In 2011 the School of Oriental Religions (SOR) organized a Pan Asiatic Conference at Mariapolis Peace, the Focolare’s little town in Tagaytay. The theme of the 3-day conference was “Discovering ‘Love of Neighbour’ in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity.” 300 delegates from the different countries of Asia attended.

During the conference it was underlined how each religion teaches a particular way to love the neighbour.

In Hinduism

In Hinduism, the idea of love for neighbour is not directly expressed, and this is often misunderstood. Does Hinduism not give importance to the love for neighbour? No, this is not true. In the Hindu faith, God “Brahman” is not up there somewhere in heaven alone. He has created the world and He Himself has entered into creation. Dr. Kala Acharya, Director of the Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham at the Somaiya University in Mumbai, explained through a video that God exists in everything created in the universe. God alone exists in everything, so there is no other (neighbour) to love in Hinduism. When everything is God, there is God in every person. Indirectly, the love for neighbour is also expressed very strongly in Hinduism. According to Sri Adi Shankaracharya, a Hindu philosopher, Goduhas given three important gifts to human beings; a human body, a craving for God and a spiritual master. To the three, she adds a fourth gift of God, that is, the neighbour. By loving our neighbour, we can love God more.

In Buddhism

Brahma is the god of love and Buddhists try to live their lives according to the “Brahmavihara” which consists of four elements; Metta (Love), Karuna (Compassion), Mudita (altruistic joy), and Upekkha (Neutrality). Prof. Phramaha Sanga Chaiwong, a Buddhist monk from Thailand, explained that Brahmavihara is limitless love which helps us to cultivate immeasurable love for neighbour. According to the Metta (Love) element of Brahmavihara, true love consists in practicing love. It is the desire that others are happy and joyful. Karuna (Compassion) is doing something to alleviate the suffering and sadness of our neighbour. Karuna is actually compassion. If our hearts are full of compassion, then our thoughts, words and deeds bring joy to our neighbour. Mudita (Altruistic Joy) the third element of Brahmavihara explains how true love always brings joy to those we love. If our love doesn’t bring joy to the others then our love is not true. It’s a most specific joy we feel when we see others happy. Upekkha (Neutrality) is unconditional love for neighbour. At times, it could be misunderstood as not becoming involved. Instead, it means to love everyone without prejudice and discrimination. Prof. Phramaha Sanga Chaiwong said: “Love, when it is true, is a power that can cure, that can change situations and bring about a profound meaning of life.” So the true love for neighbour, according to Buddhism, must be characterized by compassion, altruistic joy and neutrality.

In Islam

In Islam, love for neighbour is explained in two ways, according to Prof. Julkipli Wadi, Dean of Islamic Studies at University of the Philippines, Diliman: the rights of human beings (huquq al-insan) and Islamic love tradition. The Prophet Muhammad highlighted in a very clear way the rights of all human beings to fulfilment. He himself gave examples of how to fulfill the rights of human beings close to us. In one of his saying (Ahdess) the Prophet Muhammad explained: “One is not a true Muslim if the fellow Muslim sleeps hungry.” The idea of love for fellow Muslims is explained often in “Ahdess.” “Generally, in Sufi literature, love of neighbour Muslim “Hubbu l-insan” is manifested as love of God,” said Prof. Wadi. A famous saying of Prophet Muhammad affirms that “one can’t be considered a believer unless he loves others the way he loves himself.” Traditionally, forty Muslim houses within the circumference of one’s family residence are considered one’s neighbours. The idea of Love is expressed in the names given to God as well, and some of these names are “Al Wadud” (The Loving), “Al Rahman” (The Gracious) and “Al Rahim” (The Merciful).

In Christianity

Fr. Emmanuel S. Mijares highlighted the fact that in Christianity the idea of love for neighbour is expressed in different writings, like in the Old Testament book of Leviticus “You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbour’s life is at stake. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:16, 18 NAB). The idea of love for neighbour is present, but in the Old Testament “neighbour” is limited to the people of Israel.

In the Gospel, Jesus says “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you”, Jesus’ new commandment opens the horizons of love to include all humanity. In Christianity, love for neighbour means that we have to go beyond ourselves. Jesus loved us by offering His life for us. We can see why He asked us to love one another as He has loved us, i.e., to the point of giving our lives for one another. We might never have to actually die for one another, but instead we can die to our own selves, and make room for others within us. The adventure of loving our neighbour does not stop here; it is not complete until it becomes reciprocal. Our love can generate reciprocal love, if it’s like the love of Jesus for us. Here the idea of loving as Jesus loves becomes very clear, because if our love is not like the love of Jesus, it will not become reciprocal.

My Impression

This Pan Asiatic course organized by SOR gave me a new vision of dialogue. Loving everyone is the best dialogue to carry out in any circumstance, because the dialogue we carry out is not among the various “religions” but among the “people” of different religions. It would not be wrong to say now that our Church is a Church of dialogue, helping us to open our hearts to the people of other religions. In my three days of SOR, I felt very strongly that we must all become aware of the need to promote harmony with other faiths, to give birth to hope in the hearts of many people around us...

The idea of discovering more about my own religion through inter-religious dialogue helped me open up my heart to other religions. I know only a part of the truth about my own faith, but interreligious dialogue will help me discover the whole truth of my faith in Christ.

The situation in my country, Pakistan, is very difficult due to problems like the blasphemy law, terrorism etc. While proposing to modify the blasphemy law people like the Governor of Punjab and the Federal Minister for Minorities were assassinated. There is a need for this dialogue of life in Pakistan, so as to bring harmony to such situations. SOR has enkindled a hope in me that through this dialogue of life, I can do my small part to bring harmony to the situation in my country. There is a great need to encourage this vision in everyone so that the on-going dialogue of life can be the key to fulfilling the prayer of Jesus, “That all may be one.” Here I cannot help but recall the words of Chiara Lubich, “In however many neighbours you meet throughout your day, from morning to night, in all of them see and love Jesus.” Personally, this becomes a solution of all problems.

Khurram Khan

We had been meeting as a group of young people for a while. One evening, one of us was absent and we later found out that she was expecting a baby. Her boyfriend was, however, threatening to leave her unless she agreed to an abortion. Her parents, who were poor and had many problems, were of the same thought.

Our friend felt weak and confused. Only in our presence was she able to think more clearly on this decision, but the pressure from her family and the financial difficulties she faced convinced her that she had no other alternative but to go ahead with it. The appointment was made.

In the meantime, we continued to hope that she would change her mind. We prayed, took walks with her, visited her family. We got in touch with the Pro-Life Movement to attain some monetary assistance for her.

On the second Sunday of May, Mother’s Day, we invited her for dinner. At the end of the evening, one of us expressed the hope that the following year could be a day to honor her, too. It was a very moving moment for all, but it seemed that it was already too late. Her appointment was set for a few days later and she had every intention of keeping it.

Even though disappointed, we did not give up. The evening before her operation, we met to pray in unity, with the faith that God could move mountains. We asked him for a miracle: that the life of the child be saved.

The next morning, wanting to love her in every way, we went to accompany our friend to the hospital. She saw us, took a deep breath and said, “Could you give me a ride to the hairdresser? A good mother should always try to look her best, don’t you think!”

—M. T.

On final approach from the AirphilExpress plane landing at Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro (CDO), one can see the debris of the devastation of this City floating up to two kilometers in the sea off the coast of CDO and Iligan City.  This was the result of the seemingly meek Tropical Storm ‘Sendong’ with winds of only 95 kph that struck the cities of CDO and Iligan last 17^th of December 2011. Seeing the debris from 1,500 meters high, it would be difficult to detect whether there are still dead bodies floating among the debris or survivors from the devastating flash floods that careened down the Cagayan river and claimed more than a thousand (1,000) lives with many more missing. The final figure may never be known but it was surely much, much more than the 747 fatalities during the famous typhoon “Ondoy” that hit Metro Manila a couple of years back and left it flooded for a few days.

Surveying the damage brought by these flash floods that reportedly rose up to 30 feet in some places, it is believable as debris was littered on the bridge that was indeed of this height which proves that the reports were true.  You could see the mud on the rooftops of some houses that were built near the bridge indicating that the raging waters rose over the rooftops of these houses.

Thankfully, electric power was restored soon after, although water was scarce in most places in the city as portions of the main water pipes were washed away by the flash floods.  It was estimated that it would take weeks for the water supply to get back to normal.

Large groups of bodies were found floating offshore. These came from those living along the banks of the river that did not expect the flash floods to occur around 2:00 in the morning when most of the city were asleep. Some 200 bodies were found in the sea along clumps of debris from houses and illegally-cut logs coming from the mountains of CDO and beyond.

Amidst the misery, however, there were glimpses of miraculous survival.  A mother and her two young teenage children survived by clinging on to the trunks of large banana trees for 2 – ½ hours in the raging floods.  A family of four climbed up to the roof of their house only to be washed away by the torrent of waters but miraculously found each other floating in the sea several hundred meters from the city’s shore-line clinging to pieces of debris from the houses that were washed away.  A group of 70 people were rescued by a yacht among pieces of debris in the sea around a kilometer off the shores of Iligan City, some 90 kilometers west of CDO.

After some five days from the time Tropical Storm ‘Sendong”, signs of the devastation still can be seen with the mud in the city turning into dust. Debris still litter the streets, broken-down cars still caked in much can be seen at the car repair shops and pieces of plastic and cloth ‘fly’ in the breeze on the trees that were once underwater.  People still line up at water sources to both get water and take a bath whenever they can.

Thousands of pesos worth of relief goods and millions of pesos were pledged to assist the victims of Sendong coming from various cities, municipalities and provinces.  The president of the Philippines, Pres Aquino went to visit CDO last Wednesday and pledged more funds to the disaster-stricken areas.  Back in Cebu, you can see trucks with relief goods and signs of which organization organized their relief efforts.

More importantly, the resilience of the people continues to prevail and believe that there is something brighter after the storm.