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XX Meeting of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders and Traditional Religions and ABCP

In September 13, 2022, Da Lama Kh. Byambajav, ABCP Secretary General, has made a speech in the XX Meeting of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders and Traditional Religions chaired by the Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Head of the Secretariat of the Congress Maulen Ashimbayev. The session included about 30 representatives of world and traditional religions.

Da Lama Kh. Byambajav spoke about the importance of world peace. “In the world today, wars, conflicts and misunderstandings are deepening. Countries are being armed. World peace and safety of humanity may face more disasters. Many values such as life, health, heritage are being destroyed due to wars and conflicts,” he said at the XX session of the Congressional Secretariat. “I believe that these tendencies are to deny the Buddha’s teachings of karma, compassion and worship. Peace, in a broad sense, is one of the most important values. It is important for leaders to work tirelessly in delivering the value of peace and spiritual education to the society. World peace is not just an idea and a dream. It is achieved through concrete actions. Religious figures are undoubtedly contributing to peace and equality on earth. Religious and spiritual leaders need to be more active and effective. Economic crisis, disaster impact the global world. And we have to find ways to attract them”.

Below is the full statement by Ven. Da lama Kh. Byambaja, ABCP Secretary General:

Da Lama Byambajav Khunkhur,

 Secretary General of the Asian Buddhists Conference for Peace

Please kindly allow me to express my warmest greetings on this auspicious and utterly joyous day to you devotees, delegates, guests and representatives who have gathered for world peace at the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.

Kazakhstan has been successfully organizing the congress for many years at the global level, which has become the meeting point and interactive platform for religious leaders of the global community devoted for peace and unity.

This congress holds a friendly discussion on the themes of world peace, security and interreligious dialogue and has contributed greatly to global spiritual unity and peace by strongly expressing their voices on and calling upon ways of overcoming problems of society, especially crimes and cruelty, which are committed under the name of religion against the teachings and which harm peace and security of humans.

Wars, conflicts and contradictions have become frequent in recent years in the region and the world, major influential countries are mounting an arms race and increasing their military budgets. Scientific and technological advances are being utilized. All this are fraught with the danger of putting under threat the peaceful and tranquil life of the global humanity.

In the world history, war and conflict are caused by aggressive domination, seizing wealth and imposing their own will against each other and forcing their religion, belief and culture on others.

Many valuable things such as lives, health, wealth and culture are greatly harmed and destroyed in war and conflict. This is a bitter lesson caused by selfishness which is distorted from the Buddha’s teachings on karma, compassion, interdependent origination selfishness.

A great Buddhist Pandita once said that “Those who destroy mental enemies, such as anger and other afflicted emotions are considered as glorious heroes. Others who destroy physical enemies are murderers”.

Peace is one of the most important human values. Every being wants peace for themselves, their families, societies and communities. World peace means harmony without war and conflict; world peace is dependent on the peace of countries and the peace of countries are dependent on the peace of people’s inner mind.

Therefore, it is very important for devotees to work hard in disseminating the value of peace, harmony and mind education in the society. Mongolian Buddhists are dedicating their effort in establishing the view of peace in the world. One clear example is the Asian Buddhists Conference for Peace, which is based on Buddha’s teaching of compassion and harmony.

The Asian Buddhists Conference for Peace is an organization uniting international Buddhists under the common goal of protecting, strengthening and promoting global peace, unity, justice and human values. ABCP is one of the few religious organizations registered within the UN with an advisory status.

Our goals, views and activities are the same and I believe we will successfully cooperate in the further.  World peace is not just an understanding and a dream; it is gained by implementation in the long term, not in the short term.

I am confident that state and religious leaders will strongly contribute to establishing world peace and equality. Dialogue, activities, patience, compassion and wise decisions play important roles in achieving them. Therefore, the responsibilities of religious and spiritual leaders are increasing. The current global situation is warning us that we need to redouble our efforts for tranquility and peace. Many factors, such as demoralization, economic crisis and pandemic are negatively affecting world peace and harmony and it is required to identify the psychological impacts and methods of overcoming them. Meanwhile appropriate usage of online environment has an important role in unity and harmony of the global citizens.
Lastly, I would like to thank the representatives of traditional religions for their efforts in establishing and strengthening world peace and giving encouragement and hope to humankind.
With greatest respect and honor, from the bottom of my heart I offer my solemn gratitude to Kazakhstan for its tireless effort to make this historical important event happen.

10 September 2022