PARIS:
“We are what we think … With our thoughts we make the world”.
These words attributed to Siddhārtha Gautama – the Buddha, the Enlightened One –
resonate with particular force on this International Day of Vesak, celebrated by millions
of Buddhists around the world.
This day, now celebrated every year following a decision taken by UNESCO’s Member
States at the 219th session of the Executive Board, invites us to get back to basics: to
peace, compassion and generosity. These are universal values, which we must nurture
in our minds and in our actions – for, as the Preamble to UNESCO’s Constitution reminds
us, it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace are constructed.
At UNESCO, we work every day to cultivate this peace, notably through education. This
is the purpose of our recently published guide to integrating social and emotional
learning into school curricula – a tool for transmitting the values of empathy, respect and
dialogue from the earliest age.
Promoting openness to others also means encouraging dialogue between cultures. For
more than 40 years, our Silk Roads Programme has been tracing exchanges between
peoples, in realms far beyond trade – exchanges of knowledge, beliefs and artistic
practices. This is the theme of the symposium held at UNESCO Headquarters on the
initiative of Sri Lanka, in tribute to this living heritage.
On this International Day of Vesak, guided by the light of the full moon, let us take a
moment to make peace grow around us. Let us forge links, build bridges, look at the
world with kindness.
For the Buddha’s 2,500-year-old message remains an achingly relevant appeal: a call
to wisdom, humanity and peace
May 10, 2025
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