“Paradoxical Intervention, Reverend Billy, Sanctuary, Universalism, Etc.” A Paper Delivered at the 117th Gathering of the Fraters of the Wayside Inn, Sudbury, MA, on 29 January 2019 Frater John Gibbons (printed with permission of the author) I begin by reminding you of what you already know: the Prior assigns the topics of the papers we present. Which is a way of saying that this paper was not my idea; I’m not to blame. Prior Peirce assigned this... Read more
I’m going to be preaching at the UU church in Fullerton this Sunday, and found myself searching for the source of a half recalled illustration. I realized it almost certainly came from the late popular science writer Stephen Jay Gould. Now, I have to admit I’ve never held a book in my hand and not felt some fission of joy. But, after decades of acquisitions as Jan & I knew we were going to be retiring... Read more
THE KOAN OF OUR LIVES Zen, the Ten Commandments, & the Beatitudes James Myoun Ford The other day one of my companion Patheos bloggers, Professor Gene Veith shared a post reflecting on the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. His post played off an opinion piece by mega-church pastor Andy Stanley. The pastor apparently having opined how Christians shouldn’t be obsessed with monuments to the Ten Commandments in the public square. Rather, he seems to have suggested,... Read more
A Chikuto Landscape Glenn Taylor Webb In classical Chinese landscape paintings, made for nearly 1000 years, the humans depicted in the paintings often are tiny as ants compared to the vast mountains and valleys they are in. Certainly that comparison is true to life. But the paintings teach another truth: their mountain settings made those ant-like seekers of truth (who of course are all of us) grasp the vastness that is in themselves. The painters... Read more
I was talking with several friends. All Unitarian Universalist ministers. So, of course, as natural as dawn follows night the conversation drifted, if only for a moment, to the divine. The Reverend Doctor Walter Weider offered his view that one deity doesn’t work for him. Either none or a million. We’ve all heard this before, so it didn’t trigger much. And, not long after the conversation moved on. I forget precisely where. But, given our ages,... Read more
As I started driving away from Longfellow’s Wayside Inn and the 117th gathering of the Fraters of the Wayside Inn, I turned on the local NPR station and pretty much immediately learned that Jacqueline Steiner, cowriter of the song known to me as “Charlie on the MTA” had died. She was ninety-four. It occurred to me the Kingston Trio’s version of that song may well have been the first I ever heard of Boston. And, as anyone... Read more
“My religion is kindness.” 14th Dalai Lama Today, the 28th of January, is the anniversary of King John Sigismund’s Edict of Torda, promulgated in 1579. It established the right of ministers to preach the gospel as they best understood it, and, as well, for congregants to reserve their own opinions in these matters. At least it did for a brief time in a fairly obscure corner of Eastern Europe. The edict represented a shift in thinking that... Read more
The Buddha’s Last Instruction by Mary Oliver “Make of yourself a light” said the Buddha, before he died. I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness, to send up the first signal-a white fan streaked with pink and violet, even green. An old man, he lay down between two sala trees, and he might have said anything, knowing it was his final hour. The light burns upward, it... Read more
According to Matthew Ciolek’s Zen Buddhist Calendar today is the birthday of Su Tung-p’o. The listing noted he was an esteemed if controversial bureaucrat, lay Buddhist practitioner, and poet. I thought that interesting enough to look a bit further. Wikipedia says Professor Ciolek’s dates are wrong, marking his birth as the 8th of January in 1037 and his death on 24 August 1101. Nonetheless I’m happy as a clam to have been introduced, or perhaps better... Read more
Once upon a time there were sixteen bodhisattvas. It was bath day and they entered the waters together. Simultaneously they all realized the cause of water. They called out as one voice, “This marvelous touch has illuminated all things. We have reached that place where the daughters and sons of the Buddha all dwell!” Blue Cliff Record, Case 78 (my paraphrase) I’ve long loved this case, as we call individual examples of the... Read more
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