By Chainarong Monthienvichienchai
THAILAND – In an hour marked by the darkening shadows of global conflict, a profound encounter in the highlands of northern Thailand has offered a luminous alternative to the grammar of war.
From Feb 20-22, as the world watched with bated breath the escalating tensions between Israel, the United States, and Iran, the Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya Buddhist University (MCU) Lamphun Campus hosted a landmark conference together with Focolare Thailand titled “Dialogue as a Way of Life.”
While the international stage resonated with the rhetoric of retaliation, over 100 participants—Buddhist monks and nuns, Catholic priests, religious sisters, and students—gathered to prove that religion, when lived through the charism of unity, remains a potent instrument of peace rather than a casualty of politics.
Call for pruning
The resonance between Catholic social teaching and Buddhist practice was made tangible through the testimony of Phramaha Thanawat from Wat Phra That Si Chom Thong.
Drawing from his experience at the “One Human Family” meeting in Rome, the monk reflected on the words of Pope Francis regarding the necessity of “pruning” what is superfluous in religious life.
“The Holy Father’s call to shed the unnecessary has become a daily practice in our temple,” Phramaha Thanawat shared, illustrating how the spirituality of unity transcends dogma to touch the practicalities of monastic discipline.
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