I would like to share a thought from one of the outstanding citizens of the world, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I totally believe that his message, vision, and legacy belong to every human being who wants to fashion a more humane and just world. He gave us two options: to peacefully coexist or to destroy ourselves. His argument is based on the accumulation of prejudicial attitudes and behaviors that we generate each day. Because of these factors, we must learn to appreciate and value each other if we want to survive on this tiny planet that is our mutual home. 

With humility and respect, I would like to propose the following point of views. I hope we can continue sharing perspectives which will promote the realization of peaceful environment in the era of globalization.

Respect

King Asoka from the Indian Mauryan dynasty defined how respect to other religions is the peaceful way to glorify one's religion. To share this value so that it can be cherished by future generations, the King founded a Piyadasi Pilar that states:

"One should not honor only one's own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honor others' religions for this or that reason. So doing, one helps one's own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise, one digs the grave of one's own religion and also does harm to other religions. Whosoever honors their own religion and condemns other religions does so indeed through devotion to their own religion, thinking they will glorify their own religion. But on the contrary, in so doing they injure their own religion more gravely."

Compassionate actions based on equality

"All beings in the world posses the mark of the Tathagata's wisdom," This quote of equality, proclaimed by the Buddha, is the light that guides us toward peace and compassionate life. We are human beings who wish to drive away suffering and gain happiness. At the same time, however, we are also capable of creating selfishness, craving and conflicts through the perceived "my religion is best". The perception of my religion is best places ourselves as being superior than others. Wars in the name of religious beliefs are then inevitable. I believe that the salvation in each religion attributed to the most loving-kindness, the most righteous and just, and the omnipotence of their worshipped God. If we believe that God has the capacity beyond what we could have possibly imagined, we should also accept that God has transformed the teaching in different ways throughout different times and civilizations to different groups of people so that the teaching could be well understood. With this perspective, do we still need to argue about superiority?

It is a great challenge to each of us to implement equality in our life. When equality exists, the compassionate actions will emanate and peace is no longer needed.

Teamwork

To realize peace and harmony into our life, we need to unite resources from one another. Our distinguished talents alone do not suffice the needs of this great work. These talents need to combine with others so that we can gain synergy that will contribute to the effort of promoting peace throughout the Earth. Together Everyone Accomplishes More (TEAM) allows us to achieve the extraordinary result: peace.