Kerukunan umat beragama di Kotesan Kecamatan Prambanan Klaten :: Telaah dialog antar agama dalam perspektif agama Budha

HERIYAH, Dr. Irwan Abdullah

2005 | Tesis | S2 Ilmu Perbandingan Agama

Pluralitas Agama adalah sebuah potret masyarakat Indonesia yang tidak dapat dipungkiri. Keberadaan common ground atau common cause merupakan syarat untuk terjadinya dialog antar agama yang bisa menyatukan perbedaan dan menciptakan kerukunan umat beragama. Sikap eksklusif, inklusif dan pluralis biasanya kita dapati di dalam proses dialog antar agama. Setiap agama memiliki konsep hubungan dengan Yang Transenden (ultimate reality), cara pandang melihat realitas kehidupan dengan jalan berbeda-beda, dan memiliki tujuan akhir yang sama, yaitu memperoleh kebahagiaan. Dialog antar agama terealisasi pada tataran teologis, filosofis dan praktik kehidupan seharihari. Dalam konteks ini, dialog kehidupan menjadi lebih penting dalam menciptakan kerukunan umat beragama. Masing-masing agama diyakini memiliki ajaran tentang cintakasih, toleransi, tolong-menolong dan hormat-menghormati sesama umat manusia yang bisa mendorong kepada terciptanya dialog dan harmonisasi kehidupan umat beragama di tengah masyarakat yang multikultural dan multireligius. Desa Kotesan dikenal sebagai masyarakat plural dan multireligius. Selain beberapa agama besar seperti Buddha, Hindu, Kristen dan Islam, juga terdapat aliran kepercayaan yaitu Sapta Dharma. Kehidupan masyarakat desa Kotesan ini masih dipengaruhi oleh tradisi Hindu dan Buddha. Adanya dialektika antara agama dan budaya lokal, sampai saat ini menjadi media dialog untuk menciptakan harmonisasi kehidupan umat beragama di desa Kotesan, termasuk agama Buddha. Selain Buddha Dhamma yang membabarkan ajaran cinta kasih (metta) dan kebebasan dari hawa nafsu (vimutti), juga menyerukan latihan meditasi dan memperkecil sifat ke’aku’an (anatta) merupakan bagian dari cara pandang dan perilaku umat Buddha. Demikian halnya, jalan umat Buddha dalam menyelesaikan konflik kehidupan, termasuk konflik antar umat beragama, yaitu berasaskan pada hukum karma yang berimplikasi kepada praktek hidup bersama tanpa kekerasan. Namun demikian, praktek sinkretisme; penerimaan, penyesuaian, dan respon agama Buddha terhadap budaya lokal menjadi kontribusi penting bagi keberlangsungan hidup yang plural dan harmonis di desa Kotesan. Melalui upacara-upacara ritus agama maupun desa (baca: slametan) telah membuka ruang-ruang sosial sebagai sarana dialog antar agama dan sarana untuk mewariskan kerukunan umat beragama. Proses pengumpulan data di lapangan di peroleh melalui dua tahap; pertama, mengobservasi secara langsung; dan kedua, menginterpretasi informasi yang dilakukan secara in-depth interview. Ditambah juga perolehan data-data sekunder yang berkenaan dengan pengalaman Buddhis, yang melukiskan kesesuaian antara praktek dan pemahaman terhadap ajaran yang dianut. Keterbukaan umat Buddha terhadap yang lain dan budaya lokal setempat, dalam pembacaan penulis, bisa menjadi representasi dari kerukunan umat beragama di Indonesia yang bercorak pada penguatan budaya nenek sebagai satu model dialog antar agama.

Religious plurality is an indisputable depiction of Indonesian people. To maintain a kind of interreligious dialogue Indonesian people need a comon ground or common sense functioned as a precondition to bring together any differences as well as to create interreligious dialouge. We also used to find inclusive, exclusive, and even pluralistic characters highlighted by those people who get involve in it. All religions has their own concept of Transcendent (the Ultimate Reality), the different ways they see the reality of life, but share the similar end: expecting the happiness. Interreligious dialogue takes place in daily theological, philosophical, and practical lives. In this context, daily life dialogue is far more important in order to create the harmony among religious people. All religions supposedly have particular teachings of compassion, tolerance, help and respect of each other by which they can create a kind of mutual dialogue and harmony among religious people within a multicultural and multireligious community. Kotesan village is one of multireligious and multicultural communities in Indonesia. There we can find four great religions: Buddha, Hindu, Christianity, and Islam, and one school of belief called the Saptha Dharma. After all, Kotesan people are mostly affected by the tradition of Hinduism and Buddhism as well. A dialectic process between religion and local culture becomes so far a means for dialogue as well as creating the harmony among Kotesan religious people, including the Buddhists. Buddhism teaches not only the doctrines of compassion (metta) and liberation from craving (vimutti), but also meditation practice to eliminate the selfish ego (anatta). All of these teachings have long become Kotesan Buddhists’ worldview and the way they behave in daily life. In addition, the way Kotesan Buddhists deal with daily life conflict, including religious conflict, is based on the law of karma, which in turn leads to Kotesan nonviolent daily life. Nevertheless, the practices of Buddhist’s syncretism, acceptance, adaptation, and response to local culture contribute significantly to Kotesan pluralistic and harmonious life. Religious and local sacred rites (namely slametan) have opened social rooms for interreligious dialogue as a means of creating the harmony of religious people. The datta collecting process in this field research is carried out in two steps: first, direct observation; and second, interpreting the information obtained from key sources through in-depth interview. In addition to this kind of data, much secondary information from any literatures, documents, articles, media news, which pertaining to the Buddhist practice are also employed in order to get the thorough depiction as well as the appropriate understanding of the subject being studied. By this method, the study finds that Buddhists’ openness to others and local culture, in my point of view, could be a representation of religious harmony in Indonesia which is characterized by the strength of ancient culture as a model of interreligious dialogue in Indonesia.

Kata Kunci : Pluralitas Agama,Dialog Antar Agama,Common Ground, Religious Plurality, Common Ground, dan Sincretism.