"Lotus Sutra" Under The Vision Of The Inter-religion Dialogue

For religious believers, the truth can only be acquired from their own religious experience. Also, human knowledge about the world, life and values is correct only if it is formed through religious experiences. They are the only people who hold the truth. All other views and judgments that are different from their beliefs are rejected as untrue and unreal.It is the exclusivity of religious beliefs and the conflict between various beliefs that make the dialogue between religions extremely difficult.However, in contemporary world, the inter-religion dialogue is an unavoidable issue. In the era of globalization, religion is a key factor that leads to confrontation and conflict among different cultures. It can even lead to the escalation of the conflicts. People are more and more aware of the fact that no world peach can be achieved without inter-religion dialogues.Nevertheless, there is little progress in advancing inter-religion dialogues despite various theories on religious dialogues. The exclusivity of religious beliefs makes it really difficult to agree on an Archimedes' Point to underwrite inter-religion dialogues.So far, the greatest achievement on this issue is "Manifesto towards a Global Ethics" passed in World Religions Conference in 1993. However, in the Manifesto, no consensus has been reached among different religions. It only states a minimum ethical standard affirming the dignity, rights and values of human beings, which every believer can accept.This paper aims to provide a new way and set a low standard for inter-religion dialogues by re-interpreting the doctrine of "Hui San Gui Yi" in "Lotus Sutra ".If we look into the past, we will see that the progress made in religious dialogues has been all achieved at the level of culture and in the tangible practical sphere rather than at the intangible level of beliefs. The previous religious dialogues usually aimed at the dialogues in the so-called "real religious sense." The ultimate goal of such dialogues is to reach agreement on the issue of "religious truth." However, the higher the aim was the worse the result was. Religious dialogues are unlikely to make any breakthrough in theology.By contrast, the theory of "Hui San Gui Yi" tries to avoid the divergence and conflict and argues for a non-religious dialogue.The purpose of religious dialogue is to deal with some social crises in real world. It is not just about the agreement on beliefs. Rather, it is about the recognition of the human rights of the other party in the dialogue. The respect for others' beliefs is primarily the respect for their freedom to believe rather than for the truth of their beliefs. The differences between beliefs can hardly be got rid of by inter-religion dialogues. inter-religion dialogues are essentially dialogues between "human beings".It is impossible to have a single unified belief system. Therefore, inter-religion dialogues in real world should primary be ethical rather than religious. The point of such dialogues is to respect each other as equal subjects, to reconstruct ethics, ultimately to avoid conflict and maintain peach among religions.