Celebrating International Day for Tolerance
Fostering Tolerance and a Culture of Peace
with Love and Conscience
Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze
President of Federation of World Peace and Love
Vice-President of Association of World Citizens
Zhang-men-ren of Tai Ji Men
Nov. 16, 2021
On November 16, 1995, UNESCO's Member States adopted a Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, and the UN General Assembly passed a resolution, designating November 16 as International Day for Tolerance the following year. The first article of the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance states that “Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication, and freedom of thought, conscience and belief.” This is an important value of the Declaration. The meaning of tolerance is to acknowledge that everyone is entitled to human rights and fundamental freedoms. Human beings are born with different characteristics, and only with tolerance can we ensure peaceful co-existence among different groups in diverse regions. Promoting mutual understanding among cultures and among peoples to foster tolerance is also one of the core values of the United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Tolerance is a moral and political obligation as is the duty to uphold human rights and democracy. The Declaration also indicates that “Tolerance, the virtue that makes peace possible, contributes to the replacement of the culture of war with a culture of peace.” To achieve a more tolerant society, the Declaration links tolerance closely to international human rights conventions, emphasizing that countries should develop new legislation necessary to ensure equal treatment and opportunities for all groups and individuals in society.
However, our world is moving towards violent extremism, and the scale of the world is out of balance. Interpersonal and international conflicts are growing, and there are conflicts and wars over resources, power, or conflicting ideologies. The root cause of intolerance is ignorance and fear. People tend to fear people and things they don’t understand, such as foreign people, cultures, nations, and religions. Without love and empathy, laws alone are not enough to change people’s intolerance. The purpose of tolerance education is to guide people to recognize the differences between themselves and others, to respect and protect others’ rights and freedom of thought, to practice tolerance in their daily lives, to foster mutual understanding and eliminate misunderstandings through education and cultural exchange, and to strengthen people's ability to make independent decisions, think critically, and apply moral reasoning. Governments have a responsibility to strengthen human rights and rule of law education and to enforce policies in accordance with the law to eliminate hate crimes, discrimination, and bullying against minority groups.
Without love, there will be no tolerance among people or nations. Conscience is the root of love. Conscience activates good governance and leads to conscience-driven politics. Any decision or action taken by governments of all countries requires a conscientious mindset that puts people first and a balanced mindset that honors equality for all and respects human rights, as these concepts are necessary for the preservation of life and sustainable development for all living creatures on Earth and every world citizen. Good and bad, right and wrong, true and false, as well as full and empty correspond to yin and yang. Yin and yang complement each other, and the balance of yin and yang is the prescription for one's physical and mental health, as well as the medicine to save a nation and its people. This is the philosophical wisdom that I have inherited from the ancient Taoists of the East, and we practice the way of balancing yin and yang to promote tolerance while striving to resolve conflicts with wisdom to promote peace.
We can all start practicing tolerance, which will create an amazing resonance effect. In 1950, scientists at Kyoto University studied monkeys in Kyushu, Japan, and found that monkeys were slow to learn new skills at first, but once the 100th monkey learned them, the 100th monkey became the turning point, and even monkeys who had never learned them, even without contact with the learned monkeys, learned the new skills at an amazing rate and even passed on the new skills across the sea to monkeys in other areas. This shows that after individual consciousness has been superimposed and reached a critical point, the power emanating from the group consciousness will affect other individuals with a powerful energetic field. We should not underestimate the power of our kind thoughts. One hundred people's good thoughts can inspire more good thoughts; 100 sincere and forgiving hearts can touch the depths of people’s souls and inspire reciprocal aspirations and responses, activating kind hearts and good deeds and helping society and the world attain peace.
Voltaire, a great French Enlightenment thinker who defended civil liberties, particularly freedom of belief and justice, declared 300 years ago that tolerance is the most significant emblem of a civilized society and the foundation of civilized people. He asked, “What is tolerance?” “It is the endowment of humanity. We are all steeped in weakness and error; let us forgive each other our stupidities, that is the first law of nature,” he said. Therefore, this era requires the awakening of conscience in more world citizens, and everyone is encouraged to do good deeds with conscience, stop conflict, spread goodness, and uphold justice and righteousness in the world. With tolerance and wisdom, let us make the world's rich and colorful religions, languages, cultures, and peoples a precious asset for the benefit of mankind. With tolerance and respect, human evolution can move to a higher level, bringing us closer to the peaceful world that everyone desires.
May you all be blessed with health, peace, and happiness.
*Presented at the ICDAY's virtual event in support of UN International Day for Tolerance