The theme of the four sessions I attended on the first day of the Parliament of the World’s Religions was understanding why interfaith or inter-religious dialogue is important and how to do it.

The first session I selected was “Strengthening One’s Faith Through Interfaith Dialogue.” Before we could even start talking with others, our instructors, Peta Pellach and Jeremy Jones, instructed us to think through one or two basic ideas from our own faith experiences that were of profound importance to us. Things that we hold most dear. In my practice dialogue, I talked with a Jewish professor from Europe. I learned from our experience that sharing what we want to tell about ourselves isn’t really the goal. A good conversation begins with a sincere interest in hearing the other. And yet becoming more conscious of our own distinct messages and finding the freedom to say so makes it easier to hear the issues most profound for my conversation partner.

Pellach encouraged us to consider whether we are allowing our religions to be time capsules, or time-lines. A time capsule keeps everything inside its self-made bubble; a time-line indicates the movement of the religion through the relevance of human history.

My second session was a Buddhist-Muslim dialogue. Four speakers of Buddhist and Muslim faiths (Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, and Ruben Habito) shared their visions for the way both religions can contribute toward resolutions of conflict between the two groups. One pointed out that the theological differences between the two – even though they are quite dissimilar in many ways – they cannot be the excuses for not working together to heal the earth. The greater dividing issues are fear, anger, historical misunderstandings, and other human failures.

Third, I attended the Arizona Interfaith Movement presentation on “Developing a Dynamic Interfaith Movement for Your City or Area.” They are a very active and involved organization in the Phoenix area, focusing on education, understanding and respecting others. Their activities are quite diverse and of interest to people of all religious and faith backgrounds, including atheists. The stories of their activities inspired me to realize there are practical steps any of us can take in our communities that would benefit everyone.

Finally, I stepped into a packed room, where the discussion was on the need for educating religious leaders. This was an academic exercise for many seminary students from around the world, including both papers and group discussion. The papers were inspiring, but the questions in our discussion group were new to me: 1) Does inter-religious dialogue mean learning about or learning from another? 2) What is more important today: dialogue or cooperation? Very deep and provocative questions that led to conversation that could have lasted all night.

These questions provided a good framework for the whole day for me. I concluded that inter-religious dialogue would have to include learning from each other, or else I’d never truly learn about them. And although cooperation would certainly bring about more peace on earth, I”m convinced that dialogue is even more important, because peace will never exist without understanding our neighbors.