Dear Gunnar, Yong Peng, etc.,

Gunnar said:

>for me personally, its more important that I
> have a reasonably good relation to my Protestant
> brother and Catholic sister, and to my friends of
> quite a range of different opinions. I don't think I
> must respect every single one of their ideas, though.
>

We must distinguish between a person and their ideas - but even if
we wish to refute their ideas, this must be done with compassion.

I believe it is a subtle form of disrespect to refuse to engage in
religious debate. The implication is that if we disagree, we'll have
to end up fighting each other, so best pretend we really all agree.
Surely it is a sign of maturity that people can have different
opinions, discuss them honestly, agree to disagree, and still
respect each other - as we do often on this list!

Once when i was staying at Wat Nanachat we were visited by a
wonderful Sikh teacher - totally warm, totally outrageous. He walked
into the sala saying, 'We are all brothers! We must looooove each
other!' He told us that if we want to meditate, first we must, you
know, go with our wife, then we can sit and meditate. One of the
monks mentioned that the Buddha said we must let go of that kind of
thing. He replied: 'Yes, you are right! I am right, too - Everybody
is right!'

Yours in abslolute agreement with everybody and everything,

Bhante Sujato