Underlining the need for adopting secular ethics, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said maintaining inter-religious harmony was important for a peaceful world.

During a pilgrim’s visit to the Jokhang Temple in Leh, the Dalai Lama said, “It is very important that we work to maintain inter-religious harmony and keep in mind that those with little interest in religion can still benefit from adopting secular ethics,” the Dalai Lama said.

He said he would request to the Buddha that we might cultivate love and compassion, help one another and establish peace in the world. “Whether you follow Allah or God, I make the same prayer to them as well,” he added.

He lamented that in today’s world we too often see prejudice and divisiveness arising between our religious traditions. Our various faiths may adopt contrasting philosophical points of view, but they all advise us to be kind and helpful to one another.

“Everyone, north, south, east and west, is interested in peace. We are all the same in this. No one really wants to kill, oppress and bully others. What we need to do is to cultivate a sense of equality and help each other. Then we’ll be at peace,” the Dalai Lama explained.

He said if we want world peace, we need to have a good heart and to have peace within. If, on the other hand, we are full of jealousy, pride, arrogance, competitiveness and anger there’s no way we won’t achieve peace of mind.

“Whether we’re talking about followers of Islam, Christianity, Hinduism or Jainism, all of us are human beings. Here on this earth, we are brothers and sisters. Therefore, we should cultivate a warm heart and an altruistic attitude to one another. This is how we will build a peaceful world,” he contended.

The Dalai Lama said wherever Buddhism has spread and declined it is appreciated because of its very foundation is compassion. It’s admired even by those with no real interest in religion.

He recalled that back in Lhasa there was a community of Muslims who were not only recognized by the Tibetan government, but were also invited to government functions. Consequently, he had many Muslim friends even then.

“When I travel to different places, I try to visit local mosque, Hindu and Jain temple, church and so on and so forth. Of course, I am a Buddhist, but I acknowledge that these various religious traditions all counsel the value of being kind and helpful to others,” he said.

Observing a change in China, he said “What we should do is to seek to create peace in the world, keeping in mind that to rely on weapons and violence is out of date.”

“We have improved communications so that we are all better connected. We know much more about each other than we did before. And if we sincerely wish to ensure peace in the world, we can request our supreme teacher’s help. If we religious people could live in harmony like brothers and sisters dedicated to establishing peace in the world, we could achieve it. Engaging in warfare and deploying military force is completely out of date.” he stressed.