Question

you will have a choice to conduct an interview with a spiritual leader (Option 1) or write a paper based on John Hick's pluralistic hypothesis regarding the Dalai Lama (Option 2). You are strongly encouraged to choose between Option 1 and Option 2 as early as feasible and then plan accordingly, though you are required to inform the instructor of the chosen option by the conclusion of Module 5.

You are encouraged to review each option fully and choose the one that best suits your particular gifts, abilities, and/or geographical limitations.

Answer 1

option 2:

John Hick was a philosopher of religion and theologian who made contributions in the areas of theodicy, eschatology, Christology, epistemology of religion and religious pluralism. In An Interpretation of Religion Hick presents a comprehensive theory that attempts to explain all religious phenomena. Hick refers to his theory as a "pluralistic hypothesis." Hick's hypothesis is that all religions are culturally conditioned responses to the same ultimate reality after occasionally attending worship in mosque and synagogue, temple and gurdwara. Dalai Lama is the one who speaks on behalf of the Tibetan Buddhists as their spiritual leader, but also the temporal leader of Tibet. In the book “Toward a True Kinship of Faiths” Dalai Lama XIV says, his temporal duties are third place for him considering he’s worried about common world’s problems. And in the first place for him always will be the world’s peace and the general human happiness by maintaining the basic human rights and values. On the second place for him is his promotional work on a religious field in order to make all religions come to harmony and understanding (Dalai Lama). Such a position seems the most appropriate for the modern situation. The world faces global problems like global warming, overpopulation and the continuous usage of natural resources. Priorities are invalid, and Dalai Lama now is the one who’s trying to point on that.

According to john hick there some questions of the spiritual kind in Buddhism without answers. In his article “The Buddha's 'Undetermined Questions' and the Religions” John Hick discuss five important questions on which Buddhism give no clear views and answers. All of them are of the eternal kind (like “is the world eternal” and “what goes after death”). Buddhism says, there’re things we might research and never found or found something we never searched for, but that’s not the point. Of course, it seems eternal questions are important and necessary to answer, but while looking for such answer one “will die before his thirst for knowledge is satisfied” . And also, one will suffer from inability to find the answer to this question. As mentioned by Dalai lama 'In the modern world abscessed with material success Buddhism teaches that all material things are limited. So much suffering one can avoid by acceptance of the Buddha’s idea that it’s normal to feel lost and bewildered, and ignorance doesn’t cause the impossibility of salvation.

Another thing that makes Buddhism a tolerant religion, that there’s no one God and Buddha are considered as the Great Teacher, so there’re no possibilities for the religious war. Hick also contributed that “Buddhist tradition does not exactly deny the existence of the creator, but it is not really interested to know who created the universe” . Because the answer to this question doesn’t help to get free from sufferings and misery.

All mentioned characteristics of Buddhism is said to make it the most pluralistic from all of the world’s most popular religions and ideas Dalai Lama expresses confirm that.