I’m midway through a book on a talk given by the Dalai Lama, at the invitation of some Christians (or more accurately, Roman Catholics), about his thoughts on the Christian gospels.  While there is much in the book that I disagree with, I have to say that in fairness, the Dalai Lama did humbly inform his audience that he knew little about Christian scriptures or theology.  Also, he did not ask to give the talk; those ecumenical zealots invited him.  My points of disagreement notwithstanding, the Dalai Lama does make some very valid and insightful comments that would put many Christians to shame.  I think that it is a shame that the following nugget of wisdom (note its parallels with Romans 12 : 1) should come from the mouth of someone who claims not to know much about the Christian faith :

[ The Dalai Lama, commenting on the command of "love your enemies" : ]

"God created you as an individual and gave you the freedom to act in a way that is compatible in accordance with the Creator’s wishes - to act in an ethical way, in a moral way, and to live a life of an ethically disciplined, responsible individual.  By feeling and practising tolerance and patience toward fellow creatures, you are fulfilling that wish : you are pleasing your Creator.  That is, in a way, the best offering that you can make to the divine Creator."

The other part of the book which I find somewhat hilarious but painfully ironic is where the Dalai Lama reminds the ecumenical Christian zealots (or to be more precise, Roman Catholic zealots) that Christianity and Buddhism prescribe fundamentally different worldviews and are therefore irreconcilable.  Unlike other religions, Buddhism is generally not confrontational and one would have thought that the Dalai Lama, as the leader and chief philosopher of a major school of Buddhism, would have suggested that there is a way to reconcile all religions.  But he did not (and for that he has my respect).  In fact, he even humbly admitted that "there are diverse philosophical viewpoints even among Buddhists" on many matters.  And so he ends one of his talks with what I read to be a mild rebuke of those who foolishly seek to marry the two religions into one, and compromise (their Christian) faith :

"To sum up all that we’ve discussed, I feel there is tremendous convergence and a potential for mutual enrichment through dialogue … especially in the areas of ethics and spiritual practice, such as the practices of compassion, love, meditation and the enhancement of tolerance … But when it comes to a philosophical or metaphysical dialogue I feel we must part company.  The entire Buddhist worldview is based on a philosophical standpoint in which the central thought is the principle of interdependence, how all things and events come into being purely as a result of interactions between causes and conditions.  Within that philosophical worldview it is almost impossible to have any room for an atemporal, eternal, absolute truth.  Nor is it possible to accommodate the concept of a divine Creation.  Similarly, for a Christian whose entire metaphysical worldview is based on a belief in the Creation and a divine Creator, the idea that all things and events arise out of mere interaction between causes and conditions has no place within that worldview.  So in the realm of metaphysics it becomes problematic at a certain point, and the two traditions must diverge."