44 Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise, one depraves one’s own religion and also does harm to other religions. Whosoever honors his own religion and condemns other religions does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking, ‘I will glorify my own religion.’ But on the contrary, in so doing he injures his own religion more gravely. So concord is good. Let all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others. —Rock Edict XII (Rahula 1974, 4–5) Given this admonition of Ashoka, there is some irony in the 969 movement’s use of a pillar representing Ashoka in its own logo, as the emperor himself urged respect for other religions and restraint from condemning others as not only a moral good in itself, but also because the effect of criticizing others is often to “deprave” one’s own religion. As noted above, this has been a concern raised by those critical of the 969 movement. The question of the Buddha’s own attitudes toward other religions has been richly debated by practitioners and scholars of Buddhism.48 In one assessment, scholar Kristin Kiblinger argues that Buddhist texts contain the message that the Buddha’s teachings may offer the most direct or useful path to liberation, but other teachings can also offer insight and spiriThe Buddha’s own attitude tual growth toward liberation (Kiblinger toward other religions has 2005). Others have pointed out instances of negative portrayals of practitioners of been richly debated other Indian faiths, who are painted as naïve in the Buddhist scriptures (Jayatilleke 2013). J. Abraham Velez de Cea, focusing exclusively on the Pali texts, argues that Buddhism cultivates openness to insights from other traditions, but judges them on moral criteria—the degree to which they abide by the eightfold path (Velez de Cea 2013). Indeed, as stated in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the Buddha said on his deathbed that the only criterion for assessing others is the presence of the eightfold path. Kulatissa Jayatilleke describes the Buddhist attitude toward other religions as one of “critical tolerance,” reflecting openness to others’ insights, accompanied with a willingness to critique the beliefs or practices of others, so long as the critique is free of “rancor or hatred in our hearts” (Jayatilleke 2013, 107).