6 Buddhist perspectives on freedom of religion or belief Benjamin Schonthal I always say that every person on this earth has the freedom or not to practice religion (Gyatso, 2005). – The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet Buddhism is simply a way of mindfulness and peace. The presence of Buddhism does not mean having a lot of schools, hospitals, cultural institutions, and political parties run by Buddhists. Rather, the presence of Buddhism means that all these things are permeated and administered with humanism, love, tolerance, and enlightenment (Sivaraksa, 1992: 70). – Thai Buddhist activist and founder of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, Sulak Sivaraksa Buddhists have always been tolerant. There is no other teaching (dharmayak) in the world that preaches more about the value of tolerance and about not being vengeful than the Buddha’s dharma (All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress, 1956: 317). – Passage from a Sinhala-language report written by the All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress At first glance, several principles of similarity link together the above quotes. Most obviously, each quote appears to endorse religious freedom, toleration and coexistence as important social ideals. Either directly or implicitly, the quotes also present those ideals as consistent with Buddhist teachings and institutions. Supporting this linkage are the authority and cre- dentials of the authors: the first quote comes from the world’s most prominent Tibetan Buddhist monk, the second from a famous Buddhist activist and social critic in Thailand and the third from a collective of eminent Buddhist monks and laypersons in Sri Lanka, who together represented the country’s largest Buddhist nongovernmental organisation, the All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress. Other similarities appear when one investigates further. Although all three quotes invoke ideas of toleration and freedom, each of the authors wrote at a time when their own free- doms seemed to be under threat. The Dalai Lama’s sentiments came in a context (still ongoing) in which he and his co-religionists were facing severe restrictions from the Chinese government – which, incidentally, also claims to speak for Tibetan Buddhists (Powers, 73