The Book of Joy

Many Christian denominations forbid those who are not Christians, or
even other Christians who are not of their specific denomination (those
with whom they are not in full communion), from sharing in the
Eucharist. In other words, like so many religious traditions it defines who
is part of the group and who is not. This is one of the greatest challenges
that humanity faces: removing the barriers between who we see as “us”
and who we see as “other.” The latest brain scan research suggests that
we have a rather binary understanding of self and other and that our
empathy circuits do not activate unless we see the other person as part of
our own group. So many wars have been fought and so much injustice has
been perpetrated because we’ve banished others from our group and
therefore our circle of concern. I remember the Archbishop starkly
pointing out this fact during the Iraq War, when the tallies of American
and Iraqi casualties were reported and valued differently by the media in
the United States. In the Archbishop’s tally these were all God’s children,
indivisible and valued equally.
The Archbishop and the Dalai Lama are truly two of the most
inclusive religious figures in the world, and throughout the week the
theme underlying their teachings was about transcending our narrow
definitions and finding love and compassion for all of humanity. The
sharing of traditions that we were engaged in that morning was a
reminder to put aside our own narrow beliefs of self and other, ours and
theirs, Christian and Buddhist, Hindu and Jew, believer and atheist. In the
land of Gandhi that we were in, I thought of his totemic words when
asked if he was a Hindu: “Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a
Buddhist, and a Jew.” We were looking for human truth, and we would
drink from the cup of wisdom from whatever source it came.
“Is it English?” the Dalai Lama asked as he took the booklet.
“It’s English, yes. Do you want to read in Xhosa?” the Archbishop
said, referring to his African mother tongue, clicking as he said the word.
“That one I don’t know.”
“For your sake we will use English.”
“Thank you, thank you,” the Dalai Lama said.
“But the language of heaven is Xhosa. When you get up there, they are