At Interfaith Meeting, Dalai Lama Urges Interfaith Pilgrimages to Sacred Sites

May 4, 2004

Source: Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1083450009466&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968705899037

On May 4, 2004 the Toronto Star reported, "The Dalai Lama urged followers of different religions to go on pilgrimages together to the world's sacred places as a step toward religious empathy and understanding. Speaking before an interfaith audience of 3,000 yesterday, chatting comfortably as though with intimate friends, the Tibetan Buddhist monk said people of genuine religious faith should share their deepest spiritual experiences with those whose beliefs are different. He stood in one of the vast halls of the National Trade Centre, flanked by Toronto's faith leaders. Some read scripture — Catholic Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic read the Beatitudes, Anglican archbishop Terence Finlay the 23rd Psalm — while others chanted and called out movingly to God in Hebrew, Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic and Vietnamese...The Dalai Lama is in Toronto leading the Kalachakra initiation, an intensive teaching and initiation ritual, which continues until Wednesday."