[Buddha-l] Unitarian-Universalist Buddhism

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Fri, 2005-10-14 at 10:55 -0700, Michael Paris wrote:

> I've never met a UU Buddhist. Met quite a few UU others -- atheists,
> agnostics, humanists, Christians, pagans, Wiccans, and who knows what
> else. 

The minister of the UU church my wife and I attend mentions the Buddha
more often than she mentions Jesus in her sermons. She has regular
vipassana meditation sessions, and there is a weekly reading group that
pours over the works of Thich Nhat Hanh. And, yes, there are plenty of
atheists, agnostics, humanists, pagans and Wiccans. There also seem to
be quite a few Catholics, Southern Baptists and Jews in various stages
of recovery from the traumas of their religious upbringing.

> I'm not sure if Ruben Habito's zendo qualifies as Buddhist. 

God only knows. He implies in one of his books that he has attained
enlightenment. His overall framework, however, strikes me as much more
Christian than Buddhist. 

> I've mixed experience with UU's tolerance. In fact, I've seen as much
> or greater tolerance among some of the nicer Christians I've known,
> including ministers. UUs don't hold any monopoly on tolerance or
> inclusiveness; quite the opposite, in many cases. 

Indeed. It is wise to be wary of people who wear their tolerance on
their sleeves. There is usually quite a lot of shadowy intolerance
lurking just barely below the surface. It recently came to light that
quite a few political conservatives have left the local UU church during
the past year, many of them saying that they just do not feel welcome.
It's not hard to see why, given how many members of the UU congregation
gleefully ridicule neo-conservative Republicans. Even the ministers
occasionally let anti-Republican jokes fly out of their mouths during
sermons. Mind you, this is a kind of intolerance I can easily tolerate,
but it is intolerance all the same, and as such is a definite
contradiction of the principles stated on the billboard outside the
church that proclaims "We are a welcoming congregation." That is code
talk, I have learned, for "Gays are welcome. Republicans and
Conservative Evangelical Christians, keep your distance." 

A few years ago I was subscribed to a Quaker Buddhist e-mail discussion
group. I liked it quite a bit. The people were very courteous but quite
prepared to question and probe beneath the surface of things. There were
some good minds on that forum. 

In some ways I think the Quakers have more in common with Buddhists than
Unitarians do. Quakers are capable of sitting still and remaining silent
and listening. Unitarians are mostly capable of talking incessantly.
Some Quakers say they feel a much deeper affinity with the Buddha than
with Jesus. The Buddha didn't run around throwing moneylenders out of
temples and telling menstruating women not to touch him lest he lose his
powers of healing. Jesus did have some pretty disturbing episodes of
anger and righteous indignation that does not set well with pacifistic
Quakers. Buddha-centic Quakers feel completely liberated from the Old
Testament and all its accounts of the bloody and savage conquest of
Israel by the Hebrews, and the blood-curdling vindictiveness found in
some of the psalms, and the also feel liberated from the equally ghastly
material in the Book of Revelations in the New Testament.

-- 
Richard Hayes