Good morning. In the 5th century, a Tibetan Buddhist monk whose name has eluded me, but whose vision and predictions has not, shared with his followers the following visions. He essentially said, when iron birds fly and horses run on iron rails, there will befall the Tibetan people a great tragedy. They will be scattered in the four directions, and in the West, the lands of the Red Faced People, Buddhist seeds will fall and there they will take root and grow.
This morning, here in the traditional land of the Red Faced People, I stand an affirmation of that prediction. I am: A Unitarian Universalist American Buddhist.
It is a unique combination, this 2500 year-old religion, Buddhism, and the emerging 50-something year old religion named Unitarian Universalism. I have called this process “spiritual fusion”, which arose for me by following paths less traveled.
It will not be a spiritual food that will have mass appeal, or lend itself to become a fast food commodity. As with any food its appeal is a personal choice and an essential source for nourishment of my spirit.
The need for nourishment arose some 13 years ago while following the traditional paths of the Red Faced People, the Native Americans, on a vision quest deep in silence and isolation in the rugged deserts of Death Valley of California. Out of this transformational experience I was reborn into the “wholly” trinity, the wholeness of body, mind and spirit.
The awakening of Spirit, and my spirituality, is a deeply personal and visceral experience, beyond the ability of language to express its depth and magical effects on my life, but I will attempt to share how this spiritual fusion affects my experiences of humanness.
On paths less traveled I discovered a spiritual retreat: Rowe Camp and Conference Center in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. There I befriended its director, Doug Wilson, a contemporary in age, eclectic, radical, always questioning the status quo of life. I discovered he was an ordained UU Minister. This UUism intrigued me!!!
In true American fashion of shopping around, which others had informed me was the best way to discover a UU congregation that one could resonate with and feel a part of, I bought into UUS:East.
In my library is a collection of trophies; books and audio CD’s from varied thought systems that I have visited, all containing pieces of truths and ways of experiencing the human condition. The collection is heavily spiritual and mystical in content. Many are authored by Buddhist teachers, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Lama Surya Das and Pema Chodron, to mention a few of the most well known.
In a traditional Buddhist society, one finds “a” teacher to help and lead you through teachings to awakening to how things really exist, as taught by the original Buddha. It is a direct lineage transmission from teacher to student; the student becomes the teacher once he or she obtains complete understanding of Buddha’s teachings. There has been a direct transmission of this original Buddhist teaching from 2500 years ago to the present.
As an American Buddhist I shop around for teachers; hence I have encountered many and participated in teachings at Buddhist centers and retreats, ranging from local to Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York. I share with you the flavors of this ongoing experience, as it is part of my spiritual fusion.
I don’t need faith since I have direct experiences that both confirm and make real my belief systems. This spiritual fusion has an inherent dry taste due to its appeal to the intellect’s need for reason and clarity. My Emotional Intellect has exposed me to both of these thought systems, and the content of the 7 Principles of UUism are all found in Buddhist teachings, making it a homogeneous mixture.
Buddhism specifically is a non-theistic, non-duality based belief system, simply meaning there is, at a deepest understanding, no self and others. We are mind (consciousness), boundless and formless, with cognition the ability to give meaning to form. Hence we create our own reality, both individual and collectively, which ultimately is an illusionary state. Buddha awakened to that awareness and shared it with humankind. Albert Einstein, whose scientific revelation I will refer to in a moment, said “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one”.
To put this in GOD terms, a teacher of mine, Ram Dass, said, “We are all GOD in drag!!!” We are consciousness in conversation with itself.
UUism has no specific deity, but encourages freethinking in a community of beliefs from A-Z, atheist to Zen practitioners. The God word was best described to me in a sermon by Reverend Peter Lanzilotta from this pulpit, in which he referenced it as an old English word meaning goodness. I resonate with that definition and search for goodness in all who profess God from a liberal or fundamentalist point of view.
The two pillars of UU principles, the 1st and 7th, their content I will touch upon, as they add much flavor to this mixture. The seventh, and for me the all-encompassing principle, the interconnectedness of everything, was described by Buddha in his teachings on cause-effect, impermanence, and ultimate state of being, or “emptiness”. All these teachings were in the 20th century brought to scientific fruition through the imagination and the realization of the “quantumness” of existence by Albert Einstein. He symbolizes scientific genius and intelligence. His quotes on religion are worth stating, as he said, “The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity.” Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
The other pillar, the first UU principle, respect, dignity, worth of all people goes even deeper in Buddhist teaching, for it is explicit for all sentient beings. Sentient beings are any forms that possess consciousness, hence all life forms. It is my direct experience and Buddhist belief that every person has something to teach me. Merely listen, it’s happening all the time in synchronistic movements within my existence. Here at UUS:E I listen with 100% attention, never leaving a service saying “that was a waste of time”. Hopefully you share that reaction after this service.
Under the two pillars the other five principles exist, one being nurturing the search for truth that Buddhism has answered for me. The Dalai Lama once was asked, is Buddhism the only path to truth? He smiled and laughed from his loving compassion heart and said, no, no there are many paths to truth. He went on to say, in one of your countless lifetimes you will awaken to truth on the Buddhist path.
I have not awakened, but am on a path of awakening. My humanness is the same as yours and to be human one will experience pain, no escaping it. However suffering, reaction to pain, is optional. The core of Buddha’s teaching is a path to alleviate suffering of humanity. It is also a deep spiritual psychology, allowing me to deal with the insanity of humanity. Insanity - repetitive patterns with hope for a different outcome; glaring example - make war to produce peace.
It is the contexts of this fusion that I carry into the world. All great spiritual teachers, ministers and healers know that the core question for one to search for and answer is, “Who am I?” I have discovered that answer in my search and participation in humanity as a UU American Buddhist. I think, therefore I am, I am loving thought energy, I am an actor on stage in a play unscripted, co-created with a unknowable producer, who can’t be named or even conceived by language or thought.
The purpose is just experience it in a dance in the timeless NOW.
The binder within this fusion eluded Einstein to his death. A unifying theory of physics, tying together all theories into oneness still eludes modern science today. It exists. We call it LOVE. It is both a noun and verb. As a noun churches, mosques, temples, and symbolic statues are built and adored. Objects are given dogma and theology to explain their existence. We kill each other in the name and varied interpretation of love experienced as a noun. This concept does not exist in either Buddhism or UUism since love is experience, and brought into the world as a verb. It is an action word, present in the principles of UUism, actively caring for one another
Sharing joys and sorrows is the emotional response to actively loving life. We strive for justice and peace, creating an inclusive loving space for all to enter and take refuge and comfort. One does not need to “get a life” or find a life, we are life in all it mystery and awe. We all possess a Buddha nature, or the Christ within. We symbolize it by light. It is present here today as we light the chalice, our symbol, and is written in the words of our closing circle here on the wall.
Light emitting from the source is within all existence. The light within me honors the light within you in a very beautiful flowing closing word. NAMASTE, NAMASTE, NAMASTE.
