THE
LOTUS AND THE CHALICE
June
18, 2006
In
mid-May In the City for Good hosted
I
served as moderator for the Panel Discussion, and our own Matthew Braden was
one of the participants. Several of you
attended at least part of the activities.
Until
today, I avoided preaching about Buddhism, mostly because I knew very little
about it. What little I did know was very attractive.
I
knew it was historically non-violent. I
knew that compassion was central to some teachings. I knew that it was non-theistic—there was no
god demanding that all Buddhists devote themselves to his or her exclusive
worship. The few Buddhists I knew seemed
to lead very balanced lives, based on a system of ethics that led them to right
behavior.
However,
what I learned during that day of dialogue led me to think about the
similarities between this Asian religion and Unitarian Universalism.
I
want to share with you some of what I have discovered about Buddhism and its
relation to Unitarian Universalism. I
asked Matthew to meet with me this last week, and I asked him one question:
What makes you, a Buddhist, comfortable in a Unitarian Universalist congregation? His answers contribute greatly to this
sermon—The Lotus and the Chalice.
Let
us look first at our shared Buddhist/UU history, which began almost 200 years
ago. James Ishmael Ford, UU minister and
Zen Buddhist, says, in The Faith of a UU
Buddhist, that,
This blending of Buddhism with Unitarian
Universalism began with nineteenth-century Transcendentalists such as Ralph
Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.
Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer Peabody translated the first Buddhist text
into English. (James
Ishmael Ford, The Faith of a UU Buddhist,
pamphlet.)
The
ideas of Buddhism thus influenced transcendentalism and Unitarianism.
They
have remained and become “especially dynamic in recent years.” (Ibid.) However, the
connection is more complex than that initial influence. As a young man, Mohandes
Ghandi read the transcendentalists extensively,
especially Theodore Parker, the great abolitionist and social justice Unitarian
preacher. Ghandi was Hindi, rather than Buddhist, but
he brought those ideas back to
Currently,
the number of Buddhists who also sit in UU pews is growing. There are several UU/Buddhist ministers. And, we who are clergy,
have observed that there are a growing number of liberal religionists who
practice Buddhist forms of meditation, and express Buddhist values, but who do
not formally name themselves Buddhist.
I
think there are a number of reasons for this, and primary among them is a set
of shared values. Let us explore them
briefly.
One
of those values is a search for truth.
In Buddhism, this is called Dharma.
Matthew
loaned me a book on basic Buddhism, What
the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula. Dr. Rahula comments
on the search for truth.
…Truth
needs no label: it is neither Buddhist, Christian, Hindu (n)or
Moslem. (sic)
It is not the monopoly of anybody.
Sectarian labels are a hindrance to the independent understanding of
Truth, and they produce harmful prejudices in men’s (sic) minds. (Rahula, Walpola, What the
Buddhist Taught, Grove Press, New York, 1959, p. 5)
Buddha searched for and
found his truth. He is regarded as
neither the first nor the last of the great prophets and teachers. He is, however, regarded as the best such
teacher by Buddhists.
Like this liberal religion,
Buddhism can coexist with other faiths.
It is a non-creedal religion.
Many Japanese are both Shinto and Buddhist. Many Christians are investigating Buddhism,
as we learned during the Buddhist/Christian dialogue here. And many Buddhists are discovering that
Unitarian Universalism provides them with a religious home that is part of
their culture, but welcomes the wisdom and experience of Buddhism.
James Ishmael Ford tells of leaving
a Buddhist monastery that had been his home for many years. He needed, he says, a new spiritual home that
did not ask him to deny his earlier experience of growing and developing in a
Christian culture. However, he wanted to
keep the wisdom he learned in the monastery.
He found what he was seeking
in a Unitarian Universalist Church. He
visited a UU church and found himself in conversation with people who were
interested in why he was there. He
explained that he was a Buddhist, and some of his beliefs and practices. One person replied, “Except for meditation,
what you describe sounds like a Unitarian Universalist perspective.” Ford continues,
My
new friends went on to suggest that a Buddhist would find similar perspectives
in all the currents of contemporary Unitarian Universalism, particularly in
religious humanism. But there also seem
to be commonalties between the ‘liberal Buddhism’ I described and the liberal
Christianity, Judaism, and earth-centered faith embraced by many other UUs. And over the years, I’ve come to believe they were
right.” (Ford.)
Another
value we share is an understanding of the importance of Enlightenment. We, who are products of Western culture have very specific ideas in mind when we speak of
Enlightenment.
We
think of that period in our history, beginning in
Enlightenment
in Buddhism has a different source. It
came to Buddha as he sat in meditation under a Bodi
tree. He was seeking the cause human suffering, which was so evident all around
him. He understood at that moment its
cause and how to end it. This knowledge
is taught today as the Four Noble Truths.
The
first Noble Truth is that everything is impermanent. That is, all the material goods we acquire,
all the people we love, all that we accomplish while living, is impermanent. Impermanence is the diagnosis.
The
second Noble Truth is our human desire for these impermanent things. Not only do we cling to our loved ones,
knowing they must die, but we are attached to our houses, our cars, and our
material goods. This is the cause of our
suffering.
Thus,
to find freedom from suffering, we must give up our attachment to things. We must let go of the need to have a large
SUV that travels at 90 miles per hour.
We
must cease clinging to the house that we worked so hard to acquire. And, most difficult, we must understand that
our loved ones will die, and let them go when the inevitable happens. This is the prescription to the problem of
suffering.
The
fourth Noble Truth encompasses the Eight-fold path, which is the cure for the
problem. Following the path will allow
us to stop clinging to things, thus eliminating the problem of suffering. The path consists of
1.
Right Understanding
2.
Right Thought
3.
Right Speech
4.
Right Action
5.
Right Livelihood
6.
Right Effort
7.
Right Mindfulness
8.
Right Concentration.
It
is not my intent to explore the particulars of this path today. It is to say, however, that the values
represented in this path are greatly similar to those expressed by Unitarian
Universalism.
You
will note that Buddhism emphasizes the doing of right, rather than the
expression of right belief. In this we
also agree. We believe in Deeds, not Creeds we say when discussing
our path with traditional Christians.
Walpola Rahula concludes What
the Buddha Taught by telling us the aim of Buddhism:
Buddhism
aims at creating a society where the ruinous struggle for power is renounced;
where calm and peace prevail away from conquest and defeat; where the
persecution of the innocent is vehemently denounced; where one who conquers
oneself is more respected than those who conquer millions by military and
economic warfare; where hatred is conquered by kindness, and evil by goodness;
where enmity, jealousy, ill-will and greed do not infect men’s (sic) minds;
where compassion is the driving force of action; where all, including the least
of living things, are treated with fairness, consideration and love; where life
in peace and harmony, in a world of material contentment, is directed towards
the highest and noblest aim, the realization of Ultimate Truth, Nirvana. (Rahula, p. 89)
This
is indeed a noble aim, and I think very similar to what we find in our Purposes
and Principles. We share similar
worldviews with Buddhism. And we share
similar views in regard to humanity.
Buddha
is not a god. He does not claim divine
parentage or divine inspiration. He
performed on earth as a man. “He
attributed,” says Rahula, “all his realization,
attainments and achievements to human endeavor and human intelligence. A man (sic) and only a man (sic) can become a
Buddha. Every man (sic) has within
himself the potentiality of becoming a Buddha is he so wills it and endeavors. “ (Ibid, p. 1) (Rahula wrote in 1959.
I am sure that, writing today, he would be gender inclusive.)
With
all these similarities, what prevents many more of us from embracing Buddhism
as the path to follow? What keeps
liberal religionists from converting in hordes to this faith that emphasizes
peace and compassion? I think there are
three reasons.
The
first is cultural differences. For good
or ill, most of us are products of Western culture. We are used to gathering on Sunday
mornings. We evolved from the Protestant
tradition, which emphasizes the power of the Word. We are sometimes known as the most Protestant
of Protestants. (Remember the base of
the word is protest.) We are used to Western music, and although we
enjoy changes sometimes, the scale as used by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms just
seems right to us. We are used to discussing ideas, to playing
with thoughts, to exploring the limits of the English language. We enjoy the community of the gathered
congregation. We teach our children in
Sunday School that this is the way we do church.
Buddhism
developed in an Eastern culture. This
does not mean it is wrong, just that it is different. There are many fine things about Asian
culture. It does us good to explore and
experience them. For most of us, however,
their way of “doing” religion is not quite so comfortable. We are unused to monks dressed in orange
robes holding begging bowls. We are far
less likely to chant. We don’t give
offerings of milk and colorful paint. We
just feel more at home doing church, even very liberal church, in a manner
consistent with the larger culture.
We
are, however, adapting to each other.
Many liberal churches, including this one, offer a time for
meditation. The ideas of the Buddha find
their way into our religious education programs and worship services. I think this trend will continue.
The practice of meditation is, I think,
another marker of difference that makes it more difficult for some liberal
religionists to fully embrace Buddhism.
Some of us have a very difficult time committing to regular meditation. Some of us wince when we see the recommended
postures for it. Our bodies just don’t
work that way any more, if they ever did.
I understand that it is not necessary to achieve the lotus position to
meditate effectively, however that is what is presented as the ideal.
And
sitting still for an hour! That’s a very
un-American thing to do! Our culture
says you should be doing at least two things at the same time, and none of them
are sitting, just sitting…. I think it
would be good for us to learn to meditate, in lotus position or not. I think it would be good for us to simply
stop doing intensely for a span of
time each day. Some of us have learned
this, and others are doing so. Let us
hope that more of us can embrace meditation as a spiritual practice.
Perhaps
the philosophical difference that stands in the way of many liberal
religionists embracing Buddhism is its history of withdrawing from the world,
rather than engaging with it. With its
heavy emphasis on monasticism and meditation, Buddhism has not historically
engaged in what we call social action.
We inheritors of the Western Enlightenment tradition and Protestants of
the first order think that we cannot sit back and simply observe the brokenness
of the world. We think we are called to
help heal the world.
Buddhism
is slowing changing this pattern of behavior.
Current teachers allow their students to engage in the world, to perform
good deeds, to enact their beliefs. If
this trend continues, I think more liberal religionists will choose Buddhism as
their faith path.
I
think Buddhism has a great deal to teach us.
It is possible that our energy will infuse Buddhism with a way of
engaging positively with the world.
When
Matthew participated in the panel discussion at the Buddhist/Christian
dialogue, he asked to close that session with his brief description of what the
Buddha asks of us. It is to “do good,
avoid evil and purify the mind.”
Let
us take his words to heart.
Shalom
and Saalat.
Blessed
Be and Amen.