Faith
Of...
 The
Faith of a UU Buddhist
James Ishmael Ford
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I've been a Buddhist for more than thirty years. I've also been a Unitarian Universalist for more than fifteen years. Since 1991, I've been a UU minister serving congregations in Wisconsin and Arizona. It is from this perspective that I find myself reflecting on what it might mean to be a Unitarian Universalist Buddhist.
My mother was a fundamentalist Christian. My father was a Robert Ingersoll atheist. Reflecting on this, I see that perhaps I was destined to become a Unitarian Universalist. Or maybe a Buddhist. That blending of a deeply felt sense of spirituality with a fierce devotion to reason could take one to either Unitarian Universalism or Buddhism. As it turned out I found both.
I remember a time not long after I left the Buddhist monastery that had been my home for several years. I needed a new spiritual home where I would not be asked to deny my previous experiences but where I could process those years of intensive monastic training, and from where I could go forward in new directions.
While I felt deep appreciation for the techniques of Zen meditation and the spiritual perspectives I found at the core of Buddhism, I also felt a deep need to reconnect with my Western religious roots. I visited a number of churches, but orthodox Christianity just didn't work for me.
Then one day, while arranging some old musty pamphlets at the used bookstore where I was working, I came across a reprint of William Ellery Channing's Unitarian Christianity, also known as the Baltimore Sermon. I remember so clearly standing at the pamphlet rack reading through it and feeling a tingle of recognition run down my spine. I thought, "This is a kind of Christianity that makes sense."
That Sunday I attended the local UU church. I quickly saw that there had been some movement away from Channing's faith. But I was even more excited by what I did find. During the coffee hour following the service some members introduced themselves to me and we talked. Eventually one of them asked what brought me to their church.
I said that I was a Buddhist although I had a great respect for the Christianity of my childhood and that I was looking for a spiritual home that would allow my continuing quest. When I was asked what I meant by "Buddhism," I briefly outlined my belief that the human condition is marked by disease, dissatisfaction, angst. There is some fundamental sadness to our human condition.
The Buddha examined this apparently universal human experience closely. He
came to believe this pervasive unrest occurs as a natural consequence
of our human consciousness. Looking at his analysis as a modern
Westerner, I would frame what he said in the following way: We seem
to have emerged as animals that can divide the world with our minds.
Perhaps it starts with the ability to distinguish between not-me
and me. Perhaps it is even more fundamental, the on and off of our
firing brain synapses. However it comes about, this dualism is the
source of human creativity and has made us the dominant species
on this planet. But this way of engaging the world also has a peculiar
side effect-we fall in love with the world that is created by our
own perceptions. We desperately want that world to be complete,
permanent, and real.
But as the Buddha observed, our grasping after permanency, for
our loved ones and for ourselves, is doomed. The universe and everything
in it, including you and me, are in flux. And what each of us perceives
as "me" is actually a composite of many consequences. They will
fall apart at some point to reshape in new ways. Change is the rule,
and nothing is exempt.
The Buddha asserted, and I've come to believe, that as we cling to what is passing as if it is permanent, we find that pervasive angst, the terrible sadness that seems to live within our human hearts. But there is good news-we don't have to suffer this way. The Buddha outlined a "middle way" to insight and peace.
Essentially this middle way has three parts: meditation, morality, and wisdom.
Meditation is a spiritual technology, wherein we closely examine
without judgment everything, every thought, every emotion, as it
rises and as it falls. Morality is a way of harmony in the universe
and among our fellow creatures. Wisdom is what emerges out of these
practices of presence and harmony.
As I spoke to those UUs so many years ago, one said, “Except
for meditation, what you describe sounds like a Unitarian Universalist
perspective” and suggested that Unitarian Universalists might
be even better at “seeking ways to live in harmony”
than Buddhists, especially when they manifest this quest as a concern
for social justice.
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 commonalities
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.
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. Buddhist reflections about
the nature of the world have continued in Unitarian Universalism
and have become especially dynamic in recent years.
Western Buddhists of many different schools who are now seeking
ways to integrate their experiences of East and West are discovering
Unitarian Universalism as a true home. Increasingly Buddhists have
been integrated into this great Western tradition as a rich variation
on our liberal religious theme.
Certainly we UU Buddhists have found many treasures. Possibly the
most important offering of Unitarian Universalism is religious education
for our children. UU religious education programs are perfect for
Western Buddhists who want to raise children with some knowledge
of our ancestral religions but also with a world religion perspective
and, of course, with an openness to Buddhism.
Many Western Buddhists have been looking for ways to bring our perspectives into the world in a more engaged way. My first UU friends were right. Unitarian Universalism has long been committed to justice and social activism in ways that make sense to many Western Buddhists. Here we found both possibilities for enriching our lives and the lives of those we care about.
And, I'm pleased to point out, we Western Buddhists also come
bringing gifts. Probably the greatest gift we bring to Unitarian
Universalism is meditation. There are a host of practices that might
be useful to Unitarian Universalists. Among these are concentration
disciplines and the powerful practice of Metta, loving
kindness. I believe the most important are the practices of pure
attention-Vipassana, Zen, and Dzog-chen. Each
is a variation of the original disciplines taught by the Buddha
and his immediate followers. Each has to do with simple and plain
attention.
Out of this paying attention, bare attention, just noticing, generations
of people have found a way through the traps of our dividing consciousness
to see that we share a common ground of being. One teacher puts
it this way: We are each of us different, stars and people, flies
and dirt. But we all belong to the same family. We have a single
family name. And that name is the great silence. Sometimes it is
called sunyata, emptiness.
This is an emptiness that includes all things. We are unique but we are also all of one family. Here we find an ethic that supports Unitarian Universalist longings for moral choice and social justice.
We Western Buddhists bring a host of perspectives to Unitarian
Universalism. Our perspectives might be as scholarly as investigations
of ancient texts like the Lotus Sutra or the rigorous logic
of the Therevada or as simple as faithful chanting of one
of the revered mantras from China or Tibet. We represent the full
range of Asian Buddhist possibilities, blending here in the West
in new and exciting ways.
As with all faith traditions encompassed in Unitarian Universalism it is impossible to describe Unitarian Universalist Buddhism in terms of any one perspective. It is a rich and varied thing we bring into Unitarian Universalism. And the joy for me is that, even as I am transformed by my life as a Unitarian Universalist, I am beginning to see ways in which Unitarian Universalism is transformed by our Buddhist presence.
No one knows where this meeting of East and West in our Unitarian Universalist congregations will lead. Certainly, only time will tell. But the journey is already wonderful and filled with splendid possibilities.
James Ishmael Ford is a Unitarian Universalist parish minister as well as a teacher in both the Soto and Harada/Yasutani lines of Zen. He is the author of This Very Moment: A Brief Introduction to Buddhism and Zen for Unitarian Universalists.
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