California Institute for Human Science

Principles to Integrate Various Religions in the World

The terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists on Sept. 11th, 2001 generated a great shock to people not only in the US but also in all countries in the world. A capitalistic economy that has been built on Christianity such as Calvinism and democracy based on Puritanism underlies US society and it has been functioning in a global scale. Those who follow Islam and who believe in the Absoluteness of Allah do not accept the globalization of US society. I think a conflict between the two underlies the tragedy.

At the present time; people can fly to various places in the world for a short period of time; can communicate with anyone in any society or any organization in the world through the Internet and other audiovisual developments, without being restricted by nation, race, gender and age, and communicate as if they were speaking with their neighbors; and can obtain food, clothes and housing all over the world from their own county, if they wish. That is, people in the world aspire to live in the affluent societies found in the US and Western European countries, and the world situation now can allow this aspiration to be actualized.

Until one hundred years ago, people lived in the land their ancestors had inhabited for tens of thousands of years, and lived their lives in peace according to the lifestyles, thought patterns, morals and religions that they had inherited from their ancestors. However, their lives have greatly changed, and interrelation with different cultures, religions and races is now necessitated on a global scale. People with different backgrounds in culture, religion, thought patterns and lifestyle meet everywhere in the world and they are at a loss as to how to accept each other. Over the past one to two hundred years, people in the US have experienced the encounters, intermixtures and gradual mergers with different races and cultures, but the problems that have arisen have not yet been dissolved. The same situation has arisen on a global scale in the past twenty to thirty years.

Among the differences in lifestyles and cultures, the material aspects that are connected to food, clothes and housing are comparatively smoothly dissolved, but the thought patterns, especially those relating to religion, cannot accept mutual concessions so easily.

There is no room to fight each other in science that has been developed from human intelligence and pursues the objective mechanism of material phenomena using information gained through sense and perception (common to all people). From beginning to end, science strictly recognizes material objective facts. The scientific knowledge is common to all and is relative. When a new scientific fact is discovered and the new theory includes or is replaced with the previous theory, there is advancement but there is no conflict between the new and old scientific theories.

Contrary to science, religions have been developed on the truth that their respective founders were given during their encounters with the Absolute, which is beyond relativity, and they cannot make a concession with each other. There were no conflicts between religions during the periods when the God of the respective religions was worshiped by the followers living in the limited areas where the religions were born. However, when the different religions came into constant contact with each other, serious and everlasting conflicts began to occur. The Crusade is a typical example.

I think there must be principles that can unify various religions in the world under a larger harmony, generating stability in the respective religions. I have examined the differences among the various religions in the world with the eyes of a scholar and mystic who has experienced the oneness with God through rigorous religious ascetic training for a long time. I will hold this workshop in an attempt to elucidate the principles that are beyond the dogmatic differences of various religions.

I sincerely hope this workshop will be a foundation to actualize a peaceful global society in its true meaning.

(Quote from Dr. Motoyama's workshop description)