Get Engaged — World’s Greatest Smile Day
January 25th and Beyond
by Ven. Wayne (Ren Cheng)
The practice of Appropriate Speech, one of the Eightfold Path, is a integral part of moral and ethical engagement with others through what we say, our body language, and what we write. An integral part of an engaged Buddhist practice is social engagement. A sincere SMILE is the simplest and most direct language that can readily open lines of communication no matter if there is no common spoken language. Involvement in positively oriented community and international organizations is an integral part of an Engaged Dharma Buddhist practice. We look for opportunities to act as positive agents of change and offering a smile is one great way.
Our friends Meike Duch and Andreas Lietzow founded World’s Greatest Smile. From their website:
- WGS Logo — used with permission – Meike Duch
A Smile as a Start for world-wide Peace
The goal, the past and the future of the World’s Greatest Smile
The goal of World’s Greatest Smile is to provide as much peace as possible to as many people as possible as fast as possible. Worldwide. That’s it.
We are working on this goal in many different ways.
We give people from all over the world the possibility to state together that there is willingness for an intelligent and peaceful international communication on WORLD’S GREATEST SMILE DAY.
World’s Greatest Smile – Start with a Smile – Day – January 25th
The goal of World’s Greatest Smile Day, January 25th, is to give people from all over the world the possibility to state together that there is willingness for an intelligent and peaceful international communication.
Smiling is without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Therefore Smiling is international and an intelligent start of peaceful communication.
And so we use as a symbol one of the least common denominators of communication – a smile.
For Meike and Andreas, and all the other volunteers and V.I.P.s (Very Important Parcipitants) it isn’t just about smiling one day a year. It is about a commitment to teach the values of positive communication and pluralism to kids and adults alike. Meike says, “Education leads to understanding, understanding leads to tolerance, tolerance leads to curiosity, curiosity leads to communication – and communication leads to peace.” And on the World’s Greatest Smile website there are games and education opportunites for kids and adults to participate in.
People all over the world are showing their support for this ideal of sincere and respectful communication that begins with a smile. Some of these people, like the Dalai Lama, Nobel Prize recepient Professor Doctor Steven Chu, science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson, Olympic gold medal speed skater Claudia Pechstein, and many, many more are spreading the word – SMILE – all over the planet.
- used with permission – Meike Duch
On January 25th offer a sincere smile to everyone you meet and don’t stop there. Once you feel and experience the positive effect of smiling for a day you’ll keep smiling and those around you will smile too.
David and I, and the members of the Engaged Dharma Insight Group support this effort to engage peaceful communication between all peoples all over the planet. Human flourishing is the act of promoting happiness, harmony and health and a sincere smile does that for smiler and the smiley 
