Alhmadulillah, I am selected to be part of the 2023 KAICIID International Fellow program to be trained in dialogue facilitation, intercultural communication and promotion of social cohesion. After several online classes and the first face-to-face training in Strasbourg, France, the second one was held in Bangkok, Thailand in May. Everyone was looking forward to meeting each other again, and to learn more about interreligious and intercultural dialogues.
However, this reflection is not on the formal programme, but prior to it. I came to Bangkok two days earlier to explore the city freely. The day started with an online meeting regarding a consultancy work for a national airline. Then I rendezvoused with another female Christian participant before embarking on our spiritual retreat of our own. We started with the usual touristy places around the Grand Palace, walking down to get a long-tail boat that would take us into the smaller canals for an hour. Managed to negotiated the price for BHT$900 per person (but it could have been cheaper), we set on an unexpected journey into what I feel like home: the water villages back in Brunei. The houses, temples, masjid, and gardens were built next to the canals, and we see many of the traditional and modern architectures. Many temples were also seen, with a really Big Buddha statue overseeing the canal and the city. The city, the rivers and the people were lively and highly spiritual, setting the right vibe for transcendental growth.
Afterwards, we went to China town to get some lunch using TukTuk for only THB$20 (from initial price of THB$200!). We looked around and bought some souvenirs, and visited a Chinese Buddhist temple nearby. So far, everything was according to plan. It was already noon, and the next agenda was to go back to the hotel to rest before going out to get dinner.
Illuminated Calling to A Church and A Masjid
However, my colleague suggested to visit a church where they offer a mass in English. Sounds interesting. So we decided to go and make the best out of it. We took another TukTuk, but was dropped off on the wrong side of Lumphini Park. We had to go around it, which takes about 20 minutes of walking through the rain. It was a difficult and tiring journey. When we arrived at the Holy Redeemer Church, the English mass was still ongoing. With a sigh of relief, my colleague and I entered the open space and sat on a bench, drenched. My Christian colleague began to pray, and I just sat there listening to the English sermon whilst enjoying the chilly wind from outside (the sermons and prayers were over the microphone, and I could not make out what was being said). Although in different ways, we enjoyed our peace.
After the Mass has ended, she suggested to go and meet one of the Fathers. We met with a youthful Father in his 30s, and had a fruitful conversation about Christianity and the community in Bangkok. I then asked about living alongside other religion, which the father replied that everything is very peaceful. He then pointed out that there’s a masjid very close to the church. I checked on my phone, and it was less than 5 minutes away! So, after wrapping our conversation with the Father, we decided to go and visit the Indonesia Mosque afterwards. I prayer Asr there, again enjoying the peaceful living in Bangkok despite the hustle and bustle.
These two events left me wondering what really happened. My personal intention was to explore Bangkok for what it is. But I knew in my heart that exploring and traversing the world is part of the Islamic tradition: we are asked to see the signs of God everywhere, reflect on our being and our connection to the world. I kept praising His name, as did my colleague. Everything seemed simple, but very surreal and meaningful.
The Hearts’ Dialogue: Our Faith Will Be Tested
After finishing our respective prayers and being spiritually charged, we decided to go back to our respective hotels. While trying to find our way back, we noticed that our Skyline would be passing the Paragon Mall and Siam Centre. So we decided to have our dinner there instead. Over laksa noodles and udon soup, we had a heart-to-heart conversation about our personal lives.
I began sharing my heart-centered approach to life and work at Sollu Consulting. It was comforting to know that the heart-centered approach to living is something that Islam and Christianity share. My colleague immediately clicked and responded quite deeply.
A few realisation came from her, which she shared openly: Religious leaders’ faith will be tested.
This is nothing new. Life is full of joy and sorrow. Those working hard for the religion know this reality even more. However, in our hearts, we may fall into the delusion that we are relatively pious and religious compared to the laymen. Following this belief is that we deserve more joy: a good husband/wife, beautiful children, a comfortable house, and so on. The reality is that others who are less pious seem to be happier. Then, the angry demon within our inner darkness rose from the abyss, consuming us internally with jealousy, hatred, and even intentions to harm others.
Dialogue uncovers inner demonic and angelic traits
But through the heart-to-heart dialogue, the demonic vices within are made apparent to us, and so are the angelic virtues. The battle between the two is also becoming more ferocious and relentless. These are all working within the inner realm of our hearts.
But as we talked, things seem to be getting clearer with principles of life emerging from within:
“Don’t compare with others.”
“Happiness looks different for different people.”
“Hold on to faith and move forward and upward.”
These are just some of the principles emerging from the impromptu dialogue, whereby each participant shares life stories and philosophies not in a normative “preachy” way, but being real and authentic, embracing all the perfections and imperfections within and around. They are not necessarily novel if you look at the wider literature, but it is aptly novel for our own life story as they open new doors and new energies to move forward.
Emphasise self-dialogue
To supplement the heart-to-heart dialogue, self-dialogue is an internal process of reflection to take stock of what happened and chart for the next concrete steps (if possible). For me, this spontaneous event was an amazing interreligious and intercultural experience. Not only do we have a dialogue between a Muslim and a Christian about our religion, but also about other religions. We also focused less on the ‘dialogue of theology’ and more on the ‘dialogue of life’, ending with self-dialogue.
