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Review of Good Heart: A Buddist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus

From a review of Good Heart: A Buddist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus by Dalai Lama
Review By A. Robert Smith in Venture Inward,(c) Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc.

Two virtues intrigue me about the Dali Lama. One is his connection with Christian groups that practice meditation - a small, but growing, minority in Christendom. After attending one such gathering in Quebec, he remarked how impressed he was with the unusual experience of meditating in a Christian church. As a result, he was invited to lead the annual gathering of the World Community fo Christian Meditation in London in 1994. On that occasion he spoke on the teachings of Jesus, which became the book I'm reading.

Second is his belief in interfaith dialogue. Much of the world's violence for the past two millennia has been provoked by religious prejudice. Little wonder that some brought us more grief that grace. Given our spiritual nature, however, institutuionalized worship will always be a part of the human experience.

The Dalai Lama is promoting peaceful religious cohavitation, a big step beyond freedom of religion. Religious freedom tolerates differences and legally protects minority sects from being abolished by an oppressive majority. What the Dalai Lama is seeking is interfaith understanding, cooperation, and respect. It's the same thing Edgar Cayce advocated.

Cayce's writings, which I am compiling for a book, show that the "father of holistic mediceine" applied his holistic belief to matters of faith as well as health. His credo was simple: there is but one God, we are all God's children, God is within each of us - we are all one! He resisted starting his own sect, believing it is less important which church you attend than that you live your faith. He once tried to persuade a screenwriter to do a film to help "eliminate much of that which has grown up as cults, cisms, class, hatreds on account of creed or cult."