The Buddhism of my experience finds suffering and grace, hurt and joy, as well as my ethical choices are all informed by a deep knowing discovered through my disciplines and life that every blessed thing is united, is in a very real sense \u201cone,\u201d or using a traditional Buddhist metaphor, \u201cempty.\u201d\u00a0 This spaciousness, this boundlessness is our true home. And for me this discovery as a personal truth, a deep knowing, or, again, in the language of this tradition this great not knowing, is the point of all religion, and what makes it worth putting up with a fair amount of nonsense and bother.<\/div>\n
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While not a Buddhist text, the Chinese classic the
Tao Te Ching<\/i> sings of this home, as at first nameless, after all ultimately words, all words fail, hence not knowing; and then named, after all at some point we must speak, our words and actions are intimate and of great consequence: \u201cThe nameless\u201d the <\/span>Tao Te Ching<\/i> tells us, \u201cis the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.\u201d The nameless, the empty, the great void, the Way, if you wish God, if you wish Love: is our source, our sustenance and our eternal return. Whatever our preferred placeholder for this experience, it is our family name. And, this is equally important, it is found here in this world, in this body, by you and by me. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This is my heart\u2019s knowing. These twin truths of unity and separation birthing as love in this world informs everything I do and am.<\/div>\n
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And, as you may have noticed, my other foot is placed joyfully within Unitarian Universalism. Sometimes called \u201cliberal religion,\u201d embracing the way of the rational heart. <\/div>\n
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And here we find the liberal of my liberal Buddhism. <\/div>\n
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I first came to Unitarian Universalism because I felt a lack in Zen as I encountered it in the sixties, seventies and eighties. As I said all religions are false, each has its limitations, none offers the truth with a big capital \u201cT.\u201d\u00a0 And while Buddhism may be a bit less false than most, it too has limitations. Again, I won\u2019t bore you with details here. A little research will show you a fair amount in its teachings you can find internally contradictory, silly or wrong-headed.<\/div>\n
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The thing that mostly concerned me, however, wasn\u2019t doctrinal. The issue of whether there is rebirth in the sense of our actions directly resulting in the birth of a human being who in some sense may be said to be me, or if each breath presents a new life, and it is all resolved right here, right now, leads to the same disciplines. <\/div>\n
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The issue that led me into the Unitarian Universalist church was that there just wasn\u2019t much attention given to community in contemporary Western Zen. Oh, a tip of the hat here and there. But, if a Western Buddhist wanted a spiritual home for their kids, pretty much everyone I knew ended up in a UU church. If someone wanted a spiritual community as something more than a place to do the discipline, sort of like going to a spiritual gym, and then home, pretty much the only place where I could go that didn\u2019t contradict the parts of Zen I found useful and true, turned out to be at the local UU church. So, bottom line I wanted full spiritual community, and there was precious little of that at the local Zen center. Instead, I found it instead at the UU church. <\/div>\n
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But, I also got something more. In fact much more.<\/div>\n
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I vividly remember my first visit to a UU church. Hoping for so much. Expecting a lot. And falling asleep during the sermon. But, as an old Zen hand, I know about falling asleep during spiritual practices. And I returned. And returned. And I found something very interesting, some healthful wheat amidst the chaff.<\/div>\n
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Unitarian Universalism has two principal currents and two methodologies that exist sometimes smoothly, sometimes not so smoothly which are derived ultimately from the two traditions that formed the Association. The first is Unitarianism, which has historically been concerned with reason and ethics. The slogan for this current has been \u201csalvation by character.\u201d The second is Universalism, which has been concerned with healing, and for which the slogan has been \u201cGod is love.\u201d Or, \u201cLove over creed.\u201d Love. The same love it seems as I found in my Zen practice, although in Zen this was often expressed as compassion. Love, compassion, the same or different? Maybe we can unpack that some other time.<\/div>\n
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Once I understood these twin currents, salvation by character and love over creed, I felt I\u2019d found the completion of my spiritual quest. Not the completion of the practice, of the doing, but I had found all the parts I needed for a whole lifetime, for my spiritual maturation, and for how I could respond in this world to what is.<\/div>\n
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Of course there\u2019s still that all religions are false thing. The Buddha warned how we need to take up our practice with diligence, and while looking for wise counsel to never put another head on top of our own. Unitarian Universalism in practice is pretty good at the spiritual community thing. We know how to organize ourselves, to provide a nurturing shelter for our children, to engage each other, and to reach out into the world. This year\u2019s focus of this congregation in standing for marriage equality is simply part of who we have always been. We\u2019re very good at the doing.<\/div>\n
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Not so much so with the reflection part, with holding our hearts to account. When I arrived I pretty much had to bring my own spiritual practice. As most of us moved away from Christianity most also forgot how to pray, the classic spiritual discipline of Western religions. Things are getting better. Chalice circles are important. Meditation, usually Buddhist, has become common in UU churches. But, that discipline part is still pretty fragile. We need to be careful to cultivate the opportunities for deep reflection for ourselves and for each other. I hope our time together over these next couple of days will hold up some of what this might look like.<\/div>\n
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What practice is, in all its different forms is reaching out with an open heart. All we need is to stretch our hand out. It will be taken up. Call it God. Call it Lord. Call it the great Boundless. Call it the Way. It has many names. But, it will respond. Let us remember the whole way: open heart, critical mind, and a hand reaching out. This is love. This is compassion. This is the healing of our individual hearts. This is the healing of the world.<\/div>\n
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And this is my confession. This is my faith. I hope it brings you a word of hope. I hope it encourages you to trust your head and to know that doesn\u2019t mean shutting down your heart. Here are the slogans of my heart. Sit down, shut up, and pay attention. Salvation by character. And love over creed. Always, love over creed. <\/div>\n
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Our way, however we call it, is ultimately about love. It is about reaching out our hearts and hands. Do it, and you will find a hand taking yours. Call it Quanyin, call it Jesus. Love doesn\u2019t care. Love just is.<\/div>\n
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This is my faith.<\/div>\n
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