Marriott Hosts Third Dialog and Friendship Dinner
Silicon Valley’s prominent community and spiritual leaders, public officials, and academicians came together for Pacifica Institute’s 3rd Annual Dialog and Friendship Dinner on October 15th, 2009 at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel. The evening started with a reception at 6:30 pm followed by dinner at 7:00 pm. Following the dinner and a short introduction about Pacifica Institute’s mission and activities, San Francisco Branch President welcomed the guests with a nice opening speech.
The focus of his talk was the need for a global ethic to shape a new world order. He gave some examples of visions of the new world ethic. The first example was the vision of Hans Küng, the catholic theologian, who drafted in large part the declaration of a global ethic produced for the World Parliament of Religions. This declaration affirms the United Nations’ universal declaration of human rights and recognizes that there can be no global order for humanity without a global ethic drawn from religious traditions. The focus of this declaration is on peace, non-violence, cultivation of a just economic order, seeking and speaking the truth, promoting the value of tolerance, call for global gender equality, and promotion of family values.
The second example was the vision of Dalai Lama as summarized in his book, Ethics for the New Millennium. He promotes a global ethic that appeals non-religious as well as religious people. His vision rests on the idea of promoting the happiness of others. Dalai Lama says one’s own peace comes from compassion, the supreme emotion, enhancing human happiness and reducing human suffering. The concept of dependent origination is the basis of the ethical system he sets forth. This concept comes from the Buddhist thought and can be described as the interconnectedness of our own actions and everything happening around the world.
The third person Prof. Campo talked about in the context of promoting an idea of global ethic is Fethullah Gülen. Gülen’s ideal of global ethic is founded on the idea of ‘loving service’, which is on one hand to God, but also to all humanity. Service to humanity and service to God are intertwined through a spiritual link according to Gülen. This service is performed by the devout person, often depicted as a heroic figure, who sacrifices his or her own needs and desires for the benefit of others. Gülen’s teachings as described in his many books, articles and sermons are based on the Quran and the Sunnah, basically the religion of Islam, however not the Islam of the headlines. Gülen promotes an inclusive, universalistic understanding of Islam. According to Prof. Campo, the key elements in Gülen’s global ethic are its Islamic core, the Sufi spirituality, and also a sort of Turkish national pride, in the sense that his global ethic originates from his local experiences in Turkey and radiates globally. He envisions a new spring time for Islam and for the world with the new millennium, marked by the scientific and technological progress, learning and education, and based on love, compassion, mercy, dialog, acceptance of others, mutual respect, justice, and rights.
In all three cases, the definition of the global ethic comes from the localities, specificities, and personal experiences of these three men, who are definitely not men that lived the most comfortable lives. A common theme in all three visions can be described as an optimistic global ethic based on principles of compassion and tolerance for the betterment of the humanity. All three men pose some challenges to us: 1) to think beyond our own individual needs and desires; 2) to discover the meaningful interconnectedness of ourselves with our neighbors and of ourselves with the natural environment; 3) to act courageously with others to overcome injustice, violence, greed, intolerance, poverty, and other sources of human suffering. Prof. Campo concluded saying that these challenges might be seen as daunting at first, but this event shows that these challenges can be met working together in our own communities.
Before the closing remarks, the guests attended a presentation on the history of Turkish coffee and a live demonstration of Turkish coffee making with great interest. The guests were then served Turkish coffee and were further surprised on their way out with a small gift package that contained ground Turkish coffee, authentic coffee cups, and Turkish delight. Two young ladies from Congressman Mike Honda’s office presented a letter from the Congressman who could not attend the dinner because of his busy schedule.
With the taste of the Turkish coffee still fresh in their mouth and the thought of promoting interfaith dialog on their mind, the guests headed home.
