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54 EASTERN HORIZON | NEWS

Young Buddhist Association

of Indonesia Holds Interfaith

Dialogue on Religious

Moderation

By Buddhistdoor Global, July 21, 2023

The Young Buddhist Association of Indonesia (YBA)
recently co-hosted an interfaith dialogue on religious
moderation that explored the question: does religious
moderation conflict with religious teachings? The
event, co-organized by the religious educational
program Pendidikan Studi Agama, drew together
figures from Indonesia’s Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu
communities. The dialogue was hosted by artist and
story ambassador William Umboh of the Habibie Center,
an independent NGO working to advance modernization
and democratization in Indonesia based on cultural
integrity and religious values.

The Young Buddhist Association (YBA) is the leading
Buddhist youth organization in Indonesia. Through
a deeply held conviction in the Buddha’s message of
Bhikkhu Dhammasubho Mahathera. Image courtesy of the YBA
compassion, growth, and liberation, the association
promotes a positive lifestyle among the young in
order to cultivate a society founded on wisdom, mortification that is characterized by the Noble
compassion, and gratitude. The association is involved Eightfold Path consisting of: right understanding, right
in establishing Buddhist organizations nationwide, intention, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood,
propagating the study of the Dharma among young right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
people, and providing leadership training. “According to the Buddha, these eight elements are
right for oneself, right for others, and right for the
“Siddhartha, who was the son of a king and an only child, environment, so that with this right understanding
left behind his life of luxury, because he was an anti- there will be no more conflict in anything,” he
establishment person, and underwent various forms of emphasized.
asceticism,” Bhikku Dhammasubho Mahathera said.
Speaking on behalf of the Christian community,
He explained that after enduring various privations, Pastor Aryanto Nugroho expressed his view that Jesus
the Buddha finally found a middle way between Christ lived among Jews who were very sectarian and
extraordinary luxury and extraordinary self- antipathetic toward non-Jews, and hence, he carried out