This conference is an assembly of august scholars and learners to discuss spiritual values at a prestigious university in a modern, well-developed, primarily monotheistic, and educated country. A young kid in good old days of my childhood routinely learnt the most fundamental spiritual value on the knee of its grand-mother in a so called under-developed, illiterate and polytheistic country, “There is One God, Period”.

Isn’t it ironic?

Isn’t it ironic that the so called monotheistic traditions are notoriously fragmented in strong and conflicting groups of “us” vs “them” within themselves while the so called polytheists and atheists live largely in harmony? Monotheists cannot get along with monotheists, how can they get along with “polytheists” and “atheists”?

Isn't God the creator of the whole universe? Does that not make us all kin of each other? Why can’t then we live in harmony with each other?

Experience shows that something is lacking about our understanding of one God.

While things in the universe, animate as well as inanimate, are visible, God is not. Everything visible is the creation of an invisible God. That is a certainty. Nothing can exist without God; in fact nothing exists but God. But what can we say definitely about God except for God’s invisibility?

“Nothing”. God is a spiritual being. Nothing can be said about the spirit other than its invisible mystery.

It is spiritual ignorance to impose a unique personality on God; it denies God its spirituality. And God stripped of its spirituality denies human beings life in harmony with each other.

How can God from which all forms and persoanlities emerge be itself limited to a specific form of persnailty? How can a limited God with personality of our ideas lead to harmony with others with their own ideas? If we can impose on God a personality of our ideas, can we deny others the same right? Why can't we understand the unique reality of God behind all the forms and personalities that diverse cultures impose on it?

For harmious living in diverse communities, we must not only be certain of One God but also arrive at one of the following two positions:

1. There is one essence of all divinity; and
2. Be totally free of any definite ideas about God.

There is One God, Period. And words fall back from it.

Today’s world, it seems, has become a world of continuing and deepening crises. Wisdom, must surely compel us to ask: Why? Is it lack of money or resources? Or Lack of technology and IT? Or Lack of people holding PhDs and MBAs? Or lack of goals set by this organisation or that? No. What we lack is moral and spiritual imagination and compass. Our crises can only be addressed, reversed and resolved, and our goals can only be achieved, if we change direction, adopt new values and become concerned with life’s bigger picture. If we want to realise anything good in life, including any goals we may set ourselves, we must begin, first and foremost, by focusing on some fundamental and enduring questions of human meaning and value. Questions such as: 1. What does it mean to be human? 2. What does it mean to live a life of meaning and purpose? 3. What does it mean to understand and appreciate the natural world? 4. What does it mean to forge a more just society for the common good? By their very nature, these questions involve thought and discussion around spirituality, ethics, morals and values. One thing is clear: the main problem we face today is not the absence of technical or economic solutions, but rather the presence of moral and spiritual crises. This requires us to build broad global consensus on a vision that places values such as love, generosity and caring for the common good into socio-political and economic practice, suggesting possibilities for healing and transforming our world. To construct the foundations which are needed to build “The Future We Want” needs a path which is not exclusively economic and monetary. In seeking to answer life’s bigger and pertinent questions, and to understand the world better, we need to discover the world not just as it is, but also how it ought to be. Indeed, the deepest and most difficult questions with which we wrestle are problems of value — right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, just and unjust, worthy or unworthy, dignified or abhorrent, love and hatred, cooperation and competition, selflessness and selfishness, progress and poverty, profit and loss. Human beings have explored these many questions of value through religion, philosophy, the creation of art and literature, and more. Indeed, questions of value have inaugurated many disciplines within the humanities and continue to drive them today. Questions and conversations about values and valuing are fundamental to what it means to be human, but rarely become the subject of explicit public reflection. The future is full of risk and perils for our planet and all peoples. If we are to survive we must surely build cultures of peace, justice, kindness, and trust, and we must walk together to face the future. The journey, for sure, will be much more secure and fruitful if we begin to walk the walk together for the common good.

When it comes to universal harmony, Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks are viewed as international icons. Yet both of them were influenced by the timeless teachings of Lord Buddha who also inspired the Golden Age of Indian, Japanese and Chinese civilizations. Furthermore, Nalanda University is widely considered the foremost center of spiritual learning in Asian and world history. Among its many great scholars was Shantideva Acharya - whose "The Way of the Bodhisattva" is the all-time favorite book of Nobel Laureate Dalai Lama. In this rare session, Rev. Zenji Acharya will explain the most important teachings on universal harmony as taught by Lord Buddha in an unforgettable manner that will combine eloquent British motivational speaking with perennial wisdom in ancient Sanskrit to uphold an inspirational message that will empower all demographics. It will be accompanied by a rare exhibition to visually illustrate the inspirational themes to be presented -- courtesy of NAMAHA or North American Museum of Asian Heritage and Art (www.Namaha.ca).

Sufism, Islam's tradition of spirituality, offers a number of resources for contemporary people to develop greater harmony within themselves and in their relations with others. This talk will highlight some of these key resources. First, we will discuss the profound Sufi vision of reality's simultaneous unity and diversity, and the timely social implications of this vision. Second, we explore the role of baraka, or the energy of blessing, in facilitating harmony in our lives. Sufis believe that this healing, harmonizing energy is found concentrated in particular places and people, and is critical to the development of wisdom and love. Third, we will consider the Sufi understanding of the ultimate unity of the world's religions, shedding light on a sophisticated philosophical basis for developing inter-religious appreciation and reconciliation in world where the borders of identity too frequently function as front lines rather than lines of communication. 

Accurate self-knowledge and truthfulness in communications are both esteemed by adherents of many spiritual and philosophical traditions. Our non-negotiable status as physical-psychological beings poses serious challenges to both our ability and our willingness to embody these values consistently, however. Thus, we sometimes don’t know why we do what we do, although we may confidently think otherwise. Alternatively, we sometimes know exactly why we do what we do – but we pile on obfuscations and rationalizations to distract ourselves (and others) from the motives for, and consequences of, our behaviour. Professing allegiance to a spiritual path can sometimes add another layer of complexity rather than liberate us. Viewed through a psychological lens, we will see how deeply rooted in the human condition all of this is – which can pave the way for empathy, humility, and maybe a workaround or two.

Participants small groups of 8 to 10 will meet in their own quiet spaces for 35 minutes once every day to consider the proceedings of the conference so far. Feedback from individual members of the group is requested as per the following instructions:

The process starts with 10 minutes of breath meditation in the circle.

Then the group facilitator will invite all present to say a few words (2 minutes per person) on what they heard in the conference presentations that inspired them, stimulated their imagination or moved their heart.

Then the group facilitator will give a piece of stone to the person on his/her left. After sharing his/her thoughts, that first speaker gives the stone to the person on the left whose turn it now is to speak.

There is no pressure on any participant to speak. All sharing is voluntary. If you do not wish to speak, just hand the stone to the next person.

We ask you to honour the rule that only the one holding the stone should speak. All others should listen respectfully.

When the stone has gone round once, the group will be led into another round of sharing with the facilitator saying, "What moved you while you listened to group in the first round?" At the end of the second round, the facilitator will give each one a slip of paper with the request that you write one word or sentence expressing what you feel about, or an insight into, Globalizing the Human Mind so far, this weekend. Return the paper to the facilitator as soon as possible.

During the small group meeting, you may hear something that impels you to judge the speaker, or want to solve his/her problem, or try to change his/her opinions. All these urges will lead to a discussion. This is good, but we ask you to initiate the discussion only after all the paper slips are returned and the time of Mindful Listening is completed.