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Proceedings: Day-1

On this first day of the conference, we will focus on educational strategies to raise the consciousness of the students to see the One God of the universe in the God of their specific communities and in the relative God of other communities. Early life learning about the divine is of the relative God of our communities. When we grow in age, we come to know that our ideas about divinity are different from those of others. Being told repeatedly that God is only one, we wonder whose ideas of God is the right one. We don't find a satisfactory resolution of this conundrum from our community. All we hear is the advice, "Stick to your faith, believe firmly". We tend to feel that we are right and others are wrong, we are the true believers and others are false and God will save us while others are doomed.

The question for today then is, "What are the strategies available to grow from the position of seeing our specific God as the only True God to the position of seeing all relative Gods of different faiths as divine emanations of the same One God." Once we achieve this growth, all specific ideas of the divine are seen as different ways various cultures perceive the same One God who in fact is an imperceptible mystery.

Opening Presentation
Shiv Talwar

Shiv Talwar welcomes the participants in this four session event to observe the World Interfaith Harmony Week in 2021 explaining how the United Nation's resolutions to observe World Interfaith Harmony Week and International Day of Yoga every year relate with each other. While the former expresses an aspiration of the world, the latter is an expression of how it can be realized.

Breathe to raise your consciousness
Shiv Talwar

All present in the World Interfaith Harmony Week2021 conference organized by us shared deep peace and equanimity for ten minutes everyday of the conference. Try it. Everyone breathes and God does us charge anything for the air we breathe. We take breathing for granted knowing fully well that without it we cannot survive. Doesn't make sense that we can live better if we breathe better. We breathe unconsciously. Ordinary unconscious breathing just happens without any awareness on our side. If we take conscious charge of our breathing and breathe more air with every breath, will it not be better for us? All we need to do is is to experience it. We will soon know that it is better; we will feel a sense of calm and equanimity. In a few weeks, we will begin to see the world in a new light.
 

Ninty Nine Names of Allah
Imam Habeeb Alli

Imam Habeeb Alli of Toronto presents on the ninety names of Allah in Holy Qur'an. We get introduced to God in our childhood. We grow up with our culture specific idea of God. Religions of the world use multiple and meaningful names in their scriptural language to take us from a specific view of God to a universal God. Contemplation of the names becomes contemplation of the meanings which point to God's universality and inclusion. Such a contemplation then helps us to see the Universal Divinity in our Particular.

In our minds, our specific view of God links our faith community as a family while the wider holistic view connects us with the entirety of existence making for a global family. Our particular view may limit us to the love of our own community only while the wider holistic vision opens us to the love of humanity and nature in which we live. Once we grow to love the One God the universe, we begin to love the whole of existence. We also begin to love our specific God and the Gods of all communities as divine emanations of the only One parent of the entire universe.

A Engaging Chant of Allah Hu
Imam Alli's presentations on 99 names of Allah ended with a dialog on the phrase "Allah Hu": What is the purpose of appending Hu to Allah? It was felt iappropriate to share this mesmerising chant of Allah Hu with the participants.

Love and Doubt
Fred Lawlor

Fred Lawlor makes his presentation entitled Love and Doubt. In the context of the World Interfaith Harmony Week observance, love relates with God. It is the love of the One God of the universe that makes me love my neighbour whosoever diverse the neighbour may be. If my idea of God is that what I got from my faith of birth, knowing that there is only one God, I can love the neighbour only if the neighbour is of my faith. It is doubt that makes me seek and grow. If I doubtlessly with certainly believe that my idea of God is the only idea of the One God, I get limited to loving only the members of my community as kin and seeing others as unrelated to me. I have to be able to see the relative God pf my faith and those of other faiths as divine emanations of the one God, then only I can love the whole existence as my kin. I then love the specific Gods of all faiths as divine. It is in that sense that doubt makes me seek while certainty makes me limited to tribalism. Love is the movement and doubt is the method. Without doubt motivating us from within, we do not make the effort of contemplating the multiple names of God in our respective scripture.

Collective Sharing a Listening
Leaders: Imam Habeeb Alli and Fred Lawlor

Everyone shares their ideas about the proceedings of the first day of our four day conference in observance of the World Interfaith Harmony Week 2021.