keep calling around until we find
a Buddhist who will accept it. We'll let you know when we do."

==============
"Jonna Hult, Director of Research for ICARUS said "It wasn't a
surprise to me that Buddhism won Best Religion in the World,
because we could find literally not one single instance of a war
fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other
religion that seems to keep a gun in the closet just in case God
makes a mistake. We were hard pressed to even find a Buddhist
that had ever been in an army. These people practice what they
preach to an extent we simply could not document with any other
spiritual tradition." 

Eh? How about the Buddhist warlike samurai, the Japanese priests
who supported war in the 30s-40s, 
the monks in Sri Lanka taking part in the Tamil Tigers fight, to
suggest a few that come to mind. If she's director of research
for ICARUS, she didn't do enough of it. (Given the acronym, maybe
she was afraid to fly too high?)

"However, there was one snag - ICARUS couldn't find anyone to
give the award to. All the Buddhists they called kept saying they
didn't want the award."
		Probably they felt guilty about it~~~~~

Joanna



_______________________________________________
buddha-l mailing list
buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l