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Culture and Religion
Brother Phap Hien has just completed a chanting CD in English, and Brother Phap Niem also has a chanting CD in Vietnamese from Plum Village; currently, there are CDs in English and Vietnamese, but there is still a need for CDs in French and German.
Intercultural and interfaith marriages bring both difficulties and benefits: they often begin with much love, but over time, differences in culture, customs, and religion can lead to conflicts; if one partner promises to learn Vietnamese or to adapt to the culture but does not fully follow through, love needs to be nourished with patience, understanding, and daily practice.
I encourage each person to maintain and practice their own tradition, while also making the aspiration to learn the tradition of the other; in this way, your shared life can establish two strong roots.
Culture and religion are the common heritage of humanity; we have the responsibility to learn about the diversity of spiritual traditions, without discrimination and without forcing others to abandon their own faith to follow another.
The list of traditions we should fully explore includes:
- Buddhism
- Islam
- Confucianism
- Taoism
- Christianity
-
Judaism
Through interfaith dialogue, we open our hearts with equality, let go of self-attachment and fanaticism, in order to build happiness and harmony within diversity.
