四七、列名卓越的世界宗教及精神領袖名單
這一次高峰會議的第一天，也就是八月二十八日的下午，是正式在聯合國的大會堂舉行的開幕典禮。除了執行長巴瓦．金致開幕詞之外，還有各宗教領袖的祈禱詞，及宗教團體代表的讚頌歌，一共有三十五個團體和個人。宗教氣氛非常濃厚，讓與會者分享到各宗教對於世界和平的希望和祈禱的心願。例如中國道教代表閔智學、韓國天台宗代表、西藏佛教代表、日本佛教代表等，都是各派的大宗教師和各國代表性的宗教團體。
二十九日，也是在聯合國大會堂，進行了一整天的全體大會，主要是各宗教領袖的演說，中間也穿插各宗教的祈禱。一共分為四個場次，每一個場次都有十至十五人的演說者及祈禱者，每人的時間為五至七分鐘，其中也有以團體的數人乃至十數人一起上台祈禱的。我是在第一場次中擔任主題演說。
這次站上聯合國大會堂發言台的七位佛教領袖中，五位是演說者，兩位是祈禱者。五位演說者中，除我之外，另外四位是日本天台宗的渡邊先生、柬埔寨上座部的瑪哈．哥沙納達（Maha
Ghosananda）、西藏佛教的直貢仁波切（Drikung Chetsang
Rinpoche）、斯里蘭卡上座部的大長老索必達（Mahathero
Sobita）。兩位祈禱者，一位是來自臺灣的心道法師，他是靈鷲山無生道場的創始人，出生在緬甸，祖籍雲南，現在是臺灣興起的五大佛教團體之一，在大會議程手冊裡沒有他的名字，不知什麼原因而被遺漏了；另一位祈禱者是印度籍緬甸系統的葛印卡居士，傳承於緬甸一位老居士烏巴慶所推廣的內觀禪，以十日禪聞名於世，曾和我有數面之緣，目前在印度的南方，有一個很大的中心，而他的禪風已經推廣到臺灣及歐美各國，共有七十多個分支道場。
與會的世界宗教領袖合影
從以上這個名單來看，演說者和祈禱者的選擇，有它一定的標準和原因，但是在會場中，並不能夠看出有什麼不同，祈禱者著重在讚頌和對佛菩薩的祈禱，演說者則帶有觀念性和建議性的內容。不過能夠被邀請站上聯合國大會堂的發言台，不論是演說者也好、祈禱者也好，都具有一定的身分和立場。
主辦單位提供有一份名單，叫作「千禧年世界和平高峰會卓越的世界宗教與精神領袖們」（Millennium World
Peace Summit Pre-eminent World Religious and Spiritual
Leaders），共有五十三人，包括全世界的各種傳統宗教。它的英文名單附錄如下。（名單見以下四頁）
我被列名第九位，還是佛教領袖的第一位。至於其他的佛教領袖，日本兩位，韓國兩位，其他分屬於泰國、斯里蘭卡、美國、柬埔寨、印度、緬甸，因為我是被列入美國項下，所以臺灣和大陸的佛教徒，在這份卓越的世界宗教領袖的名單上是看不到的。不過，另外大會提供了一份出席會議的宗教領袖名冊，共有二十七頁，列出一百二十二位世界各宗教領袖的簡歷，我和心道法師在這份名冊中，都標明是來自臺灣。
- The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop
of Capetown (Christianity, South Africa) - His Eminence Francis Cardinal Arinze, President,
Pontifical Council on Interreligious Dialogue, The Vatican
(Christianity, Italy) - His Excellency Abdullah al-Obaid, Secretary-General,
World Muslim League (Islam, Saudi Arabia) - Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of
Israel (Judaism, Israel) - The Most Reverend Kuni Kuniaki, The Jingu Daiguji
(High Priest) of the Grand Shine at Ise (Shinto, Japan) - His Eminence Ayatollah Abdollah Vaeze Javadi (Islam,
Iran) - The Reverend Dr. Konrad Raiser, General Secretary,
World Council of Churches (Christianity, Switzerland) - The Honorable Dr. L. M. Singhvi, India’s High
Commission (Jainism, India) - The Most Venerable Master Sheng Yen, The Dharma
Drum Monastery (Ch’an Buddhist, USA) - His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Ji Maharaj,
Spiritual Leader and Head of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam
Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) (Hinduism, India) - His Excellency Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, Grand Mufti of
Syria (Islam, Syria) - The Most Venerable Eshin Watanabe, Patriarch of
Tendai Buddhism (Buddhism, Japan) - Sri Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Hindu Spiritual
Leader (Hinduism, India) - Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Talmudic Scholar (Judaism,
Israel) - S. N. Goenka, Buddhist (Buddhism, India)
- His Holiness Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Sanskrit and
Vedanta Scholar (Hinduism, India) - Chief Rabbi Johnathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of England
(Judaism, United Kingdom) - Venerable Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda, Supreme
Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism (Buddhism, Cambodia) - Dr. Albert Lincoln, Secretary-General, The Bahai
(Bahai, Israel) - His Holiness Jatehdar Joginder Singh, Jatehdar Akal
Takht, The Golden Temple (Sikhism, India) - His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of the Armenian
Church (Christianity, Armenia) - Imam W. D. Mohammed, Leader, Muslim American
Society (Islam, India) - Bishop Fu Tieshen, Vice Chairman, Chinese Catholic
Conference (Christianity, China) - Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation
(Indigenous, USA) - Jehangir Oshidari, Zoroastrian High Priest
(Zoroastrian, Iran) - Metropolitan Pitirim, The Russian Orthodox Church
(Christianity, Russia) - The Venerable Mahathero Sobita, The Sri Bodhiraja
Foundation (Buddhism, Sri Lanka) - His Holiness Dada J. P. Vaswani, Sadhu Vaswani
Mission (Hinduism, India) - His Holiness Somdet Phra Phutthakhosachan
(Buddhism, Thailand) - Her Holiness Acharya Chandanaji, Founder of the
Veerayatan Institution (Jainism, India) - Dastur Dr. Firoze Kotwal, High Priest of Zoroastrianism
(Zoroastrianism, India) - The Venerable Bhaddanta Kumara, Myanmar (Buddhism,
Myanmar) - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Art of Living Foundation
(Hinduism, India) - Mr. Min Zhiting, Chairman of the China Taoist
Association (Taoism, China) - Ms. Audrey Shenandoah, Clan Mother, Onondaga
Nation (Indigenous, Native American) - His Holiness Jatehdar Manjit Singh, Jatehdar Anandpur
Sahib (Sikhism, India) - Her Holiness Dadi Janki, Head of the Brahma Kumaris
World Spiritual University (Brahma Kumaris, United Kingdom) - Reverend Joseph Mar Iraneous, Mar Thoma Church
(Chirstianity, USA) - His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang (Buddhism,
USA) - Reverend Bishop Vashti McKenzie, African Methodist
Episcopal Church (Christianity, USA) - Reverend Wol Joo Song (Buddhism, Korea)
- Bishop Isaias Gutierrez (Christianity, Chile)
- His Holiness Abune Paulos, Patriarch of Ethiopia
(Christianity, Ethiopia) - His Holiness Abune Filipos, Patriarch of Eritrea
(Christianity, Eritrea) - Venerable Un Deok Jeon, Chontae Order, South Korea
(Buddhism, Korea) - Wenzao Han (Christianity, China)
- The Reverend Nichiko Niwano, President, Rissho Kosei
Kai (Buddhism, Japan) - Wande Abimbola (Indigenous African, USA)
- Dr. Seung-Heun Lee, Founder of Dahnhak (Traditional
Korean, Korea) - His Holiness Satguru Jagjit Singh Ji Maharaj (Namdhar
Sikhism, India) - Sant Rajinder Singh, Spiritual Head, Sawan Kirpal
Ruhani Mission. - Dr. Mustafa Ceric, The Grand Mufti of Bosnia (Islam,
Bosnia) - Zachariah, Nicholovos, Eminence, Archbishop
(Christianity, USA)
上一篇: 《法鼓全集》第六輯 自傳、遊記類|06-12 抱疾遊高峰|四六、會議期間的餐會邀宴
