Master Hsin Tao of LJM advocates spiritual awakening at the 8th Parliament of the World’s Religions

(中央社訊息服務20211025 17:01:40)The 8th Parliament of the World’s Religions (PoWR) ran its course online October 17 to 19. Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Founding Abbot of Taiwan’s Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society (LJM), addressed the general assembly with a keynote speech calling for interfaith & cross-domain cooperation and spiritual awakening. The speech received positive feedback all around.

“Compassion, quintessentially, leads sentient beings to depart from suffering,” remarks Master Hsin Tao on eminent crises resulting from climate change and ecological hazards. He believes that only by returning to spirituality that sustainability can truly be achieved.

Strategic solutions can be mapped out along that base line of spirituality for concrete actions of interdisciplinary cooperation, noted the Master. He offers three sets of objective-led-tactic: (1) to form a consensus to revive the ecology by helping religious followers move toward spiritual awakening; (2) to solve problems by identifying their root causes; and (3) to eliminate nuclear warheads by reaching a pan-religion ceasefire.

As the world’s oldest global interfaith conference, the PoWR was inaugurated in 1893 to address key issues of every epoch ranging from war, conflicts, poverty, gender equality, to global crises of late, with efforts to advance social harmony by virtue of religious understanding and cooperation. PoWR 2021 was themed Opening our Hearts to the World: Compassion in Action with a total of 559 meetings including the three plenaries respectively themed on Grief, Hope, and Compassion in Action.

'There is no better time than 2021 to bring people of diverse faith and spirituality together to bring about a better world,' noted the organizer in the webpage designated for the Conference. 2021 still suffers a lingering COVID-19 and safety concerns prompted the PoWR to take its conference online for the first time in its history to accommodate the presence of 80-plus countries representing more than 100 religious traditions via virtual participation.

The Master optimized the occasion by leading a group meditation in the style of the LJM signature Peace Meditation-in-Four-Steps to better prepare all online participants for the conference. He took to the podium again to lead a group prayer session for blessing at the Closing Ceremony with the message to see everyone again at the next PoWR Conference in Chicago in 2023.